To ask how to reduce our meat consumption

[Mulhollandmagoo]

Inspired by a thread on here about eating less, better quality meat, I reflected on our eating habits and our household consumes a lot of meat - most evening meals are meat based, as are a lot of lunches, which is very very poor environmentally.

Both myself and my husband very overweight and desperately wish to change our lifestyle, we also have a 2yo, who isn't too much of a picky eater and we really don't want to pass on our poor eating habits to her.

So, I'm hoping for you to share your quick, easy and healthy veggie meals, we love (particularly red) meat, so this will be a huge adjustment for us, but after some self reflection over the past couple of days we have to make some changes.

We are big fans of curries, but not to keen on pasta really so anything along those lines but open to any and all suggestions

If your husband is reluctant, things like egg and chips or omelette and wedges are an easy quick tea once a week without being too in your face veggie.

Try this Meera Sodha pancake, it's yum (use mango chutney instead of lime for kids) meerasodha.com/chickpea-pancakes-with-lime-pickle-paneer/

We also have refried bean quesilladas quite often - batch make refried beans, which is easy, then sandwich between tortillas with salsa and guacamole or sour cream. Toast in a frying pan.

Another recommendation for the Bosh cook books (and the website but I find the books easier to navigate!). We did veganuary back in January and got a couple of the books, so many interesting recipes to try we just carried on and are still eating entirely plant based now.

We have now moved to approx. 50% meat-free meals. You are lucky your DD is so young as she will learn to love these meals - bit harder with our 13 year old who, while open to a vege diet, dislikes some of the meals.... Our staple vege meals are:

Dahl
Burnt aubergine chilli
Falafel in wraps
Cauliflower cheese bake
Macaroni cheese
Linda McCartney burgers - we all genuinely prefer the taste of these to meat
Vege lasagne
Jacket pots, beans and cheese

The Green Roasting Tin book is amazing for one tray roasts - some vegan, some vegetariam with halloumi, feta etc. Some really tasty stuff and very quick and easy.

Bbcgoodfood sweet potato and spinach Dahl is delicious and incredibly easy.

For lunch I’d start having more soups. Pick a vegetable that you really like and find a soup recipe for it.

For dinner try one lentil, one egg, one beans meal each week. Then one red meat and 3 meals that are either chicken or fish.

I’d also reduce the portion size of your meat. So buy smaller roasts if you eat them, have stir fries and reduce the amount of meat by half and increase the veges.

If you wanted to experiment and can afford it, you could try Allplants meals. It's £5 each per meal - we absolutely love them. Try the cottage pie and the rigatoni ones - they're fairly meaty.

Inside health recently did an episode looking at health benefits/problems with plant based meat substitutes. It was really interesting, and it’s actually put me off using them as much as I had been.

I agree they’ve got a role to play in terms of convenience but take care to treat them like other ultra processed foods rather than giving them a health halo because they’re veggie.

Any meat just replace with a big veg or pulse. You can replace the meat in pretty much any meal with:

aubergines halves/quarters/chunks
Cauliflower steaks or florets
Squash/sweet potato wedges or chunks or halves
Lengths of leek
Cobettes of corn

Just bake or roast or pan fry or poach or steam just like you would meat.

Finely chopped mushrooms or lentils make good mince subs
Chick peas (dried not tinned) can be made into "meatballs".

Check out Anna Jones or Meera Sodha for actual recipes. Meera Sodha's book East is excellent.

I’m a veggie not vegan but also recommend the BOSH book, really delicious recipes. I also find lots of yummy recipes on Cookie and Kate.
It personally upsets me when people ignore/aren’t aware of the massive environmental impact fishing has, I guess it’s because we can’t actually see the damage being done, but it’s huge. I understand the health benefits of fish, and to be honest I miss eating it so much! So I would just encourage you to look at The Good Fish Guide from the Marine Conservation Society which tells you which fish are currently sustainable and which to avoid. You can also just look for the blue MSC ‘tick’ on the fish packaging. All supermarkets will have a selection of these, including Aldi and Lidl.

Dishes I cook most weeks which are meatless.

Chickpeas and tomatoes with brown rice
Kidney beans and rice
Potato curry

This recipe is excellent www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/burnt-aubergine-veggie-chilli
We have it every fortnight and my family love it. The initial prep takes a little while but once it's all in the pan you can forget about it for an hour and a half. We have the leftovers for lunch the next day with corn crackers.

