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Cooking for meat eaters
I have two people in my family who are vegetarians (myself and my daughter) and two who are not (my son and my husband). I wouldn't dream of imposing my views on either of them as I didn't become vegetarian
Most traditional meat meals have a vegetarian alternative and so I simply make sure that if I'm cooking meat in the oven, then I also put a nut roast in at the same time.
If I'm making a stew, I do it in two saucepans, one containing meat and vegetables, the other with quorn (or soya chunks) and vegetables. I use vegetarian suet to make the dumplings which I place on top of each saucepan's contents for 20 minutes before the end of cooking time.
Spaghetti bolognese is another easy favourite made in two pans, one with mince, the other with Beanfeast, quorn or soya mince. I divide the tin of chopped tomatoes between both pans and do the same with all the other ingredients.
I don't like touching meat and refuse to take a chicken's innards out or anything like that - in those instances I ask my husband or son to do it for me. Anything that doesn't look or smell too much like meat such as a pie or chicken burgers, I can put in a frying pan or baking tray without any problems.
Sometimes I cook meat style pies made by Linda McCartney (may not be available in the US?), which after 17 years look and smell exactly like meat to me, however the men in my life will eat them happily and feel as though they've had a meaty meal.
I used to love the pies as well and if you're just a beginner veggie, you'll love them too, however I now find the smell is almost too realistic and I don't touch them anymore!
So in a nutshell, think in advance what you want to make on any particular day, then make sure you choose the meaty alternative that's cooked in the same way. Accompaniments are the same for both.
Oh and there are lots of meals that a carnivore will eat quite happily without any meat in them such as cheese and onion pie, fritatta (oven baked omelette) and what I call 'the cornflake dinner.'
Visitors
The one exception I make is when we have visitors and then I enjoy making them a delicious vegetarian meal which we all eat.
Whenever my children brought home new boyfriends and girlfriends for a meal we had great fun telling them that for dinner they would be having cornflakes and seeing how they struggled to look pleased whilst wondering what on earth they'd let themselves in for. See the recipe here - without exception everyone loved it and laughed about it afterwards!
It's a shame that most meat eaters don't take the same trouble when I visit them! In fact for some reason many of them take great delight in telling me why they eat meat, and why I'm wrong (or stupid) for not eating it.