to wonder what you eat if you dont eat meat a lot

[goodbyemrschips]

We eat meat a lot.

This week

chicken

beef stew

roast lamb

spag bol

ham salad

fish tonight

roast beef tomorrow

So if you dont eat meat a lot what meals do you have?

This is not a thread to start a row on meat eating ...just interested.

Spag Bol/Shepards Pie/Cottage Pie/Chilli with quorn instead.

The veggie meals i make are -

vegetable curry
spinach and ricotta crepes
spinach, feta, pine nut filo pie with roasted tomatoes
aubergine bake (served with garlic bread and salad)
macaroni cheese

I also make a couple of things where the only meat is a little pack of diced pancetta, but you could miss it out, although it improves things a lot and is fairly cheap -

Mushrooms on toast (sounds boring but is actually a great recipe -big mushrooms cooked with red onions, pancetta and cider vinegar, brown sugar, wholgrain mustard and a splahs of water to make a sticky sauce), serve on ciabatta, with rocket and parmesan on top.

Butternut squash, pancetta, sage and parmesan tagliatelle.

I think the key to making nice but also filling veggie meals is to use robust sort of veg like mushrooms, aubergines, root vegetables.

Cauliflower/broccoli cheese with jacket spuds, crisp green veg.
Pasta with tomato, garlic and chilli, garlic bread
Frittata, with onions, pots, red peppers, paprikia, spinach, cheese, tomatoes
Pasta/Risotto with leeks, mushrooms, cream cheese with garlic and herbs
Veggie chilli,lasagne/moussaka, all the usual stuff but with lentils and beans
butternut squash, goats cheese and sage in pastry tart case
portabello mushrooms stuffied with goats cheese and pineapple salsa
eggs, potatoes, mushrooms cooked with oregano in the oven, served up with beans, dead quick and lush.

That's all I can think of at the moment, we eat meat, so I've only got a few dishes that come to mind immediately.

Yesterday did a curry in the slow cooker with Quorn pieces, mushrooms, peppers, courgettes, green beans, carrots, sweet potato and sweet corn. Would serve that with rice and garlic bread, also you can get ready made frozen chappatis that you just flash in a non stick frying pan, get mine from Asda. They are wholemeal and very filling.

Today there is a bolognaise sauce in there, using Quorn mince and then all the other stuff you'd use for a bolognaise mushrooms peppers, tinned toms, a whole bottle of red (it's a big slow cooker!) garlic, tom puree black olive puree, mixed herbs etc. I've mixed half with cooked penne pasta and put cheese sauce on the top to make an easy 'lasagne' and will freeze this. Serve with salad and a jacket spud or garlic bread if you're hungry. I make this loads and lots of my dh's mates are bikers with a big meat appetite and yet they all say that they didn't even realised there was no meat in it.

The other half is still in there and I have added cummin, coriander and lots of chilli powder, will freeze up as chilli.

We eat a lot of pasta, I make pastry in large amounts and then freeze to make an easy quiche. A big chunk of that with a jacket pot and a big salad, mmmm. Also, frozen puff pastry veggies sauteed and mixed with cheese and pesto or similar, then made into lattice, again, could serve with jacket spud or roasties and veggies like a 'proper' dinner!

Don't use loads of lentils, but do a fab and really easy curry ; just coulple big spoons of madras paste, Quorn chunks, sweet potato, red lentils and veg stock, and whole tin of coconut milk. Let it simmer til lentils cooked and thickened then chuck in loads of spinach. It is really quick, simple and filling.

Hope that helps.

Check out the bbc good food website for recipes.

I'll never buy another receipe book again, it's fantastic for searching particular ingredients etc. Everything I've tried has been delicious.

Fish, loads of veg, pasta/rice, eggs, pulse, the odd quorn or own shop brand vegetarian saussages. We eat meat once or twice a week.

I eat meat, but not for every meal & have lots of veggie friends, so cook veggie meals a fair bit. My husband feels like you do, so I'm always trying to find veggie meals that "feel meaty"! Some of our favourites:

• mushroom risotto (using quite chunky dried mushrooms, which have a strong flavour & a meaty texture)
• anything with aubergines (he thinks these are filling in a "meaty" way. So for example melanzane parmigiana, Jamie's aubergine & mozarella pasta or Nigella's delicious involtini.
• quiches & flans with egg & cheese, for example gruyere & asparagus. He does however think an omelette is a meal if you use 3 eggs each & add plenty of veg. Also seeds & nuts in accompanying salad make it more filling.

Another thing you can do, if you're just trying to cut down on meat, rather than give it up completely, is try some recipes that just use a small amount. For example pasta with a tomato & veg sauce & fried pancetta cubes. Or macaroni cheese with just a few slices of bacon draped over the top when you grill it. That way you still feel you are eating meat, but it's not the basis of the whole meal.

HTH

I agree with the suggestion of lentils instead of meat - veg cottage pie made with green lentils is very nice. Ground walnuts also makes a good meat substitute in moussaka though I'm not sure it would 'go' in many recipes.

We have substantial veg stew with rice quite often - tin of tomatoes, mushroom, onion, peppers, courgette, leek etc. Mushrooms in particular help bulk that up very successfully.

We also do homeopathic bacon in stuff, like the pancetta mentioned above.

Oh - forgot stir-fry! With prawns?

