How do you cut down meat...

[Teacher12345]

With kids who don't eat beans or veg?

Any ideas on how to do it without substitutes?
Meal ideas welcome!

Fish?

I’ve also had surprising success with fussy kids and tofu - marinate it in something tasty, like soy sauce and honey.

You can make your own veggie burgers from beans or chickpeas which maybe more popular than pulses in their natural state.

Will they eat cheese? Haloumi is fab.

We make quesadillas with cheese, veg (not essential), red pesto etc. Each person can choose what to put in theirs.

If they eat potatoes then curry with potatoes.

Thai curry with cashew nuts.

Stir fried noodles with tofu/cashews etc.

I use the sachets of pre cooked green lentils in bolognese and shepherd's pie.

My kids are 3 & 5. They like DIY wraps, with brown rice, grated cheese, grated carrot, mixed veg like peppers, broccoli etc, I do a pot of beans heavy on the paprika which they do sometimes have depending on mood.

Jacket potatoes are a winner, veg on the side, bean free toppings might be cabbage and creme fraiche (or are my kids weird?!), cottage cheese, pesto, bean free veg chilli, veg curry.

Veg curry, I make one for the kids that's mixed veg in coconut milk with curry powder. There's a recipe online somewhere for a Malaysian curry with cabbage and carrot in Coconut milk, which they like. Sweet potato and spinach. Daal. Chickpea.

Mine like quorn nuggets better than chicken ones so we have those in as emergency food. Pizzas are a winner of course.

Pasta is good. Broccoli cheese bake. Pesto. Tomato sauce. I went through all the veg pasta dishes on bbc food and ended up with a huge list to refer to.

Vegetable pies. I also like quorn chicken in a pie. You can buy or make.

Quiche, again shop bought or homemade but I cheat and buy the pastry. The kids like broccoli and pea quiche. Omelette. Fritatta. Shakshuka (my kids aren't keen but I am!)

Hope this helps.
I need to get back on this myself, a combo of lockdown meaning kids at home much more and my iron levels nose diving means we're eating more meat than I'd like at the mo.

I’m not sure if it would work with kids but I weaned dh off his fixation on meat by adding bacon to vegetarian dishes to gradually get him used to a higher proportion of vegetables and new ingredients.

I would prioritise getting them to have at least some veg. Whether or not you cut out any meat.

Will they eat fish? Eggs? Cheese? Tomatoes?

Sorry guys! Completley forgot to come back to this. Thanks for the ideas.
They do eat fish yes, but DH doesn't like it but will tolerate it once a week at them most.
Eldest doesn't like cheese or beans or tomatoes. He is a pain!
Youngest isn't a fan of meat really so woud happily cut it out. DS it the hard one although he has tried a few bits this summer and now tolerates broccoli.

Mine is very fussy but she will eat fish, scampi, and anything covered in cheese, she also likes potato based dishes and anything with egg. We currently only have red meat once a week, poultry possibly twice.

BBC goodfood website has a recipe for cauliflower, egg and potato curry which is surprisingly tasty. Your DS could just not eat the cauli?

I don't know how you work around that level of familial likes and dislikes without telling people to leave certain items on their plates, tbh. Or feed them all egg on toast.

Try lentils. There's great recipes for lentil spag Bol or curry. The lentils when cooked kind of go like mince and are delicious.

As a vegetarian of over 25 years I feel like if they won't eat beans, veg, much cheese or fish then it's going to be hard not to use the substitutes. Why are you particularly against them?

I used to make a soy substitute bolognese, and made a kind of pancake wrap with it. Great with cheese, ok without.

When you say the eldest 'doesn't like cheese' do you mean all cheeses, ever? So, won't eat melted mozarella on a pizza? Or feta?

So you can't even have a family pizza?

@JamieLeeCurtains up to now it has been easy as they ate mon - thurs at school! To be honest it isn't hard with meat options like bolognese, [insert type] pie, sausage and mash, ham egg chips etc. But veggie subs of those meals need either a sub or a veg/lentil.

@Plussizejumpsuit I just find them expensive. Just looking at meatballs and I can get linda Mccartney ones for £2.50 but it is two servings. I can get much more than the 120g if i use meat. Maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

I'd say meal plan.

You say DH will tolerate fish once a week at best - well do fish once a week. The more you do it, and vary it, the more chance you'll hit on something he likes.

Another day of the week something cheese/egg based - omelette, frittata, baked potato, tofu, quiche, halloumi. So that's two days no meat.

Cutting down the amount of meat in bolognaise by adding lentils, in pies, curries or casseroles by adding veg where the veg or beans aren't so in your face veg or beanish.

@JamieLeeCurtains he will eat it melted on pizza or in toastie. Thats it. Not on JPotato, sandwich or any thing like feta (to be fair I am the same with cheese.)

Thanks @AnnaMagnani I am trying to put together a monthly meal plan to avoid having to constantly think about the shopping, what to order, what we will eat etc. Using less meat in the meals is something I am working on at the moment as well as using cheaper cuts like chicken leg etc.

Eggs, cheese, rice, fish or quorn or Linda McCartney stuff is good.

Do they like sauces such bolognese or chili? They are very tomato-y and nutritious and you can hide other, finely chopped veg, in them and put less meat.

You can do similar with cottage pie.

However, unless you are going veggie, I wouldn't worry too much. Try to cook more chicken than red meat but red is nutritious and lamb chops always go down a treat.

Many kids don't like veg. I only liked runner beans until I was grown up and I'm fine.

Do they eat salad? Fruit is good too as is tomato soup

Chilli yes, spag bol, no. I try to hide veg but as soon as they see it, they stop eating. I resorted to celariac mash mixed with potato to up the nutritional value (no idea if celariac is actually any better though) and carrot mashed in but have to be careful that it doesn't turn orange enough to be noticeable.

Another way to look at it is by reducing the overall quantity. So things like pasta sauce with pancetta - one pack of pancetta is a tiny amount of meat between four people. We have the Nigella one with peas and orzo all the time and while I wouldn't serve it to a vegetarian (of course!) it really is hardly any meat for one meal.

For things like bolognaise and chilli, bulk them out with lentils, tomatoes and peppers. If you cook red lentils down enough you hardly know they're there. I get an extra two portions out of a pack of mince this way.

Smoked salmon in a pasta sauce made of sweated onions, peppers, creme fraiche and lemon juice and zest is lovely and two fillets will feed four people this way. That might be a good one for DH as it's smokey, not fishy.

I was taught two out of three dairy/grains/pulses would make complete protein.

cheese on toast
beans on toast.
Rice and lentils (?) in a risotto type thing (look up mujada, if your I getestet)
Cereal with milk

Don't forget eggs- custard, scrambled with a jacket potato, omelette etc.

PS: Don't forget fish.

I have to say I could happily live on cheese and tomatoes, and other fruit! Yum.