<p>Funny you mention hummus I’m eating it right now.
But I’ll miss meat 
& I know there’s alternatives but I know they aren’t tasty lol</p>
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<p>I don’t blame him for giving it up–two weeks of unrelenting veggie burgers would be enough for anyone to call uncle :)</p>
<p>OP, I agree that it’s unreasonable for the entire burden to fall on you, and that your D should be stepping up. At the same time, would you be willing to have one vegetarian meal a week for the entire family? Everyone would get to try something new, your D would be helping (she could help research recipes etc etc), there could be health benefits for all, etc etc etc. </p>
<p>Our family meals are primarily vegetarian, so it wasn’t a huge stretch to accomodate D2 when she announced a few years ago that she wanted to be a strict vegetarian. She eventually went back to eating fish, and now eats chicken as well, which makes meal planning simpler. Yet we still have relatively little meat/chicken/fish. </p>
<p>I very much like the newer Moosewood cookbooks (e.g. Moosewood Restaurant New Classics and Moosewod Restaurant Cooks At Home), which have a variety of easier/quick recipes and more involved ones. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison is massive and has rarely steered me wrong. Tomorrow I’ll be making one of D1’s favorites from there, a cheese tortellini salad with handfuls of torn basil, chopped fresh tomatoes, olives and marinated artichokes. Last week was open-faced sandwiches of crusty bread topped with olive spread, smoked mozzarella slices, roasted bell peppers and pesto. All the ingredients came from Trader Joe’s, including jarred olive spread, already-roasted peppers, and pesto. </p>
<p>If your D is more improvisational, have her look at Mark Bittman’s recipes in the NY Times archives. He has summer dishes and quick main courses that don’t list amounts as much as give general directions, and there are many, many vegetarian options. For example: cut kernels off of fresh corn cobs. Saute in a little oil, sprinkle on lime juice, a little chili powder, and salt, then serve with Mexican cheese crumbled over. One of the oddest ones is now a family favorite: cube firm/extra firm tofu, dredge in flour, fry in vegetable oil till lightly browned. Mix into a sauce of heated ketchup (!). Serve over rice. Sounds absolutely disgusting, but it’s surprisingly good.</p>
<p>My D has been a vegetarian since 5th grade. Here are two dishes that are easy to mix meat eaters and vegetarian. Chili (one pot with meat, one pot with beans) and fajitas (chicken in one pan and black beans in the other and another pan with the peppers and onions). </p>
<p>Also, since she is the only vegetarian, she can usually eat leftovers for a day or two.</p>
<p>Another favorite is baked acorn squash with cajun type black eyed peas as a filler. She also likes a sweet potato/black bean dish. There is also a Moroccan tagine that is really great. I just make sure I always have the cajun trinity (onions, celery, green peppers) available to make an easy bean dish. She is now going into junior year of high school, and believe me, we have had our bumps with this, but it seems to be going well now.</p>
<p>Robin Robertson has some very simple, but good cookbooks. She has one for slow cookers that I have given to many of my meat eating friends because they enjoyed them so much. </p>
<p>Also - if you are ever in NYC, please try either the Candle Cafe or Candle 79. The first is a small, hole in the wall place, the latter is their upscale restaurant. The food is just outstanding. We live in PA, but for special occasions we drive or take the train to NYC just to go for dinner. </p>
<p>You will never think of vegetarian meals the same way. They have a cookbook, but a lot of their recipes include more obscure ingredients, not a beginners book.</p>
<p>D became “vegetarian”,then “no red meat”, then “pizza and pasta” starting around age 12, and gained a lot of weight. She ate a Kobe beef burger yesterday, and I am hopeful…</p>
<p>We make goat cheese and corn quesadillas. (I should say H makes them since I don’t cook.) He is NOT a vegetarian, but likes a lot of the meals we now eat because of me. He loves veggie and black bean burgers, scallop kabobs and the quesadillas.</p>
<p>^^^^^</p>
<p>I am jealous.</p>
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<p>True. D2 went through a vegetarian phase in high school. It lasted a year or two. She and her best friend were convinced by a vegetarian friend to take it up. When they fell out with the girl who had talked them into it they gave it up too. They did so by going to In-N-Out and ordering the burgers they had been hankering for for so long. And they told they cashier they were vegetarians who were giving it up. He announced it over the PA system, and the whole restaurant cheered and applauded.</p>
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<p>Sounds wonderful!</p>
<p>We make goat cheese and blue corn chip nachos (with jack cheese and red onion) after having them at a restaurant in Charlottesville. My favorite junk food.</p>
<p>My daughter has an excellent food blog with some great vegetarian recipes. PM me if anyone wants to check it out. I don’t know how she turned out to be such a great cook- certainly not from MY example!</p>
<p>D1, a rising college sophomore, has been a vegetarian for about 10 years. The rest of us are omnivores, but there are many nutritious vegetarian meals we all enjoy as a family. We usually make enough that D1 has leftovers if we’re having a non-vegetarian dinner the next night. A few favorites: </p>
<p>Middle Eastern meal with hummus, falafel, grape leaves, spinach-cheese pie, etc
Cheese/veggie pizza
Eggplant parmesan
Pasta with pesto
Pasta e fagioli
Lentil soup
Pasta with broccoli, garbanzo beans and garlic
Pasta with rosemary-garbanzo marinara sauce, feta, and parmesan
Cheese-veggie omelets
Vegetarian chili
Bean burritos
Bean or cheese enchiladas
Cheese & chile tamales
Quesadillas
Black bean burgers with guacamole & salsa
Crepes with spinach and feta
Tofu stir-fry
Thai curry with tofu over rice
Black beans and rice (Cuban style)
Red beans and rice (New Orleans style)
Mac & cheese
French onion soup with veggie broth base
Numerous Indian dishes
Pad Thai (hold the meat)</p>
<p>I’m vege,</p>
<p>my reason is because if you see how the animal;s are killed before they are eaten is horrible.</p>
<p>I will not go into detail, simply because I don’t want to scare anyone, or seem trollish.</p>
<p>But the way animals are raised is horrible.</p>
<p>And my thoughts go like this,</p>
<p>a dead thing is a corpse.
