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.

Salad wraps are so filling!

Lightly fried mushrooms and peppers with quorn pieces, salsa, mixed fresh salad and some mayonnaise - cheese optional. Mmmm. Delicious.

I had a seven egg omelette yesterday with potato, onions, peppers, mushrooms and peas in it.

Did you eat it all yourself? That sounds like a 4 person frittata to me.

Ephiny - could I have your recipe for chickpea and butternutsquash stew with couscous - sounds delicious!

OP Don't use cheeses sauce/cheese in every dish as it is high in fat. IMO some vegs eat far too much cheeses.

And I wouldn't bother replacing meat with pretend meat like quorn mince. I am a carnivore who likes veggie meals, but pretend meat is not as good as the real thing. You will feel cheated.

We only eat meat about once a week, and rarely eat fish at the moment. Things we cook regularly include:

Falafel wraps/w. pitta
Halloumi salad
Veggie lasagne / canelloni
Risotto (pea and mint w. goat's cheese is my current favourite)
Vegetable biryani (brilliant recipe on bbc good food), plus other indian dishes, DH sometimes makes us a thali inc. daal, mutter paneer, rice, chipati
Provencal lentils, sometimes with fish
Red lentil and goat's cheese tart
Chestnut and butternut squash pie (good for veggie guests, on uktv food site)
Huevos rancheros
Nigel slater's pumpkin & tomato laksa
Delia's mexican enchiladas
Mushrooms on toast - very filling
Omelette for a quick supper

lesley33 - sure, it was this recipe, though I modified it slightly so I could cook everything in one big pot, and used frozen sweetcorn instead of the mini-cobs. Just served it on top of plain couscous, you could do something more interesting with the couscous if you wanted, but there was plenty of flavour in the stew so it was fine.

Be warned, it resulted in massive portions for me (or maybe I just used an enormous squash!) :)

I never eat quorn plain but if you have quorn mince/chunks in sauce or spice they're actually pretty good. Go to the quorn website they have loads of recipes on there, I particularly like the Thai green curry, which is really easy to make, and the quorn stroganoff. Also the mini tandoori pittas. Fajitas and tacos are easy with quorn too, especially if you don't like not having a 'meat' portion of food. And as others have suggested, stir-fry. If you marinate the quorn 'chicken' in soy sauce for 15mins beforehand it makes all the difference.

I often make these recipes at home and have even managed to convert my 'real men eat steak' dad into eating them, particularly as he lost weight by doing so!

For quick meals, tesco do some really nice bean burgers, and cheese sausages. Linda McCartney stuff is great too, you can get sausage rolls etc.

Med. bean 'sausage' casserole:

Adzuki beans
Black eye beans
Borlotti beans
Red peppers
Garlic
Oregano
Bay leaf
Chopped toms or passata
Tom puree
Quorn/veggie sausages

Really tasty and filling. Low fat 'n all. Could serve with mash or rice.

Roast veg: peppers, red onion, sweet potato, squash. Add to cooked quinoa plus passata. Very tasty and healthy. Warning: has very, um, stimulating effect on bowel. Sorry, TMI for a food topic.

I am a veggie.

Some of the Linda Mc Cartney stuff is very high in fat. Okay for an occasional meal, but if you want to cut back on meat for health reasons, not a good idea.

And sorry but quorn mince is not as nice as the real thing.

I ma vegetarian but my dh isn't. however, seeing as good meat is extortionate (!) he very rarely gets any.
The only meat I buy is that cooked ham slice stuff for the dog.

We eat pasta, pizza, salad, cheese, eggs, fajitas, vege lasagne, rice, vege curry, potato dishes, various pastry vege things and stuffed peppers.

There are loads of great veggie meals to be had, I'm not a veggie but I used to cook in a Vegetarian restaurant.

For wraps I would stuff it with boiled eggs, cheese and loads of baby herbs and salad leaves, a generous seasoning and it is a meal.

Baked potatoes are great if you have an unexpected Vegetarian guest, I often eat them with loads of baked beans and cheese or if they are eat fish Tuna and Sweetcorn.

You can also use Quorn to make great chilli, curry, cottage pie.

Baked potato wedges with an egg cracked in at the last minute then sprinkled with parsley is really nice.

My husband is veggie, but me and kids are not. We have meat maybe 3-4 times a week. Some meals will have veggie or meat option, like fajitas. Here are some of the staples in your house.
Pasta w/tomatoe sauce & cheese, sometimes with salad and/or garlic bread
Baked pasta w/roasted veg
Veg chilli
Thai/Indian veg curry - mostly using shop-bought sauces
Indian red lentil curry - internet recipe - can't remember which site, but yummy
Veg stir-fry - mostly using shop-bought sauces
Lentil & veg soup - w/crusty bread, or sandwiches
Pasta & veg soup
Veg Stew - some nice internet recipes out there
Spinach & tomatoe Omelettes, with side salad.
Aubergine bake

Simple salad will 'fill' out most of the above. Lettuce, avocado, cherry tomatoes and sprinkle of toasted pine nuts or other types of seeds.

Lots of yummy ideas from other posters. I'm book marking this thread for future menu ideas!

Leek and feta pie

macaroni cheese

veg curry

roasted tomatoes and cous cous

pizza and salad

Soup

We eat meat in the evening maybe twice a week. Fish once a week. I find that we generally make sure that the meal has some kind of carbohydrate or filling protein, and plan around that.

