Mumsnet users share their thoughts on meat free options

[JustineBMumsnet]

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Whether you’re thinking of reducing your meat consumption for environmental or health reasons, or if you or a member of your family is vegetarian or vegan, the use of meat free options is on the rise. With this in mind, The Meatless Farm would like to hear your thoughts on reducing meat intake and meat-free options.

Here’s what The Meatless Farm has to say: “With an estimated 22m flexitarians in the UK seeking to reduce their meat consumption, there is an increased appetite for healthy, protein-rich alternatives. After years of research, the team behind Meatless Farm have created a range of products that not only deliver on nutrition, they also taste delicious.”

Are you considering reducing your family’s meat intake? What do you think about meat-free products? Perhaps you’re already including meat free products in your family meals? What influences your choice when it comes to meat free options?

All who post on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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I often choose meat free alternatives to food. I do enjoy meat but it's not a daily part of my diet. Lidl do these cracking cauliflower cheese vegetarian burgers that me and my daughter have once, sometimes twice a week. Highly recommended!

My eldest daughter is already a vegetarian and has been for 2 years now. I do try to reduce my meat in take, but dont force it on my other children or my husband

My partner is a vegetarian so we eat vegetarian meals together most of the week, but I do struggle with the lack of good substitutes in the way of sausages and bacon - mainly breakfast meats. We use soya mince as I find this to be the beatnik out there (imo it beats real mince meat). We shop around and don’t always just buy the quorn brand and would happily buy any meat substitutes that looked good enough to try, whether they tasted nice (not like meat but a good filling substitute) would be whether I bought them again and again. I will enjoy looking at some recipes online and giving these a try over the coming weeks as I always find it harder to get a really good vegetarian/meat substitute recipe! Thank you

Yes we are cutting down on meat. I don't like intensive farming of meat so we are trying to eat a little meat from only local, more ethical sources, and eating more vegetarian and vegan in between.

Certainly cutting down on meat & now I make sure my family have at least 2 vegetarian meals a week. Veg food tasts lovely if you choose what you like. trial and error of vegetarian meals, well you soon find out what you like!

For our children no, but I'm trying to do so for my myself. I've moving to soya as my preferred source of protein. And try to 'up' all round the families in take of vegetables. Which is proving a challenge.

I am considering reducing our meat consumption even further, although we rarely eat it anyway. I find it easier to go without meat than other members of the family but there is so much more varied and tastier Vegan choices available these days

All meat eaters in our house of 7
However for 2019 actively looking to make at least one evening meal meat-free, which is not an easy task.
So far I'm thinking vegetable chilli for this week

Being from a farming background I disagree with things like veguanary. I think we should be supporting our local farmers because they aren't having a great time.
I do limit my meat intake though but I tend to stick to the vegetable side of things rather than meat substitutes

We eat quorn at least once a week as I haven’t had the drive to learn new recipes with veg alternatives.
If I do cook red meat I only use a small amount and pack the meal with veggies.
We have cut down on meat in the last few years and feel better for it

We have fallen in to the routine of having the same dozen or so meals all the time so our new years resolution started as cooking a new meal every Saturday night. The first one was a vegetable curry and it was so good and made a nice change to have a meat free meal that Saturday nights now involve us trying to make a new meat free dish.

Also we have just started to substitute the mince in our chilli and spag bol with Quorn so nearly half our weekly meals are meat free at the moment.

We don’t really eat red meat anyway but we are trying to reduce meat as much as possible. We have tried meat alternatives but haven’t yet found any nice ones.

We started eating less meat a couple of years ago, at first we were a little wary about doing it but the replacement products have come a long way from the early days when IMO they were not that great. Saying that we have also upped our fish intake but using appropriate sized portions.

