On the Veggie Boards, a new vegetarian asked for some help. She says she lives with an omnivore who loves meat.

Here is my advice to her…

Plenty of vegetarians and vegans live with non-veg loved ones. Some cook separate meals, but most cook a veg version that can have meat added to it.
Some examples:

• tacos: everyone makes their own tacos. You have beans or faux meat for yourself and real meat for your omni loved-one. (You could do the same for a burrito or totastada meal).
• spaghetti with a meat-free tomato sauce, the omni can add meat balls to his pasta sauce at the end after you’ve served yourself your portion. Lots of pasta meals can be made this way.
• vegetable stir fry: Cook up the veggies, then split in half. You add tofu or seitan and he adds meat.
• pizza: go halvsies. Order you side without animal products and his side can have what he wants.
• salad: make a salad without dressing. He can add chicken and you add nuts. He dresses it with ranch and you add vinaigrette.
• leftover buffets can work once a week where you each just load up a plate with your foods and eat together.

Another plan is to incorporate more veg meals into his life. Lots of meat-eaters eat veg part-time. Perhaps you can agree that Sundays and Thursdays he’ll eat veg with you, for his health and the health of your relationship. After a while, who knows? He might just give another inch and start eating veg every weekday.

Lastly, here are some veg bloggers who live with meat-eaters. They have other ideas to help couples who eat differently than each other:

• Urban Vegan
• I Married An Omnivore

Good luck to you and your relationship! You can make it work if you really want to.

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Sections: Vegan Food
Topics: advice, cooking, Food, help, living with omnis, marriage, new vegan, relationships, Vegan, vegetarian