Cooking For Two 101

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve recently discovered that I actually enjoy cooking. And since we’re getting married in two months, mr avabeth and I registered for some very cool kitchen gadgets, which I can’t wait to use to cook (I’m especially looking forward to the mini food-processor and hand-blender - if we don’t receive them as wedding gifts, I’m going to go buy them myself). Unfortunately, we both have very different eating habits. He prefers a real meal, meat/potatoes/vegetables, while I tend to eat more towards the vegetarian side, and I tend to graze rather than eating full meals. I’m also thinking about going back to my old vegan ways for health reasons - it was a lot easier to lose weight and keep it off when I didn’t eat meat or cheese or milk or sugar. He will not become a veg no matter how much he loves me.

So how the hell do I reconcile our eating habits and prepare food for us? (And this is not a throwback to the fifties - I like cooking and hate doing laundry, he hates cooking and likes doing laundry - so it’s a trade off). I’m not against fixing two slightly different meals each night, but I’d rather not prepare two all-out different meals.

Bear in mind that I’m also a fairly beginner cook, but I’m improving and willing to learn. But throwing a soufflé at me right now isn’t a good idea;).

Ava

2

Stir fries are good for dealing with variations.

Cook the meat first, and put it aside in a bowl. Wash the wok, then cook the vegies with sauce and seasonings, Get yours out into a bowl( or directly on the plate if your not into table presentations before plating), then toss the meat back in for a little stirring. And back into the bowl (or onto a plate).

3

How about getting some Indian or Japanese cookbooks and trying out some of those recipes? You can get full nutrition from many vegan main dishes and you can make a small amount of a meat dish for Mr. Beth-to-be. Plus, neither of those cuisines uses much in the way of eggs or cheese (except for Indian dishes from certain areas that call for paneer, an Indian cheese).

How does Mr. Beth feel about meat substitues, like quorn (I know, only some kinds of quorn products are vegan) or Boca burgers or garden burgers? You can make a variety of tasty things that are meatlike but contain no meat, not just with these products, but with mushrooms too. MMM portabellas.

4

One idea would be to cook for you and how you eat. He’ll eat this and you can throw in a meat so he’s happy. Such as, cook lots of veggies and some bread for you to share, then grill a chicken breast for him. Or make stir-fry and after you remove your portion, throw some shrimp into his and cook it. (Or you can cheat and cook up a ton of meat on the weekend, then freeze so you can thaw out what he needs later in the week.) :smiley:

5

I once snuck Morningstar Farms Grillers into tacos - sauteed it with onion and served it as taco meat.

He didn’t notice until after we’d eaten and I told him. But I don’t think I can get away with that again :D.

Stir-fry works. And I didn’t think about cooking the meat on the weekends and pulling it out as needed. That’s a good idea. I do know that someone’s gotten us the three cookbooks I requested (bride and groom’s first cookbook, fondue, and sushi), so I can work with variations on those at some point. Right now, it’s just frustrating because I’m trying to learn to cook well, but I’m at a loss as to how to do it for both of our eating habits.

Ava

6

Is it possible for you guys to both compromise your eating habits a bit? I dunno about you, but it would bum me out to rarely if ever have dinner with my SO.

Would something work where breakfasts and lunches are separate (they seem to be for 90% of the people out there anyway) but at-home cooked dinners are eaten together, and comprise of food that maybe you both bend a little on, but can both eat. You might actually find that you BOTH like trying new foods.

I’m thinking things like stir-fries with a bit of meat and lots of vegatables… spaghetti with red sauce… tacos or burritos with beans sometimes and meat other times and lots of veggies. And maybe every week or so you each get a meal of your choosing. He gets his steak & taters one week, next week you get your full vegan meal. And you BOTH eat each other’s choices.

There’s so many compromises in a marriage… it just seems like food it such an easy one to start with.

7

Athena, I pretty much eat anything. I’m always willing to try something new. He’s willing to try new things, but if he doesn’t like it, that’s it. He won’t even try it cooked a different way. But I figure if I can find meals that we both like and that are fairly easy, I can veg them up for me - it’s easy to just eat a potato and broccoli and skip the meat. I don’t mind cooking meat - it doesn’t gross me out or anything. I would just prefer not to eat it most of the time because it’s much easier for me to put on weight (I know there’s probably no true correlation, but for some reason, if I eat meat, it’s easier for me to eat cheese, which makes it easier to have milk and sugar - one of my weird quirks).

So it’s not really a matter of trying something new - I can make the meat for him and just eat the other stuff - but I need a few more meal ideas to get me through. It’s definitely not an issue for us - if one of us is still hungry or wants something different, we fix it. No arguments over it. I’d just like to be able to fix more adventurous meals for both of us.