Vegetarian for 48 years running. I left the choices open when they were small but when Mad Cow disease came back (ever so often, even if it is one isolated case) I stick my neck out firmly and start everyone on a veggie diet.
When I started on myself there was no industrial production of vegetarian meals or "milk" so I had to create it myself. Soya milk only, took 3 hours to make...Now, we even have veggie haggies !
It is all so easy to heat up and even easier to convince anyone, including guests. I'm 100% for vegetarian diet.

We don't eat meat and I'm introducing more vegan dishes to our menu.

We do eat meat substitutes occasionally, maybe a couple of times a month. Never Quorn as it makes me ill and no ready meals. Some ranges are far better than others though, both in terms of taste and nutrition, so I pick carefully. It is usually sausages and veggie mince, and there are some great burgers out there. I like them but it has been so long since I've eaten real meat that I doubt I actually know what it tastes like!!

My daughter is 7 and she will only eat meat free products

We reduced our meat intake a couple of years ago and for a long time were plant-based during the week and only had meat at weekends. This has slipped a bit lately, as I'm working evenings and DS is getting a tad more picky with his food at the moment. I definitely want to take a much more 'flexitarian' approach- I didn't really miss meat when we weren't eating it as much and I'd gladly only eat meat perhaps at Christmas or on the rare occasions we eat out, but am up against some resistance from DP! Going meat-free more often definitely forced me to try new things and get a bit more creative with my cooking. I don't really use 'meat-free meats' choosing instead to substitute with veg or lentils/beans/pulses. Might be a good way to trick my family though, ha!

Quorn is not cruelty free as one of the main ingredients is egg!

My daughter is very keen to cut our meat intake especially beef. We have been eating some veggie burgers and are going to try meat free spaghetti Bolognese next.

Are you considering reducing your family’s meat intake?

If I'm honest, as a family we eat a lot of meat and always have done.
Saying that, I'm actually very keen to try to reduce our overall intake, but when I've tried in the past I've been met with resistance, especially from my oh.

So far, I've started off by generally reducing the portion of meat I'm serving, whilst upping the portion of veg as well as serving pasta, (or another carb based meal), once a week, which I then make without meat; instead, I just make a simple tomato based sauce, or something, to accompany it.

What do you think about meat-free products?

I really don't like things like fake bacon, etc, as I don't really get why they try to make things resemble meat so much, especially when many people don't eat meat simply because it's another living thing.

Despite this, I've tried quorn 'mince' before in things like lasagne or chilli and I'd be happy to substitute it in those types of dishes.
In general though, I'm not keen on the texture and find the taste very bland. It didn't really fool anyone either as they could all taste the difference (think the texture gave it away).

Perhaps you’re already including meat free products in your family meals?

Not at present, no, but I have used some products in the past, and do intend to try some out again this year.

What influences your choice when it comes to meat free options?

Price is definitely a big factor, and how versatile it is to use in cooking.
The look of it, also has a massive impact, and tbh, most fake meat products look awful in their natural state; fine within a ready meal, or something, but pretty unappetizing as just a pack of tofu, etc.

I would consider cutting down on meat products as the calorie content in meat-free alternatives are often lower and generally cheaper than fresh meat, however my partner is a big meat eater so i'm not sure I could convince him to get on board. Personally though I think meat-free alternatives can often be just as nice and in some cases nicer than the actual meat. I prefer veggie sausages to meat ones, however that might be due to when I once found a piece of gristle inside a sausage and it has really put me off.

We are meat eaters but looking to cut down so will definitely be interested to try the substitutes to see how nice they are and whether will be able to factor them into the meal plan

Meant to add, that one thing I'm already doing is more soup/stew based meals, so the amount of meat is reduced (just what's leftover on the carcass or joint), and I'm keeping it filling by adding more lentils/ pulses, grains and veg instead.

I have been vegetarian for over 10 years now and would like to go fully vegan. I have begun making swaps but I find the lack of labelling what is vegan quite hard, though it is improving. I don’t like meat replacement products and would rather eat lentils etc as they are less processed.

No i am not considering family’s meat intake as there nothing wrong with eating meat.