Happy Easter!
We are having a fun time at the in-laws. :) They have the coolest antiques and things to take pictures of!
Sketchie has been reunited with the other cats!
I always shoot dinner a few minutes before hand so the camera isn’t in the way and flashing during dinner!
We had salad (they had Caesar and I had mine with a homemade dressing). The salad was made of romaine, cherry tomatoes, and avocado. The dressing I made consisted of 3 parts balsamic vinaigrette, 1 part olive oil, a dash of dry mustard, salt, and maple syrup. Deelish!
Some red wine…and a huge delicious stir-fry:
They had chicken and cream sauce in theirs, but the chicken + cream was put in after I took my veggies out.
Their stir-fry after my veggies were taken out:
Dessert–my vegan marshmallow treats which were a HUGE hit! The plate was empty in a few minutes. So fluffy and YUM! I had two squares and some fresh fruit shared with Eric.
Then we played couple’s scrabble!
Eric and I were an EPIC FAIL and came in last. haha. It was still fun though!
Today’s question- How do you handle eating with family? Do you ever ask for modifications or things to be made a certain way?
I am still getting over my anxiety and guilt when I ask for modifications…even after knowing my in-laws for 10 years now! I still feel badly when I ask for something meat or dairy free. I am much better at it now though and I do agree with my MIL in that there is usually no harm in just saying what you want. I am lucky that most of my family understands that I am a vegan, but it would be really hard if they didn’t. Two things I always try to do are: 1) Bring a dish for the main or dessert and 2) Help prepare dinner (and clean up), which the cook appreciates.
We are about to have a big Easter breakfast soon so I better get going. I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!
Sounds like a great weekend! Hope you have a happy Easter, too, Angela! :)
I don’t know how I’m going to do it tonight- the menu is a small one and none of it sounds up my alley:(
It’s funny you should ask that, because I just had to deal with that for the first time EVER when I went home for Pesach! I also struggle with that, especially since my family views my veganism as just another excuse not to eat (yeah, I’ve struggled with an eating disorder in the past, too, but I am pretty much over it now. That being said, my family doesn’t believe me–and though they leave me alone about it, they still talk about it behind my back when they think I can’t hear them. -_-‘). However, I just suck it up and do my thing.
This time around wasn’t so terrible, because no one made a fuss, and, for the most part, I could eat a lot of the stuff my mother made. For the main course, though, I had to make my own meal. Because I’m a college student, and wouldn’t be hanging around the house long enough to make it worth making a bigger dish, I just stuck to a nice, hearty salad with lots of greens, lentils and hummus.
I hope you’re having a wonderful Easter! =)
What a neat/eccentric place! Couple’s Scrabble sounds like fun:) And that’s awesome that they’re so accommodating.
Happy Easter, Angela!
I usually bring my own dish. Even though my family is more than willing to make something vegan they still use the same utensils to make their dish as mine. So I generally opt to bring my own dish. They just don’t understand that they can’t use the same spatula to flip my veggies as they used to flip their chicken. Gross! So I bring my own food with enough to share with everyone. I just close my eyes and eat the salad and hope for the best. Again my family thinks nothing of using the same knife to slice veggies for the salad, meat on their plate and then cheese or something.
Hahaha you look like me…taking photos of dinner before anyone else comes . I feel bad when people are waiting and waiting for me to get the perfect shot. I know you take maaaany photos like me so you can understand.
I usually offer to cook something so there is at least one dish I know I’ll like. I don’t mind NOT being able to have something because I know I can always make it myself later.
Happy Easter!
That is the COOLEST looking cat I’ve ever seen!
happy easter ang!
i’m with allie on the bring a dish that works for me angle.
i love your top here, by the way…so pretty! where’d you get it?
enjoy the rest of this sunny, gorgeous weekend!
lisa
Looks like a yummy dinner (the veggie side of it anyway)!
Getting my inlaws to understand my eating has been a work in progress for many years. They live in northern Ontario and are very much the meat, potatoes and lots of bad-for-you desserts kind of people. The first time I ate with them they made rice with chicken stock… Last summer we were there for a couple of days and my dad in law made dinner (burgers & potatoes) with “salad” (macaroni, microscopic bits of red pepper, mayo).
They respect my food choices and always have veggie options on hand, let me cook or bring stuff, but it is a challenge nonetheless… The biggest challenge though is trying to help my husband unlearn a childhood of bad eating habits and incorrect nutritional “facts”.
