The Offensive Vegan

The menu for today wasn't mine. And I think I offended my mother-in-law, but I really didn't mean to do it! I've mentioned before that Saturday lunch is the meal we all share as an extended family every week, and M-I-L cooks. She had been going to make her wonderful spinach risotto, but when she checked, she found that she'd thawed out Chicory instead of Spinach (she's having her cataract operation on the 14th of next month...). Chicory is too bitter for risotto and I'm mildly allergic to it anyway, so we decided on pasta and tomato sauce, followed by vegetables. Fine.
Only today she did something she has NEVER DONE BEFORE!!! She mixed parmesan cheese through the pasta before pouring the sauce over it. Why??? Only yesterday I'd managed to slip into the conversation the fact that I'm currently not eating cheese, in such a way as not to elicit any unwanted comments (I congratulated myself on that one...obviously too soon!).
So I sat down to my big plate of pasta...and then had to push it away. I wanted to tip it back into the bowl, but she was watching :-) So I had to say "I'm sorry, but I'm not eating cheese right now...", and of course, she shot back, "How ridiculous. It is only a little bit. Just eat it. You SHOULD have told me."
Two options at that point. One - shrug, think "Well, it's only 30 days anyway, what's a little parmesan going to do? I'm not REALLY a vegan." and eat the darned pasta. Or TWO - stick to my principles, smile sweetly, say "You're right, I'm sorry, I should have told you. I'll just eat the vegetables."

I went for Option Two! And she slammed a few pot lids around, dropped one on the floor, SWORE (jeez, she NEVER swears....all for a little parmesan?)... So I apologised again, said that I hoped she wasn't offended, but that this was a choice I've made and that I thought I'd told her yesterday, put the pasta from my plate in my hubby's plate, and dished a plate of all the wonderful vegies she'd prepared. I mean, come on! Her main worry, of course, was that without the pasta, I wouldn't have enough to eat! HAH! She'd made cardi, roast pumpkin, roast potatoes, AND a big bowl of silverbeet. What more could a vegan want, I ask you?

And after that lunch, who would want dinner? My daughter is out on a dinner date at her friend's house. My son just wanted tapioca and fruit (easy!), hubby just wanted to lie on the couch in peace, and I just wanted to finish the leftover silverbeet and pumpkin from lunch :-)

I used what would have been my dinner cooking time to prepare tomorrow's dinner, because we have a special afternoon tea to go to in the afternoon. I also experimented with a vegan cheese recipe, and if it works, I'll post the link to the recipe tomorrow.

Now I'm off to work on DELTA Task Three, which right now, is making my brain hurt...