How much meat do you eat??

[OverWyreGrower]

If you're not vegetarian/vegan, that is!!

I've been looking at organic meat boxes recently and as much as I like the idea of them, am not sure they are a good buy.

We don't buy any supermarket meat, it's all from the local butcher. I shop monthly and freeze what I buy. I spend between £40 and £50 a month on meat for 2 adults (1 third of my monthly budget). We eat meat of one sort or another about 4 or 5 times a week. I do a lot of batch cooking (chilli, casseroles, curries, ragu etc) rather than roasting a joint (for example).

What we buy currently isn't organic, however is it locally reared, slaughtered and butchered and I'm supporting our local farmers.

The majority of meat-boxes available seem to have about 14 days meals in (for 2 adults), which means that I'd have to spend double on the meat boxes to get what we're currently eating.

Are we eating too much meat?

[marathon]

We don't eat much meat when comparing ourselves to your diet. We are a family of 5.

At least three meals a week don't contain meat. It just happened the more I was able to harvest each year. OH never complained infact loved the fact we have lots of homemade soup through the winter months for him to take to work.

I use beans to make bean burgers and since adding mushrooms my family actually ask for them (it did take me a long time to adapt a recipe to our liking) we had a BBQ last year and had some big rugby type guests and they eat more of my burgers then the ones I made from steak beef. So this year I'm going to try to save enough dry beans so I don't need to buy any.

Stuffed butternut squash is a real winner and pasta dishes.

I guess I use bacon a lot add to quiches and pasta.

Again don't buy organic but buy from local farms. I have tried organic but didn't taste much difference from the meat from the loacl farms. 100% better than Tesco meat though. Typically

3 whole chickens
2kg beef/steak mince
2kg bacon
2kg sausages

and some months a joint of lamb

I also batch cook so one chicken would make 4 chicken pies etc and sausages would be turned into a sausage pasta

[OverWyreGrower]

Thanks Marathon!

Typically, a months meat would be:

2kg beef mince
1.5kg sausages
500g diced lamb
500g diced pork
1kg diced chicken
4 chicken legs
500g bacon

That would last us for at least a whole month, for evening meals and making some soup.

I tend to make stuff with the diced meat that can be frozen in portion sizes, so lamb rogan josh, pork and apple casserole, chilli etc. I might cook 1kg of mince at a time and it would get us 10 or so portions of stuff.

[Bramble_killer]

i can make 500g of mince last 10 meals for 2 of us. But I do bulk out with lentils, grated vegetables, oats, whatever comes first to hand.

Things are sliced and diced to make it go further. A stir fry uses 1 chicken breast for 2 of us with lots of vegetables and mushrooms. Some nuts add more protein.

We ocassionally have a lovely bit of steak but that's once every few months.

The recommended portion of meat is about the size of a pack of cards so it's not very much.

[Two_Sheds]

Mr TS eats meat every day, 3 times a day if he could (I'm veggie). He has Meat Free Mondays though.

I don't do a regular shop: I tend to pick up bits as they come on offer. The freezer is still full of FR chicken stews, curries etc; I haven't cooked for weeks & weeks.
He buys himself sausages if he spots some nice ones in the butchers: I cook them all and freeze them. Ditto bacon.

Not much help am I?

[OverWyreGrower]

Mr TS eats meat every day, 3 times a day if he could (I'm veggie). He has Meat Free Mondays though.

I don't do a regular shop: I tend to pick up bits as they come on offer. The freezer is still full of FR chicken stews, curries etc; I haven't cooked for weeks & weeks.
He buys himself sausages if he spots some nice ones in the butchers: I cook them all and freeze them. Ditto bacon.

Not much help am I?

Hehehehe.... always interesting to see what other people do!

We're on a fairly tight budget, so monthly shops are the way forward... however, I often spend a weekend bacth cooking, so during the week I just pull stuff out of the freezer for the evenings!

For example, tonights tea is sausage casserole and mash - both frozen last month!

[bobleponge]

I also eat meat every day. When home I probably spend more than you do for a family of 1 (and my hound). I do like to eat well, although I do use all of what I buy, so a chicken will do a couple of meals and a stock.

[organic]

It's amazing how well you can make meat last when you do batch cooking.

One option that works really well and keeps things cheap, is replacing some of the meat in your batch cooking with mushrooms. Be it chilli, pasta sauce or whatever you could half the amount of minced beef you use in those dishes just by using mushrooms. I did that for a few weeks a while back and to be totally honest, I could hardly tell the difference. Mushrooms do a great job of bulking out the meal and they don't taste too shabby either.

Couldn't be doing with frozen mash though - that's something that always gets cooked fresh here.

Another trick if you really want to make the budget stretch is menu planning a week. I've made 3 or 4 days worth of food last a week doing that before. List everything you've got in the cupboards and come up with a meal for each day. It's amazing the difference it makes seeing it all written down too.

As for how much meat, not masses, but I'm a long way from veggie too (I was veggie once - loved it).

