Feeding Vegetarian and Meat-Eaters in a Single Meal

For nearly 17 years, my household has consisted of vegetarians and a lone meat-eater. Preparing meals for a mixed, vegetarian-meat-eater household is not as complicated as it might at first seem.

Your Main Dish Is My Side Dish

Unless the vegetarian component of the household is heavily reliant on "faux meat," virtually any vegetarian main dish makes a suitable side dish for a meat eater. The easiest way to prepare meals is to make the vegetarian meal for everyone, giving the meat-eater a smaller portion and a serving of meat to complement the vegetarian entrees and side dishes.

Casserole, Stir-Fry and Other Mixed Dishes

When serving recipes that call for meat or fish pieces (like casserole, stir-fry or pasta combinations), there are two ways to go: cook the meat or fish separately and add it to the meat-eater's portion when serving or divide the cooking into two vessels. Which way works better depends on the recipe. If it's important to the meat-eater's taste that the meat or fish juices are integrated into the dish, the latter is optimal. For quick meals and meals where meat is not essential to the dish's overall flavor, the former works well.

Faux Meat or Real?

In most circumstances, a committed meat-eater is not going to be satisfied if you substitute faux meat in a recipe. If you're making a dish with faux-meat, it's usually a good idea to cook both faux and real meat separately from the rest of the meal, adding faux meat to the vegetarian plates and real meat to the meat-eater's plate. One exception I have found to this observation is that meat eaters will often eat tacos prepared with faux hamburger crumble. I have brought "fake tacos" to school events and they've been gobbled up almost immediately without anyone realizing they were made with faux meat.

Faux Meat and Salad- Oh, no, not again!

Most vegetarians don't plan their meals around meat substitutes any more than they would plan a meal around meat. Vegetarians also like to eat a variety of foods beyond salad. If you're a meat eater whose meal planning has always centered on meat and fish, think expansively when preparing meals for vegetarians. Pastas with vegetables, rice dishes, soups, egg-based entrees - there are plenty of food choices out there besides faux meat and salad.

Recipe Ideas for Mixed Meat-Eater and Vegetarian Households

Here are three easy meal ideas for a combined vegetarian-meat-eater household:

Breakfast: Since meat eaters shouldn't overdo their meat consumption, breakfast is a great meal for skipping the meat. Serve homemade Belgian waffles with fresh fruit and yogurt to everyone.

Lunch: Reuben sandwiches: for the vegetarians, substitute slabs of fried tofu for the corned beef.

Dinner: Serve pumpkin ravioli as the vegetarian main dish and as a side for the meat-eater, who will enjoy a slab of grilled salmon with it. A spinach salad with walnuts will add some extra protein for the vegetarians and some important vitamins for everyone .