Help! My Spouse is a Carnivore!

[LimeRiot]

kjlutz - I got the cookbook you recommended today, More with Less. My Aunt sent it to me as an early b-day present. I'm looking forward to reading it.

[Retro_Rose]

Hm, some interesting answers. I know I personally will never buy meat. Just wondering how people deal with that in a marriage where income is combined. Does your spouse have a separate allowance for meat, or is it just not done?

[kjlutz]

kjlutz - I got the cookbook you recommended today, More with Less. My Aunt sent it to me as an early b-day present. I'm looking forward to reading it.

enjoy it, I love it.

[jennieingram]

Disclaimer:  Neither my husband or I are actually vegetarians.  DH is a Midwestern boy from a household that has meat in every meal.  However, he is very open to trying new things, though he does still love meat.  I went vegetarian as a teenager, but didn't do very well with it.  Mostly because it was hard to be the *only* person in the house like that, with a mom who believed dinner wasn't complete without meat.  Plus, I was bordering on an eating disorder, and ate very little anyways.  I went back to eating meat in college due to limited selection in the dining hall.

That being said, I've been following this thread for a while and was so happy to find it.  I've struggled with my weight since college, and I've never been a very physically active person.  Always preferred reading and crafting to playing sports.  Grad school was really rough, since I had classes, work, homework, and had to feed DH & I.  That led to poor eating habits.  Now that I'm in my 30's, and contemplating kids in the next few years, I'd like to be healthier not only for myself, but for them too.  Finally, I've become lactose-intolerant, which breaks my heart, as I love cheese.  This has led to me working on cutting out all dairy from my diet too, and replacing it with almond milk, vegan cheese, etc.

I started with trying to make myself healthy lunches for work, that I actually wanted to eat when lunch time rolled around.  In the last few months that has evolved into healthier vegan or vegetarian breakfasts & lunches.  Making large batches of smoothies and freezing them in individual portions has helped.  I also started buying tons more veggies that are easy to pop into lunch boxes when I'm rushing to make lunch in the morning.  (I'm now addicted to Sugar Snap Peas.)

Meanwhile, I decided to try working in a few vegetarian dinners a week that DH will actually enjoy.  This is harder on me in some ways, since we always had meat as kids, and I don't really have any vegetarian recipes in my repertoire.  It's like learning how to cook from scratch again.  Also, DH LOVES Mexican food, which is frequently covered/filled with cheese & meat.  I learned to cook it for him when we were dating, but despite the fact that he likes Mexican, he's not excited about the idea of Sweet Potato Enchiladas or Vegan Chili.  And some nights he just looks sad when he sees dinner, and realizes there's no meat in it.  He never complains, and never says a bad word about what I cook.  But I can tell when he's disappointed.  (Also, why does it seem like every freakin' vegetarian cookbook out there has nothing but cheese laden recipes?!?!)

Some nights I make us similar, but slightly different things.  Like a veggie burger for me, and a real burger for him, and vegan mashed potatoes for both of us.  Some nights, I don't have the energy, and I make us both the same thing.  I am hoping to find some good vegetarian crockpot recipes (besides vegetarian chili) that I can set to cook in the morning before work.  And I'm sick of when I say "looking for vegetarian crockpot recipes", and people *only* answer with "Ooh! Chili!"    I don't actually like chili, and it's worse now that I can't have sour cream & cheese to cool it down spice-wise.

I know that's a lot of text, with no actual recipes or suggestions.    However, I did start Vegetarian, Vegan and Dairy Free boards on my Pinterest for things that look tasty.  Feel free to follow me.  I'd love to know if anyone else has similar boards.  I've been unfollowing all "regular" (aka dairy/meat filled) cooking boards, and trying to follow more and more healthy ones.

[ghilie]

jennie, how about lentil sloppy joes for a crockpot meal?  I saw this on the hillbilly housewife (http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/lentil-sloppy-joes.htm) but there are really endless (and complicated) variations if you google it.  I figure you could crockpot the lentils, and then when you get home, add the sauce.

[SunflowerSmiles]

kjlutz...do you think you could post a link to the book you recommended or send me the link via PM? I'm experiencing a heck of a time trying to find it...

[jennieingram]

Oohhh... good suggestion Ghilie.  I've never seen DH eat Sloppy Joes, but maybe I can entice him anyways. 

[kjlutz]

kjlutz...do you think you could post a link to the book you recommended or send me the link via PM? I'm experiencing a heck of a time trying to find it...

Here's the amazon link http://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Cookbook-World-Community/dp/083619263X
You caN also get it at Ten Thousand Villages Stores.

[SunflowerSmiles]

oh thank you!!! 

[CraftyChef]

What, gals? These guys can't cook meat? You're kidding, right? Stick a pile of chicken thighs or pork chops in the crockpot, add a little liquid/flavoring, turn it on and go. Use slow cooker bags so you don't have a huge mess to clean up. Drag out the grill for him on alternate nights - I know few men who don't love to start a fire and cook meat on it.