Good story. I had to learn to cook too.
Back in 1982, there was bugger all to eat that my mom could afford to buy me since there was 4 of us kids.
I became a vegetarian when i was 13 when my mom remarried. She married a butcher and i was a teenager and wanted to be a little shit so that's what I did. They've been together for nearly 30 years now and he's a great guy, but teenagers like to rebel so that's what I did.
You need to get yourself one of these. I picked up one in a vegan store near my office in London. I think you can print it off. It's full of those lines that wankers come out with when they find out that, horror of horrors, you don't eat meat.
http://vegansaurus.com/post/254784826/defensive-omnivore-bingo
I have it glued to a page in my current diary and pull it out when the subject comes up. Why hide it under a bushell?
The most common one for me is WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR PROTEIN? "Mind your own f***ing business" is one of my less crafted replies.
Keep it up, save the planet, and don't let them preach to YOU about how preachy vegetarians are