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Any vegetarians?

Satori said:
p.s. I get pissed off with people who assume that because I am a vegetarian, I am some sort of health freak!
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Oh I know---I still love junk food (chocolate) more than anything! ;)

Anyway, I enjoyed this thread and I wanted to share one thing that happened to me a couple of weeks ago at Cracker Barrell. For the first time I happen to notice a little small text at the bottom of the menu naming several items (that I had always eaten there before), like i.e. the corn muffins and hash brown casserole, were actually NOT vegetarian because of animal flavoring. Oh it grossed me out and it made me change around my veggie plate items from now on! :rolleyes:
 
iGary said:
I think people say that because they have to remember. I have a sister who's entire family (six of them) is vegetarian and I always catch myself going "oh, you can't have that," especially at Thanksgiving, etc.
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I'm the only veggie in my family. After 18+ years the "oh go on, just have a little piece of turkey, it's Christmas" comments are just a *little* tiring :rolleyes:
 
dietcokevanilla said:
I'm the only veggie in my family. After 18+ years the "oh go on, just have a little piece of turkey, it's Christmas" comments are just a *little* tiring :rolleyes:
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That's a little over the top - I'd never do that.

We all take turns for the week of Thanksgiving (we usually get a house) cooking dinner and it always irks me that I have to prepare a second vegetarian version of my meal (usually a tofu meat spaghetti).

Is that bad? I just think its silly that because of one family's eating style I'm expected to create a totally separate dish for them...I think its kind of selfish, personally.

Of course, I am known to be a grumpy bitch™, and that could be it.
 
iGary said:
That's a little over the top - I'd never do that.

Is that bad? I just think its silly that because of one family's eating style I'm expected to create a totally separate dish for them...I think its kind of selfish, personally.
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No it's all meant as a joke, but it's a very tired old joke now. My family are Eastern European so meat features pretty heavily in the diet. My mum is actually very accommodating though, so in addition to her style of cooking for 50 when there are only 8 or however many present, she'll also make me some sort of special veggie thing :)
 
dietcokevanilla said:
I'm the only veggie in my family. After 18+ years the "oh go on, just have a little piece of turkey, it's Christmas" comments are just a *little* tiring :rolleyes:
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thats why last christmas i did a 12 hour WoW fest, i did a successful molten core run and killed onixia, it was awesome.


people looked at me funny when they asked what i got for christmas and i reply "Leggings of Transcendence".
 
dietcokevanilla said:
I'm the only veggie in my family. After 18+ years the "oh go on, just have a little piece of turkey, it's Christmas" comments are just a *little* tiring :rolleyes:
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When I first got together with my partner, we went to his parents' for our first Christmas. His mother served him up a big plate of cold meats and sausage pretty much as soon as he arrived. As he was tucking in she turned to me and said "I bet you wish you weren't vegetarian now, looking at that". :D
 
dietcokevanilla said:
No it's all meant as a joke, but it's a very tired old joke now. My family are Eastern European so meat features pretty heavily in the diet. My mum is actually very accommodating though, so in addition to her style of cooking for 50 when there are only 8 or however many present, she'll also make me some sort of special veggie thing :)
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Well your mum making something for you is one thing, but when someone kind of expects everyone that coooks for a family of 30 to make a separate meal for your family every night for 7 days straight...I guess I would be happy to do it if she actually helped with the second vegetarian dish.

maybe I'm just a miserable old bastard. :eek:
 
Satori said:
Well, I made it to being a vegetarian step-by-step. First red meat, then chicken, then fish (over a period of around six years). While I was on the way, I knew that I wasn't perfect but each step I took was causing a little less suffering in the world. It seems to me better to get there in the end, rather than not at all. So if there are people out there eating fish but not other meat then I say that's a step in the right direction.

