Big meat eater!! need help reducing

lurkey*is*here

brownsauce wrote: »

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).

lol is it an irish thing I wont eat english bacon sausage or black pudding I buy clonakilty in bulk online and freeze it I dont care if it costs too much english sausages are grey and tast like something thats been swept off the floor:D
dont start me on other things like watery milk and watery potatoes My husband (an English man) wont drink any other tea now but Barrys My mum buys them when they are on offer and sends them in bulk

Kittendreich

If he considers supernoodles with some hotdogs chopped through it an appropriate meal - can he not just cut hotdogs in to whatever you have cooked? Might look odd / disgusting - but will be better for him to eat 'proper' food with a bit of processed (than all processed) and will keep your budget down not having to buy processed food separately for him. My food habits changed when I moved in with OH - we eat well, but much more expensively and calorifically than I did when I was on my own - much to the detriment of my waistline and wallet!

bargainbetty

Why has your budget gone up if he is the one who wants meat every day? Does he not contribute?

If he does, and pays half, then surely it is fair for him to have meat if he wishes. If you are paying in full and he is making demands, tell him to get his backside to the supermarket! As long as he pays his fair share of the costs, I wouldn't get uptight about it. If he is doing this and expecting you to pay for it, then I'd tell him to make his own damn dinner with his own damn stuff!

He wants packet noodles and a hotdog? Let him pay for them.

Loulou2010

Keen_Young_Learner wrote: »

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

maybe dont discuss it? just give it to him?

Brallaqueen

It is definitely a cultural thing- especially in 'older' Irish who grew up when it was a primarily agricultural country and quite isolationist and nationalist in a way. Pasta, lentils and soya mince (protein subs) just weren't a consideration, and there was usually good quality fresh meat available. The previous generation to me all reared their own chickens for eggs and meat, even if they didn't have a farm.
Anyway, I think he needs to pay for his own meat if he insists on eating it to such an extent.

brownsauce

lurkey*is*here wrote: »

lol is it an irish thing I wont eat english bacon sausage or black pudding I buy clonakilty in bulk online and freeze it I dont care if it costs too much english sausages are grey and tast like something thats been swept off the floor:D
dont start me on other things like watery milk and watery potatoes My husband (an English man) wont drink any other tea now but Barrys My mum buys them when they are on offer and sends them in bulk

Im not a black pudding fan anyway, but the rest of the lads wont touch the black pudding you get over here.
And i am not fond of the bacon but dont think its too bad, its just the sausages that i find really funny.
I dont understand the potatoes over here, they come in such small bags!!

And we just ran out of barrys tea all my english flatmates kept knicking it. Need to get an emergency supply shipped over.

How much does it cost your mum to send them??

lurkey*is*here

Brown sauce my mum emptys boxes of them into a paper carrier bag tapes it all up and posts it like that Im not sure how much it costs because alot of the time she sends other stuff aswell but if its just tea bags I wouldnt imagine it would be alot?

if you where looking for other irish stuff I can totally recommend this company its usually next day delivery for free if you spend over £60 it Maybe if you flat mates wanted stuff aswell you could all chip in a bit and get what you want?
http://www.youririshshop.com/epages/Store_Shop904.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.Shop904/Categories/Food/Hot_Beverages

Winged_one

Do things like spag bol or shepherd's pie with a LOAD of extra veg mixed into the meat mix. Then 1lb of mince will stretch easily to 3 or more meals for 2 (like 3 dinners of spag bol with a couple of lunches of baked potato with bol suace over the top). Freeze the extra portions.

But the trick to doing this is to really finely chop the veg. If you have a food processor, use that and chop 2-3 carrots, 1-2 sticks celery, the core from a head of brocolli (it's perfectly good to eat, and most supermarkets give them away for "feeding rabbits" as most folk don't want them and pull them off!! Amazing how many times we've gotten away with that excuse!) - add all these into the mince and onion just before adding the liquid. You could add a handfull or 2 of frozen peas as visible evidence of vegetables, and even put a portion of "proper veg" (carrots, turnip, parsnip, whatever suits) on the side when serving if shepherd's pie. Or a salad if spag bol.

Curries can also have loads of veg either visible or hidden.

I make a macaroni cheese, which has pasta shapes (whatever I have), cheese sauce, fried mushrooms, onions and garlic, chunks of red pepper, handful of mangetout or french beans if I have them, manybe frozen peas, chunks of courgette (sliced and thrown into [pasta for last few mins of boiling), and a small pack of Lidl bcaon chunks (the 2 sided pack for €2.19 - it does me 2 seperate batches).

That small amount of bacon is enough to flavour the meal and get DH over his need for meat, but this is spread out into a pot that feeds DH, DD and I for 2 dinners (I freeze the leftovers and serve later as a pasta bake) - and usually people have extra helpings as it is an absolute favourite dinner.

How about a bit of chorizo into a tomato sauce with pasta?

A tin of tuna can go a long way too in pasta bakes, fried rice dishes etc. Tuna melts for lunches. Or tin tuna or crab for fish cakes for lunches- to use up leftover potato, with a bit of tinned sweetcorn and a couple of spring onions chopped into the mix, and old bread making the crumbs for the outside (flour, egg, breadcrumb the patties and then fry, nice served with sweet chilli sauce).

Mojisola

Keen_Young_Learner wrote: »

I recently moved in with my very lovely OH and have begun trying to teach him the ways of the OS. He's quite patient and understanding with all of it, (I've managed to persuade him to "downshelf" on most of our shopping so far) but he absolutely WILL NOT COMPROMISE when it comes to meat. He will not eat a lunch/dinner without meat or fish somewhere in it. This means that my weekly shopping budgets have doubled, (only from £15 to £30 but that's still an increase of 100%). Does anyone have any suggestions to either:

Why do you want him to? Unless money is really short and is needed for paying the bills, let the man eat what he wants.

Catwoman103

As a veggie I make a lot of meals that meat eaters think are meat. My Dad didn't know until recebtly that he was eating veggie meals most days.

I make a lovely lasagne, make the 'meat' sauce out of half a bag of quorn, onions, tinned tomatoes and then grated carrots and celery to bulk out and add flavour. I add some herbs and a little chilli to give it a kick and layer with the pasta sheets and pour cheese sauce over the top.

Shepherd's pie is quorn mince with carrots, peas and onions in bisto onion gravy with creamy mash on the top.

Veggie mince or quorn mince is cheaper than meat and much more filling. If you stick it with other flavours, he'll never know.