For those of you who know my husband, you should make sure you are sitting down to read this.
He agreed to Meatless Mondays.
Yes, I am talking about the meat and potatoes, wild game killing (and eating) man who is my husband, the man I love, who loves meat. With every meal. For every meal. Side dishes optional. And that includes veggies. He always says that vegetables aren’t food, they are what food eats. And that is most likely never going to change. Ever. And that is okay.
But cooking two kinds of meals every night isn’t really possible. And now that I am actually home a couple of nights a week and am cooking, I thought maybe Meatless Mondays would be a way to introduce my family to a wider variety of foods. And Mr. Meat was agreeable to let me do it.
So, how did that happen? Well, I have been cooking occasionally for the whole family. When I find a recipe I think they would like, I make it for all of us. When I find one I am confident I am the only one who will like it, I don’t try to feed it to them. And they are finding that they like the food. Maybe it isn’t what they are used to, but they are giving it a try.
Then there are meals like last night’s. I made a yummy biscuit-topped, pot-pie-like dish that I split in two and added chicken to their half. And they liked it. A lot. It’s all about picking my battles, and meals, based on what I know about them and their taste buds, and making things work for both the meat-eaters and me the veggie-eater. It’s about making sure that I keep a track-record of making foods they like, rather than trying to make them eat something that I know they wouldn’t like. They are learning to trust my vegan food choices for them, the same way they have trusted all my other food choices for them over the years. I take that seriously. I want them to enjoy eating food that is good for them, not just the stuff that isn’t. 🙂
It is important for me to say, I am NOT attempting to turn my family into fellow vegans. But I am attempting to get them to eat healthier and try new things. And I think we are making progress. And that’s a good thing.