Why in the world would people eat a corpse, even if it is seasoned, and grilled etc etc?</p>
<p>It just seems wrong to me, it’s like eating a dead person, IMHO.</p>
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<p>I’ll bite… because it’s delicious, that’s why. Especially bacon.</p>
<p>But speaking of strangely delicious, I am just now eating a sandwich made of bread with dal. I made the dal for a dinner, with rice and an Indian vegetable dish, but some was left over. </p>
<p>Simple dal (or sandwich spread)</p>
<p>Boil 1 1/2 cups yellow split peas until cooked, with a half teaspoon of turmeric. Add salt, maybe a teaspoon or so. Then heat up half a cup (yes, half a cup. do you want this to be delicious, or not?) of a mild oil. Toss in a minced onion and a good amount of whole cumin, with a bit of cayenne if you want. Cook them about ten minutes, until the onion is nice and brown but not burned. Pour the oil mixture over the peas, with a good amount of chopped cilantro. Stir it up, but not completely. Serve with rice, or let cool and use as a sandwich spread.</p>
<p>Dal is usually made with lentils.</p>
<p>Somehow bacon doesn’t even seem like meat to me.</p>
<p>Chana Dhal is made with yellow split lentils but you can substitute yellow split peas.</p>
<p>I have been a vegetarian, but I am an omnivore & try and get as much nourishment as possible from things that are grown locally ( like in my backyard 
), with local & organic dairy, eggs & meat & line caught fish by local fishermen.</p>
<p>I also drink shade grown coffee, recycle or compost as much as I can & walk or bike rather than drive one of our 10+ old cars.
( once you start caring about the environment, it kinds touches everything you do) ;)</p>
<p>There are also alternatives to factory farms for meat/dairy
[Is</a> Colin local?](<a href=“Is the chicken local? - YouTube”>Is the chicken local? - YouTube)</p>
<p>No doubt about it, corpse is delicious. Sorry, it just is.</p>
<p>But the treatment of factory-farmed animals is what puts me off. I’ve never been to a slaughterhouse, but there are plenty of videos on the Web that will show you what happens. And I’m not just talking about propaganda videos by PETA. Even the methods that meat processors like to call humane are horrific.</p>
<p>This discussion got my appetite worked up, so I made some spicy black beans and onions with Kamut and wild rice. (Kamut is a proprietary kind of wheat with very large kernels.) It’s gonna be so yummy!</p>
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<p>Because it’s highly processed, I suppose. Bacon is about as much like meat as a Dorito is like corn. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop either of them from being mouth-watering when the time is right. :(</p>
<p>From Julie Sahni’s Classic Indian Cooking, where I got the Dal recipe:</p>
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<p>These vegetarian pates (excepting the one made with Marmite) look interesting. [Vegetarian</a> Pate Recipes for Health - NYTimes.com](<a href=“Vegetarian Pate Recipes for Health - The New York Times”>Vegetarian Pate Recipes for Health - The New York Times) Also, how about going Meatless Monday? [Meatless</a> Monday | one day a week, cut out meat](<a href=“http://www.meatlessmonday.com/]Meatless”>http://www.meatlessmonday.com/)</p>
<p>Coureur – I totally understand your viewpoint. I think that’s what has kept me from pursuing this diet/lifestyle myself – the few vegetarians I encountered in college (granted – we were all young and foolish) were so strident, so rigid, so unforgiving and scornful of those who weren’t vegetarian, it was hard to envision oneself converting to their viewpoint. I believe that adults can discuss things and explain them and listen to each other, as danielise did in her wonderful long post. Then we all have a much better chance of considering other options. </p>
<p>Here’s a seemingly unrelated, radical thought – if we all stopped thinking of smokers as people who engage in a filthy habit, and are mindless hostages to the tobacco industry, perhaps more people would quit. If you see someone as evil, what is their motivation to change?</p>
<p>Please note – I appreciate all the thoughtful comments from all of you. I support D’s choice. Tonight was kale chips (a la Gwyneth), quinoa and sauteed ****ake mushrooms. There is a lot that appeals to me about this lifestyle. </p>
<p>But it doesn’t stop there. I want to join the “don’t cut down big trees just because you can” lifestyle movement. And the “buy the smallest possible house for your needs” movement. And the “move to cities – they’re greener” movement.</p>