to not want to eat crap meat anymore?

[ijudge]

DH seems to think eating any type of meat is better than not eating meat.

I'm fed up of buying shit meat, because that's all we can afford, knowing how the animals have suffered.

I know we are on a budget but it would be managable to eat good meat if we just ate meat no more than three times a week.

He can't seem to understand good quality meat would taste better and says veg wouldn't fill him up

He says that Tesco meat is farm assured, think he just made that up.

AIBU to think we shouldn't eat meat every night?

tuna pasta bake is also nice and easy to make, serve with a salad and some garlic bread

Thanks squeaky, sounds lovely. I am going to try that.

Off to look at wonders links.

Sardine - that might be the compromise I have to make with dh

I agree with SardineQueen

Tuna is off the menu though for the organic/environmental/lets be nice to animals crew though?

ijudge does your DH "count" fish as meat? I do, personally. Sardines are well cheap and yummy, cooking them can give the house a bit of a fishy atmosphere though

Mussels also cheap, and squid. Squid is lush in a sort of stir fry with lots of garlic.

Tinned sardines are excellent value, not to everyone's taste though. I use them as I would tuna, or have them on toast with salad cream and tomatoes

YANBU about shit meat - both on welfare grounds and on the fact that it's rubbish to cook with. I hate it when chicken breasts start frothing when heated and dump off all the water (and god knows what else) that has been injected into them.

No great suggestions, sorry, apart from being diligent about finding a good source of better meat, and using it well. Oh actually I do have one tip, it's really worth paying for good quality ham joints as they don't shrink, taste great and keep for ages. I like to roast them, studded with cloves, finishing off with a muscovado sugar glaze.

seafood risotto is filling and very easy to make, thats what I am doing tonight.

sneaks in and snaffles squeakytoy's recipe...

Sounds yum squeakytoy, what seafood do you use? I have a weakness for prawns and they cost a bomb!

Oh and talking of fish, those small tins of anchovies are great (and cheap) for using in a tomato-based pasta sauce in a puttanesca stylee.

I do think that the trick to this is developing a taste for some of the cheaper, sustainable seafoods.

You can easily get enough iron from a vegetarian diet, I've been veggie for years and my iron levels are at the high end of the 'normal' range. And most of the meals I cook are vegan and they can be very tasty and filling. How can he know he won't feel full without meat unless he tries?

Obviously I prefer not to eat meat at all, but if I did I'd much rather have a small amount of good-quality, organic/free-range etc meat than nasty cheap stuff every day. Quality not quantity! I don't think it's good for your health to eat meat every day anyway.

I know a lot of people feel it isn't a 'proper meal' without meat - my parents are like this. I think for their generation, especially if you grew up poor and/or lived through wartime rationing, having meat every day was something they and their parents would have aspired to, and it would feel like a deprivation to give it up.

I usually get the frozen mixed seafood from sainsburys that has the squid, scallops, prawns and mussels in it.

My other speciality is jambalaya, again, tasty, but a small bit of meat goes a long way, once you add the rice, and loads of peppers to it.. two chicken breasts is plenty for 4 people, and we have that with pitta bread too

Also the whole bulking out thing. I have always put loads of veg into things like stews and bolognaises and stir-frys - my mum does it so I thought it was normal. Then when I read recipes or friends cook they will do eg just meat and one or two veg, so the meat is really the main component, which isn't the ratio I normally do. It does taste really nice, but I associate that with sort of restaurant luxury, home cooking the point is always to make the meat go a long way.

I cook the way my mum did. We were always on a pretty tight budget as I grew up, and no way could we afford meat every day. Sunday roast would also be eeked out to have enough left to have with potatoes and veg, or salad the next day. Stew was a regular, and that was probably 75% veg, 25% meat, and served with fresh crusty bread...

I think it's psychological ephiny. I was brought up to see meat as a delicious luxury (even though we always had it ) and I still have that feeling now. It's a hard thing to break. I just can't get as excited about a mushroom, even a delicious giant field mushroom cooked in butter, as some steak IYSWIM.

Strangely I will get excited about the mushroom if it's lunchtime.

All psychological.

Also with stew, you dont need the expensive cuts of meat. You can buy ethically sourced meat, but it doesnt need to be as expensive. Chicken thighs are better in a stew than breast as that tends to be too dry. Brisket and skirt beef are great so long as they are cooked for a long time at a low temp (perfect for a slow cooker so that dinner is ready when you get home).. and again, bulk it out with mashed potatoes, which can be made in large quantity and frozen. Take out of the freezer the night before, or the morning, and reheat in the microwave, tastes just as good as freshly made.

yy to chicken thighs. DH doesn't like the flavour though

It occurs to me that there are quite a few people who eat meat all the time and claim they can't do without it but will only actually eat the bland stuff, turning their noses up at anything except chicken breast and cod. These are the people who should be pointed in the direction of quorn and lentils IMO

Yadnbu. I only buy organic and dh and in laws think I'm mad. I refuse to buy meat from Aldi because its too cheap. Meat should be expensive. We're eating a living creature ffs.

We eat meat three times a week which I think is plenty.

OP I don't think YANBU - we go to our house in France every six weeks, and I love all forms of meat & meat products there, but the downside is that on return to UK I cannot abide the vast majority of what passes as 'meat' - I mainly eat fish & cheese-based main courses here, avoid chicken & beef totally here, partly on animal welfare grounds in UK too. As a teacher I see kids at school eating rubbish (not all from the canteen) which their European counterparts wouldn't touch. It's really sad that quantity is so much more important than quality in this country. Plus when in France I eat loads of everything, but still return having lost weight and non-bloated from all the rubbish additives in UK food :(

I just added the ingredients for the two recipes that wonders linked to, so that along with squeakys pie will give us three meals without meat next week.

Wonder hwat dh will think when the shopping turns up!

YANBU. But it's worth considering buying good quality meat from a decent butcher but getting cheap cuts - eg stewing lamb etc. The meat is great and came from a well looked after animal but you don't spend a fortune. Or eat more fish? Fish can be just as expensive, but not if you stray away from the usual and try things like sardines/panga/sprats etc.

I never really thought about it til I read this thread but we eat meat for every single lunch and dinner.

Agree, Honey about panga, it makes a lovely fish pie esp with prawns. Forgot to say that the French-made family-size Lidl lasagne is gorgeous and delicious - the only beef I eat here - and it's only £2.20 :)

'These are the people who should be pointed in the direction of quorn and lentils IMO'

No one should be pointed in the direction of Quorn.No one deserves such a fate.