Let's swap stories!

Allow me to rant a bit.

When I was 2 years old I discovered that McDonald's Chicken Nuggets were made out of chickens! Like, the actual animal. *gasp* I was shocked and from that point on whenever someone tried to feed me, I'd ask "is it meat?" And I'd refuse to eat if it was. My family got the point, and I became lacto-ovo-vegetarian. My mother was later lacto-vegetarian (which is what I consider myself now).

So a couple years go by, we have christmas and thanksgiving meals with extended family, everybody knows I'm vegetarian. My gramma and papa get it, my aunts and uncle get it. My mother's parents, however, don't get it.

I'm about 4 or 5 years old and my grandma comes in and hands me a bowl of food. I ask "is it meat?" And she says "no, of course not." So I start to eat it. It tastes strange. My older brother (would've been 7 or 8) comes in the room and says "do you know you're eating meat?" I say "but grandma said it wasn't". He says, "it is! It's chicken." And I'm horrified and go and be sick.

Starting at age 10 or so (keep in mind, I was thin at this point) the diet advice starts. The one encounter I remember best is: "you shouldn't eat that." I'm holding a bowl of salad, veggies, with dressing on it. "Do you have any idea how many calories are in salad dressing? I never eat dressing." It's like, no, I don't know how many calories are in it, I'm 12.

So then present day (the reason I'm ticked off): Grandma comments on my weight, and yes, at this point I am obese. She starts telling me about her success with Atkins. (She's lucky if she gets 700 calories per day). And finally I interrupt and say, grandma, I can't do atkins, I'm vegetarian. And she says, that's not a problem, you could just eat the cheese. And she's serious.

Really?

So come on, there's gotta be some good vegetarian/vegan/family stories out there!

Dangit, it posted twice. Sorry.

I am new to the veg scene.  I have been vegan for about 6 weeks, and it is funny to see people's reactions as they come to terms with what that means.  For instance, my brother in law kept asking me different foods I would eat and finally comments "Geeze that's so confusing... how do you keep track of it all?" 

Last weekend I was out and about with my parents and they wanted to go to a fish fry shack and my father, with good intentions, was trying to find something I would eat that was on the menu.  His ultimate suggestion was corn chowder.  I did not say anything because I wanted to see how long it would take him to realize the corn chowder was dairy based. XD

It really amazes me how people dont understand something that I see as being so simple (not eating meat). When thinking of a story to share one of my coworkers comes to mind, she is an older lady who really doesnt get it. One day we had a party and I was looking at the various trays to see if there was a veggie wrap and she says, "what are you looking for?" I said something without meat. Then she said that I could take the turkey out of the wrap and give it to her. I then explained to her that I was a vegetarian and therefore was not going to do that. She said, "Oh you cant touch meat either?" I was speechless. I politely told her I was going to get something else to eat and walked away.....

yvarner - Gosh, how many times have I heard... "just take the pepperonis off the pizza". It's like no...it doesn't work that way! My dad, however, is a good boy -- he has a veggie/soy side on the grill that meat never touches and he uses seperate tongs too!

hero6 - Good job going vegan! I've been wanting to...got rid of eggs out of my diet, but the dairy...that's tough. "The PDQ Vegetarian Cookbook" by Donna Klein is an awesome cookbook. It reads like your mother is telling you how to cook. And most of her recipes show ways to adapt them to vegan.

Worst that picking off the pepperonis is when people try to get me to eat chicken/turkey soup or whatever, but just pick out the meat, the broth is made from animals too!

My family is really weird about it. I've been vegetarian since March of this year, and my Mom still forgets sometimes when she cooks a meal, well, not so much anymore, just when we have company over for supper, I have to remind her to put a veggie burger on the grill or whatever.

Actually one time at the dinner table she asked if I would eat corn. I was like "...yes, its a vegetable, (or fruit maybe?)" and she was like "well i dont know sometimes because you dont eat fish" Fish= living creature. corn= plant.

hahaha.

Another time at a family get together everyone had these gourmet ribs on the barbeque and I brought my own veggie burgers. Fine and dandy, I dont care that they were on the same grill, or that my uncle put on the same barbeque sauce... although my family kept asking me to a point of ridiculing "if it was ok if..." "if I would still eat it if..." I even heard them making fun of me when they thought I wasnt around, (I was in the kitchen, where the window was open to the deck) saying that I was so picky I wouldnt eat regular bread. to which I laughed, because I am the least picky person in my family by far, and the buns I brought (only because we were at a cottage that didnt have any already) were just these thinner ones that I've been eating for years now.

