Of course when I heard the topic of Tuesday’s Oprah episode, I immediately set up the DVR to record. “Oprah & 378 Staffers Go Vegan”
I’d barely hit play when the show was interrupted by an NBC Special Report. It didn’t matter though- the ideas were already concocting…
The poor, unsuspecting husband chose that moment to walk into the room. I’m sure he regrets it.
Me: “Hey. Oprah’sgoingveganforaweekyoushouldtoo.”
Husband: “Oprah’s doing it? Oh I can totally do that. Sign me up.”
Ok…that’s not exactly how it went. More like:
Me: “Hey…. I’ve got an idea.”
Husband: “What…?” {He knew it’d be painful for him as soon as I said “idea”…..}
Me: “You should go vegan for a week.”
Husband: “Ha. NO. Why would I want to do that?”
Me: “It’d be interesting to see what you thought about it.”
Husband: “No way.”
Me: “It’s just a week.”
[Enter more protests here. Lots.]*
I’ll summarize. Eventually I got him to agree to go vegan for 5 days, with several stipulations:
– He can quit whenever he wants
– I have to prepare all the food
– He gets served steak, black-eyed peas, and cornbread when it’s over. {I don’t know why the black-eyed peas & cornbread….}
And no tofu.
Challenge accepted. He starts Monday.
* Some of the intermediary protests included:
“That’s for treehuggers.”
“But what if I want to eat out? You can’t eat out vegan.”
“It’s tree-hugging, hippie, granola crap.”
“It’s gross.”
“It’s grainy & disgusting. No texture.”
“No sweets.”
“I like meat.”
“I’m not eating tofu. NO TOFU.”
“Most super hippie-ish thing ever.”
“Tater tots are vegan? Let’s eat tater tots. And pizza. Pizza’s vegan.”
Keep in mind all of this is coming from a guy who’s wife eats vegan 85% of the time and therefore feeds him vegan meals regularly. Read: he should know better!!
If he’s clueless, I can only imagine what other people think. So of course I’ll be documenting how his week goes. He’s thrilled. 
So…send over your favorite vegan –but not hippie, gross, grainy, granola-y, or tofu-y—recipes to add to my arsenal. This meat-eater’s going down! {Ok, not really. I just want him to stop saying it’s gross.}
What vegan or vegetarian stereotypes or kinds of resistance have you heard?
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