To not understand why some people dont eat meat free meals

[reducingfootprint]

I do not call myself vegetarian but i eat meat rarely for health reasons (bowel cancer is common in the family) but i am happy to prepare it as my dh eats meat but enjoys meat free meals around 4 times a week. DC also eat meat free around 4 times a week. My siblings and their partners are also part time vegetarians and pre covid we all enjoyed getting together for meat free feasts.

When DM comes over, she refuses to eat anything without meat. Butternut squash soup? Needs bacon.
Halloumi fajitas? Needs beef.
Goats cheese and onion omelette? Needs chicken.
Plowmans salad? Needs ham.

AIBU to think ffs one meal without meat wont kill you!

I've always been a moderate meat eater, happy to not eat it on any given meal, but have noticed that it is served less and less at occasions. In some ways that's fine, and I try to avoid cheap meat anyway, but I do feel a bit sad about it at times. You can be celebratory without meat, but I also see plenty of unimaginative substitutions.

And if culturally meat has been a part of hospitality etc for her I can understand why a meat free meal is a bit meh for her. A bit like if I made you beans on toast for a dinner party. Not saying she's right, just trying to understand her emotions.

It's also rude to criticise what you do cook. I made a special veggie dish once for a party and a guest was very down on it being veggie, which I was a bit put out about. But later he admitted it was really good. So I was vindicated! My friend married a guy from a culture where meat was important to a celebration and made this dish for a special occasion. He refused to eat it. They are now divorced.

Depends on the meal. I cook meat free sometimes, when I lived with dd full time quite a lot (she's a student) but many meals are better with meat in my opinion eg best butternut squash soup I've had was topped with goose liver strips (in Hungary)

I don’t eat meat. I used to. You can make awful vege meals, you can make awful meat based meals. If you try to substitute meat in a standard meat based meal you might enjoy, you will fail.

I can make the most flavourful non meat meals, that it would turn a hardened meat eaters opinion (and has several times). If you’ve ever been to California you’d understand what amazing salads taste like.

There’s zero point replacing a meat steak for a quorn one for a meat eater. That said you can pass a cottage pie off for meat easily if you add the right ingredients.

It’s healthier and kinder to not eat meat. So working on that even part time is great.

YANBU it's actually really unhealthy. It's like people think that by not eating meat in every mouthful they're losing their argument to vegans, they just need to prove a point.

It's pretty clear that for some people, it's all about their mindset. Some people believe that all meals must contain meat. It's less to do with flavour or taste and more to do with belief and rejection of vegetarianism. I bet most of these people would happily have a vegetarian meal if no-one pointed out that's what it was - pizza, jacket potato, quiche, beans on toast, cheese salad etc

I do enjoy meat and fish but I have found exploring vegetarian and vegan recipes to be quite enlightening.

I used to be like that but somehow now go about 50/50, my meat lasts ages now and I realise it was costing g me a bomb

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

Unfortunately my digestive system doesn't take kindly to too many vegetables which makes it difficult to have meat free dinners. Beans, lentils, mushrooms etc. are the devil's work as far as my stomach is concerned!

That’s true for a lot of people! You can easily avoid farty veg though I assure you😂

Why do so many people give so much headspace to this crap?

I don’t mind a meat free meal but can not abide the vile tasting meat substitutes.

Your DM is an idiot.

I’m coming from a different perspective, I don’t care what you eat, however, if you are a guest at someone’s house, even if it’s your daughter and they are cooking for you, you don’t complain constantly about the food.(unless you have a dietary requirement or allergy) it’s just rude.

@Mrsmorton

Animal fats are healthier than vegetable oils and other industrially produced oils. Responsibly sourced meat is also more environmentally friendly, as is most meat compared to soy alternatives so... that's why. I do like halloumi though.

That’s surely not true! Cows produce so much damaging methane and consume so much water to rear. Responsibly sourced meat doesn’t exist. The animal is reared and killed for profit, very little profit. You can’t rear an animal and kill it responsible. That’s an oxymoron. Animal fats are not healthier, they are usually under exercised, full of antibiotics. Farmed salmon for example is pale orange and 2-3 times that fat content of wild which is blood orange colour. 90% of sales are farmed salmon due to cost.

