I'm a vegetarian, and the house cook. My husband is omnivorous, but lactose intolerant. We've been experimenting with lots more vegan meals because that nixes the dairy for him and the meat for me.

Check out the vegetarian options this site featured during the quick weeknight dinner contest. Lots of great polenta-based dishes, some great egg dishes, pasta ideas. I think you'll both be happier with a vegetarian or vegan meal that is designed to be meatless rather than subbing in mock-meat.

I know of only one tofu dish that can legitimately be called a crowd-pleaser, and that's tofu dengaku. It's grilled tofu, usually on a bamboo skewer, with a dollop of miso sauce. It began as a Japanese street food, sold to eat while you watch an outdoor performance or at festivals. It's chewy and salty and grilled and delicious.

I just started experimenting with vegetarian/ vegan dishes.
My whole goal was to still add protein to almost every meal. A vegetable dish doesn't give you the same nutrition as a protein dish would. So I always try to have some TSP (textured soy protein) it mixes well with any pasta dish - We love it.

Also adding beans to salads or rice and pasta dishes does the trick as well. Look for grains that are rich in protein too like millet and quinoa and you can add them to rice and cook them together or replace the rice altogether.

Take a look at some of my suggestions:

http://www.lifeologia.com/meatball-vs-meatless-pasta/
http://www.lifeologia.com/chickpea-burgers-yum/
http://www.lifeologia.com/so-this-isnt-chicken/
http://www.lifeologia.com/spring-in-a-salad/

I am currently having fun making tofu smoothies now that the summer is almost here. I will post these soon on my blog ;)
Enjoy. Making adjustments like that will be easier than you think, just have fun and don't be afraid to try new things ;)

Huh, I didn't know that flexitarian was a thing, but I'm totally one of them.

One strategy is to prepare dishes that are rich and flavorful without meat. Think about rich pasta dishes (lots of examples here), or try out different cuisines that have strong variety of meat-free dishes: falafel, pad thai, curry, black bean burritos...

Another strategy is to make a protein-rich grain salad (101 Cookbooks is a great source) and some meat. He can eat the salad as a side dish with the meat and you can make the salad the main part of your meal.

Like Faith mentions, there are so many options besides just making tofu loaf or tempeh stir fry. I'm not bashing those, but your guy (and you!) will probably appreciate more of a mix.

I'm a veggie, my husband is an omnivore. I agree with the advice above--make meals that taste good on their own rather than thinking about needing to "substitute" fake meat for real meat.

That said, I often make meals that meat/seafood can be added to if desired. For example:

-An indian chickpea curry with brown basmati rice and with some optional grilled shrimp thrown on top.
-A big salad with some protein (like egg, toasted walnuts, feta cheese, etc.), lots of veggies (carrots, roasted beets, bell peppers, green onions, potatoes, olives, steamed asparagus), with optional grilled chicken breast or grilled shrimp or scallops on top.
-A hearty pasta dish with homemade tomato sauce and something strongly flavored, like olives, hot peppers, capers, feta, etc. and then optional grilled sausage or grilled shrimp on top.
-Polenta with roasted veggies and/or beans and goat cheese on top with optional grilled or roasted pork tenderloin on top.

Thinking of meat as a small and optional addition will hopefully make eating flexitarian feel less labored.

I have just started moving from vegetarian to eating a little meat, and my husband is an Italian meat lover. I'm not a big tofu fan and never make it at home.

I agree with lotusmoss above...I do a lot of dishes with the option of adding meat. Some other ideas are tacos with beans for you, ground meat for him. Frittatas are a favorite and you don't miss the meat. I'll also make big batches of soup and freeze individual portions, so we can both enjoy different kinds of soups. Also veggie chili with some seasoned ground meat on the side for him to mix into his. And for summer grilling is easy, just throw a veggie burger on the grill and he can have the meat version. We also eat a good amount of sea food, since that is neutral ground.

Good luck!

Beans beans beans beans beans!

