Do people really eat meat for every meal?

[CurlewKate]

There seems to be a post every day about the difficulties of catering for a vegetarian guest. I'm an omnivore and I do love meat, but probably only eat it 3-sometimes 4 times a week. And if a guest was a vegetarian I would have no trouble cooking a nice meal without meat-either a family staple or something posher. So do people really eat meat for every meal? And if so-why? Apart from anything else, meat costs a fortune!

We eat meat most days - as others have said, not for breakfast and lunch but for the main evening meal. Veggie meal once or twice a week.

@Sausage1989 I agree. I wouldn't touch quorn or any of the other fake meats.

If I wanted to have a meat free meal I'd go for something like aubergine parmigiana or vegetable cannelloni. But neither of those are vegetarian as they use cheeses with animal rennet in.

We eat meat for pretty much all dinners mainly because we use the InstantPot for a lot of batch cooked curries and stews with long-cooking cuts of beef like cheek, tail, shin, heart and then eat the same thing a few days in a row. Lunches are more likely to be veggie because we eat a lot of omelettes and salads.

When people have guests to dinner they’re usually thinking about making a meal which is a bit fancier and more impressive than what the family would eat on a casual Tuesday, and which doesn’t require them to be in the kitchen all evening. Unless you’re used to cooking vegetarian meals and have a wide range of recipes you’ve confirmed are good, it’s easy to lack confidence that you won’t end up dishing up slop. Hence the worry over a vegetarian guest.

Yeah basically every dinner contains meat, fish or seafood. Breakfast and lunch are normally veggie but dinner almost always contains meat, usually chicken. We'll do a veggie curry, pasta dish, soup, stew etc every now and then, but I'd say consistently 5-6 days a week dinner is meat or fish.

Just the way I've always eaten. I can and do cook for veggies and vegans, I just like my meat.

I never eat meat and my husband only eats it if we go out for a meal.

I never have a vegetarian meal. Each meal will have a meat, although split between beef, pork, chicken, or fish, or seafood. Meat is still cheaper than fish or seafood, which is my fav.

But that's how I like to eat. Fairly plain, always from scratch, so a piece of something, with accompanying salad or vegetables. Not a big fan of potatoes or rice, detest anything beany, but do eat a fair amount of pasta. Italian Mum, so similar to what I was brought up on.

Yeah, for dinner. Or fish, if you are counting that separate to meat for some reason. Because it's a nutritious source of protein and fat and it tastes good. With carbs and vegetables. There is infinite variety in the meat/fish + potato/grains + vegetables formula. Certainly enough variety for me.

Not for breakfast and rarely for lunch.

@Itsnotchristmasyet "I’m thinking of trying quorn, so I can have the same meals but just meat free."

I wouldn't go for a meat substitute. If you really want to try some meat free meals, why not try something with chickpeas-I find that a lot of confirmed meat eaters really like them in a curry or a casserole. Or a shepherd's pie with lentils? Or dal? Most people like that! Lots of recipes online! We don't actually need as much protein as we think we do. So don't worry about that if you want to try.

Like most, we eat a meat-based main meal most evenings, although I do cook meat-free meals once or twice a week. I don’t eat breakfast but no one else in the family regularly eats meat then, but lunch will usually include some cold meat for all. DH is diabetic and many meat-free options are carb heavy (eg beans and lentils) so not ideal. We rarely eat fish (don’t like it).

I never have a vegetarian meal

Not even breakfast or supper?

It’s not that hard to eat meat 3 times a day if you really wanted to - bacon and eggs for breakfast, ham sandwich for lunch, chicken curry for dinner.

Not every meal, but as far as dinners go, we probably only have two non-meat dinners a month (and that's usually a pasta and tomato sauce dish). Seldom have fish as none of us like it.

@Fallenangelofthenorth "But neither of those are vegetarian as they use cheeses with animal rennet in."

Vegetarian cheese isn't a problem. Vegan cheese, however, is a problem in many ways!

We eat meat for most evening meals
Always from the butcher

That’s a great idea!

I will try some recipes that are meat free but not use meat substitutes.

Breakfast and lunch easily often meat free but main meals almost always meat or fish. Especially if hosting. The veggie things I eat aren’t the kind of thing I’d serve to a crowd - bean chilli, egg on toast, spinach and chickpea curry.

We eat about 50/50 vegetarian and fish dishes weekly. I have meat maybe once a fortnight as DH is pescatarian and I don’t miss meat really.

If you count fish and shellfish as meat, then yes we probably do. If the kids weren’t involved then we would be meat free a lot more but there are very few veggie dishes they like. They won’t eat beans (apart from baked or green), lentils, or any of those things that bulk out veggie meals. They won’t eat aubergine, courgette, sweet potato, swede, mushroom, cooked tomatoes, they pick at cooked pepper, not massive fans of onion - these things seem to be in most veggie dishes.
This makes them seem picky, but they will eat broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, cabbage, corn, peas, most leafy veg…so I feel it is much healthier and more balanced to have meat/fish and those veggies, than always have the kind of non meat dishes they will eat which are heavy on cheese and/or carbs - jacket Potato, cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese, pasta and pesto, etc

Pretty much. Not breakfast (apart from the very occasional cooked breakfast) but probably 80% of lunches and 99% of dinners have some meat

I think it's parmesan that is never vegetarian. I'm sure you can get vegetarian versions of other cheeses, I just wouldn't think to check as I don't need to.

Thinking about it, if I really had to give up meat, I'd probably go for things like falafels, mushroom curries, onion bhajis. I'd have to change the way I currently cook and meal plan though. So, yes, I would struggle to cater for a vegetarian/vegan for more than one meal.

We don't eat any meat or any meat substitutes.

I don’t usually eat meat for breakfast. That’s usually muesli, yoghurt and an egg for me. Sometimes I’ll have fish.

Afternoon and evening meals always have fish or meat.

Dh eats meat or fish for every lunch and dinner. He doesn’t eat cheese so that makes vegetarian options a bit more limited, I suppose.

i rarely have meat for lunch, and have meat or fish maybe 4 evenings a week.

Usually, might have veggie food once a week (eg pesto pasta) it depends. We like meat but I do like vegetarian food, just not the pretend meat kind. I try and use as few processed ingredients as possible and fewer food miles, locally reared meat (live next to countryside) is often on our menu

I don’t mind veggie food and eat it sometimes but I think most my main meals have some sort of meat. We don’t buy or eat a huge amount and bulk meals out with veg but for example I’m currently making a lentil and bacon soup for lunch. It has only a couple of rashers of bacon in but to me that adds a flavour and texture I really like. It would be fine veggie but I prefer the non-veggie version. Same goes for eg pasta sauces, risotto or quiches where a small amount of bacon or pancetta makes a difference to me personally and so I will add it. Meals based around slabs of meat are very rare in this house but we do like curries and stews where the veggie component is probably over half the meal, but I do prefer some meat and find it more filling and tasty with some included.