Big meat eater!! need help reducing

ubamother

what about starting with meals that you wouldn't really notice are deliberately meatless so he doesn't feel deprived?

e.g. cheese and onion quiche, baked pots, coleslaw, green bits - cheese omelettes are good too
mushroom stroganoff, rice - mushrooms are very meaty for a veg!
curries with mushrooms and lots of veg - my husband doesn't notice if there's no meat in a curry
h/m cheese and onion pasties, chips, green bits or beans

chrisfh

Hi,
I like the idea of reducing the amount of meat in a meal if OH feels that he has to have meat. The other day I found that I had just one piece of chicken in the freezer with 2 of us to feed. So, I made a chicken, rice, tomato, veggie recipe and bulked it out with a can of chick peas. It worked well and I shall definately be trying some of the above suggestions out. Fortunately my OH is happy with or without meat.
Just one thing on chick peas, I've found that our Tescos have them at different prices in different aisles. The cheapest by far (about half the price) are in what I call the "ethnic" aisle with ghee, 5kg bags of rice etc.

Mouse

My OH too refers to my veggie meals as 'just a side salad' and 'very nice but where's the steak?' He really thinks he'll turn into a girl without meat.

RAMBLER

Yeah its difficult i agree, as a man i like meat - fills me up , loads of protein and yes it is manly..... However I will try vege stuff that has strong flavours.

Also if its a price thing the advice about mince and adding stuff too it would be ok with me too. I guess its the man providing the family attitude too.

If there's no meat on the table, the thought is your poor.....

Penelope_Penguin

alicemary wrote: »

Any help? Recipes he might like that are meat-free? Any persusaive health/cash arguments I can put forward??

We have an existing thread, so I'll add this one - there are several excellent thread links there, too


We've taken a deliberate decision to reduce our meat consumption. No complaints from my family, who have big appetites ( loads of exercise and outdoory stuff here ). We eat loads from Gingham's threads, and I make 500g minced beef strech to 12 portions by adding lentils and loads of veg.

BTW, pulses and lentils can be used as one portion of your 5-a-day :T

Penny. x

alicemary

RAMBLER wrote: »

Yeah its difficult i agree, as a man i like meat - fills me up , loads of protein and yes it is manly..... However I will try vege stuff that has strong flavours.

Also if its a price thing the advice about mince and adding stuff too it would be ok with me too. I guess its the man providing the family attitude too.

If there's no meat on the table, the thought is your poor.....

Very interesting! I wonder if I can try and root out the psychological reasons for his attitude towards vegetarian meals. Sometimes I think it's just gluttony, though :rotfl:

newlywed

alicemary wrote: »

Very interesting! I wonder if I can try and root out the psychological reasons for his attitude towards vegetarian meals. Sometimes I think it's just gluttony, though :rotfl:

With my OH it's due to influences from body building - apparently you need lots of protein to build more muscle. Have managed to convince him that lentils and kidney beans have protein too and he happily eats those but likes the mince in there too.

alicemary

Newlywed - interestingly, I am into weight training myself and was recommended a high protein diet.
I use a protein shake on weigh-training days. It gives me a good dose of protein and although the tub is pricy, it works out at about 1 GBP a scoop (10g of protein per scoop). Also for my protein intake I eat a tub of Fage 0% Greek Yoghurt daily as a snack. As it says, it has no fat, but 12g of protein per tub!

gunsandbanjos

newlywed wrote: »

With my OH it's due to influences from body building - apparently you need lots of protein to build more muscle. Have managed to convince him that lentils and kidney beans have protein too and he happily eats those but likes the mince in there too.

Protein is also the only thing the body cant turn into fat.

newlywed

alicemary wrote: »

Also for my protein intake I eat a tub of Fage 0% Greek Yoghurt daily as a snack. As it says, it has no fat, but 12g of protein per tub!

Thanks, will try that for OH. He currently has 100g chicken at 10 am, tuna kidney bean salad for lunch and another 100g chicken at 3pm and then has tea too. He often moans that an omelette has to have meat in for the protein (not sure what's wrong with protein in eggs ). He keeps saying he wants to increase his protein further.

However I have found out that 100g dried weight of lentils has almost the same amount of protein as 100g of chicken (27g to 30g) so if he does want to increase protein without increasing fat intake then he'll likely get lentils with his chicken!!