My parents don’t pose much of a problem – they have always been healthy eaters and I learned most of my good habits from them :)
Sketchie is sooo adorable!!
Happy Easter!!! I used to struggle a lot eating with my meat & potatoes family- it’s actually why I stopped being a vegetarian, I felt like I was causing so much trouble!! Now that I’m older, I think the best solution is to bring a dish to share that you will want to eat- that way even if nothing else works for you, you won’t go hungry, and people probably won’t even notice!
In my family, my parents and my in laws are divorced, so that’s four families to deal with at Holiday time. Well with my mom and my father in law – they try to make things themselves and surprise me by showing how much they understand my food choices. This has lead me to eat some pretty crappy stuff, and also hurt some feelings when I say ummm no fish is not vegetarian. With my dad and my mother in law – they expect that I either bring my own food, or prepare my own food so that I am eating what I want.
I know everyone says I shouldn’t but I also still feel really guilty when I have to ask people to modify the food/tell them my diet is different. Something I have to work on.
I LOVE what you wore for dinner! Gorgeous outfit :)
Your cat is so pretty! What kind is it again/how rare of a breed?? He sounds hilarious.
I always feel so awkward about eating with my boyfriend’s family – they’re diehard carnivores and I’m gluten free and mostly “pescatarian.” I had to tell his nona that I couldn’t eat her pasta the other day and it was mortifying! I did, however, bring my own pre-cooked GF pasta with me so that I could enjoy her amazing sauce with everybody else.
I think you just need to remember that they love you and want to make things easy for you :) I find telling them beforehand and sometimes bringing your own modifications makes things much smoother!
My mum has always been an advocate of healthy eating (up until I was in primary school we used to have homemade fish and chips every Friday night, but then my Dad’s cholesterol was found to be very high (about the time when cholesterol was the new ‘thing’ in medicine) so we switched to mashed potatoes, and my dad was suddenly on soybean patties!), so I don’t worry too much about it. I eat chicken and fish (rarely red meat) and I let myself have some of my mum’s sweet treats (raspberry coconut slice, choc mint slice) as it’s special and reminds me of my childhood. There’s always plenty of fruit, oats, wholegrain cereal, veggies etc so it’s never a stretch.
I love Scrabble!! Though my husband thinks I cheat as I spell things different – ha ha! :)
I am not vegan or anything. But I always wonder at people when they ask for modifications or something. A lot of people seem to feel guilty for it. I don’t think you should feel guilty. Just because I am not vegan for example , does not mean I should make you feel silly for needing things a certain way. Hopefully some day those kinds of thoughts will change for people. You should eat how you wish without guilt or judgment.
You have a beautiful family. You all look like beautiful actresses and actors :)
I’m not a vegetarian/vegan, so I don’t have a problem with that, but I do like to make sure that there are healthy options for me at my family dinners. Sometimes I’ll make up a veggie + dip platter for everyone to snack on before the meal.
For our Easter dinner, my family was making cake and pie, and I wanted something a little healthier, so I made my healthified banana bread. It was a hit (but they didn’t know it had whole wheat flour and flax seed in it. Shhh ;))!
My immediate family is pretty accommodating but problems occur when my husband’s extended family tries to invite us over. Their diet consists mainly of meat, meat, and more meat. So with all my food allergies + veg lifestyle, things don’t go so well all the time.
I’ve learned to eat in advance!
I have been vegetarian for 30 years. I am not vegan, though if I lived alone (I am married) I would lean more that way. I have got over any qualms about asking for modifications, and always plan to bring a substitute for myself anyway. Plus, my family are used to accommodating my ways. It gets much easier with time and you are doing the exact right things. You may not believe it now, but your healthy ways may just rub off on someone. Older folk though are less likely to change as the foods and the way they eat is all they know. I am all about fusion foods and current love Indian Kitchari and Pakoras. Yum. Have a happy Easter!
Oh man – that is my kind of night! Dinner & Scrabble is the best!!
I also feel guilty about asking for modifications so my approach is usually to make dinner for everyone!
Depending on who’s house it is – I will sometimes make up a white lie about how dairy or creamy sauces have been really bothering my stomach lately!! And then other times, I feel like I’m not doing anybody a favour by belittling my healhty efforts so I explain why I would like modifications.