How much meat do you eat??

[piskieinboots]

This thread has made me, one again, count my blessing with Snowdrop - he is a dream to cook for, he loves meat but will also happily eat meatless meals, loves lentils and all pulses

[bobleponge]

[QUOTE=Nicos;641344]4oz meat per day is the amount of protein the body needs ( on average)
130g.
QUOTE]

My body probably doesnt "need" much chocolate or red wine, but I eat and drink it nonetheless cos oi loikes it. Same as meat, scrummy!!

[Alison]

This thread has made me, one again, count my blessing with Snowdrop - he is a dream to cook for, he loves meat but will also happily eat meatless meals, loves lentils and all pulses

It's the same in our house too, in fact it was OH that encouraged me to eat loads more beans than I did when I first met him. Until then my main knowedge of beans was the baked variety which I'm not that keen on out of tins but homemade equivalents are really yummy

[matthew2riches]

Keeping chickens does mean I eat a lot of meat, chicken in particular

I am also a sucker to beef :yum:

[Newbie]

This thread has made me, one again, count my blessing with Snowdrop - he is a dream to cook for, he loves meat but will also happily eat meatless meals, loves lentils and all pulses

I am so envious! My OH (whilst perfect in every other way) feels deprived if faced with a meal without meat, likes to have his meat & 2 veg every evening & turns his nose up at a large portion of the veg i grow. I do love cooking & trying new things but feel a bit stuck in a rut now with my cooking as i tend to stick to things i know he likes - its getting a bit tedious!

In the summer i resort to hiding veg like courgettes in soups & sauces, i've never tried cooking with lentils etc as i know if i mention that they're in a dish he'll dislike it before even tasting it. Consequently i wouldn't know where to start with regards to cooking with them!

As a result of this we eat rather a lot of meat, chicken breasts, minced beef, pork loins, bacon, sausage & whole chicken form the regulars, with very occasional salmon, lamb chops (i don't like lamb) & steak. I normally buy my meat from Sainsburys in a weekly shop as the offers make it much cheaper but i do prefer the local butcher which i probably use once a month.

I'd normally for example (for the 2 of us) buy a 500g pack of mince, pack of 3-4 chicken breasts, 2 pork loins & perhaps a pack of sausage for a week. This will make up a large chilli/lasagne/cottage pie/meatballs for 2 nights & at least 1 lunch, a chicken curry/chicken in sauce/stir fry/casserole for at least 2 dinners, sausage & mash for 1 night & sarnies for next day's lunch and somerset pork/grilled pork for 1 night.

Yep - i definitely need some fresh inspiration!

[Newbie]

Apologies, i do seem to have gone off on a bit of a tangent!

[Two_Sheds]

i've never tried cooking with lentils ...i wouldn't know where to start with regards to cooking with them!

there must be something you fancy in this thread

Split red lentils would be the easiest thing to start with.
1) wash them, pick out any grit
2) make sure hubby isn't watching
3) add them to any sauce or soup
4) simmer for at least 30 mins
5) if you want to disguise them completely, blitz with a blender

Plenty of protein, dead cheap

[Hilary B]

I couldn't work out amounts, but meatless days means fish, eggs, cheese or a combination.
I nearly always make mince go further with lentils (red ones cooked until they disappear into a stock-thickening mush) and/or bulgar. It works well in a cottage pie, because with enough flavoursome stock bulgar ends up with a very mince-like texture. He never notices, in fact one time I forgot to defrost meat I made a vegan chilli with lentils and bulgar, and he loved it (I told him after, and he didn't suddenly discover it was horrible).
I try to make meat 'stretch' by cooking it in stewish things, but if we have a roast (most Sundays), he wants lots! (I slice it thin to make it look like more).
On holiday in Spain I cook a lot of 'meat is the flavouring' meals, mostly based on Garbanzos (chick peas) or paella-like (with chorizo to give it flavour).
I would happily reduce meat use, but there are limits to what I can get past him!

[bramble]

We have oily fish twice a week. Salmon and mackerel. Pork chops, with roasties and veg, minced steak bolognese but with brown rice as we don't like spaghetti, stir fried diced chicken breast with rice, baked ham with salad, veg and potato wedges.
Roast chicken with soup made from the leftovers.
Don't usually batch make as there are only the two of us but did when the kids were small.

[OverWyreGrower]

I've done our April meal plans now, and am off to the butchers shortly.... will tally it all up and let you know what it comes to!

[Paul Wagland]

Great thread. Interesting to see how much people vary, and how aware everyone is becoming of the issues surrounding meat.

Jeannine and I are both veggie (and trying vegan Mondays, which is surprisingly easy and nice). We went to Spain last weekend though, and it's amazing how different the culture is. They just didn't understand, and kept offering us chicken, fish, seafood etc. Even so-called veggie food just had the meat spooned-out before it reached us, or was cooked in fish stock.

[Glutton4...]

I've done our April meal plans now, and am off to the butchers shortly.... will tally it all up and let you know what it comes to!

Jeez OWG you are an inspiration - I couldn't be that organised if I tried!

... We went to Spain last weekend though, and it's amazing how different the culture is. They just didn't understand, and kept offering us chicken, fish, seafood etc. Even so-called veggie food just had the meat spooned-out before it reached us, or was cooked in fish stock.

I'm not a Veggie, but it had never occurred to me how difficult it must be for veggies when travelling abroad. Is vegetarianism exclusively a British thing?

[Paul Wagland]

I'm not a Veggie, but it had never occurred to me how difficult it must be for veggies when travelling abroad. Is vegetarianism exclusively a British thing?

Happily not, it's very easy in some places. I spent a few months in SE Asia when I was at uni, and there's tonnes of wonderful veggie food there as a result of the Buddhist tradition. Also India is very veggie friendly, for the same reason. I think the US is good on the East and West coasts, but bad in the interior. Just goes to show how eating meat is a cultural thing, rather than a human requirement.

Someone posted earlier that they only ate enough meat to stay healthy, from a protein point of view. In fact there is more protein in some chesses than there is in beef. The same is true of many types of bean, provided you let them reach maturity. In fact it's bad for you to eat too much protein - as with most things you need a good balance.

[Alison]

I'm not a Veggie, but it had never occurred to me how difficult it must be for veggies when travelling abroad. Is vegetarianism exclusively a British thing?

I think it's a cultural thing, some countries are great for it - a veggie friend of mine lives in India and it's a doddle, in fact a lot of the veggie stuff is far superior to the meat dishes. France seems to be a nightmare and Belgium is no better. China was interesting as they really couldn't understand as there the only vegetarians are either poor people who couldn't afford meat (and we were clearly rich by the standards of the average rural inhabitant there) or avoid meat for religious reasons in which case you would be unlikely to be out in restaurants as we were. It seemed that they wanted to extend hospitality to us all and this meant offering up their best food, even if they did have to hide it in the middle of bean curd!

[Rhona]

Mr R travelled around India many years ago, and loved the vegetarian food. I think vegetarianism is widespread there, varying from region to region. There's a brilliant Indian veggie restaurant in Edinburgh - can never remember the name of it - had one of the best meals ever there.