Cutting Back on Meat
Zan asked about what we eat to "fill up on" instead of meat (we don't eat a lot of meat). Here are a few things we do:
1. We usually start our dinner every night with a big salad complete with a few different kinds of leafy greens and other veggies, croutons, and cheese. Having a a big bowl of salad first is one great way to get more fresh veggies eaten and it also fills us up!
2. Eat complete proteins- Believe it or not, there are many great ways to serve beans and rice. :) We also eat lots of eggs (my husband doesn't like them plain, but he'll eat lots of french toast, breakfast casserole, etc.) and cheese (I can get cheese for much cheaper than meat, so I use it a lot less sparingly.
3. Don't serve meat as the main item. If we have meat, it is almost always cooked and chopped and mixed in with other things in a casserole, put in soup, sprinkled on salad, stir-fried and served over rice, etc.
4. Serve homemade bread. Homemade bread adds such a great touch to any meal! Plus, if it's made with whole grains, it's excellent for you. And, you can make it in minutes in your bread machine.
Just some starter ideas. Any others want to pipe up?
1. We usually start our dinner every night with a big salad complete with a few different kinds of leafy greens and other veggies, croutons, and cheese. Having a a big bowl of salad first is one great way to get more fresh veggies eaten and it also fills us up!
2. Eat complete proteins- Believe it or not, there are many great ways to serve beans and rice. :) We also eat lots of eggs (my husband doesn't like them plain, but he'll eat lots of french toast, breakfast casserole, etc.) and cheese (I can get cheese for much cheaper than meat, so I use it a lot less sparingly.
3. Don't serve meat as the main item. If we have meat, it is almost always cooked and chopped and mixed in with other things in a casserole, put in soup, sprinkled on salad, stir-fried and served over rice, etc.
4. Serve homemade bread. Homemade bread adds such a great touch to any meal! Plus, if it's made with whole grains, it's excellent for you. And, you can make it in minutes in your bread machine.
Just some starter ideas. Any others want to pipe up?
posted by Crystal Paine at 2:00 PM
11 Comments:
We are trying to cut back our meat intake also. This is what I have been doing so far:
1. Have a Baked Potato and salad night! You can "bake" your potatoes in the crockpot, so it also saves if you have a gas stove.
2. How about a Breakfast supper? Pancakes and eggs.
3. Homemade Vegetable soup or Potato soup, serve with salad and bread.
4. I've also been known to just simply cook a variety of vegetables and serve them only.
5. Meatless Stir Fry and serve over rice.
Like I said this is just a few things, I'm sure there are more creative posters out there than me.
We do not eat alot of meat either. We do some of the same things that you do, Crystal. I though also make alot of soups! Pair a bowl of soup with some bread and that is a wonderful meal. It is very filling and cheap! I make all sorts of varieties of soup. My husband is Russian so I make some Russian soups like Borcht (the recipe is on my blog) and then I like to make rice dishes like Fried rice with bits of meat in it and Spanish Rice. Other favorites are Enchiladas. I mix the meat with beans and cheese and it makes a wonderful dish that really fills you up!
Pasta is another favorite around here. I can use 1 chicken breast and a bunch of pasta with some a eggs a bit of parmasan and it makes a tasty dinner! I use alot of cheap vegetables like cabbage, onions and garlic.
I'm a vegetarian, so feel free to ask anytime!
I get asked how and what I eat all the time when I tell people that I'm a vegetarian. People seriously are shocked that I can eat a balanced palate of food without meat. I don't think many realize that from a historical standpoint people didn't have the availability of meat in their diets as we do now up until even 30 or 40 years ago. During WW1 and WW2 there was rationing that prevented a lot of meat in American diets, and before that, refrigeration and availability prevented people from having meat on the table every night. People just didn't eat meat like we do now. I know that I started feeling a lot better on a daily basis cutting meat out of our diet. You can replace all the necessary nutrients of meat with little effort. Cutting meat also lessens your chances of many health conditions such as Heart Disease and obesity.
Furthermore, even when I did eat meat, I cringed at the idea of eating regular grocery store meat products. The mass produced, cruel nature of how the animals are killed and processed, and then having the guts to feed that meat to your family...shudder. Many of the animals are sick and diseased. Those that die before production, are fed to the living, making canibals of entire species, which then develops into diseases spread to humans like mad cow. That's the meat you are buying from the grocery store. Sometimes cheaper isn't better.
Anyway, I have hundreds of resources for vegetarians.
We love to eat Indian curries and as you might know a lot of Indians are vegiatrian or at least semi-vegiatarian so there are a lot of lentil/chickpea/legume curries out there to be made. Yummy, healthy and frugal.
Thanks for the ideas. I do wish we had smaller slaughter houses and more hometown butchers. I have a friend who raises beef cows and slaughters them herself (or rather her husband does :)) I am thinking of buying a side of cow from her. You know that your meat is being grown by someone who is not feeding them cow brains. I wish we had land so that we could grow our own meat. Maybe someday...
It is funny, in the summer we do a lot of semi veggie meals and a lot of stir fries but in the winter we do roasts and alot of chicken. I do this because it warms up the kitchen. Actually I am cooking a duck right now. It is my first one. Hope it taste's OK.
I am not concerned about the health factors of meat. My father-in-law is 80, has never been sick a day in his life, and eats meat, cream and other things that are bad for you. Obesity is about portions and sedintary lifestyle. Another reason he is so fit is because of his genes. Genetics play a big role in heart disease. My uncle ate very healthy and stayed away from fat but he had a heart attack in his 40s like his two brothers and his father did. Also, in my experience some of the fattest people I know are vegetarian.