So we might have:

Something with rice (eg leek risotto, veg curry)

Something with potatoes (eg a potato bake with spinach, normal potatoes, sweet potatoes, creme fraiche, parmesan....mmmm)

Something with bread (eg homemade pizza with veg and cheese topping)

Something with polenta/ buckwheat/ couscous / other pulse (eg tabboleh plus other nibbly things like cheese or a bit of pork pie...er, I know that's meat)

Something with pasta (eg pasta bake, pasta and all sorts of veg sauces)

And you definitely don't go hungry!

I also love this book for non-meat but definitely tasty and filling meals: Cranks Fast Food. Have a look at vegetarian cook books - flick through in a book shop to find one where you think "mmm, I'd like to try that" on most pages (and then get it from Amazon for half the price).

Absolutly wonderful to come home and find all these delicious ideas.

I don't like Quorn so I will stick with the mince.

Loving all the ideas and links.

Will be experimenting with pasta and pulses.

It is not really a health or moral thing to cut down on meat just a '' what can I eat thats different for a change''

For brekfast I usually have cereal or toast.
And sometimes miss lunch when i am working [10-2 or 11-3 shifts]

so I suppose that is why I am really hungry by 5pm.

I cannot eat if I am on those shifts and I know its not good.

Please keep the ideas coming and I WILL keep popping in.

Op - do you ever eat jacket potatoes with something like cheese and beans? We find these very filling - even DP does who is a bit of a meat lover!

There are also a few variations of the traditional jacket potatoes as I admit they might get boring if you eat them often. So we quite often have sweet potato jackets or we will roast a butternut squash and have fried veg (usually a red onion, pepper chopped up, sweetcorn, courgette) with cheese on top.

Also anyone who is looking to eat less meat for money saving reasons, we find chorizo is a good buy. For e.g. I bought a big chorizo sausage today in Lidl for £2.29 (i think). This will probably last us 4, maybe 5 meals for the two of us. It works out far cheaper than chicken.

From OP:

"For brekfast I usually have cereal or toast.
And sometimes miss lunch when i am working [10-2 or 11-3 shifts]"

To stay full, ensure you have some protein with each meal.
Breakfast, cereal with milk is fine (should have some fruit juice also to help absorb the iron from the cereal). If toast only, add some egg/beans. Or a yogurt.
For snacks, add a small fist-full of nuts or a yogurt.
Try not to skip any meal. Or if you do, have at least a little snack..

Eat quorn mince and quorn chicken style pieces at least once a week each. Use the mince in bolognaise and shepherd pie and lasagne and the chicken style pieces in stir fries.

Each tofu sometimes in stir fries.

Eat fish a couple of times a week, happy to eat cheap frozen supermarket fish.

Have eggs most days.

The other thing you could try is making the meat you eat go further, so that it's more a part of the meal than the basis of a meal IYSWIM. Making up fajitas with strips of stir fried pepper, courgette, onion, black beans and a couple of strips of chicken and serving with a green salad would use a lot less meat than having chicken breasts with potatoes and veg. A lamb tagine with courgette, aubergine, butternut squash, chickpeas and couscous would use less meat than a lamb roast dinner.

You don't need protein in every meal.

Loads of stir fried veggies plus tinned pineapple, sweetcorn, wraps, (sometimes with handmade salsa and guacamole when in season). If hungry then add a tin or two of beans. As a student I used to have it without beans but DH likes the bulk and it goes further with two/three people.

I used to do the same with pasta, just shed loads of veggies and a tomato sauce. Add sausages for DH now, but I don't like processed stuff that much.

Chickpea and spinach morrocan stlye tomato sauce with couscous. I brought a jar once, looked at the ingredients and have always made my own since (I don't like jar sauces anymore)

spicy bean thing for when I'm lazy. Only time I use tin tomatoes actually. Fyr an onion and garlic, add packet of bombay potato spice mixture, add tomatoes, add 2 x tinned beans, add lemon (and maybe coriander if have some). Cook rice.

Another quick one is penne pasta, pan fried spinach and fried/oven roasted pine nuts (sometime with oven roasted tomatoes as well). There's enough oil with the spinach to stir in the pasta. VERY filling actually.

Bruschetta is a favourite saturday lunch treat here. Boil tomatoes, peel, chop, stir in salt, pepper, basil and oil. (leave in fridge if done in advance). French stick sliced and toasted both sides. Rub in raw garlic one side, drizzle olive oil, spoon tomato mixture on top. A dinner's plate worth does me and DH.

Lentil cottage pie, very yummy. Sometime par boil root veggies first. I don't use stock as I feel I have enough veggies to half make one. I don't use tomatoes either, unless have some fresh knocking around. I find with tinned tomatoes you have to add tons of herbs to get a flavour. (I tend to use only fresh herbs as well)

well that was a bit long

I would certainly change your breakfast to include a protein to keep you going through the day.

You say that you need a meat to fill you up but don't do this at breakfast and then skip a meal.

How about eggs poached or scrambled for breakfast with some ham or cheese on toast and a small portion of real yogurt and a glass of OJ.
Or scrambled eggs with smoked salmon scrapes, a protion of rice pudding and a glass of apple juice.
Mushroom omelette with a feta salad on the side, a small portion of real yogurt and a glass of carnberry juice.

Then you could have a snack at 3pm when you finish work - oatcakes, a small portion of nuts and seeds, with an apple or 1/4 of pineapple or a piece of fruit that takes your fancy, a carrot and humous, a bowl of blueberries and crackers and cheese. Not all of the above just two or three to keep you going.

The dinner a little later and include another portion of protien and vegtables form the ideas above.