My husband misses the meat. Even as he's wolfing down my cooking and saying "these lentils/curry/pasta/etc are great!" he's also saying "but no meat..." Alternate protein like eggs or cheese doesn't cut it for him.

What I've settled on is cooking food that has less meat, or meat that can be added when the food is plated. Overall we're both eating less meat (and more vegetables) even though it shows up nearly every day, and there are plenty of meals that I can just leave the meat out of for my portion.

We actually have a great cookbook, given to us as a gift, entitled The Flexitarian Table, by Peter Berley. It's maybe a little bit hoity-toity, but everything we've made from it has been delicious, and not really too difficult. I would definitely recommend at least checking out whether your local library has it, and seeing if it has anything that catches your eye.

I guess I should elaborate - each of the meals provided has variations for making the entree either meat or meatless. The side dishes and preparations are always nearly the same, with the intent that you can make both at the same time.

I've been doing this same thing at my house for years now to find a healthy balance between my diet and his.

I agree that making hearty meals w/out meat is a great since it's filling enough for meat-eaters. On nights where all I want is a light salad and maybe rice pilaf or a light risotto - I will make a small skirt steak and slice it up for my husband.

My new *favorite* resource is 'Moosewood's Cooking For Health'. There are so many filling recipes that have amazing flavor and color - most of the time, my husband doesn't realize he's eating a vegetarian meal.

I limit my tofu and tempe and the only meat-flavored substitute I use is Soy-rizo. Similar to Chorizo, my husband likes it cooked with potatoes and eggs in a Cali Breakfast burrito w/ avacado & fresh pico.

Thanks for posting about it! It's always nice to get new ideas :)

hey ashley! you should check out my food blog b/c my husband is a vegetarian, i'm a meat eater, and i'm always making dishes for the both of us.

Try ethnic cuisine. A lot of Indian and Ethiopian dishes are naturally vegetarian and delicious (and quite filling, I might add.) I recently made mesir wat (Ethiopian red lentil stew) and it was quick, easy and requires only a few ingredients (ghee/butter, onion, garlic, ginger, red lentils, and berbere spice.) You can serve it with injera, but I eat mine over rice with a side salad.

I also like bean tacos, baked falafel, lentil soups/stews, black bean soup, vegetarian chili, vegetarian lasagna, risotto (made with vegetable or mushroom stock in place of the chicken stock.) Or, since the temperature's been rising, try making your own veggie burgers or tofu kabobs to grill on the BBQ (if you own one.)

If your husband is a dedicated omnivore and would like to continue eating meat, legume-based meals might be a good option. My parents love their meat, but like certain vegetarian means; they say they don't miss the meat when there's beans involved. You can also grill up a chicken breast or pork cutlet separately and rather quickly for him.

i agree with above posters, i've been on a flexitarian (aka poor college student who's to cheap to buy the terrible meat at my local grocery) diet for a while. don't worry about subbing meat, look for interesting dishes that don't happen to include meat.

Some good options are
- rice and beans (you can add egg for a little more oomph)
- black bean soup (with or without bacon)
- frittata or quiche
- roasted root vegetables over a salad or other greens like wilted spinach or kale
-pad thai
-baked pasta
- stuffed bell peppers or tomatoes

these meals are usually pretty hearty so you don't necessarily miss the meat. You can also make build- your- own style meals like tacos, salad bars or pasta bars so you can forgo meat but your husband can eat it (a green salad with different grilled options like shrimp, steak, grilled veggies or grilled fruit for topping options is one of my family's favorite dinners).

"Flexitarian" is not a thing. You're still omnivorous, just eating less meat. I'm sorry, but that word just bugs the heck out of me. When will people stop using it?

As for the meals thing - try making things that are "naturally" vegetarian, i.e. don't require meat substitutes. Lots of pasta dishes are naturally vegetarian, like manicotti and veg lasagne. For meatless meals in my home, we usually do a big tofu stir fry. It's simple, and you've probably thought of it already, but it's tasty.

Also, look into halloumi. It's the cheese that you can fry in a pan. It's quite salty but has a great texture... we like to add it to spinach and strawberry salads à la Jamie Oliver.

