Vegetarian but thinking of eating meat again. Help please.

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I've been veggie for nearly 35 years, but after a year of feeling pretty dreadful (mostly caused by anaemia) I have decided I probably need to start eating meat again - I can't go on feeling so ill, so often, and am veggie more through habit than through any particular animal rights thing. If I do start eating meat, it would be free range or organic only.

Anyway, has anybody been in this position? What did you start with? Need to consider that I've never cooked with meat and I'm not sure if I'd even like it. I think chicken might be a safe starting point.

Any advice/ideas much appreciated.

Don't worry - it's not dead.

Haha, it's not so bad. I used to make the stock on occasion and I was in charge of cooking whole chickens in the slow cooker and then pullling it apart when it was finished to get the bones to make stock. Not squeamish about that but fish scales freaks me out

You make a good point about the nutrient levels. It would also be possible to 'melt' calves liver into a sauce to make it unrecognisable too I reckon....

There will be no scales on any fish I buy - more likely to be a small frozen square of nothingness!

Take it slowly - I only used to eat meat when I visited my parents and the richness used to make me ill.

:)

Thanks, Doris. Plain and simple is the way forward, I think. I'm going to give it three months and see what I think and how I feel. Who knows - I might be munching on ribs and all sorts by then, or I might have decided it was a terrible idea and be back to 101 Ways to Cook a Lettuce.

If yo used to like liver have you considered pate? Smooth with no ominous bits in.

I started eating meat again last year, after 20+ years of vegetarianism. I thought there'd be all these exciting new delicious things to eat, but have concluded that all meat just tastes...meaty. I think I just like vegetables, really. Probably not helped by being quite a decent veggie cook but not having a clue how to cook meat.

I'm also a bit fussy about the weird grim bits you get in meat - gristly fatty bits or bloody bits. You don't get that with a nice chickpea. So I've struggled with traditional roasts.

Anyway - the big change for me was (rather pathetically) a vastly increased range of sandwich options. The excitement of not being stuck with egg or cheese helped me try a few new things.

Er so basically my recommendation is a ham sandwich.

Ok-marinating liver overnight in milk apparently makes the taste less strong. Other suggestions would be to chop it very finely and use in slow cooked spicy 'veggie' curries or a chilli, or a veggie burger. Any of those sound do-able ?

Recently started eating meat again.

I find skinned,de - boned chicken thighs best as the meat is more tender than breast meat.

I know I'll never be able to eat roast anything. I have to have the meat in some sort of curry or one pot type dish with lots of sauce.

Sorry to hear you've not been well.
I went back to eating meat after 15 years a veggie. It was roast chicken that lured me back (we used to walk regularly down a street where they were all roasted on spits at the side of the pavement- it smelled divine!).
I found that meat was SO strong tasting, I could only eat very small amounts for a long time (which helps on the cost front). I couldn't eat pork at all for a while, as it's so 'piggy'.

How about chicken shredded in a sort of hot/spicy noodle soup? If all else fails you can pick around the chicken!
I was veggie for many years, it was Cajun chicken that I first ate. I really, really struggled with my head around eating meat but I got there

How about minced chicken, added to a dish, like a bean cury or a lentil soup? Sort of the opposite of the advice given to meat-eaters seeking to add non-meat protein.

Do you eat eggs?

Sorry, i skipped the second page, and now i see neither mince nor eggs helps much.

Seems the plan is using is meats that are already prepped (deboned, sliced, etc) so you dont have to handle it much and only very small servings, in small bits 'hidden' in a strongly seasoned dish.

If i knew someone in your position, i would so gladly make meals incorporating these ideas, and freeze small portions for you to begin with. Do you have a friend or relative that might do so?

Momagain - that is so sweet. :)

Dp and dd2 will be v happy at the idea of there being meat in the house, tbh, so I'm sure dp will do some cooking to incorporate it.

I like the idea of some chicken shredded into a spicy soup. But would I have to buy/cook those little slimy bits of chicken breast to achieve that?

Can't face the idea of pate at all, sorry.

Chucking bits of chicken into a curry also a good idea, but with the same alarm as expressed above!

It's really interesting to read so many personal tales of how you coped/didn't cope - and I'm so glad that the thread hasn't been jumped on by 'proper' veggies telling me how evil I am to be even thinking about it.

I think if your instinct tells you that eating meat will make you feel better health wise (or in fact, the opposite) then you should trust it.

You could buy cooked chicken breast and get DH to shred it for soup (though it would be better to roast a good quality chicken and use the meat off it and the carcass to make the stock if possible), its quite dry, shouldn't be slimy. Tom yum soup would be great.

Thanks, Sleep. Will get a chicken roasted over the weekend, all being well.

God I love tom yum soup!
I would just buy off the hot counter. Get DH to shred or you can even use two forks to do it. No cooking then, just chuck it in soup

In fact if you get the chicken you could shred it into curry, pasta sauce (like a creamy one maybe), stir fry, whatever you feel like
I don't mind cooking meat but I'm a lazy cook with naff all time so I'm quite happy to let the supermarket do the cooking

Oh right. Hadn't thought of those - but I don't think they'd be free range.

Sorry - yes, it would make it much easier though.

I'm not sure if waitrose do them or sainsburys maybe. I'm sure somewhere does the free range ones