I still need to give up wearing leather shoes and I don't think I'm ever gonna make it to being a vegan!

p.s. I get pissed off with people who assume that because I am a vegetarian, I am some sort of health freak!
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just as background: been vegetarian for 7 years, was 95% vegan for 1 year, and now back to eating dairy (i only drink soy milk, and do limit dairy where i can with soy/tofu based alternatives like tofutti cream cheese. mmmmm)

you are a perfect example of why i think some animal rights' groups are off the mark with their straight to vegan advertising and promotions. becoming vegetarian is much much easier than becoming vegan. for a variety of obvious and not so obvious reasons. therefore, i think it is hugely beneficial to promote not eating meat (or even starting with cutting out one type of meat at a time, like you did). the main problem i have with dairy is the integral part it plays in the meat industry. the two cannot exist without the other.

i think it's common for people to stop eating meat for health reasons, and then learn more about the ethical reasons people avoid meat as they start to discuss it with other vegetarians (at veggie restaurants, etc). personally, it's been a moral issue for me from the beginning.

as for expense- one of the main reasons veggie diets are more expensive (which all depends on what exactly you eat... if it's meat substitutes, etc, then yeah, more expensive usually) is because of the heavy gov't subsidies to the meat industry (at least here in the US). i was talking to my friend's dad who was born in china and moved to the US in his 20s... he was saying how people in china would think i was crazy for having the money to afford meat, and choosing not to eat it.. why? because meat is more expensive than other food. the way it should be if you think about it.

evoluzione-remember a few veggie threads back or so i was writing sarcastically and had you calling for my head? that was fun. ;)
 
iGary said:
Well your mum making something for you is one thing, but when someone kind of expects everyone that coooks for a family of 30 to make a separate meal for your family every night for 7 days straight...I guess I would be happy to do it if she actually helped with the second vegetarian dish.

maybe I'm just a miserable old bastard. :eek:
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Well you know there is another option for big family events - you could all just eat the vegetarian.

I've often had the experience in the past where the non veggies stuff themselves with the veggie food as well as their own 'just to see what it's like'. Then we get nothing at all!
 
iGary said:
Well your mum making something for you is one thing, but when someone kind of expects everyone that coooks for a family of 30 to make a separate meal for your family every night for 7 days straight...I guess I would be happy to do it if she actually helped with the second vegetarian dish.

maybe I'm just a miserable old bastard. :eek:
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i agree that the person with the special requirement should help. or be willing to eat sides, or whatever... at thanksgiving my brothers and i (3 veggies out of 6 person family, or bigger with the extended family around) eat all the basics (mashed potatoes, stuffing which hasn't gone in the turkey- my mom leaves some out, veggies, salad, etc) and either have a fake meat piece for some protein or don't..

that's with family.

if it's someone else's house it's a grey area.

on the one hand, you're a guest, so accept what they give you and eat what you can of it. on the other hand, they're the hosts, and probably know you are a vegetarian (unless its' some big old group thing of course). there are plenty of tasty dinners that non vegetarians eat that don't contain meat... so it's not like all can't be happy with one meal.
 
Speaking as a meat-eating frequent entertainer of guests, I've got plenty of vegetarian (and even some vegan) recipes in my arsenal, it's just a matter of knowing that there will be vegetarians in attendance. Same with seafood allergies, or peanut allergies, or any other dietary issue. Just let the host know.
 
jelloshotsrule said:
i agree that the person with the special requirement should help. or be willing to eat sides, or whatever... at thanksgiving my brothers and i (3 veggies out of 6 person family, or bigger with the extended family around) eat all the basics (mashed potatoes, stuffing which hasn't gone in the turkey- my mom leaves some out, veggies, salad, etc) and either have a fake meat piece for some protein or don't..

that's with family.

if it's someone else's house it's a grey area.

on the one hand, you're a guest, so accept what they give you and eat what you can of it. on the other hand, they're the hosts, and probably know you are a vegetarian (unless its' some big old group thing of course). there are plenty of tasty dinners that non vegetarians eat that don't contain meat... so it's not like all can't be happy with one meal.
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Yeah, for the main Thanksgiving meal, everyone pichtes in, which means she cooks some stuff for her family that everyone will enjoy.

