I keep different meats frozen and just pop them into whatever I'm making. Shrimp and scallops are simple this way, and I also pre-dice and slice beef and chicken that way I can just quickly add what type of meat I prefer to what I'm cooking.

My husband is a diehard carnivore and I'm mostly veg, although I do eat some fish/shellfish. I usually make a starch and veg that we'll both eat and separately cook just a protein for him (grill, pan-fry, whatever); sometimes it's a soup or casserole that he can add the meat to at the end, like a chowder he can garnish with bacon. We also do Meatless Monday as a symbolic thing - maybe Katie can try to get her fiancee interested in the environmental benefits of less meat, too...

For me, I prepare meat for my meal-loving family once a week, and join them in consuming it. I can live with this by buying locally-produced meats grown on organic farms. More $$, but it marries my motivations for vegetarianism with the family's food wishes, and by making this one concession, I have the rest eating mostly vegetarian. But of course this only works based on your own reasons for your diet choice.

I know this topic has been discussed before and a lot of good advice as shared. Anyone find the link for it?

Our veggie portions of the meals are typically more complex, so we just shove meat in a seperate pan or in the oven so there are 2 different meals anyway. As for not missing meat - as a former vegetarian (wheat allergy killed that lifestyle), I can tell you, missing real meat is hard to overcome.

I like the idea of making the same side dishes, but switching up the protein. Like serving quinoa with roasted tomatoes and garlic with shredded chicken for him and beans for you. Just swapping out the protein I think could make things easier. Also, try to find a few recipes that have 'heartier' veggies in them so maybe he won't "miss" the meat? Like portabello mushrooms or really hearty squashes. Good luck!

I second the recommendation for the Flexetarian Table! It's fantastic. Everything I make from it has been delicious and it's fairly easy to make both vegetarian and nonveg food at the same time. My parents are vegetarian and endorse the deliciousness of the dishes. Hope it helps you!

I tend to chop up some chicken, pancetta, shrimp (always kept in freezer) or other easy-to-add, quick-to-cook meat, and add it to my significant other's meal. Works well for most meals (pasta, salad, rice/grains, stir fry) without me having to make two separate dishes.

I'm in a similar situation--omnivorous myself but like to eat vegetarian a few times a week, but my husband pretty much has to have meat for a meal to be satisfying.

I think the suggestions above about adding in some meat to a mostly veg meal are spot on. Bacon is very handy for that--and a little goes a long way. :) I've also been making up big batches of meatballs to keep in the freezer (sometimes raw, sometimes already cooked). They're so hands-off--just pop in the oven to cook or heat up--that you can focus on the rest of the meal and then just throw them in at the end. (Handy too for me, for when I want just a little meat.)

I've been vegetarian for nearly twenty years, and my partner is very not-vegetarian. We do a lot of what people have mentioned already about adding meat in at the last second in pasta, soup, salad, etc. We also eat a lot of sort of supersized antipasti-style meals, where we have lots of cheeses and bread and different salads and he just adds in chorizo and whatever else. And we keep a running list of entrees that can potentially be cooked in the oven together--even if he has a pot pie and I have stuffed zucchini, if they go in the oven together (with some segregating tinfoil on the baking tray...) it still feels like we're cooking together, sort of.

Make vegetarian mains where he can have a hunk of meat on the side. Pasta, rice dishes, salads etc. that are complete meals and then if he wants to add grilled chicken or sauteed shrimp he can. Wouldn't take much more time or effort. Or try getting meat that's already cooked from the store to save even more time. (I'm in the same boat and totally know how you feel!)

I'm not vegetarian, but I do prefer to have vegetarian meals several days a week cause I get tired of meat. =D I second the first comment about having different kinds of meat prepped and ready to go in the freezer.

Examples of some meals that work for us:

- Wild rice w/ dried fruit, veggies, and nuts. Add shredded chicken or turkey for the hubby.
- Meatless jambalaya over brown rice, add shredded chicken and sausage for the hubby.
- Beans, rice and veg, add a side of roast meat for the hubby.
- Pasta w/ vegetables of some sort, add shredded chicken and/or sausage for the hubby.

You get the idea... ;)

Tips for meat prep:

- Really helps to reduce the meat to small portions - make it a side, not the star of the meal - cause then it defrosts much quicker and a small batch of cooking will go a long way (roasting 4 chicken breasts gets me through a whole work week!) Tell him it's healthier and cheaper, which it is! ;)

- It's really easy to roast / grill meat in bulk, then you can cut into strips or shred for freezing, so that it's quick to defrost for meals.