[Alison]

We don't eat meat every day but probably about 3 or 4 times a week. Also have low meat meals a lot ie one chicken breast will do us a curry for 4 meals when added to beans etc. I too looked into meat boxes but didn't like the fact that they didn't tend to be locally sourced. I don't use supermarkets at all really and certainly wouldn't buy meat from them. Most of ours we get from the butcher / farmers markets and I'll buy what ever is good value and freeze until needed. Will then do a meal plan for the week based on what I have / what we're doing and take it from there. Over winter we use a lot of slow cook meats, leaving them in the cook pot while we're at work. Will be having an organic turkey over Easter which I bought half price after Christmas from the farm who had frozen any they hadn't sold. Did this last year and it made some real bargain meals.

Tonights tea is rabbit caserole out the freezer, have already had two meals from it and there will be another two tonight plus additional extra sauce for with pasta. There was only one wild rabbit in there too with a bit of bacon so it's very good value.

[Rhona]

We eat meat frequently but in very small quantities. I don't really keep track, but we've had groceries delivered on Saturday, and there was:

1 free range chicken (now poached with herbs etc, split into four bags of meat and four bags of stock for risotto)

1 leg of lamb (now sixteen slow-cooked curries)

2 fairly huge slabs of beef (not sure how much in weight, but now 12 slooow-cooked ragu's and 6 chilies)

That lot will last for about four weeks I guess. I'll cook one of the freezer things about 3 times a week, and cook something else the other nights, mostly fish as we love it.

We like meat, but I always bulk out with lentils and veg too, as I much prefer it - not a fan of huge quantities of meat. I never cook a roast - not crazy about lumps of meat, but Mr R loves a good steak, so I do that occasionally.

We buy quite a lot from Chatsworth - they do their own estate pig or lamb in a box which is reasonable value. From next year, we're going to do remote pig-ownership Peelham Farm

[OverWyreGrower]

Another trick if you really want to make the budget stretch is menu planning a week. I've made 3 or 4 days worth of food last a week doing that before. List everything you've got in the cupboards and come up with a meal for each day. It's amazing the difference it makes seeing it all written down too.

Hahaha - I menu plan 4 weeks at a time!!

Cos I only shop monthly (freeze milk, butter and meat etc) I started planning monthly as well. Work out when we are in/not in, or when Mr OWG is working away etc and it's easy!

[OverWyreGrower]

Couldn't be doing with frozen mash though - that's something that always gets cooked fresh here.

Ooh no, I make mash with about 3kg of potatoes at a time and freeze into portion packs.

Defrost during the day, and recook in the oven with butter.... lovely!

[Nicos]

4oz meat per day is the amount of protein the body needs ( on average)
130g.
Not a lot is it???

I try to aim for that - and meat/fish free days.
Meat is so flipping expensive here that we've cut down out of necessity.
(£25 for a fresh leg of lamb!!!...£12 for a medium chicken ....think of M&S/Waitrose - and organic -prices without the offers!!!) Yes- there is cheaper meat- but it's often tough. My culinary skills are certainly adapting to different cooking methods!

I too bulk buy when poss- esp when in the UK and freeze it.

But I must say that I'd rather eat much less meat ( ie no more than my body actually needs) and know the animal has had a good life.

A superb eg of this is one of our cockerels- 750g ...one leg each for one meal. One breast each for another meal- and the stock from the carcuss went into a 'veggie' rice dish for 4 peeps.
* 8 meals from a 750g bird- not bad eh???

( oh- and when we have UK visitors I've noticed how much more meat is 'finished off' with the meal compared to our French visitors!!!)...habit eh??

[winstonwobble]

We eat meat every day have a sunday roast every week eat quite a lot of pork as i rear my own so that saves me quite a bit as i dont have to think twice about the cost of pork chope etc but i will still spend on average £20 per week on meat for 3 of us dinner just dosent seam the same without meat on it

[northepaul]

I shop weekly and unfortunately we dont have the luxury of a local butcher/farmer to buy meat from.
An average week we have 3 (sometime 4) days fish, 2-3 days meat and 2-3 days meat free depending on the week.
We eat a lot of fish, and try to have 2 oily ones a week ie mackerel (last night) tuna, salmon or trout.

When I buy meat I usually go for free range *if* the supermarket has it and its not stupidly expensive.

Typically we might use 1 x 400g minced lamb, or 8 sausages, or a portion of chicken (I usually buy whole and bone it myself as its cheaper than buying different packs of this or that) and VERY occasionally some steak, ie if ts a special occasion. PER WEEK

I cannot get organic lamb, and (I have no idea if this is true) I assume lambs are generally free range...?
I buy free range chickens in bulk when they are on offer. I cannot find/get organic chicken.
I always buy outdoor reared pork, (sausages etc) and cured pork and if not too expensive, organic aswell.
I cannot get free range or organic beef...not sure if they are free range anyway?
Therefore I buy the best quality I can but as I said we dont eat much beef at all.

Veggie days we have pizza or pesto unless my eldest daughter is over, then I go to town and make something from the Cranks Bible