Ava

8

Oh, and we do eat together. We just don’t always eat the same things.

Ava

9

I am into salads right now, many of which can count as a whole meal.

Greens + tomato + hard boiled egg + tuna (or salmon, or cold chicken), dressed with olive oil, white vinegar, salt, and pepper

Greens + tomato + walnuts + whole-wheat rotini, dressed with olive oil, pressed garlic, salt, and pepper

Greens + walnuts + radishes + carrots + green onions, dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper

Greens + pomegranate seeds, dressed with yogurt and salt

Greens + strawberries + feta + walnuts, poppyseed dressing

Greens + sour apple slices + feta + dried cranberries, poppyseed dressing

How I would handle this situation, is to get in the habit of always having several dishes to put out. Some would be new and some leftovers, and everyone would just pick out what they want. Grilled or baked meat doesn’t have to be reheated, necessarily, or it can be chopped up and cooked with noodles and bouillon. Soups and casseroles are made in giant batches and frozen. Vegetables steam quickly in the microwave. Pasta dressed with a little pesto or tomato sauce or even just garlic and olive oil; kasha; lentils; pierogies; ravioli. You can buy little loaves of bread–my local breadsmith calls them batards–to warm up in the oven before you eat, and then have tapenade, hoummus, and eggplant caviar to put on it. A cheese plate would also be nice. The meal could be followed up with lots of fuss about fruit and cheese and yogurt or even a dessert. A great low-cal dessert is compote, made by boiling whatever fruit is hanging around getting old in a little water, with a little sugar if you must. The point is, lots of variety with relatively little effort. Then it doesn’t feel like there is a compromise on either side.

10

By the way, I didn’t mean to suggest that you cook it all at once :slight_smile:

More ideas… chicken salad, ham salad, egg salad, tuna salad… paninis with whatever good stuff you have hanging around… Boboli pizzas with whatever good stuff you have hanging around… lots of fish and seafood that’s quick and easy to either sautee or bake (always, always have a bag of lemons around)…

11

Dinner salads are always good–you can have yours vegan if you wish, and he can add eggs, cheese, or meat as he wishes. I’m particularly fond of romaine with red onion, almond slices, Craisins, shredded cheddar, and raspberry vinaigrette, especially with a bit of leftover chicken. You can put any sort of fruit you want, really; tart apples, pears, strawberries, and mango are all terribly good. Mix and match different fruits, nuts, and cheeses for all sorts of gourmet effects. If you’re in grazing mode, you can just make your portion much smaller than his.

You can do the same thing with most pasta dishes, too. Make some spaghetti, or fettucine alfredo, and add a bit of meat to his. I’ve got a recipe for an incredibly easy Thai peanut pasta that’s wonderful alone or with scrambled egg and chicken (it comes out a bit like pad thai) if you’d like it. It would probably be pretty good with stir-fried veggies in it, too, although I’ve never tried that.

There are also lots of fast, easy sandwiches you can make with chicken or pork for him, and make them with tofu or veggie burgers or mushroom for yourself. Then you can share some garlic steak fries. Again, I’ve some recipes if you’d like them.

You could also experiment with veggie-based soups–he can add a bit of meat for extra flavor, or he can have the veggie version. Vegetable soup and cornbread, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, potato soup, sweet potato soup (some recipes call for sugar or sausage, so you might not like that as well), the possibilities are endless.

There are also a lot of quiches out there that are basically scrambled eggs baked in a dish. I had a recipe somewhere for one that involved spinach, onion, green pepper, and a bit of cheese that was horribly tasty. He might even be amenable to making one with some faux sausage.

I wouldn’t suggest trying to sneak fake meat in on him again, though. It’s more than a bit sneaky and deceptive, and that would piss me off. I’m more than willing to give the stuff a try, but I wouldn’t like being tricked into eating the stuff. Besides, a lot of us carnivores really, really hate fake meat. I don’t mind it in stuff like tacos or Hamburger Helper or something else where the meat is supposed to be crumbly, but I mind it a lot in stuff like sausage and burgers.

12

Sattua, the salads are a great idea - especially since we both abhor heating up the kitchen in summer. I’ll be sure to take those down:). Thanks!

CCL, I would LOVE the recipes - I need to change my email in my profile, so if you could pass them along to avabeth@sbcglobal.net, they’d be much appreciated. The Thai peanut pasta sounds excellent, as do the garlic steak fries and the sweet potato soup. New recipes are always good.

And I promise, the veggie crumbles weren’t malicious. He’s eaten and enjoyed veggie burgers before, so I didn’t even think that it was ‘sneaking it’ until after dinner when he’d eaten it and I told him. He wasn’t pissed or anything - he said he just thought it ‘tasted weird’. But I won’t do it again - he’s not all that fond of surprises.

Ava