- Another option is to divide the fresh meat into small portions and freeze in marinade. Before going to work in the morning, defrost in fridge, and come back to grill/roast for 20 mins for deliciously marinated meat. Better yet, make him do the grilling since it's his food. =P

- Meatballs, chicken fingers, and other small sized fully cooked food are great for quick defrost and prep. If you're worried about health issues prepare and freeze your own, but I must admit to relying far too often on Tyson's all white meat breaded chicken fingers.. Yum? ;)

Good luck!

My boyfriend is a vegetarian and I am not.. but I am also not a *huge* meat eater either....

Here are some of our favorites that I don't think need meat at all:

http://cleangreensimple.com/2011/06/jackfruit-carnitas/

http://www.goodlifeeats.com/2011/04/spinach-ricotta-and-tomato-calzones.html

http://topoftheapple.com/2011/03/22/sweet-potato-caramelized-onion-quesadillas/

http://thesepeasarehollow.blogspot.com/2010/09/its-fall-somewhere.html

Chops, small steaks, chicken breasts or chicken legs and thighs, just about any portioned neat can be cooked on the side. A grill pan would be handy. If you do stew, just brown the meat separately and do one batch with and one without meat. Same way with spaghetti sauce. The squash in the picture looks great and you could do that with one stuffed in veggie style and one with browned sausage mixed into the stuffing.

The "advantage" to this is that he can control his meat portions easily to avoid eating too much of it and you can both enjoy the fiber in the veggies. Put a whole roast in front of the guy and he will probably want too much. I do.

I am one of those brought up to really enjoy vegetables, though I do eat meat. Keep the whole plate full of hearty stuff and he will be fine.

Oh, also! Homemade pizza is a GREAT option, because you can just go halves on toppings. It's also one of the few vegetarian meals that will satisfy my husband--although he is happier when it has sausage or bacon. :) The Kitchn has had some great pizza recipes, tips, and ideas in the last year or two, so just search around.

sigh . . . . I had this issue when I was married and (sadly) went back to eating meat b/c it was just simpler. If only it were as easy as converting our partners ;)

I feel your pain. While I'm not 100% vegetarian, I am 95% of the time. I don't care for the meat, I don't want to prepare it nor eat it. However, my husband loves it and wants it. Enter the crock-pot.

My advice? Do yourself a favor. Throw some meat in that bad boy a couple times a week, and you've got low effort, high taste meaty goodness for that man of yours. Mexican night? You can prepare your veggie tacos and have the meat ready for him to throw into his. Pasta night? Prepare your veggie pasta as usual, and throw that meat into his before serving.

One recent meat I cooked was pork tenderloin. All I did was salt it and add in some liquid smoke. Shredded it when cooked through, and it was divine. A meat lover's dream. It was great with asian flavors like sweet chili sauce and sriracha, mexican flavors like salsa, avocado and sour cream and could be tossed into an omelet or simple eaten with rice or as a pulled pork BBQ sandwich. It was so simple, and my husband ate it for days.

I'll tell you right now it's really hard finding one recipe you will both be happy with. Not impossible, just hard. My husband is thrilled to have his meat and eat it too. :)

Remember that meat really should bee just a side dish! I am vegetarian and my fiance a meat lover. A god piece of meat with lots of flavor can be smaller, and cooked or grilled quickly.

I am vegetarian. I do all the cooking, and I plan the meals, therefore vegetarian meals are what goes on the table. One family = one dinner.

From the beginning, I told my now-husband that if he wants to buy and cook meat for himself, he's welcome to do so. For him, it's a better deal time-wise to eat what I make and satisfy any meat cravings when we eat at restaurants or have takeout.

Indian food might be a great solution. For example, you could make a batch of makhani sauce then put pan fried paneer (or tofu) in it for you and chicken in it for your husband. The same could be done with spinach - tofu, paneer, potatoes or chickpeas for you and meat for him. A lot of my favorite Indian curry sauces are actually from the meat section of Suvir Saran's Indian Home Cooking. I've just modified them for a vegetarian component.