Oh, I forgot griddled halloumi with loads of med veg.

Honestly, there are so many delicious veggie meals. Enjoy your experimenting!

Just to add - very important advice, you need a protein equivalent if you're not having meat. It doesn't have to be quorn or eggs but make sure you know what it is and that there is enough of it in every meal.

(pasta and pesto is a bit dubious on that front)

Op what protein do you have now at breakfast to make it feel like a meal rather than a snack and it gets you through from breakfast to lunch time without you feeling hungry?

We don't eat meat but do eat a lot of prawns and salmon.

Favourite meals are

Roast veg, cheese sauce, stuffing and yorkshire puds.

Toad in the hole with cheese and leek sausages.

Bean pie. This is just 1 tin canellini beans, 1 tin butter beans, 1 tin chopped tomatoes, 1 tin green lentils, Italian herbs, garlic paste, all cooked together with onions and carrots then topped with mash and baked. I sometimes add cheese and breadcrumbs to the top too.

Veg lasagne.

Prawn fajitas. Mix is prawns, peppers, mushrooms, onions plus fajita sachet mix.

sigh. dh is insisting on being vegetarian and dd is realy not keen on things like chicken. i am struggling because though those two will eat pasta until it comeso ut of their ears i am alrerady putting on weight :(

otoh the sainsburys faux mince isnt too bad - i've made a half decent cottage pie/spag bol with it so perhpas ill live!

You've just got into a mindset of what a "main meal" should look like - cooked and hot, containing big chunks of meat. Think more about the range of nutrients you're after (protein, carbs, veg) and the proportions you eat of those throughout the day, then the total calories throughout the day as well. If you have a meaty/cheesy/eggy sandwich at lunch and a bacon roll for breakfast, then do you need protein again with dinner?

Some veggie things I enjoy:

Chick pea chilli (bit like chilli con carne but with chick peas in place of meat).

Macaroni and cauliflower cheese, with some salad or veg on the side.

Homemade pizza with veggies on and maybe some fish or an egg broken on top for your protein count!

Big hearty vey soups and stews - just grab a bit pile of veg, chop it up, cook with some stock and maybe some tinned tomatoes. Add pulses or little tiny pasta, or even supermarket-bagged up "soup mix" which has barley and split peas and such in to thicken it and make it more substantial. Serve with crusty bread.

My Mum does "courgette bake" which is like ratatoui, almost fully cooked in a pan then spread over a baking dish with sliced up frensh bread circles placed across the top which are sprinkled with cheese. Stick in an oven for 15mins to finish off and melt the cheese, crisp up the bread.

If you find yourself thinking that you're "losing out" by not having exciting meat with your main meals, try to liven them up with veggie/carby side dishes. If a veg stir fry is a bit skimpy then why not have it with some veggie spring rolls and sweet chilli sauce. If veg in tomato sauce with pasta is a bit dull, serve it with a tomato and mozarella salad or some melon with a very small amount of parma ham - if some meat is a must!

Sprogger - I have a friend who thinks much the same as LaWeasel but with veggies rather than protein. All main meals must contain a decent portion of veg. That's obviously good advice to follow health-wise, and most of our meals would have two or three anyway, but she genuinely thinks that if we go an evening without proper veg-consumption we might suddenly be struck down with scurvy! Never mind the big salad eaten earlier at lunch and fruit for dessert...

Roasted vegetable pasta - top with parmesan or other grated cheese
Tuna/salmon/trout steak
lentil bake
Nut roast - lots of recipes (google)
Vegetable quiches/tarts
Souffle's - ?sp
salmon wellington - salmon in pastry
Mushroom risotto
Stuffed peppers/mushrooms/aubergenes
Chick pea stews/curries
Quorn Pasties/pies
Spicy (or not) bean burgers
Quorn/vegetable/bean chilli
prawn stir fry

sprogger - I said in every meat meal.

please read my posts properly.

It is all very well saying most people eat too much protein but you have no idea what op's diet is like outside of what they've eaten for dinner this week. Including portion size etc.

We don't eat any meat, recent meals I've made include:

chickpea and butternut squash stew with couscous,
stir-fried peppers and courgettes with pasta and cheese,
curry made with quorn, aubergine and mushrooms and rice,
vegetarian 'sausage' pasta (with Linda McCartney sausages),
spinach and ricotta cannelloni in tomato sauce

All very filling! Also sometimes make a stir-fry with tofu, or frittata which can be filling and tasty if you bulk it up with potato and veg of your choice. DP made stuffed mushrooms a while ago (some sort of cheese-based filling I think) which we had with cherry tomatoes and roasted sweet potato wedges, was very tasty.

Most weeks I make a big pot of soup which is an easy dinner with some bread/toast for weekdays, you can make a nutritious filling soup with lentils or split peas, root veg also makes it nice and thick and filling. Might need to come up with something else for the summer evenings though!

For lunches I often make pasta salad with quorn, or rice salad with chickpeas, both with some veg or tomatoes, and pesto or other dressing. Or houmous/falafel pittas or wraps.

cheese souffle with baked potato and peas
veg curry with wholemeal rice
spag bol with little bit of mince and lots of acrrots and mushrooms

My FIL was like you - claimed however much he ate that a meat free meal didn't fill him up. I think it was totally psychological tbh. Any meal with enough calories will fill you up.