How to please everyone - one vegetarian, one meat-eater who hates cheese, both of them are fussy, the rest of us are not!

[ProfessorInkling]

Can Mumsnet inspire me? We end up with two separate meals more often than not and I'm just fed up of trying to please everyone.

The vegetarian would happily eat toast/cereal forever. The die-hard meat-eater doesn't do dairy. The rest of us don't care so much but just want a bit of variety. I was thinking of making a pasta bake today - something we never have! but what for the cheese-avoider? Every day is Groundhog Day.

Buy a frozen pack of mediterranean vegetables for roasting. Roast them in two trays and add a pack or two of gnocchi and olive oil plus herbs. At the same time put in a small tray of bacon or chorizo. Ten minutes before the end add parmesan/cheddar to one tray.

Meat eater adds the chopped bacon/chorizo to his portion of gnocchi and vegs. Cheese-eater eats cheese version.

Look at vegetarian meals from countries that don’t traditionally eat dairy, so china, Japan, Thai etc. Also look at vegan recipes. I have a good world vegetarian cooking book, so you could pick the vegan meals from that.

Also curries.

Also, get the veggie/ meat eater to cook too so it’s not all on you.

BBQ pulled jackfruit realfood.tesco.com/recipes/bbq-jackfruit.html 
Mexican bean burgers
Jackfruit ragu www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/mains/braised-jackfruit-and-walnut-ragu
Chipotle bean chilli

Cook your pasta bake in a tomato based sauce and the meat/veggie protein separately

Dish up the dairy free portion then stir in whatever cheese or cream you want and top each plate with the protein

I've made 'pulled' sweet potato and it's gone down well with veggies and meat eaters. Grate sweet potato and fry it for about 5 mins, add bbq sauce to coat it all and some chopped garlic. Fry until softened and then serve in either wraps or bao buns. Lovely stuff

We eat pasta a lot and my husband doesn't like cheese.

I would roast veg like cherry tomatoes and Cougette in oven with herbs, oil, salt and garlic.

Cook pasta.

Add the veg to a frying pan from oven with some pasta water and mix in pasta

For meat eater and any of you who like :
Crispy bits of chorizo

Add parmesan for anyone who like that on each bowl

If I make something like a pasta bake, as my dd is allergic to dairy I do a separate portion for her and top it with her df cheese.
I'd make the same veggie pasta bake for all and portion it up into two different oven dishes. Add chopped cooked meat to one for the meat eater, sausages or tuna or whatever you have, and top with breadcrumbs mixed with salt and pepper, lemon rind and some dried herbs and mix with olive oil. It makes a lonely crispy flavoured crumb.
The veggie one, leave the pasta bake as is and top with the same crumb and some cheese

Dahl
burgers
vege pasta in tomato sauce - top with chicken for the meat eaters

You cook Indian style. Make the vegetarian base, dairy element, and meat elements seperately - then put everything on the table for people to serve themselves.

This chilli is a favourite in our house. I cook the chilli, then add meat & veggie meatballs to each portion.

What about tacos with loads of fillings and people just pick the bits they want ...?

Meals that are naturally made up of lots of components people can combine themselves to suit.
stir fry veg, noodles, sauce and choice of cashews or prawns (or both).
Fajitas, wraps, peppers, onions, choice of chicken or spicy beans, cheese, guacamole, salsa, sour cream.
Pasta, arabiata sauce, optional cheese or bacon
Veg/haloumi or chicken skewers, roasted veg cous cous, Vinaigrette based slaw.
Same with the choice of steak of grilled field mushrooms.
Lemon and greens risotto with optional chicken.
Gammon steaks with pineapple, wedges and peas, swap gammon for fried egg for veggie
Shakshuka with crusty bread, optional sour cream.
Tacos with choice of meat or spicy beans
Jackets with selection of toppings