Help! DH wants us to go vegan!

[SparePartz]

I'm not a good cook and tend to stick with what I know. I'm panicking slightly! He's watched the Netflix show and has decided we should try to eat vegan during the week.

I have some issues:
first and foremost my tea. I drink milk in my tea. We tried oat milk a while back and even he decided it wasn't great. Is there a better option?

Mushy food makes me gag. He's talking eating lentils, peas and beans. Is there any way to prepare them so they're not mushy?

We, especially DS, eat a lot of cheese and yoghurt. How do you keep a growing teenager full without cereal/milk/cheese on toast? We're not looking to try out highly processed vegan copies of non- vegan food.

I cannot eat mushrooms. Well, I can eat them but then get horrific stomach cramps a few hours later. Lots of recipes seem to be mushroom based.

How do I make sure the DC are getting all the nutrients they need as they come into and through puberty?

Nuts - hazelnuts make DC2's mouth blister, walnuts make my mouth itch and I don't like any other nuts.

Is there an idiots guide to being a vegan somewhere?

Why are you letting this man dictate to you? He's not your boss. Tell him he can buy, cook and eat vegan if he wants, but you're not playing along.

I think a vegan diet can be healthy, just like a vegetarian diet can be.
The difficulty is when people don’t do their research about what a healthy diet involves, and when they have a long list of things they don’t like eating.
It skews the diet. My daughter thought about it as she’s lactose intolerant.
But she doesn’t like pulses, nuts, brown rice, quinoa, tofu…So she made a sensible decision.

What an idiotic comparison.
just because people aren’t talking about veganism in the way you’d like doesn’t make them any less entitled to an opinion.
and comparing non vegans posting here to inappropriate posting on the life limiting illness board is fucking offensive.

If DH wants to go vegan fine. He can't force it on you and teen.

They're are some branches (the black mumsnetters one, for instance) that have a heading from MNHQ stating that they are primarily for the specific demographic that asked for them. Therefore anyone else feeling the need to post there needs to have a good reason and to be sensitive.

Those boards that do not have that advisory heading are not remotely restricted only to a specific group. The headings are topics, that's all.

And yes, I just saw this on active and didn't know which branch it was on. But it shouldn't really matter.

He generally only cooks at the weekend - when he says we can eat meat.

He's taking the piss. Only go vegan if you want to.

What surprises me more @sprigatito is the amount of non vegans snout deep in the vegan board. 🤣🤦🏼‍♀️FFS lol

I expect most people, like me, just click on threads that are in Active Conversations. I've never ventured my snout into the vegan board specifically, not that I have anything at all against veganism (for those who actually want to be vegan).

I wouldn't go vegan just because my partner decides to. My ex would swear off meat every few months, but that didn't stop me from eating meat.

Yes, it's in active conversations. That's how I got here. The issue I think most of us are taking with this is not about veganism but about a man who has made a decision he is looking to impose on his entire family. Especially when it's his wife who he will be making do the work and he doesn't have to because it's different on his cooking nights.

He generally only cooks at the weekend - when he says we can eat meat. He's only wanting to eat vegan M-Fri.

How convenient.
Absolutely no way would I be accepting someone imposing a diet and then saying it's only happening when I'm the one cooking. And also not coming up with any recipes.
A discussion around how you could reduce your meat consumption generally, and the sorts of foods you might cook instead would be reasonable of him. Not an announcement that he's decided that from now on, you have to cook vegan meals, and he'll stick to cooking the meaty meals he already knows.
Cook a nice steak on Monday for you and DC.. and serve him some vegetables.

In all seriousness, it’s a major commitment to go vegan. You need to ensure you are getting enough protein and other nutrients, which is no mean feat with no animal or dairy products. It’s not just a half arsed lifestyle choice after watching a show.

I would say to him that it’s fine if he does it, he can shop and cook for himself.

@SparePartz who died and made your DH king of your household? You’re getting lots of comments about your DH and not vegan meals because your post is concerning - it sounds a lot like your DH gets to tell you and your family what to eat and you just go along with it. Your silence on this point isn’t helping either.

I’m so bemused by how some homes work.

what would be normal is he decides to go vegan. He can’t dictate you and your kid do, how controlling is that, why don’t you both just tell him to jog on, he can eat what he wants as can you?

i can’t even imagine a world where my husband would tell us what to eat.

He generally only cooks at the weekend - when he says we can eat meat

wtf. You can eat meat any time you want.

Agree with PP that it is up to your DH to make it happen but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some interesting discussions about what everyone in the family thinks about veganism, nutrition, ethics, taste etc and make some changes eg more veggie based meals. I recommend Rebel Recipes for amazing vegan ideas that look fab and are very tasty. I am omnivore at present but eat loads more veggie meals now.

I'm not a good cook and tend to stick with what I know

Can I recommend that you treat yourself to a couple of Rukmini Iyer Roasting Tin recipe books. The recipes are inspirational, incredibly simple and delicious. The Green Roasting tin is vegetarian, and a lot of the recipes are vegan. And none of the dishes are mushy.

You don't have to be a bad cook, you just need a decent recipe book that makes cooking feel easy.

Tell him to look for vegan curries. Loads of lovely ones he can cook. Tell him to start with Chetna Makan on Youthbe. Because if he wants to go vegan without a sensible family discussion, he does the cooking.

@MayThe4th so is your foul language.

It’s a thinly failed vegan bashing post. That’s obvious to anyone with a brain cell.

He generally only cooks at the weekend - when he says we can eat meat. He's only wanting to eat vegan M-Fri. Says we need to eat more healthily.
hahaha NO FUCKING WAY. It’s fine Dh but we will start more gradually, we’ll try meat mon - fri and vegan on the weekend and I look forward to what you cook for us. I will carry on cooking most of our meals as usual until you have sufficiently inspired me with your weekend cookery or until you choose to take over weekday cooking too.

I mean, what else would you say? You wouldn’t seriously consider this wiht a man who plans to put it all on you would you?

My response to this would be “ah so what vegan meals are you going to be cooking and can you add some meat to mine” (not vegan bashing, ridiculous husband bashing). Only go vegan if you want to and the teens should have a choice too, they are still growing and should be getting enough calcium and phosphorus for bone growth,

There are plenty of Indian vegan dishes out there he can google them.

And seriously, just very seriously your husband shouldn’t be dictating what his family eats, he shouldn’t be making pronouncements from on high. It’s a bit mad that you’ve just fallen in line here.

Hi OP

Hope these are of help :)

The Leader in Plant-Based Living - Forks Over Knives

Plant Based Lifestyle - PlantYou

Also Pick Up Limes. She is also a dietician so gives helpful nutritional advice.

Pick Up Limes - YouTube

Wow veganism is hard. Vegetarian house here but giving up eggs and cheese would huge. Dd has tried it before but only managed a few weeks and she eats a full range of pulses and mushrooms.

My whole family is vegan
The first one decided to go vegan ,and a year later another ,and so on over a course of 5 years ,untill we were all vegan
Point is ,it was each of our choice to go vegan ,even my 12 year old made the choice himself.
It's a personal decision,not something a husband can or should force on his family

Tell him to fuck off and 'vegan' by himself! Bloody controlling twat!