We are not vegetarian but eat hardly any meat. I use meat substitutes and meat stock though. We eat alot of fish. It works for us, I just make the same things I usually make but tweak it to suit our taste buds
I've lost half a stone without even trying
Take baby steps to see what works for you
It's not a competition

Personally I count fish as meat. The environmental and ethical impacts are the same. I don't eat fish, I don't really eat white meat because chicken farming is really clobbering the environment, its not ethical, and I don't think it does much for you health wise. I eat a couple of portions of red meat a week, because when I tried not to my iron levels fell off a cliff and left me crying. I try buy wild shot venison because deer numbers are a real issue for conservation in this country and its very healthy, I eat wild boar from my local area, and I buy organic pasture fed beef that is grazed the best way it can be. I realise i come at this from my own perspective.

@Jijithecat

This recipe is excellent www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/burnt-aubergine-veggie-chilli We have it every fortnight and my family love it. The initial prep takes a little while but once it's all in the pan you can forget about it for an hour and a half. We have the leftovers for lunch the next day with corn crackers.

I think everyone on mumsnet now makes this chilli! It freezes well too so I always do a double batch and freeze in portions.

Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages are delicious, strongly recommend.

Start with 1 meal a week. A different recipe each time. It's amazing how you then end up with 2 days meat free turning into 3 or 4, then eating leftovers for lunch.

Start small.

Good luck, OP, I really admire your decision and your reasoning.

As previous posters have said, it's fairly easy to swop meat for things like quorn or chickpeas and lentils in dishes like curries. I'm sure you'll find lots of substitutes that you all enjoy. But I hope it's OK to talk about the other aspect you mention, which is your weight... meat isn't particularly high calorie so unless you change other aspects of your diet I don't think your weight would change much just by swopping chicken for quorn, or pork for chickpeas, etc.

As you are interested both in the environment and a more healthy lifestyle, you might like to consider more plant-based wholefood recipes? Plant based foods are even better for the environment than vegetarian ones, in fact the dairy industry is a huge cause of global pollution, so you might want to look into that aspect of the issue. Eating more plant based foods, specifically wholefoods, would really impact on your weight and your general health, too, I think.

There's an ongoing thread on here about supporting each other to eat more fruit and veg if you'd like the link?

I hope it goes really well and you discover new meals and a new lifestyle that you love.

Thank you so so much for all the advice, I didn't realise I'd get so many replies! Tomorrow is food shop day, so I'll be sitting down tonight with pen and paper and going back through this thread with a fine tooth comb.

@TheNarwhalBalloon the lick for that thread would be brilliant, or just where I can find it? Thank you

Just wanted to add another positive for plant based meat substitutes - my partner has ibs and would be in agony eating lots of the suggestions on this thread, we couldn't have gone veggie if it was predominantly lentils, beans and chickpeas!

I love the sainsburys shroomdogs, vivera plant based mince and this isn't chicken pieces. Quorn tastes like quorn which I'm not fond of, but those other options are yummy.

If you switch from a meat diet to a veggie diet that is still high in fat, you won't lose any weight (anf keep it off). Maybe try a high carb, low fat plant based diet. It is easy to do. Just brown rice, pasta, jacket potatoes, grains or oats then top with veg and fruit. I.e. veg in homemade curry sauce on rice, then potatoes and veg with vegan or mushroom gravy, then a grain bowl with fajita veg and avocado, then vegan chilli jacket potatoes, etc. You will have better energy levels and will lose weight and keep it off.

I prefer recipes that have no meat in them by definition rather than using meat substitutes, so lots of vegetable curries etc, also aubergine parmigiana, pasta e fagioli, Greek vegetables stuffed with rice, vegetable gratins. Also mushroom or leek risotto, seafood paella, fish baked with olives and white wine (takes about a minute to prepare, cooks in 15 minutes, looks like restaurant food).

@Mulhollandmagoo - Loads of good ideas - what I would say is if you want to ease into more vegetarian cooking , or indeed if you just want to east less red meat - if you were to make for example cottage pie - halve the mince and fill up with carrots tinned tomatoes peas etc & a bit of garlic always tastes nice . tastes as good but half the meat. & then next time 1/4 .