Meatless Mondays, who does it and what is your fave meal?

[skeggijon]

veggie bacon is disgusting!
I used to have a veggie cafe many moons ago. I never advertised it as such and some customers never even noticed that there wasn't any meat on the menu - my veggie burgers were a massive seller!
I was stunned to find how many veggies out there don't actually like vegetables. Although I'm not veggie, many of my favourite meals have a high vegetable content - Roast dinners for instance. The meat is a tiny part of the meal for me - far more important to have at least three or four different veg on the plate and yorkies, but as a Yorkshireman I need gravy with my dinner.
I don't have any ethical problems with eating meat - as long as I know the provenance of my meat. I don't buy 'value' chickens or bargain pork etc.

[4390evans]

I find the fake meats to be terrible and unappealing, when I came off meat I didnt use it as a substitute as I thougt it would of been too tempt8ng to go back to eating real meat. When I did try it I found I was ver wrong, fake meat (to me) is awful, but it gets some people through that hard cross over. There is some veg I just cant touch like Auberguine, Squash, Corgettes eugh they reall make me gag. But normal british standard veg like tatties, peas, beans, cauli, kale, onions, garlic etc I just couldnt live without.

I like chard too but find it really hard to find recipies for it, besides stir fries. I am sick of stir fries now ha

[muddled]

I use chard in veggie lasagne Ev, the stalks chopped up bring a riot of colour and the leaves laid between the veg layer and the white sauce keep it pretty.....I find the two layers merge into a pinkish. smooshy mess otherwise.

I also like chard leaves steamed with a vinegerette dressing and chopped shallots drizzled over....I'll happily eat a bowl of this all on its own! I use balsamic vinegar for the best taste.

Other than that, use chard leaves wherever a recipe calls for spinach.

[Scarlet]

Other than that, use chard leaves wherever a recipe calls for spinach.

That's what I do. I love spinach but it bolts too quick for me to use as a staple, so chard and kales pretty much replace spinach in all recipes here. Tougher leaves and a stronger taste maybe but you can pretty much pick them all year round.

[Lisasbolt]

People should try to cut out meat just for the health benefits, especially red meat, never mind the ethical reasons behind the awful way animals are raised for our consumption. It is a good stepping stone doing one or two days a week, then maybe go to a treat, fish is great if it is sustainable, but we have declared war on our oceans.
If you feel bad about eggs, you could always rescue a few ladies who would have only been grinded up for dog food and give them a chance of a lovely outdoor life.

We eat a lot of pastas and rice dishes, you can make sauce from vegetables, stuff with them the list is endless.
Make your own burgers with peas, carrots, potatoes, sweetcorn, spinach etc etc. Breadcrumb them and either fry or grill, lovely in fresh bread or with a salad.

I do like to tempura of breadcrumb lots of things to add texture.

[craftymarie]

Most of our days are meatless days - originally it came about through needing to slash the shopping bill down and meat was the obvious choice to get rid of but we've all got used to it. We eat lots of pasta, tomato, cheese and quorn based dishes. These are the favourite meat free dishes:

- macaroni cheese with a hot tomato sauce on the side
- spag bol made with quorn and served with tortilla crisps baked in oven with cheese and tomato topping
- quorn lasagne
- quorn chilli con carne
- toad in the hole with quorn sausages and mustard mash
- cheesy baked potatoes
- omelettes
- pancakes - I like mine stuffed with cheese and golden syrup (sweet and savoury yum)
- quorn curry or vegetable curry and naan bread
- french onion soup or vegetable soup with homemade bread
- tomato pasta served cold with salad, coleslaw and salad potatoes
- homemade pizza with lots of cheese, sliced tomatoes and olives
- cheese on toast
- veggie bean burgers

Like other people I can't stand veggie bacon - yuk. I tried it once and wished I hadn't. Veggie burgers are yummy but I don't like the meat substitute ones which are dry and horrid only the ones made with vegetables like beans as they're tasty.

[4390evans]

Other than that, use chard leaves wherever a recipe calls for spinach.

Ive never used the chard leaves I thought it was the stalk you ate? I might try them in my next salad for work.

[4390evans]

Do any of you's do a week out of the month where you just eat out of the cupboard. Our cupboards are over flowing with stuff that has accumulated over the past few months, so next week we are just getting in the bare essentials and eating the stuff we already have (that should be fun with a picky 5 year old!) Our food bill is near £100 a week for 4 of us which I find to much. I was meant to be giving the garden a proper go this year where food is concerned but with work, hospital and kids I've just not managed. The good old reliable has made it through some how so Christmas is sorted but stuff like tomatoes and chillies well....

[Lisasbolt]

I think i could live out of my cupboards for a year, i am a sucker when i go into Lidl and see something that is in there as a one off so i have to buy multiple. I have been a few weeks just eating from the plot and cupboards easy to do, but we have to buy bottled water so in the supermarket every other week for it.

[Scarlet]

I try not to let my cupboards fill up. I Like to sit and eat in the kitchen, so some food storage was scrapped to get the table in. I'm not very tall and wall cupboards just fill up with junk if you can't reach them, so they went too! If you haven't got the space to fill them up you get very little waste. I won't throw anything out so I usually go through the cupboard to see what I can use up before popping to the shops for something nice.

[4390evans]

People should try to cut out meat just for the health benefits.
If you feel bad about eggs, you could always rescue a few ladies who would have only been grinded up for dog food and give them a chance of a lovely outdoor life.

I am hoping to do that sometime next year, I just dunno anything about chickens so Im learning atm.
I first started eating vegan for health benefits when my last child was born, she has a bad heart and had to have a major op so I looked into reducing cholestorol etc that clogs the arteries to the heart and found that there is no cholestorol in veg. So I joined a few vegan pgs on fb but eee they ram stuff down your neck, every other pic was an animal being killed or tortured. People dont need to see that to stop eating meat.

[skeggijon]

Do any of you's do a week out of the month where you just eat out of the cupboard. Our cupboards are over flowing with stuff that has accumulated over the past few months, so next week we are just getting in the bare essentials and eating the stuff we already have (that should be fun with a picky 5 year old!) Our food bill is near £100 a week for 4 of us which I find to much. I was meant to be giving the garden a proper go this year where food is concerned but with work, hospital and kids I've just not managed. The good old reliable has made it through some how so Christmas is sorted but stuff like tomatoes and chillies well....

Ouch!!!
My step-daughter is extremely picky and my nephew stays with us from Friday to Monday (another story), but our food bill comes in at £40 - £50 per week.
We don't tend to keep much in the cupboards other than jars of stuff we've preserved and likewise the freezer is mainly full of stuff from the lotty and a few yellow sticker items.
I usually do the shopping and my OH always says she cant understand how I do it so cheaply cos it comes in at about £80 when she does it - simple, I stick to the list and only get swayed by the reduced section if the reduction is at least 75% and its something I know we all like.

[vixylix]

We do meatless mondays and try to do at least one veggie meal per week - our favourite is beetroot and goats cheese tart (tonight's tea actually), omelettes, beetroot burgers - there's lots of others but I cant remember them now!

[Verinda]

We are vegetarian so every day is meatless, we don't like meat substitutes either. I love a whole plate of roasted veg, and a variety of stir fries. Mr V makes different types of veggie burgers which we all enjoy.

[noviceveggrower]

I am not totally vegetarian but I do have a lot of meat free meals. My Monday meal was Quorn mince with tinned toms, onions, pasta and a hand full of frozen runner beans chucked in.
I usually go for stir fries or Veggie bakes for a meatless meal.