My father worked in the dairy business for twenty years. He also visited one of the largest slaughtering houses in the country. Yes their is alot of blood and yes it was messy but he and I see it as necessary and humane. What are you going to do with all that cattle? What are you going to do with the bulls that are born and not used for breeding? Set them free in the wild. He was at the slaughtering house because he was involved in the program of tracking each animal from birth to slaughter to prevent diseases such as mad cow disease via computer chip in animal's ear.
It is ashame that fish is so expensive because I like that and it is so good for you.
I would like to do less meat but it is up to my husband. He is not overweight and has probably inherited the long life gene from his dad. He and I are meat and potato people. It is the way we were raised and there are no obese people in my family.
I will start doing more of the homemade bread, though. I have been making alot of bread and it is very satisfying.
-Zan
I've read several articles recently about the dangers of soy for men (soy contains estrogen). I've also read that men need meat more than women do. Don't know if that's true but thought I'd share it anyway.
Zan, you crack me up :) Whenever are you going to start a blog?
Rachel, that is so true about Indian food. I end up using a lot of Indian & other Asian recipes because between rice, potatoes & legumes you can make about a thousand different dishes just by adding different spices to them, and meat isn't a necessity.
Tucson has several Asian markets where one can buy basmati rice & different kinds of dried lentils, beans & peas in five- or ten-pound bags for just a few dollars, plus canned coconut milk for 3 for a dollar. Even just five years ago I thought that Asian food was complicated and weird but now I've come to realize that it's easy, very very cheap & oh so tasty.
I stay far away from soy. I have read reports that they may be linking soy to peanut allergies. I will never feed any of my babies soy milk products. It isn't natural to have that much soy in the form of milk. No wonder there are so many people with peanut allergies. My nephew, who is my age, was declared allergic to milk when he was an infant and was fed soy milk. Now he is allergic to everything in the world and has diabetes type 1. I don't doubt all allergies but if your infant can't tolerate cow's milk why don't you try goat's milk?
Asian food is cheap. I used to know a Chinese couple that ran a very nice Chinese resturaunt with reasonable prices. When we asked the man why he was able to sell his food so inexpensively he replied, "cost of food not much." (He was from Hong Kong.)It was surprising how inexpensive Chinese type food is. If you make your own Chinese food you can leave out all the salt that the resturaunts put in it.
BTW, I know why ducks swim so well. There is a ton of fat in duck. I definately will not make duck on a regular basis but it is nice for a rare treat. There isn't much meat on it either. I had a 6lb duck for 12 dollars but I could have gotten a huge pot roast for a few dollars more and it would've lasted atleast three meals and lunches. The duck is about gone and it is just the three of us and George is only 1yr old. Well, it was neat to try it. Next cooking venture will be goose.I think I will wait until around Christmas and try to have an old fashioned Christmas.
-Zan
I am not concerned about the health factors of meat. My father-in-law is 80, has never been sick a day in his life, and eats meat, cream and other things that are bad for you. Obesity is about portions and sedintary lifestyle. Another reason he is so fit is because of his genes. Genetics play a big role in heart disease. My uncle ate very healthy and stayed away from fat but he had a heart attack in his 40s like his two brothers and his father did. Also, in my experience some of the fattest people I know are vegetarian.
I'm not saying be concerned about mean, I'm saying be concerned about supermarket meat and the danger that exists in the processes that have been developed to provide meat for so many people. At 80 years old, I'm sure your grandfather, like mine grew up eating meat and dairy from local growers and farmers. The danger doesn't exist in the "what" but the how. There are many more people in this world then there was then, and many things have had to be altered and developed to feed so many people, including hormones and chemicals that are used in meat and produce to make them bigger and produce more. That's not natural, nor is it healthy. Yes genetics play a role, but why take unnecessary risks when the information is right there?
Yes there are some risks in eating stor bought meat which is why I am considering buying a side of cow. However, I am not going to stick to just organic veggies. Everyone is so cancer happy today. Everybody says this and that will cause cancer. Sorry to say this but you will either die from cancer or heart disease if you live long enough. I'm not saying we should all be foolish and not take care of ourselves but we shouldn't be so worry with every little report we hear. There should be some changes in the raising of beef. I don't like the mega farm approach to everything and don't think it is the way God intended. I would much rather have my own milk goat like I did in my childhood and raise your own meat. However, not everyone can do that now. Awhile back we were getting our milk from a local farm but they had to stop selling unpasturized milk because the state had these health regulations.
-Zan
Hi there, first time poster here! I was also going to suggest soup as a first course, but I see someone beat me to it! A nice cup of hot vegetable soup with a little cheese sprinkled on top is an excellent way to start any meal - or to just BE the meal, period. I usually make mine just like grandma did, with beef stock and a little hot sauce added for kick.
Martha, I just LOVE borcht! So delicious and healthful.
My husband and I are big pasta fans, so I make that quite often. Mexican foods are easy to make without meat - just use beans instead. A great way to get fiber. In fact, I substitute beans for meat a whole lot. They're so inexpensive and good for you.
I'll sometimes make breakfast tacos for dinner, that's a big favorite around here. I cook up a whole mess of potatoes with olive oil and garlic, let that sit in my cast iron pan. Takes forever, but the aroma is so wonderful it's worth it. When finished, I scoop the potatoes into a tortilla and add scrambled eggs - sometimes I'll scramble the eggs with veggies that need to be used up. A few spoonfuls of salsa and mmmm, delicious!
Thanks for the ideas, ladies!
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