Vegetarians in the house? [View all]

Hello, I was curious as to how many of us here are following a vegetarian or vegan diet. This was prompted by a post in a thread in the R/T forum. The original post in the thread asked the question, 'why should we have to respect religious beliefs of others?' As opposed to say Birthers or UFOlogists, etc...

In one post someone defending the need to respect the beliefs of others likened it to showing respect to a vegetarian who you invite to dinner.

That prompted a question that was too off topic for that thread and probably would get off point quickly in the Vegetarian group.

What if you were invited to dinner and the host didn't know you were vegetarian and served meat?

What if they did know or should have known but forgot or just thought you wouldn't mind or thought vegetarians would eat chicken (My mother and sister once suggested I pick a chicken dish from a menu )?

I have thought about this for myself. In most cases I would just eat what is offered, some people I might feel would not like me to Not say something so I would, many people I know though it would be best, in terms of compassion for them and not being to attached to the idea of myself as 'vegetarian only', just to eat what is offered.

For example several months ago my son, who likes to cook, made a tomato sauce with sausage while staying with his mom and he was particularly happy with how it turned out so I told him to bring a bit home and had it with him for supper.

If there are other Buddhist vegetarians here I'd be interested in how you approach this?