Cooking for a family of 2 vegetarians and two meat eaters aaaaaahhhhh!

tsstss7

Hi all this is my first OS post although I'm a long time lurker here and a regular contributer on other boards so hopefully this hasn't been covered elsewhere (I've been hoping it would come up sometime but I haven't seen it.)

Anyway my family consists of two veggies (me and little ds) and two non veggies (OH and DS1) so I regularly have to cook seperate meals and it is driving me crazy not to mention costing more (I prob spend around £30.00 / person per week on food if not more). We have lots of waste as it seems meat only comes in big packets these days and I have limited freezer space.

I always try to buy organic food esp fruit, veg and dairy and free range meat if poss. but I will buy non organic if it's really cheap (ie reduced not carp) or on bogof etc. However due to the lack of freezer/cupboard space I cannot do much bulk buying.

To cap it all OH and ds1 are quite (ok very) fussy eaters and OH will not eat soup,pasta (although I did get him to eat some fresh pasta the other day!!)or cheap meat and seems to only want to eat pizza's, and other junk food. DS1 on the other hand is only 10 so eats what he is given (up to a point) and gets no pudding if he is wasting food.......

So what I'm after really is some help to start me meal planning better as at the mo. I am doing it on a day by day basis depending on what needs to be used. I'd like to be able to produce similar meals for the meat and non meat eaters without spending hours slaving over the oven producing for example veggy and meat bolognases. My idea's so far consist of maybe making cottage pie for the freezer for meat eaters and cooking mine from fresh to minimise amount of time spent cooking then they can be served with pots and veg so we all at least seem to eating the same meal.

I also need to balance the meat substitues so that me and ds2 are not eating quorn all week which is an added complication.

I know this sounds pedantic but I have found if I give OH and DS1 a choice they choose burgers etc every time but if we are ALL having something together I get fewer complaints.


So, any idea's anyone?????:D

Horace

Hi

Instead of buying meat from the supermarket, have you thought of buying it from a local butcher instead? That way you can only buy what you need and not what the supermarket thinks you need.

Sorry for being nosey are you a vegetarian or a vegan? The reason for asking is that vegetarians will often eat fish and eggs. How about introducing fish into the diet of everybody - even if it is just fish and chips to start off with and then moving onto fish pie.

Have you thought of contacting the vegetarian society as they have some lovely recipes and you could serve up vegetarian meals for everybody and only have meat say once a week

Wish you luck.

tsstss7

Hi Horace - yes I do eat fish. ~ free range eggs and milk (in small quantities for the adults of the family at least). I'd like to buy meat from the butcher but they mostly don't do organic or free range. Plus there aren't to many of them about now and only one non-supermarket one I can think of exists in my area. Yes fish days are easy days for me, only one set of meals to cook...bliss.

Neither OH or DS2 will eat veggy food ....sometimes get away with it but not often .

Obukit

There's three pretty easy ways you can make your life easier cooking for veggies/non-veggies: -

Cook dishes that can have meat added at the last minute, e.g. make chilli non carne (toms, kidney beans, herbs, onion etc.) then just add some browned meat at the end.

If you cook similar dishes regularly (e.g. cottage pie) then for the first week make double the veggie version and put half in the freezer. Second week you can make double the meat version, freeze half and use the leftover veggie from last week. Saves energy, money and sanity!

Finally, I'd choose veggie dishes that the whole family enjoys and mainly cook these. DH/DS1 can have a meat dish at school or work if they want. If your husband doesn't like pasta would he eat potato? You can make gnocchi very easily and substitute these into fresh pasta dishes. It seems bizarre he doesn't like ANY soup and soups all taste so different - if he likes the "meaty" taste of burgers etc. you can thicken your soups with Value gravy granules which are veggie and give the soup a rich flavour, similar to oxtail.

Good luck (and congrats for telling DS1 to eat what he's given!).

tsstss7

Obukit wrote: »

There's three pretty easy ways you can make your life easier cooking for veggies/non-veggies: -

Cook dishes that can have meat added at the last minute, e.g. make chilli non carne (toms, kidney beans, herbs, onion etc.) then just add some browned meat at the end.

I have done this with kung po chicken (do it with quorn and add chicken at the end ds2 hasn't yet sussed that he is getting a mix of chicken and quorn and it keeps the cost down ) but doesn't it make mince dishes tasteless (as the mince has not been coked with the flavour so to speak?)

If you cook similar dishes regularly (e.g. cottage pie) then for the first week make double the veggie version and put half in the freezer. Second week you can make double the meat version, freeze half and use the leftover veggie from last week. Saves energy, money and sanity! good idea - I though this too now just need to get a bit more organised. ....

Finally, I'd choose veggie dishes that the whole family enjoys and mainly cook these. DH/DS1 can have a meat dish at school or work if they want. If your husband doesn't like pasta would he eat potato? You can make gnocchi very easily and substitute these into fresh pasta dishes. It seems bizarre he doesn't like ANY soup and soups all taste so different - if he likes the "meaty" taste of burgers etc. you can thicken your soups with Value gravy granules which are veggie and give the soup a rich flavour, similar to oxtail. Will try gnocci and see how it goes down.....no no soup at all, madness .

Good luck (and congrats for telling DS1 to eat what he's given!).

thanks for the advice :rotfl:

want2bmortgage3

there is a book written by somebody in exactly the same position, my mum bought it from amazon i think. its basically traditional meat dishes, then an alternate recipe made without meat. usually using substitues such as quorn. if you are interested i'll ask her whats its called?

tsstss7

thanks w2bm3 sounds good

nell2

I'm in the same position as you with a vegetarian to cater for as well as one who doesn't eat pasta, one who won't do rice and a third who detests potatoes! It is very annoying!
I try and do similar things for the veggie eg. veggie sausages when we are having meat ones, veggie bolognese when we are having 'proper' bolognese etc etc. I also try and freeze single portions of things so I've got a stock of 'ready meals' for which ever fuss pot doesn't eat what I happen to be cooking on a particular day.
It's hard to say to the children that they can't have their preferences re. pasta, rice etc when they see me doing something different for their Dad so I do try to accommodate them, otherwise, it would be "that's what we're having and you are eating it!" every time!
It definitely makes the food bills more expensive! I do sympathise.

robpw2

do a vegetarian shepeards pie with quorn mince fresh onions and baked beans topped of with sweetpotatoe mash and serve to all i guarentee the meat eaters would eat it if you told them it was meat and you had made a special one for the veggies

kittiej

Nah keep away from the quorn mince, go for Realeat vegemince from Mr T's or Holland and Barrett, much nicer.

Even the Mr t's or Asda own brand of vegetarian mince are nicer that that horrid Quorn mince IMO.

robpw2

nell2 wrote: »

I'm in the same position as you with a vegetarian to cater for as well as one who doesn't eat pasta, one who won't do rice and a third who detests potatoes! It is very annoying!
I try and do similar things for the veggie eg. veggie sausages when we are having meat ones, veggie bolognese when we are having 'proper' bolognese etc etc. I also try and freeze single portions of things so I've got a stock of 'ready meals' for which ever fuss pot doesn't eat what I happen to be cooking on a particular day.
It's hard to say to the children that they can't have their preferences re. pasta, rice etc when they see me doing something different for their Dad so I do try to accommodate them, otherwise, it would be "that's what we're having and you are eating it!" every time!
It definitely makes the food bills more expensive! I do sympathise.

whatever happened to the days of you will eat what your given or nothing at all?
if you didnt eat it for tea you would et it for breakfast and so on
only excuse was if it was something you were allergic to such as for me seafood