Watch your soy intake... too much tofu and tempeh can be harsh on your stomach, especially if it's processed and/or you're using soy-based foods to season it.

For recipes, I recommend theppk.com, vegweb.com, and veganyumyum.com. These are all predominantly vegan sites, but they all do wonderful things with meals that aren't too heavy on the sodium-rich meat substitutes.

"Mixed marriages" can be rough. Take it from me, someone who eats vegetarian as much as humanly possible, married to a man to whom a meal is not complete unless something died.

What works for us is to make dishes that can be completely vegetarian and then have meat added seamlessly from the side.

For example:
Whole grain pasta with chunky marinara sauce - then, heat some meatballs in the oven and serve on the side.
Vegetable-coconut curry - then, sautee or grill some chicken or shrimp and, again, serve on the side.
Five bean chili - sautee some ground beef for the side to add in separately.
Lasagna - sautee ground beef and pour in a little tomato sauce - now you have meat sauce for the top of the lasagna.
Vegetable stir fry - chicken or shrimp on the side.
Mexican fajitas - grill some chicken, and serve it alongside refried or black beans, broiled peppers, etc.
Pho - just slice up some beef and serve it on the side.
The ideas are really endless.

An alternative is to make a more elaborate vegetarian dish that becomes your main dish, and his side. (For example, last week I made a veggie leek frittata, and microwave-steamed some fish for him.)

Some people tell me it seems like a lot of work to make
"two separate meals", but if you have a George Foreman grill or cast-iron skillet, you can just toss the meat in there while you're cooking the vegetarian side, and they'll be done at the same time.

Check out "The Adaptable Feast" by Ivy Manning. Its full of recipes that are made with and without meat for the same meal (without a ton of extra steps). It also tends to use actual vegetables instead of meat like products in the vegetarian version of the recipe.

I'm lucky in that my partner is totally happy to eat meat free dinners together, but sometimes I do go the "flexi" route and make a meat version for him.

If I'm making something special for him like a steak or roast, I'll just pump up the side dishes so that I can enjoy a complete meal out of them. For something where meat is optional (souffle, quiche, lasagne) I'll make mini/individual portions, leaving the meat out of mine. (After all, if I'm low on protein for the day I can just have a protein rich snack!) However, find the easiest straight-up substitution is ground beef. I'll either use veggie crumbles, or lentils, or a mixture of finely chopped cooked mushrooms and eggplant (idea credit here http://tinyurl.com/2fkgr62.) In fact, the latter two options can be cooked ahead of time and held in the fridge for use during the week.

One thing I keep on hand is Trader Joe's "Beef-less strips" These are great for stir-fry or anywhere else you would want to use steak strips. I'm surprised by how good the flavor and texture are. (The "chicken-less" strips I find less pleasing.)

Good luck!!

I write a site with a lot of Indian recipes which have protein in them, but no meat:

http://abcdsofcooking.blogspot.com/

Four things: Beans, rice, and rice, beans. Many cultures have great combinations of beans/pulses/dal... and rice.

Skip the meat all together. I'm completely veg and my problems cooking for others come when I try to cook a dish both with and without meat. Not only is it twice as much work but they usually tell me they wouldn't have missed it anyway. Mexican meals are always flavorful and SO easy to make meat free. Try fajitas, quesadillas even vegetarian tacos! You can substitute beans for anything.
Also, don't discount the power of veggies themselves. I used to ADORE chicken alfredo and searched high and low for a chicken substitute before I realized that broccoli alfredo is ridiculously amazing. Don't be afraid to use a vegetable to "thicken" up a dish.
This weekend for a BBQ I brought stuffed poblano peppers (stuffed with a brown rice, vegetable and cheese mixture) that were gone before the hotdogs. :)

I'll second the suggestion for using the website 101COOKBOOKS.

I think the key to winning over diehard meat eaters is good cooking technique that brings out a lot of flavors (like caramelizing onions) and choosing recipes with lots of seasonings/spices.

