Recommend me a book to help reduce meat?

[hillyhilly]

My Dad is 75 and has high blood pressure, since losing my mum he has looked after himself pretty well but is a very traditional cook, ie meat and two veg with mash - he will eat chinese, indian, spag bol etc but would always use a jar if attempting to cook this kind of food.

His blood pressure has been harder to control this past year which for a while led to him being very doddery on his feet which he absolutely hated - his doctor has suggested that he needs to address his diet, in addition to medication to keep his BP down - all sound advice.

The problem his that he takes things extremely literally, he has now cut out all meat, salt, biscuits, treats or anything that was probably making his food enjoyable, out of his diet as "the doctor says I musn't eat it", however, he has insufficient food/ cookery knowledge to replace these with healthier options. So as far as I can tell, he is now eating mash potato, and veg with no meat - he's tired and not looking too well.

We (ie DH and kids and I) eat far less meat than we used to and I replace some of the meat in stews/ spag bol etc with red lentils or canned beans, but I am wondering if anyone knows of a wonderful book that would help him along this road? I am planning on buying him one of those George Foreman Grills in the hope that he will then eat some lean, grilled meat and to take him a batch of "lentil spag bol" for the freezer but I don't live near and and am not able to get there all that often.

Sorry, this has turned into a huge, long essay, might go see if there's an "elderly parents" section to cross post it into!

Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Any of Rose Elliots books are great for those wishing to use less meat as she uses pulses in a 'meaty' way IYKWIM.
HTH...(wonder if I could squeeze any more acronyms in there).

There's a new book out on this theme - www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_40?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=less+meat+more+veg%26%23146;+by+rachel+de+thample&sprefix=less+meat+more+veg%26%23146;+by+rachel+de+tham. I haven't got it, so can't recommend it but it seems to be appropriate.

breakfast porridge

main meal
so 50g ish pasta with plain(ish) sauce as a starter
then small bit of grilled meat or fish
served with salad
fruit for pudding

3rd meal
bread with soup or salad

then has list of treats of which he can have one a day
biscuits
cake
crisps
cheese
etc

Thanks for the book recommendations, they look great, I may just buy them for myself as I can't see him using a recipe book but I could then pass on what I think he would do.
WWAT - where do you get your list from, at the moment, there is no way he would eat any of the treats that you list.
I have bought a George Foreman grill for him today and a load of pots for the freezer so am planning to batch cook some spag bol and stew with v little meat for his freezer when I see him on Tuesday.
Thanks again

if he's doing some cooking eg spag bol or curries but using jars of sauces or pastes could you do a bit of homework for him and recommend low fat/low salt ones using the g/110g figures on the back? for my own health I downloaded the recommended figures from either the british heart foundation or similar hypertension advice website to watch out for eg less than 5g fat/100g and stuck the detail on a bit of paper in my food cupboard which reminds me to look when i buy

well done on buying him the grill - cooking a piece of chicken or fish and serving with tons of veg is pretty darn good stuff

Sarah Raven's Garden cookbook is excellent - its not exclusively vegetarian but has lots of everyday meals in that are also very tasty. It is my most used cookbook, and I have lots.

i love Sarah Ravens book too, it has a high veg count but plenty of the recipes aren't very low fat!

Not what you asked, but he is obviously misunderstanding the dietary advice. Obviously, it is not going to do him any harm eating no meat, but if he enjoys lean meat and fish it would be a shame for him not to eat them unnecessarily. Also, foods such as oily fish would actually be beneficial to his health.

Could he go back to the GP and request a dietician referral, or if this is not possible an appointment with the practice nurse, who can go through in more detail what his diet should contain?

I am a GP and posts like this always remind me to think very carefully about how I explain things to people and how it is important to check they have understood (not easy when you only have 10 minutes per appointment).