Vegan living with omni's
Posted by SnowQueen690 on Dec 02, 2008 · Member since Jun 2005 · 1569 posts
I know this has been brought up before but I just wanted to know how you all work it out being vegan and living with omni's. Do you cook separate meals for yourself? I do a lot of the cooking here at home, but I don't want to force feed them vegan meals. But if my mom cooks, her feelings would get hurt if I don't eat her food (which I don't want to anyway because she is not a very good cook...does butter have to be in EVERYTHING????). So how do you arrange this? She isn't very tolerant of me being vegan, she things it is "wierd".
Just as you wouldn't want to force-feed them your meals, nor should you be expected to force down their meals. Why don't you make some shared dishes that would be palatable to everyone and then go your separate ways on other ones? Your mom shouldn't (key word: SHOULD, although we obviously know this is not always the case) have hurt feelings because you don't *like* her dishes, it's simply that you don't eat stuff with butter in it. Just try to tell her as logically as possible that it's not personal, it's just that your lifestyle doesn't include some of the stuff she cooks and therefore you won't be sharing that with her. When she does cook vegan things, be generous with praise.
Seriously though, push your dishes. Everyone can enjoy vegan cooking!
my mom thinks it's weird, too. alot of omni parents do. my mom usually makes some sort of grain, like rice, with veggies on the side ao ill eat that with some sort of protein on the side (like tofu, some sort of fake-meat, beans, etc). my mom also makes alot of beans, so thats really good. and one thing i learned the hard way: don't fight. i fought with her day in and day out and it got me nowhere. once i made the idea of veganism something not so out-of-reach and foreign. once we discovered veggie burgers and Amy's Kitchen food, all was well. :) hope that helped!
about the butter thing-- try to get her to switch to earth balance! tell her about health stuff..bring up omega 3s :p we've used earth balance forever at my house, and im the only veg*n. similar thing with getting fake chicken or veggie broth because its something that you dont really notice in stuff and then its easier to make stuff vegan.
hmm. im trying to think how i did it. if i wasnt lazy, id cook a "main dish" type thing, like tofu or a boca chikn patty for myself and then go for some salad or whatever veggies my mom made as sides, or if i was super lazy id just eat the veggies. stir fries and fried rice are also good because you can take out your portion before she does meat. sometimes if i did cooking for the WHOLE family, my dad would microwave a hot dog or put some cheese on whatever it was i made because he felt it "needed it." ::)
eta: veganhippie is right on with the prepared foods thing. theyre kind of pricey, but when youre lazy and dinner is steak and cheesy potatoes, they are nice to have on hand.
i guess i'm just lucky, but my husband eats whatever i cook...he is an omni, but when he's at home he's (mostly) vegan. i do buy him those *stupid* jimmy dean sausage biscuits that you can just throw in the microwave for breakfast, just becuase he really likes them, and i never have to touch them....
i would definitely suggest a vegan butter sub....that way everyone can enjoy things like rice and veggies without having to sacrifice on either end.
what really helped me to bring him around (b/c he had the idea that because something is vegan, it must be weird tasting) was to get a recipe off of this site, cook it, and just not tell him that it was vegan...he would eat it, and love it....and then i would tell him that it didn't have any animal in it. sometimes people just have to get a taste of something before they realize that it isn't that crazy after all!
good luck! i know it is frustrating!
about the butter thing-- try to get her to switch to earth balance! tell her about health stuff..bring up omega 3s :p we've used earth balance forever at my house, and im the only veg*n. similar thing with getting fake chicken or veggie broth because its something that you dont really notice in stuff and then its easier to make stuff vegan.
I have tried with the Earth Balance thing. She admitted that she liked it better than butter, but the price is what keeps her from switching. I buy EB for myself.
Good idea to have some Amy frozen dinners in the freezer, just in case dinner is grilled steak, with buttery baked potatos.
Well, I know money may be tight right now, but you could.... buy a bigger tub of Earth Balance?
Or, maybe just offer to split the cost of buying "buttery spread" if it's vegan?
I mean... I swear by compromise!
For instance- my compromise with my boyfriend is I'm vegetarian, and I don't allow meat in the house because it's gross and smells funny. He can eat whatever he wants outside the front door. Just no meat in our apartment.
Also, anything else I deem to be "gross" and "smell funny"... like... shoe polish? or... umm... sweaty socks?
OH! Or the Griller's Prime Boca Burgers. Those things are NASTY. Any other kind is tolerable, though.
I know you're not in a position to make any rules about food, but the buttery spread thing is easy enough to solve if you just go halfsies. ^-^
I didn't read all that was said here, but we buy the large EB tub about once a month or so. It costs about $9 for us, but it's way cheaper than buying the small ones, and it lasts quite a while. I use it for baking sometimes, so I might use more than other people.
When I first stopped eating meat, i practically lived off of amys and morningstar. Got rather tired of that though. We used to have meatless mondays, and it kind of just changed to an everyone makes their own food normally, i like to cook vegan meals for the family every once in a while, the things they can stand at least :). Lots of it is me buying my own food, and health food store days once a month that my mom pays for (here is 20% off on the first tuesday of the month). Lots of stirfrys and pastas are always good, that way you can save your own stuff before they put their meat/dairy in.
Totally off topic, well, sort of- I'll make it on topic: my father had triple bypass surgery this summer and a lot of the dietary things they had him change (if you subtract the meat) were veganish, such as using Earth Balance, etc. So, maybe make it about cardiac health?
Now for the off topic part- CUTIE PIE BABY, SQ!!!!