I live with my mother, step dad, and my brother. For dinner I am usually the designated cook since 1. I LOVE to do it and 2. I'm pretty dang good at it if I do say so myself.

Although I'm vegan, I do cook meat for my family. It's not something that I'm proud of, and I NEVER mix the meat with what I'm going to eat until I remove my portion first. That being said... last night I made chilli with chunks of "chicken" that looked a whole lot like tofu going into the pot...

They didn't even realize that it was tofu until after they ate it and I told them.

Hurrah!

Score: Vegan cook, 1. Family, 0.

Yay for you! I wish I could say the same! My family knows that I dislike handling raw meat, so they know that no matter what I might tell them, it's going to be tofu or some kind of tvp masquerading as meat. Unfortunately, this predisposes them to say, "Eww!" If they didn't know my lasagna had Morningstar Farms fake italian sausage crumbles in it, they would have thought it was really meat.

I love tricking my family! It is great fun! Hee Hee!

Lovelypurple, good for you (and them)!

It has always amazed me that a plant-based product can elicit an "Eww" but a bloody, ground hunk of a dead animal is deemed acceptable.

Honestly, I saw eww to some vegetarian stuff Mostly things like veggie-wannabe-meat-crumbles and veggie-wannabe-meat-burgers. I was very hesitant to try gimme lean sausage because I never liked soy products that pretended to be meat. I also said eww when I made some seitan but then I figured maybe I just didn't do it right

Gimmie lean sausage is so good when made into English muffin sandwiches!

Seitan is really delicious when made correctly. Did you make it homemade or use store bought? If you made it, what was your recipe? Perhaps I can help.

HAHA!! My SIL did this to brother all the time when they first got married, she'd make tofu "meat"balls for the spaghetti and tell him after the fact, or he'd know or something, I'm not sure. Now it's so funny b/c he picks at everything she makes for 5 minutes before he eats and asks her about 20 times what it is. LMBO!

Soulbliss, my recipe for seitan was from Vegan with a Vengeance.
http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbreci...p?RecipeID=112

Funny thing though is shortly after I made it, I went out to eat at a chinese restaurant with some vegetarians who chose some seitan dishes. The seitan at the restaurant tasted similar to what I made so I figured maybe I did make it correctly.

I also like Gimme Lean although I don't think I'd mistake it for real meat. I do think I can definitely tell the difference between fake meat and real meat. I'm not sure anyone could fool me

I think if you expect the tofu and stuff to taste like real meat... the you're going to be disappointed, because it really doesn't. That was what my biggest hurdle was... not expecting soy milk, tofu, and whatnot to taste like the real stuff. It doesn't taste like meat - it tastes like tofu. Which, if flavored nicely, does taste GOOD but still doesn't taste like meat in most cases.

I really like Tofu (and soy or almond milk) but my problem (not a real problem) is I don't like the taste of fake meat products made with soy. I like california burgers (burgers made with veggies) but don't like things like morningstar/boca burgers. I actually have a package of vegan grillers (morningstar?) in the freezer. I'm a bit afraid to try them but one day I will. I think DH would like them even if I don't.

I was really commenting about substituting fake meat products for real in an effort to "fool" others. If they expect meat and get a nonmeat product and get fooled, I am a bit amazed

I think it was because it was in chili... and it was kind of spicy, so I don't think they really even payed much attention.

I agree with you on the boca burger thing. I don't like them much either.

I also cook meat for my husband, and feel absolutely disgusted by it, yet I see no way around it. He is willing to eat veggie a few times a week, but every day? No. He does the grilling for himself, so that works, but days that it's chili, or stew, or soup, it's meat and I have to do it. Makes me so sick!

WOW, I would not be able to do that! I am so glad that my husband's vegetarian..

Btw.. I made some yummy seitan sloppy joes for dinner tonight. Had them in a 4" ww pita with a salad on the side. Mmmmmmmm! Even carnivores would love them.

My vegan experiment (as I like to refer to it) is going well. Tonight I made some pumpkin chili with TVP. Of the "meaty" replacements, TVP is actually something I like. I told DH (jokingly) that it was chili with ground beef. DH doesn't mind that we aren't eating meat or dairy but I told him he can eat anything he wants. This past weekend, he did have a sushi (tuna rolls) for dinner.

I've been tempted to do that, but I really think it's too deceptive in some circumstances. I remember being tricked into eating turtle as a kid, and how disgusted and betrayed I felt. I really do think people have a right to know what they're ingesting, even if it's something as innocuous as soy. As much as I am disgusted by hamburger, my husband is just as averse to eating 'fake' soy meats. It's not logical to me, but I have to respect it. If he snuck meat into my food just to prove that I'd like it, I'd be deeply offended.

I have chipped away at his resistance just by example. He eats seitan now, and he likes a few different veggie burgers.

Of course, if it's a group that hasn't expressed such an aversion, maybe a "don't ask, don't tell" policy is okay.