Big meat eater!! need help reducing

Keen_Young_Learner

Thanks everyone for the ideas and tips, I will be trying all of them! Dippypud, how did you persuade your OH? Mine will not even discuss the possibility of a meat free day!
KYL xxx

rozmister

The Sainsburys promo they're running at the moment might give you some inspiration. It's feed a family of 4 for 5 meals for £20. Every meal contains meat or fish and as there's only 2 of you you could have the leftovers for lunch everyday. Then you'd only need to spend £20 for your lunch & dinner Mon - Fri which isn't too bad between two

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/value/value.jsp?pageRef=Meal-planner.page&from=http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/index.jsp

kitschkitty

My OH loves meat, and dislikes most veg, but luckily doesn't insist on meat everyday as he's not always got much of an appetite. He's happy to eat noodles when he wants a light meal or snack, loves bacon, cheese, tuna and baked beans.

Enjoys baked spuds occasionally too. How about omelettes? My OH loves them and though he's an awful cook I managed to teach him to cook a fairly decent omelette.

Campbells condensed chicken soup, on cooked pasta and a bit of bacon/chicken and/or some mushrooms makes a quick filling meal that's meaty/hearty enough to fill up my OH.

I used soya mince (dried from Sainsburys) added to minced beef and he never knew till I told him (then he was annoyed, so if I'd kept it secret he's have been perfectly happy)!

I also think not pointing out it's a meat free meal sometimes helps eg cheese omelette, chips and beans!

eamon

Cabbage & Bacon.Hmmmmmmmmmm With Champ hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Liver & Onions hmmmmmmmmmmm
Quality suasages hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Lancashire Hotpot, Shepherds Pie, Fish Pie, Fish Cakes, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I could go on but I'd probably drown in a sea of my own drool

meanmarie

Let him eat the 'rubbish' while you have your tasty and aromatic food, he will soon get fed up getting his own food and will be prepared to eat anything you prepare....he reminds me so much of my middle son who would live off cheese sandwiches, cup a soups and anything else easy to put into his stomach!

This young man needs education, don't be fooled by your fondness for him....he is not incapable, just lazy.

Eamon's suggestions sound good and not bank breaking.

Marie

valk_scot

Well, you can do mostly vegetarian dishes with a bit of meaty flavouring remember. Cauliflower cheese with crumbly bacon topping, vegetable curry with a biriani rice which includes a few scraps of chicken, meat and vegetable stews that contain a small amount of full flavoured meat like lamb, but are mostly vegetable. Also if you make dishes like this you can basically give him the meat and you eat the vegetarian end...if he asks you why, tell him you prefer the version without meat but are adding it just for him. If nothing else it will cut the meat bill for that dish in half! There's no necessity to actually have a slab of meat on the plate at every meal. Have a small piece, or better still a small amount in a mixed dish, and make sure there's plenty of other tasty bits.

ubamother

I'm similar to val_scot - dishes like curries and stews can make a little bit of meat go a long way. I also find in our house that meat cut into small pieces goes further - so I'd do pork stroganoff with less meat than if I was doing a pork chop each. Quiche is another good one for making a few slices of ham (or whatever) look like more. I do find that a good plateful of veg with good meaty gravy make a smaller bit of meat look more like a 'proper' dinner. Add a yorkshire (or three), which are pretty cheap to make and he'll be really full!

Does your '14 meals a week' mean you are providing meat twice a day? There may be a deal here - as he's new to OS and clearly not anti, could you agree to a meat/fish meal once a day? If you do it from a health point of view would that make it more palatable?

I would also gently suggest that you need to get this sorted out very early in your living-together relationship or it could become the battle that you never ever win. If you are up for a battle start now - don't leave it until you are struggling against what has become normal in your house.

brownsauce

is he from the countryside in ireland or a town/city?

i am irish and live with two other irish guys. One of them was used to meat, 2 veg and potatoes for dinner every day!
Give him stew, i know its such a cliche, but we all eat it and its so easy to make. Plus if you do it in a slow cooker the meat will be so tender the guys are convinced its a good cut. If he is anything like me, he will probably be funny about the sausages over here (they just arent nice), so dont bother cooking with them.

oh he might eat liver and onions, which is soo cheap but stinky.

I think we are funny about our meat in general as a nation, and its taken me four years to get away from buying the most expensive type of meat (i still dont trust tesco value meat or frozen meat).

aliasojo

OP what reason does he give for not wanting a meat free meal? Does he think he will be hungry? Or is it just what Mum always did? I think you need to find out his reasoning first to know which would be the best angle to come at this from.

However, he is entitled to choose how he eats you know. A vegetarian is entitled to not eat meat every single meal of their life so why should a meat eater not do the same in reverse? If your budget really cant cope with all the meat meals then he needs to understand this and agree a compromise, but if it's just that you don't want your budget to be that big, maybe you need to understand that aspect too and consider whether you're being fair wanting him to change to suit you? (Not saying that's the case, just an aspect I wondered about. )

My Dad came from a background where a meal wasn't a 'proper' meal unless there was meat in it. I wonder if your OH's upbringing was the same?

Bronnie

aliasojo wrote: »

However, he is entitled to choose how he eats you know. A vegetarian is entitled to not eat meat every single meal of their life so why should a meat eater not do the same in reverse? If your budget really cant cope with all the meat meals then he needs to understand this and agree a compromise, but if it's just that you don't want your budget to be that big, maybe you need to understand that aspect too and consider whether you're being fair wanting him to change to suit you? (Not saying that's the case, just an aspect I wondered about. )

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Totally agree with the above :T