[KellyGrace9]

Hi Guys!

I'm looking to go back to veganism. I was vegan for a few years and I felt great, lots tons of weight and I felt great. My issue is that my fiance is an avid carnivore and he has a body type that has a hard time gaining weight so he is not going to change his mind on that.
Has anyone had any experience cooking dinner for carnivore and herbivore on a busy schedule?
What do you do to survive? How about groceries?

[JayZeeJay]

Hi there,

I've been a vegetarian/vegan for over 20 years, and for most of that time I've lived with boyfriends/partners and now a husband that are omnivores. My husband is tall and very slim, and like your fiancee does not put on or retain weight easily.
Some of the key issues to resolve are:
Do you mind if he cooks and/or eats animal-based products while you are around?
Would he be satisfied eating meat etc. for his lunch at work, and being vegan or mostly vegan at home?
Is the central issue that you want to cook and eat the same meals together? Or is it enough that you sit down to a meal together, despite it being different food?

We've reached a good place over the years on the above issues. I don't mind if he eats animal products around me, but for the most part we're able to make and eat vegan meals together every night. I do try harder than I did when I was single to make the meals filling and tasty.

I've compiled a large recipe folder with over 100 vegan recipe pdf's. I make notes on them after I make them the first time, with changes to be made next time. It's an easy way to have the hubs cook too, since he isn't good with vegan ideas. I can just give him a recipe, or have him pick one. He's started to seek them out on his own too.

I also have vegan desserts on hand often. I like Colleen Patrick-Goudeau's Joy of Vegan Baking for vegan desserts; I have made many of the recipes and have had no failures. The Jazzy Vegetarian's website (PBS show) has tons of recipes in meal/theme categories. Every recipe I've tried by Yotam Ottalenghi that's veg has been good. Also, some blogs are great: 101cookbooks; ohsheglows; green kitchen stories (my current favorite); sprouted kitchen; Connoisseurus veg.

Experimenting with new and exotic ingredients is a good way to keep vegan meals interesting. We've been eating freekeh, teff and amaranth recently and it's been neat to try new foods as a couple.

As far as planning and shopping go, it helps to be organized in a 2-career household. I usually plan the meals on the weekend, we shop for the ingredients ahead of time, then it's all ready to go. You guys can also do some prep the night before - we'll eat dinner, clean it up, then do a bit of chopping or marinating or whatever for the next day's meal. Also double good recipes and freeze leftovers or plan to have them the next day. You can make 3-4 recipes and get 7 dinners out of them with this strategy.

[nuumee]

Originally Posted by KellyGrace9

Hi Guys!

I'm looking to go back to veganism. I was vegan for a few years and I felt great, lots tons of weight and I felt great. My issue is that my fiance is an avid carnivore and he has a body type that has a hard time gaining weight so he is not going to change his mind on that.
Has anyone had any experience cooking dinner for carnivore and herbivore on a busy schedule?
What do you do to survive? How about groceries?

I tried going vegan before but it isn't easy when the other half wants to eat animal protein and processed food. We had to find a way to coexist if we wanted to stay living under the same roof. In recent months I went back to eating mostly vegan.. a whole food approach. My husband will eat oriental stir fry which is easy to make. My husband can add the meat to the stir fry from a separate pan if he wants it.. My husband likes eating salads, steamed vegetables and beans and occasionally will have a vegan meal with me. He will eat the flax seed on his salads but I get an eye roll(LOL) and he will eat raw beets!!! (WOW). Chickpea salad made with silken tofu, kelp, and walnuts..yep, he'll eat that and he can't tell it's not really tuna fish! Breakfast: steel cut oats, raisins, walnuts, and fresh chopped apples over the top: no problem he'll eat that. He won't drink a green smoothie (spinach cucumber, cilantro, and apple), though he will drink an almond milk vanilla mixed berry smoothie. He grills steak with a baked potato and can grill vegetables for me. At the same meal I could have baked mushrooms, stuffed with spinach, and some kind of cheese ( though not vegan), and a baked potato.

It's a matter of balancing whose cooking what and planning has to go into it! Does your fiance like to cook? This would make it a little easier for you. If you make a big pot of vegetable bean stew you both could eat that and he could have his meat as a side dish. We grow a garden and do our shopping separately.

We are making it work and you can too.