Yeah, I live in the South and people think you're the antichrist if you don't eat meat.  I remember when i first tried to explain to my mother in law that I wasn't going to eat meat anymore, she was completely cool with it and made beans for dinner.  Only problem was, she didn't think that putting bacon in the beans kinda ruins the point of making the beans specifically for the vegetarain.  I think she figured it out later, b/c I never mentioned it to her, but now she only uses jalapenos to season beans if I'm over :) 

But my mother in law is one of the only people that just acepted it.  One of my husband's aunts started to lecture me that I'd eat too much cheese and get fat (I've actually lost a lot of weight going veg, b/c I eat whole foods instead of processed).  Because she thought that the only way I could get protein would be through cheese.  She actually made me list all the foods I eat with protein.

It was very weird when I went to Arizonia for a funneral (Arizonia is where my much more liberal maternal family lives).  I was ready for the usual food fight that comes with family functions where I have to defend my honor and my protein sources.  I almost died (no pun intended) when they showed me the fridge and it was full of taboulli (sp?), pita bread, and humnus.  You see, they weren't sure if I was a vegetarian, or a vegan, so tried to make food w/o any animal products.  When I told them I was just vegetarain they also made egg plant parmesean so I didn't have to eat the ham sandwhiches everyone else was eating. 

I was born and raised in Oklahoma, so I know what you mean about being veggie in the south. For a long time there were no soy products at the local grocery store...had to go to Oklahoma City for those!

As for getting fat...well, I somehow managed to get obese on a vegetarian diet. Now how'd I manage that?

My in-laws, bless their hearts, try and try to understand but they just can't put two and two together. Without fail, every time I see them I get asked something along the lines of, "we're having roast potatoes with dinner, can you eat potatoes?" When I explain that I can so long as they're not cooked in butter or fat they ask, "can you have olive oil?". I've also been asked after I've cooked a meal, "oh, you can't have that, can you?" referring to; pasta; bread; risotto; pie, etc. etc. etc.!

However, they still ask each time...do you eat fish?

Original Post by fiddler32:

As for getting fat...well, I somehow managed to get obese on a vegetarian diet. Now how'd I manage that?

I know I could eat crackers and hummus all day long... =D

Fiddler~I was born in OK and raised in TX so trust me my family totally doesnt get it either. And my poor grandmother, I went to visit her a little while back and she was so excited to see me. She commented that I was very small now (was 265lbs when I graduated from high school and left TX) and that she wanted to cook me something. I obliged because I didnt want to hurt her feelings. She went outside and came back in with fresh squash and zucchini. I was so shocked to see that she was growing fresh veggies. She asked if I would eat them and I said of course. She proceeded to prepare the veggies and my mouth was watering as I was thinking about some nice sauteed veggies. However, she FRIED THEM IN OLD FISH GREASE....I nearly died....LITERALLY!!!!

Grandmas are hilarious. So is the notion that people can't be fat vegetarians.

I was overweight before I became a vegetarian, but now my grandma has two reasons to give me hell. She's the kind of person who raves about how skinny someone looks, is disgusted if someone is fat, but will tell anyone that there's plenty of food in the fridge if they're hungry.

One time she bought me nachos, told me there wasn't meat in them, and proceeded to tell me it wasn't a big deal when I bit into a huge chunk of ground meat and began crying. No, not a big deal at all.

I was making Fried eggs for me and my Cousins to go on top of the grilled burgers (mine veggie, of course) and I asked one of them to watch the eggs while I went to grab something. I come back, and he's putting bacon in the pan. When I told him it meant I couldn't eat the eggs, he was like "But you don't have to eat the bacon." and then tried to pull it out of the pan. It took about 15 minutes to explain that bacon fat was also not vegetarian, and yes, it did effect the eggs, hence why I was cooking them in canola oil.

Or when I made Veggie Chili with Morningstar crumbles, and everyone told me it "tastes like meat!" And I had to look at them and ask, "Well, what was it supposed to taste like? Carrots? Salad? It's Chili."

I think the worst was at Thanksgiving with my Mother's side of the family, where The only food I could eat (besides the tofurkey/stuffing and the nut-based gravy I borught for myself) was the dip I brought and the mashed potatoes. Everyone knee I could onyl eat the maashed potatoes, so while they were cooking, my Aunt tried to convince everyone to put in Chicken broth so I couldn't eat them. and then later, she hit me twice tellign me to "Eat Meat" So I hit her back.

But then my Grandma revealed to me that she make an extra pumpkin pie just for me. :] She's Diabetic and has a thyroid problem and so she understands special diets & she's very interested in my fake meat.