And if hubby is reluctant to consume beans - try lentils that have a completely different texture than beans (pref the dark green lentils) in a variety of recipes (taco/burrito filling, spaghetti sauce, hearty chilis, etc).

If your husband is reluctant already, then soy products are probably not the way to go. I also think beans are the best solution. My husband eats vegetarian at home, when I am cooking, and our go-tos are Miexcan, etc. Meals that are hearty and flavorful on their own should be the goal.

We do something similar to these mushroom burgers a lot-
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Portobello-Sandwiches/Detail.aspx

Fried rice is good too, it's usually more flavorful and filling, people tend to not miss the meat. You can make it with brown rice to be a little healthier.

Also, if you're open to fish or shellfish, that's good in place of heavier red meat. Salmon burgers are easy and delicious :)

I haven't read through everyone's comments, so I apologize if this is a repeat. I'm a vegan and my husband an omnivore. I'm the cook. I make a lot of vegetables and other sides, and then prepare a separate meat for each of us.

One vegan dish that he loves is Pasta E Fagioli (from the Veganomicon). You can find it by searching online.

Another dish that I make as a side for him, but as a main dish for me is sauteed greens with white beans (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/1263).

We take cojo's approach--serve the meat for the meateater on the side. We're big fans of Pollan's meat philosophy, so my husband doesn't mind having a piece of grilled chicken on the side of whatever we're having for dinner to suffice for his meat serving. I often steer away from meat proteins because I have stomach issues that make it hard to digest. Sometimes, I just have a soy protein shake with dinner, so I don't have to fuss with adding a protein to the meal for myself, and then I just whip up the chicken or meatballs or whatever other meat will go well with the meal for my husband. With only two of us in the house, it is pretty easy to manage this. We just keep things on hand for him and that's good enough. Entertaining is a little more complicated, but it isn't so bad if you just take a few minutes to plan things out.

@Cojo, something had to die for your food, too. It just happened to be a plant.

I tend towards eating vegetarian-ish just because it's easier on weeknights than cooking meat. My favorites are egg dishes and dishes with lentils, beans and chickpeas. A fried egg over pasta with butter and parmasean is pretty much the perfect nighttime food for me. Emeril's vegetarian chili is amazingly good and doesn't require any special ingredients, although it does require a lot of time. I double the batch and freeze the extra. It's super yummy over macaroni and cheese and I've never had anyone, even the most dedicated meat eater, complain that there wasn't any meat in it.

The Minimalist column of the NYTimes had an "expedited tagine" a couple of weeks back and it's wonderful with or without the chicken called for.

I'm vegetarian (vegan-ish... a flexi-vegan?) and my husband is omnivorous with a huge appetite. I buy him the rotisserie whole chicken at the grocery store, and he can add chicken to whatever I've cooked if he wants. Cooking meat is not fun, so I like being able to buy it already cooked if he wants to add it. Poached eggs are a good idea too, as mentioned already.

As for meat substitutes, there is awesome fake meat out there nowadays but it's processed. I like using beans and grains and fresh veggies, no need to substitute. Tofu and tempeh are yummy too-- I like to fry either one in a little oil before using. There are so many resources out there now... my favorites are Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, the Garden of Vegan, and Deborah Madison's cookbooks. Good luck!

I've lived as the cook in houses with seniors, teens, kids, and middle-aged men as the sole vegan in the room. I've never been too concerned about serving them meat- they love the food I make, it's delicious, nutritious and satisfying- they can always make animal products for themselves should they be inclined to cook :) I've found that telling people the food your making is vegan will lead to protests, whereas if you don't mention it people will just enjoy the food and not get caught up in all the implications that not eating meat will have on their identities.
It's super easy to make your own fake meat (seitan) at home. It's about as processed as homemade bread. Gluten flour is just flour that has had the starch rinsed out of it, you can make it at home if you like. It also freezes well and keeps in the fridge for a while. Tempeh is one of the best proteins in the world, it's made of fermented whole soy beans, and so is a whole/unprocessed food that tends to be easy to digest.