But for the rest of the week - remember its 30 people in our immediate family - I think she should either help or do her own thing. I'm not really bitter about it, but it is a bit annoying at times.

FWIW, a lot of people do eat the vegetarian dishes that are made with the meat dishes, so maybe it all works out.
 
iGary said:
Yeah, for the main Thanksgiving meal, everyone pichtes in, which means she cooks some stuff for her family that everyone will enjoy.

But for the rest of the week - remember its 30 people in our immediate family - I think she should either help or do her own thing. I'm not really bitter about it, but it is a bit annoying at times.
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i agree- in a setting like that, the vegetarian should be looking out for him/herself.... a lot of people who first meet my family think that us vegetarians are rude for expecting my mom to cook 2 meals (at one point she sometimes made 3, as i was the only vegan)... but they don't realize that she takes great pride in her meals and wants to be preparing them for us. but when a grumpy igary is playing the role of mom, gotta help him out! ;)
 
jelloshotsrule said:
i agree- in a setting like that, the vegetarian should be looking out for him/herself.... a lot of people who first meet my family think that us vegetarians are rude for expecting my mom to cook 2 meals (at one point she sometimes made 3, as i was the only vegan)... but they don't realize that she takes great pride in her meals and wants to be preparing them for us. but when a grumpy igary is playing the role of mom, gotta help him out! ;)
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Are jelloshots vegetarian? :confused: :p
 
A good portion of the in-laws are vegetarian. When we got married my mom was a bit curious about coming to the in-laws home and just eating vegetarian dishes, but after a few days she said that she found the dishes so filling and good that she didn't miss meat at all the time she was there. So I guess there is something to be said for the kind of vegetarian dishes that are made.

All in all, it's a matter of compromise. We had both veg and non-veg dishes at our wedding and various wedding functions to appease both types of eaters. This type of compromise happens a lot at our family functions, and no one seems to care. There are occasion where the meals are completely vegetarian, but it's not that big of a deal because none of the meat-eaters are so set in their eating habits that they can't go without meat for a meal or two. Often in those situations it's just easier to do veg since the meat-eaters are outnumbered by the veg-eaters.

Everyone can do veg while doing the reverse is not so true. I don't particularly agree with forcing the vegetarian eaters to eat just the side dishes. That just doesn't seem fair. Perhaps it's because side dishes often don't seem to be particularly filling in and of themselves (hence the reason they are sides). I went to a work-conference in Vegas at my last company with a bunch of co-workers last year, and one of the nights were were there our team was treated to a special team dinner at a nice restaurant. Even though there were a handful of vegetarians among the crowd the managers--who knew they had vegetarians in their teams--decided on taking the team to a steak house for dinner. Essentially, the meat eaters had a fine time picking their nice dishes while the vegetarians had to resort to a plate of poorly-tasting steamed sides (they were essentially given plate full of various steamed veggies as their main meal since that was the only veggie item on the menu). You can bet they thought that was a slap in the face. All in all, when in a mixed group it is essential to find a place or have a meal that fits the various people's needs. The minority should not have to miss out just because they are the minority. And if it's a big group where the organizers may not necessarily know the eating concerns of everyone then those with the special needs should make them known. In my co-worker's case they were known, but ignored. Just sad.
 
Weddings are always a problem when you're veggie. At the buffet, all the meateaters see the veggie food, go "Ooh lovely, garnish", and start piling it on their plates, leaving the veggies with only bread and potato salad.

And that's the reason I always end up making a fool of myself. Nothing to soak up the alcohol :eek:
 
Maybe it would be a good idea if they placed all the veggie dishes at the end of the buffet table--or at least after the meats--so that people's plates wouldn't have as much space for the "garnish." :D
 
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