It's really weird, my extended family is so much more interested and understanding of the fact that I'm veg than my parents are. Except that my maternal grandmother always asks if I'll eat fish and then tells me that she has a vegetarian friend that eats it when I say "no, I don't" as if that makes it ok, then I have to explain the difference between veg and pescetarian. But my dad's family, whenever we have some sort of get together with them, his sister always shows me the veg food she's got like hummus or soy nuts. She tries to eat healthier a lot too so I think its because she thinks I'd be the most understanding of that, which I am, and I think its really cool.

My parents think I'm crazy for being vegan though. Once, I tried dying my hair. I did just one little strip to see how the color would turn out. I wanted to go blonde and I have dark brown hair. Well, the strip I dyed turned out this orangy color so I didn't go through with it and since it was on the bottom of my hair you couldn't really see so I didn't do anything about it. Well, I never told my mum I did it and one day I had my hair up and the orange strip was showing. My mum freaked out and said I had a dietary deficiency and it was changing my hair color. She still brings that up whenever veganism comes to topic saying, "Your hair turned freaking orange, how is that a healthy diet?" She thinks the hair dye story is made up to cover the fact that I have a deficiency...

Original Post by insaynaudio:

I think the worst was at Thanksgiving with my Mother's side of the family, where The only food I could eat (besides the tofurkey/stuffing and the nut-based gravy I borught for myself) was the dip I brought and the mashed potatoes. Everyone knee I could onyl eat the maashed potatoes, so while they were cooking, my Aunt tried to convince everyone to put in Chicken broth so I couldn't eat them. and then later, she hit me twice tellign me to "Eat Meat" So I hit her back.

But then my Grandma revealed to me that she make an extra pumpkin pie just for me. :] She's Diabetic and has a thyroid problem and so she understands special diets & she's very interested in my fake meat.

 omg my aunt did the SAME thing just about. and my grandma ( whom i lived with for the first 4 months as a new veggie) was very accepting and made sure i had (something substantial) for dinner.. and she too started trying the substitutes (soy cheese & fake meat) bc she is diabetic and lactose intolerant =P

These stories are hilarious, and some are frightening. Haha.

I don't have very many stories because I haven't been vegetarian that long, but I usually get asked, "Whats wrong with chicken? You can't eat chicken?" And they ask it so surprised, like chicken isn't wrong. Haha.

We go to dinner at my mom's house every other Sunday.  This past summer, she has been making dinner on the grill a lot, so I've just been bringing over a veggie burger, or some Quorn naked cutlets or something similar.  That way, I can just throw it on the other side of the grill and she really doesn't have to do much in terms of special arrangements for me- just desginate a meat-free side of the grill and we're good!

One day, she said, "I don't see why you eat that stuff.  If I want a burger, I have to get a REAL burger, not that weird fake stuff."  Um... you're missing the point Mom... I don't WANT a real burger!  Heck, I don't even want a fake burger that much, but I've been buying them to take over there for convenience (HER convenience, might I add).

And then last week, we were driving past a Wendy's and we saw a sign out front advertising those new buffalo wings (or whatever they are) that they're selling.  She asked me, "Have you tried those wings yet?  They're pretty good!"  I just have to shake my head. 

I ate meat when I lived at home, so I'm not sure if she just forgets, or if she's trying to be obnoxious about it.  Ever since I told her I wasn't eating meat anymore, she's been (by coincidence or not) making all my old favorite meat dishes whenever we go over.  I don't eat them, of course, but I do wonder if she is trying to tempt me with them.  That would just be mean. 

Original Post by t_thecreep:

Grandmas are hilarious. So is the notion that people can't be fat vegetarians.

I was overweight before I became a vegetarian, but now my grandma has two reasons to give me hell. She's the kind of person who raves about how skinny someone looks, is disgusted if someone is fat, but will tell anyone that there's plenty of food in the fridge if they're hungry.

My entire extended family shared your grandma's notion that all vegetarians are either: 1) sickly thin 2) monks [we are Chinese] or 3) sickly thin monks. 

I decided to go veg after being enlightened at an anti-fur demo led by AR activists. When I came out to my family about it, my grandma thought that I had joined some sort of cult that had forbade me from eating meat. 

Whenever there is a family reunion, not a single family member - aunt, uncle, what have I - fail to tell me how thin I am. 

I took up vigorous strength training and I power myself with tofu. Once in a while they still crack the 'no meat = no strength' comment. I just ask them if they would like to arm wrestle me.