Nothing with a face ! Are you vegetarian ? (MN roll call)

[hub2dee]

I was just wondering who on MN may be veggie (and for how long)... add any other comments you want to make

I'll begin:

15 years

dw - pescetarian (I think that's the correct term - no meat but eats fish) - 17 years

Comments - we find it brain-numbingly easy, an easy choice IYSWIM. Wondering how we will handle meat / fish and dd (currently 19 weeks)...

Over to the rest of you !

Wow I am amazed at how many veggie there actually are on MN. Even though I eat meat occasionally I find myself checking everything to make sure it is ok out of habit. And it really winds me up at the lack of veggie options in restaurants and the way that pizza places handle meat then the veggie stuff and people's ignorance and sometimes downright piss taking attitude towards being veggie.

Oooh better stop before I really get ranting!

Message withdrawn

What bemuses me is watching friends who were veggie suddenly start eating meat again. I think they embraced it when it was fashionable and now they are seduced by the idea of cooking like Jamie or Nigel Slater or even dear little Hugh fotherington-wittingstall ...anyway they always seem to be the people who want to eat the offal, the well hung partridge, the obscure joint of meat. And always rare too - they are the ones who now want steaks barely cooked. Has anyone else experienced this?

I am a vegetarian and have been one all my life (unless i have unwittingly eaten non-veg stuff!). Dh and ds are also veggie and i would hate for it to be any different but realise that ds may decide not to stay veggie when he gets older.

Pescetarian here, veggie for 24 yrs previously. an still dont eat gelatine, or suchlike. with dd2 the same as me, dd1 ds and dh all have chicken from time to time too. all my children are veggie til they request otherwise. then i'm not backwards in getting the 'cruelty free and organic' ideals into them. its highly processed e-numbered crap I ahve the biggest issues with, I dont have a problem with what everyone else eats, as long as they can do it with the knowledge they know where it came from etc etc....cant bear the 'blind eye' approach to such crappy over processed food.
mind you as I've never stood on my 'veggie soap box' and 'preached' to meat eaters I'd love to know why so many of them feel the need to do it to me............. its my pet hate, as am sure is many veggies on this list, to sit down to a meal and hear the words 'so why dont you eat meat.......' or 'you really need the iron in this steak you know........' makes you run screaming from the table........

so h2d..
this is she?

I'm a winetarian then. And a chocolatearian too.

pmsl, md.

lol, mm.

I'm a profiterolarian.

sorry, I was pmsl @ unicorn.

.. md?? (that your doctor in the states?)

Hi Hub.

I've been veggie ever since I left home, aged 19, and started cooking for myself. (So that's 16 years now.

DP also veggie - was before I met him.

2 kids veggie so far but ds just started school so the plan is that if he wants to try meat we're ok about it. Will just explain why we don't eat meat (he knows already) and hope he agrees.

Has anyone else raised vegetarian children and if so, how did you explain/deal as they got older?

Bugger. Did I kill this ? (Ha Ha. And I thought being a vegetarian meant I never kill anything !)

LOL Witchycat. Everyone's watching tossy Take That documentary I think, LOL.

The whole 'raising the kids' dilema re: diet is an interesting one. May start a thread tomorrow, LOL.

Night.

witchycat, I have raised two children as veggie. Dd (16 this week) and ds (5). Both find the concept of eating meat incomprehensible.
I have raised the children to know what meat is and to understand what (imo) that means. Some people may call this brainwashing but most of society accepts meat eating and encourages it so, it is not as if they don't get the other side of the tale. If my children ever show signs of wanting to eat meat I will feel as if I have failed. I will not cook meat and if either ever choose to eat meat that is (obviously) their decision but I will not have meat in the house. Both are very healthy children.

witchcat and hub2dee - read my posts further down - I explained about how my kids became/are veggies.

I'm vegetarian - have been for 16 years. DH isn't. We never have meat at home just cos it's easier to do one meal than two - he's not bothered - just makes up for it when he's at my mums or mil's. DD(3) is aware she doesn't have meat but is a really fussy eater anyway so enjoys the excuse to turn down meat IMO. I wouldn't want her to eat meat yet but if she wants to when she's old enough to understand where it comes from I don't mind - wouldn't cook it for her though.

Re varying degrees of vegetarianism - was talking about this today with my sis whose boyfriend is veggie. She said she cooked dinner the other night and didn't have any vegetable stock so put in chicken stock instead - just didn't tell him. She was surprised I was !

