Summer of (almost) Vegan Goodness

[jenzie]

Hey hey!

I just wanted to share with everyone something that made my day! I have four friends coming out to visit me this summer; one will be staying with me for a month, and the other three for about ten days.

Anywho, the one that will be staying with me a month is a vegan (woo!), and one of the other three is a veggie! But here's the super exciting part... the veggie girl is going to eat vegan while she's staying with me, AND one of the two meat eatin' girls is going to eat vegan while she's here! I think that's so awesome of her! She said there's no better time to try the food than when staying with a vegan, so she wants to check it out! Yay! And who knows, maybe it'll be a lasting thing?

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There is but a small kink in my Summer of Vegan Goodness. The remaining meat eating individual is convinced tofu is disgusting, hates veggies with a passion, only mildly tolerates fruit, and (in her words) "needs whole milk", etc.

I'm struggling with not only ideas on what I can make that everyone, including her, will like.... but mainly... the whole meat thing.

One of my roomies is a meat eater, but he only eats fast food (seriously!), and so there's never any meat in the fridge. Which makes me very very happy indeed! I've gotten to where I can't stand the smell of the stuff, and he knows and is respectful of that.

So, this gathering of friends is a rare opportunity indeed, and I don't want to single this one person out and make her feel uncomfortable... especially when she sincerely doesn't like many foods of the foods I have available. On the other hand though, I'm not comfortable with the idea of cold cuts hanging out in my fridge or on my kitchen counter. If she wanted to grab a fast food item, I'd be fine with that... I just don't want to have her meat sharing space with my tofu.

Am I being unreasonable? Part of me thinks I should just suck it up for ten days and go with the flow... yet my inner only child demands "Why should *I* have to suck it up? Why can't she?"

I think she'd be more willing to work with me if I had some alternatives other than tofu and veggies and such. Any ideas?

[misanthropy]

I don't think you're being unreasonable. I wouldn't want meat cooked in my house either.

But for your friend, definitely make some stuff with TVP.

Some foods that I've made that have gone over FABULOUSLY with tofu-hating omnivores. Plus they are totally inexpensive to make.

- "bolognese" spaghetti sauce (ground TVP)
- swiss "steak" (sliced TVP)
- fajitas (sliced TVP or TVP strips)
- tacos & burritos (ground TVP)
- chili (ground TVP)

None of these are heavy veggie dishes and the TVP works so great in it. I posted the fajita and swiss "steak" recipes in the recipe forum awhile back.

I'm sure I have other ideas... I just can't think of them right now.

What types of dishes does your friend like to eat?

[Moo2u]

pretend its real meat...she'll never know the difference..

[erasmus]

definitely do the fajitas!
Everyone loves those. Just use plenty of oil to fry the veggies and be liberal with the seasoning. They'll love it!

Good luck!

[jenzie]

You know, I've yet to try anything made with TVP. Well, at least made be me.

I picked some up yesterday though, and plan to look up some recipes (I'll start with yours!) and give it a go. Thanks for the idea, misanthropy!

What types of dishes does your friend like to eat?

Meaty dishes. No, really. She likes sandwich meats and meatloaf, hamburgers, hotdogs, fried chicken. When I posed the same question to her, she didn't tell me one thing that wasn't made from a dead animal. Bah.

Oh, and Moo2u... she's one of those people that because she knows I'm vegan, wouldn't eat anything I tried to pass off a 'meat' and be fooled. Thanks erasmus, for wishing me luck. I just might need it!

[misanthropy]

Check your PMs, I sent you some stuff.