@Katie, It’s important to point out that we are speaking of humans, so it should be omnivore instead of carnivore

thanks everyone for all your advice (: and thank you, sandra, for asserting your terminology skills when everyone else has taken the time to offer super helpful tips that are much appreciated.

o'well, that seems quite bitter, but that may be just me
it wasn’t an issue of asserting my terminology skills when everyone else… the lack of advice from me was due to not wanting to take time repeating others nice suggestions, had nothing new to say

I'm with ephilides. She who does the cooking is boss. My carnivore hubby has learned over the years to appreciate my vegetarian cooking. He keeps strips of cooked chicken breast in the fridge and quick-cooking shrimp and scallops in the freezer, which he cooks up before we eat to put on top or on the side, if he wishes. He also sometimes stops at Whole Foods or a local takeout to get ready to eat meat on the way home from work.

Count me as another in the ephilides camp. If I don't eat it, I don't cook it - and my husband has never expected otherwise. We have been together 25 years and this has never been a big deal for us. He knows that, if he wants meat, he can cook it (and clean up) or eat out.

I was veggie for years while living with my family. The easiest dishes to eat "together" are ones with an identifiable meat-substitute component; usually they can be split into two batches and cooked side by side without extra effort. Some top hits from my childhood:

broccoli & pasta alfredo (chicken/fake chicken)
pasta and meat sauce (one with meat, one TVP) or red sauce with two kinds of meatballs
chili (split into two batches, one meatless)
tacos or burritos (TVP/beef)
veggie stirfries with tofu/chicken/beef
breakfast for dinner with veggie sausage
individual stuffed peppers in tomato sauce (with meat & rice, or beans/mushrooms/TVP and rice)
make your own salad bar (lay out basic ingredients)
make your own sandwich/panini
homemade pizza, top your own half
fancy grilled cheeses (add ham, veggies)
quesadillas
enchiladas (chicken in only one, wrap and bake them all together with sauce)
steak/chicken on the grill -- throw on marinated firm tofu or seitan and you can both have grilled veggies
chicken nuggets/fake chicken nuggets with french fries (don't judge!)

We also arrived at a few meatless meals that satisfied the whole family (after a LOT of failures) ... a white bean/tomato/cheese casserole and an eggplant parm variation.

May I add to the suggestions with other food ideas?
Perhaps ratatouille (which even I, as a meat eater, can eat simply on its own) with a few lamb cutlets for your fiancee and perhaps a meat supplement for yourself? And tacos- cook up some potato tacos, which are great on their own, but if the fiancee insists on meat, add some cubed chicken cooked in taco spices to his. I think the solution is getting into the mentality of thinking as the base dish as vegetarian, his being the one that has to be modified, with the addition of meat hopefully being something you can quickly add to his plate before you serve.

Like @lovesitc1, I too started out living with my then fiance this way, but eventually went back to eating meat. I still don't eat a lot of it and second the advice given above, but I found that it was just too cumbersome to make a meal that worked with or without meat every day. Good luck to you!

I am in the opposite situation - I'm the carnivore, and my live-in boyfriend is a devout vegetarian. Here are a couple of thoughts/ideas:

-Satay skewers - I use beef, he uses the same marinade with pre-fried tofu (the tofu is actually very good this way...I even sneak a few bites)
-Pasta and tomato sauce - When the sauce is cooked, separate out a ladle or so into some cooked crumbled sausage (which I usually keep on hand in the freezer)
-Hearty bean dishes, like chana masala and a thick, rich version of pasta fagioli - I dont even need meat when we cook these dishes
-Substitute bacon in a recipe with smoked paprika - It's not quite the same obviously, but you still get a nice smokey flavor
-I always keep frozen shrimp on hand - They're quick to defrost and cook when I want a little extra protein on the side
-And finally, topping anything with a fried egg usually satisfies the both of us!

I hope this helps!

I'm not a vegetarian, but it does drive me slightly crazy when my husband will be happy with a steak next to a salad, but if you chop up the steak and put it ON the salad, suddenly it's not a real meal. It's the same thing, darn it!

Basically, what I have learned from this is that presentation is king. You don't have to even add that much meat if you present it right. One key thing is putting the protein either on top of everything, where it's visually dominant, or clearing a nice area on the plate just for it.

After reading these comments i realize how lucky I am to have a husband who never complains that all of our meals are vegetarian!

I try not to feed him things that are too funky. I use a lot of the "fake" meat so we can still have pancakes, eggs, and "sausage" for breakfast or "meat"loaf for dinner. Obviously, he's not getting pot roast or steak for dinner, but after 5 years of living together we have our mealtime groove.

I'm also with ephilides. I'm not a vegetarian anymore but four or five nights a week we are not eating meat. I don't make things that I don't like... for example I can't stand chicken breast so even though my hubby likes it you won't see that in my kitchen. He's never once complained... then again he gets to eat pie every week.