Also, I remember being at uni in a queue behind someone at a food counter who wanted to know if the chips were vegetarian (eg what were they fried in?). The bloke serving looked at him absolutely flabbergasted, picked up a potato and said to him in a really patronising tone "they're potatoes". .

We eat meat, but only from our fab local butcher - wouldn't touch the watered-up fatty crap from supermarkets.
Used to be veggie (10 years) but got fed up with rubbish veggie choice in restaurants. Can't abide stuffed bloody peppers! Also couldn't be bothered fannying about with pulses to make sure we all got enough iron or vit B12 and didn't want dses popping vit tablets ot top up like we did.
Dp was v. strict veggie for 12 years but got lured into meat-eating by bacon butties.
We now eat meat on approx. 4 nights per week. 1 night will be fish and 2 nights veggie.

Hello!!
My entire family is vegan, I turned veggie at 8 then vegan at 15, I'm now 26.We also have a lot of raw food. I do occasionaly eat my mums pets chickens eggs, they are free range and organic, and sometimes honey too- local. We don't wear leather wool or silk.Pretty hardcore, but we strongly believe in it and havn't found it a problem.
I'm happy to let the children make their own decisions with their diet when they are older, but ds1 is already saying he's not going to eat animals because they are his friends! aww

Veggie for 24 years (no faces). DH eats chicken and fish and DD eats whatever she feels like (but I hide the crap food as much as possible).

I am a veggie, have been for about 20 year. However about 8 years ago I got suduced into eating shellfish - so I eat prawns/lobster etc

Kids are not veggie, nor is DH but dd aged 6 is flriting with the idea as she is not sure she likes killing animals for food. Quite often she will have my veggie meals if she can.

Veggie Christmas dinner is yummy, sod that 'fake quorn/turkey roast thing' bleugh I make a fab Christmas crown (BBC Vegetarian Christmas a few years ago) with leeks, nuts, apples, cranberries, nuggets of goats cheese, wrapped in pastry yummy.

Normal roast dinner is loads of fab roast veggies, roast potatoes and veggie gravy

ooh crunchie have you a recipe you can post for that xmas veggie crown?
It sounds yummy... and far more interesting that nut roast (yawn!)

My 12 year old son has been veggie for almost 2 years. He started by leaving his dinner half eaten and one day just burst into tears in the middle of teatime. when I asked him what was wrong, he said it was unfair that we should kill poor animals just so we can eat. I'll admit I was shocked as I didn't realise he was thinking about these things but I respected his decision. He has his own selection of veggie stuff and when I'm making things like home made lasagne, I make him his on veggie portion. At xmas time he gets his quorn fillet and veggie gravy.
I think the nicest thing he said to me was that I was the best Mum in the world because I accepted his decision and made him all his own special meals. That brought a tear to my eye

I gave up meat in 1987. Although I don't think it's wrong to kill animals for meat, I am absolutely against any cruelty/abuse to animals.

I do eat fish (um & ah about fish rights) & in the last 2 years I have started to eat organic chicken. This is quite rare though - 3-4 times a year, because it's expensive & no big deal to go without it, having not eaten it for 12+ years.

I will also only eat wild &/or organic salmon.

My DH is quite happy to eat veggie/pescatarian meals, we probably eat fish most nights, & he enjoys all sorts of meat substitute dishes.

My DD does eat meat, but only at home. This is because I buy meat from my local farm. She probably eats something meaty 2-3 times a week. She is veggie at nursery though, eating fish fingers when offered.

I'm going to be naughty now ....I'm amazed when big fat men (2 x friends husbands) 'comically' jest "where's the meat" when they come for dinner (idiots - having drained the fat off some beef I was cooking the other day, I can just see what their arteries are clogged up with...)

kelly1987, I can just about stomach handling the meat - I cut it with scissors, makes it much easier & make meals in batches so I don't do i that much

QueenEagle, your DH sounds great - I love a man with principals.

I too refuse woolworths pic n mix when I read 'beef gelatine' (in a strawberry chew) on the label.

I also turn away from the choc mousses et al which contain animal trotters

I've been veggie for about 16yrs.
DD was veggie for first 3yrs then decided to eat meat.
DS is currently veggie (16 months)
DP not veggie but was many moons ago