When I first went vegan, I ate a lot of soup, salad, pasta, risotto, texmex, stirfries, veggie sushi, curries, and sandwiches. I would highly recommend "The Vegan Table", since it has so many familiar recipes with easy to get ingredients, few processed foods, and lots of lower-fat options. Also, getting a book on veg nutrition is a great way to make sure you are eating properly, "Becoming Vegan" is a great resource for plant-based nutrition, and also helps when defending yourself against the constant cries of "but where do you get your protein!?!", since you can just refer them to the charts with nutritional data for servings of plant foods as compared to animal products.
Lastly, the "Vegan Dad" blog is a great resource for recipes, since kids are the harshest critics, and he reports on their feedback for his recipes.

I have to agree with lemonader. You do not live in a 'multi-diet home'. You're husband loves meat and you only eat it every couple of days.

I was a vego for 10 years. Here's how it worked: I was the one doing the cooking amd meal planning, so I didn't buy meat. If my bf wanted meat, he could buy it himself and add it to his meals or I'd cook it or he'd order it when we ate out. It was no big deal.

Easy dual meals I found were making a stir fry and then stir frying some chicken separately he could add, veggie burgers and 'real' burgers, soups (eg chickpea) that can be garnished with fried chorizo, saladsto chick you can add poached chicken and a poached egg for yourself.

OH man, do I have a list for you!! I am sorta-vegetarian (I eat very little meat, but every once and a while I do) and by boyfriend is not. Here are some recipes that I have made that he gave the gold star:

http://www.abbeycatchat.com/2010/04/chilled-soba-with-veggies-peanut-sauce.html
http://www.abbeycatchat.com/2010/02/vegan-tortilla-soup-with-surprising.html
http://www.abbeycatchat.com/2010/04/artichoke-risotto-pretty-awesome.html
http://www.abbeycatchat.com/2009/11/pumpkin-ravioli-with-gorgonzola.html
http://www.abbeycatchat.com/2010/04/tortilla-pie.html

The tortilla pie is his definite favorite, and you can check out all my recipes (breakfasts, desserts, and some meat options) right here:
http://www.abbeycatchat.com/p/recipe-index.html

Good luck!

I really love Quorn, which is soy-free and made from mushroom protein. I recently became vegan and resisting the temptation to eat a lot of soy foods is difficult. Quorn is chewy like chicken and great in stir fries and sandwiches. It's a little spendy so stock up if you see it on sale!

Here's a site that's just that:

http://www.veganvisitor.com

Flex-vegan, satisfying meals. Cooking with whole foods, add beans, legumes and grains like, quinoa where you'd like.
Most of the recipes here are perfect when you have guests with diet restrictions or for when you're the visiting veggie!

Requests for cravings welcomed!!

Eggplant? Portobello mushrooms?

I am no longer a vegetarian, but I still eat meat much less than my live-in boyfriend. I try to prepare vegetarian dishes that have a protein source (like beans or quinoa) and then cook up some marinated chicken for him - ideally in a complimentary flavor.

I have discovered, though, that he will happily eat some of the tofu and tempeh preparations from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's books - try the Asian Marinated Tofu from Vegan with a Vengeance and the Hot Sauce Tempeh from Veganomicon.

I always thought a flexitarian was someone who gave up body-building but still likes to pose for friends and strangers.

I am a vegetarian and my boyfriend is an omnivore, but since I do most of the cooking, much of our meals are strictly vegetarian- and he never feels like he's missing out!
The trick is to find things you would eat normally and just leave the meat out. Think about how many yummy staples there are to a diet that don't involve meat.
Ooey gooey mac n cheese? Baked potatoes? Big, fresh salads, pastas, enchiladas, FRUIT salads! Pies.
Pies (savory ones) are kinda my addiction lately, and I JUST posted a new pie recipe on my blog. (http://attractionandsubtraction.blogspot.com)
I promise, I'm not just plugging my blog- the recipe is FANTASTIC.

Also, consider trying out new grains like couscous or quinoa (if you haven't used them much) to make things more interesting.

@JohnCanon, you're my new hero.