Entertaining a vegetarian.

You have all given me some good ideas which I will continue to use when Anno has gone home.
Does anybody else like sliced banana on toast? It sounded strange to me when my sister mentioned it, but now I often have it as a quick and nourishing lunch on wholemeal toast.

I had lunch with my daughter and grandchildren last week at a hotel in the nearest large town. We chose the hotel because it has a children's playroom. It has a limited menu for vegetarians and for my meal I chose a chicken with guacamole and salad with feta and some chips and asked them to leave out the chicken. My meal consisted of mushy over ripe avocado spread thinly on a piece of white toast, lettuce and three pieces of very thinly sliced tomato on top. I complained and asked where the guacamole and feta was. She said the avocado had spices in it and brought me back some feta. I despair sometimes but after 47 years of being a vegetarian I am very used to crappy meals.

Faye I don't think my mother considered the vegetables that went with a meal would constitute a meal themselves!

About twenty years ago (where did those years go???) my daughter was working at Bisley while a shooting competition was on. Every day the caterers took great delight in concocting new vegetarian meals for her. They found it a refreshing change after the endless burgers and chips they were cooking for everyone else.

I'm a pescatarian too. As your visitor eats fish, meals are easy to do.
I would suggest grilled or baked salmon fillets with asparagus and new potatoes. Add hollandaise if you like.
There are several good Quorn products and Linda McCartney meals that you could substitute for the meat the rest of the family is having.

Thank you Treebee, there will just be the two of us. I always have salmon once or twice a week anyway or other oily fish. My doctor told me it was better than taking fish oil supplements and it certainly tastes better!

I used to be a vegetarian for 12 years and never found it difficult to eat delicious food

As your friend eats fish I recommend you make that one or two nights. Vegetarian lasagna is also very simply, as is pasta with vegetables (throw in any you like). Vegetarian/fish curry is also a great dish! Good luck

Thank you, Tracy. My daughter makes vegetable lasagne, even though they are not vegetarians. They like a couple of meat-free days every week.

When I do a roast dinner for family, I also make a large cauliflower and broccoli cheese bake, which they all enjoy. For me that bake and some other veg and roasties, and maybe sage and onion stuffing, is a very tasty meal.

Delia Smith (may her name be forever praised) has a starter called Smoked Fish Creams, that Mr P and I have for brunch every Christmas Day.

If you do 2 per person with some salad and crusty bread (pref granary type) it makes a lovely supper dish.

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/fish-and-seafood/haddock/smoked-fish-creams.html

I have so many ideas now, I think anno had better stay for a month!

Can't go wrong with a risotto. I make them to use up any leftovers.
Recently made one with smoked fish...yum
Loads of recipes online.

Fine by me, Greatnan. I doubt if anyone would notice I'd disappeared!

Anno

When I go to vegetarians homes for a meal there is no meat

When a vegetarian comes to my home to eat I always go out of my way to make sure they have suitable food. Mad or what?

As a veggie, I have an aversion to cooking meat and to the smell of meat cooking in my house. The difference, flower is that whereas a veggie can't eat meat, a carnivore is often quite happy with a well cooked veggie meal.

I don't expect a vegetarian to cook meat for me and I like being forced to be a bit more adventurous with my cooking so everybody is happy!

Your friend is a Piscatarian (eats fish no meat) which my daughter was and it's very easy cooking for them. My daughter loved salmon, and rainbow trout as are most fish just don't over cook. Steam a selection of vegetables and the jobs a good one.
I have a friend who is a Vegan and have to say it does need a little more thought.
For her I roast vegetables, potatoes,parsnips,carrots,sweet potatoes, peppers make a sauce with grated carrot, grated onion and non dairy milk and thicken delicious.
She loves this type of food as it is full of flavour.

There is lots of information on the web.

Best of luck

Thank you all - I have been cooking fish for about 50 odd years, so I don't think I will be overcooking it! Anno is very easy to please and I am going to enjoy trying out a couple of new dishes. We will be staying in a small hotel in Italy for a couple of nights and probably meeting Juragran in Lausanne for lunch one day, so we will be eating out quite a bit. (I live quite close to both the Italian and Swiss borders, south of Lake Geneva).
Last time she stayed with me we were just too late in the afternoon to take the cable car up the Aiguille du Midi, but I will make sure we get to Chamonix in good time. It takes you as high up Mont Blanc as non-climbers can get.
It is snowing thickly here at the moment, but I am hoping mid-May will be warm and sunny.

Not if you are me Anno, I am a strange person who hates vegetables unless in a casserole or mixed so fine I cannot see them (probably never passed the toddler stage :/) I understand what you are saying tho.

Try the Vegetarian website for lots of recipes and ideas, I think it is
www.vegsoc.org