Goats cheese and onion omelette? Needs chicken binning. 🤢

Their is no such thing as a part time vegetarian, you either eat meat or you don't.
I think yabu, only because people's eating habits are a personal choice and it isn't anybodies business how somebody else eats.
Personally 99% of my evening meals have meat in them, however the majority of lunches/breakfasts are meat free. My husband has meat for probably 99% of all his meals. It's just his prefence.

A part time vegetarian is also known as a flexitarian.Usually someone who decides to eat vegetarian or vegan meals perhaps once a week or more.

YANBU.
Some of the comments on this post disgust me. You feel like you’re entitled to the death of an animal at EVERY meal because you ‘prefer’ it? Wake up.
Not every meal needs meat (in fact, no meal needs meat but thats a whole other argument that I’ll get hated for).
I mean you;ve only got to blame yourself when obesity, heart disease and cancer come after decades of daily meat consumption

I just eat.. I don't really think about whether it's veggie or not, would be quite happy to eat in a veggie restaurant
So I might have chicken for tea or feta salad or beans on toast or sausages. Whatever I fancy. I wouldn't make an omelette and then think oh but it doesn't have meat in it. IYSWIM

She is being really unreasonable and I say that as meat lover. The only time I would say no to it is if it has the highly processed meat alternatives in.

[quote BlueTreeBlue]@DestinationFkd you are the epitome of people with this attitude. Very toddler like. “Me only meat”, “me no fruit nor vegetables”[/quote]
They're probably the same people who claim that that veganism is restrictive and unhealthy.

YANBU. I love meat but I don’t see why every meal has to include it. Variety is after all the spice of life.

Same @QueenCT
In my house food is food is food.
If it tastes good then it's eaten.
Everything in moderation.

I'm happy to eat 'accidentally veggie', there's plenty of things I end up making that turn out veggie without me intending to make them so. But there are very few things chorizo or bacon don't make better so I wouldn't deny myself these just to eat a meat free meal. I also loathe meat alternatives, you won't catch me putting any soya, quorn ect in my mouth, they make me feel sick.

Meat does also fill me up more so I end up eating less overall. I.e I could either make mushroom risotto or chicken and mushroom risotto but I find without the chicken I tend to eat a much bigger portion in order to be the same amount of full because it takes more carbs and veg to fill me up to the same amount a little meat would. Same with a veggie curry, I put vegetables in my curry anyway so in order to make it veggie I'd just have to take out the meat (again no alternative for me) and so would end up eating more, also the meat adds another texture and flavour to the curry which I think is nice and would miss with just the veg.

I think your mum is rude, if someone served me butternut squash soup I would eat it but I may think to myself it would taste better with bacon. But I have a feeling she may just be rude/picky about food in general so even if you put the bacon in without her saying it first she would find something else to nitpick.

@JudgeTrudy

YANBU. Some of the comments on this post disgust me. You feel like you’re entitled to the death of an animal at EVERY meal because you ‘prefer’ it? Wake up. Not every meal needs meat (in fact, no meal needs meat but thats a whole other argument that I’ll get hated for). I mean you;ve only got to blame yourself when obesity, heart disease and cancer come after decades of daily meat consumption

My aunt was a lifelong vegetarian. She died of cancer.

I’ve never really been a big meat eater. I rarely eat red meat, don’t eat lamb or pork at all, will have beef sometimes. Mostly I eat chicken, Turkey and fish, but to be honest I’m finding I’m eating less and less of those.

My parents are both like yours though, very meat and two veg, I wonder if it’s generational thing?

If some people never want to eat meat and that's fine, then why is it not fine for people to want to eat meat every day? Everyone is allowed to make their own food choices - it's not up to you to judge them. I only eat meat two or three times a week myself, but I understand that others want it every day - it's not a crime you know! Of course one meal without meat won't hurt anyone, but it's their choice not yours.