Cutting down on meat but don't like veggies and fish! I challenge you to help me!

Chuzzle

Ok so here's the deal. I need (oh and WANT!) to cut down the amount of meat we as a family are eating in the hope that we can reduce our grocery bills. DH insists that a meal without meat isn't a meal (must be the caveman in him!). But I've managed to get him to agree to a trial of a month for not having meat at every meal. Now here's the thing....We're not great veggie and fish eaters. DH will eat anything so he's not the big problem here. Its me and the kids (DS1 16 & DS2 11). I only really like veggies raw and the kids don't do veggies full stop. On the plus side I have got them to agree to trying with me so hopefully it'll work. We only like fish if its fried and battered, although I have got them occasionally to eat it when it's lightly dusted in seasoned flour and fried. DH will eat anything..or have I already menetioned that??

So my challenge to you all is to give me some ideas/recipes for veggie and fish haters that work with your family.....

clarebelle

that is a hard one... are you trying to cut out chicken aswell or just red meat?

i am like you in that i dont generally like cooked vegetables so only eat them raw. Not really sure how to over come the problem of your sons not eating veggies as my kid is still a baby so havent had to deal with fussy eating yet! xD

HM pizzas might be a good place to start? you can make your own tomato sauce so you know it has real toms in! you could maybe chop up onions/mushrooms and some other veg really small and cover it with cheese (or even chopped bacon, meat i know, but it might be enough to get some veg down them!

maybe introduce your kids to raw veg too if you havent tried already? that will open up stir frys.

HM fishcakes. you could point out that eating a breaded fish cake isnt a far cry from eating a battered fish and you could also maybe hide some veg in them?

i hope this helps, not had to tackle a problem like this myself so...:o

sunflower76

Gosh, that does sound like a challenge!

What sort of things do you normally eat? Can you give us a list of, say, you're ten favourite meals? Or can you post a copy of your last till receipt from the supermarket? We can then have a look at what can be replaced nad what sort of things you could make instead of meat based dishes.

If you are a big meat eating family then you could look at ways to make the meat go further rather than cutting it out?

lynzpower

The immediate thought I had is that are the kids getting thier non-veg eating habits from you? Dont you eat ANY? If you have a roast dinner, what do you have with the meat?

One thing I have done - as I dont really like mince- is to use quorn mince for lasagnes/ spag bol/ chilli etc. We also have linda mc's pies and sausage rolls, quorn isnt a bad substitute and its a quid a bag at the mo at tescos I think.

Chuzzle

Yeah I know I'm not the best example to my kids!
Actually now I think about it the kids aren't as bad as I made out.

When we have a roast they will eat sweetcorn, cabbage, carrots all cooked and they do eat quite a bit of veg raw. When we have a roast I will eat roast pots and raw cabbage and carrots smothered in gravy along with the meat etc. sounds odd but I think its yum!

We do jacket potatoes with various toppings. Fishcakes we eat as well. Maybe I've made a mountain out of a molehill over this and we're not that bad. I think maybe I'm just stuck in a rut of cooking meat all the time. My kids used to eat anything and everything but for some reason over the past couple of years they've joined me in being fussy now.

I will try stretching the meat more and see if I can get more than one meal from the amount we eat.

Thanks so far but doooooo keep the ideas coming.

sunflower76

Potato Wedges and Beans?
Jacket Spuds?
Veggie Pizzas? (If the kids help make them they're more likely to eat them)
Veggie Lasagne?
Dahl and Rice?
Pasta and sauce?

tiff

How about eggs, does everyone eat them?

clarebelle

maybe also more empasis on another part of the meal? most people think of a meal as meat accompanied by veg and pots/pasta etc. maybe make the meals more about the oother bits, that way you can get away with shrinking the amount of meat.

eg. the potato wedges idea someone else said, you could do lots of different dips and also have a selection of raw veg to dip and eat.

make big yorkshire puds filled with veg and potatos with just a little roast chicken.

just make the other bits bigger focul points.

Dobie

I think clarebelle has a good idea with the home made totato sauce. Try frying some onion, mushroom, celery, peppers & garlic, cook some diced carrots & put them in a pan with a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes then let it simmer for about half an hour you'll have a fabulous rich tomato sauce that you could then blend to get rid of the lumps of obvious veg & use as a sauce for pasta or pizza. You can also use it for casseroles - would you eat chickpeas in a casserole? That way you get lots of veg without noticing.
Can you eat veg in a curry? A veg curry with chickpeas is one of my favourite meals.

cte1111

Quorn fillets cooked in a low fat sauce, or quorn sausages. We love quorn (you might have guessed). I'm veggie, but my non-veggie sister also eats it loads now as it is lower fat than meat, and pretty tasty really.

Not that keen on quorn mince personally, but I didn't like meat mince when I did eat meat so guess that doesn't say much.

Veggie chilli is another good dish, you can use red kidney beans and chop up vegetables small so they might be more likely to eaten, try carrots, peppers, even brocolli can taste more palatable to non-veg eaters if cooked in a nice sauce.

Baked potatoes with beans are another good low fat choice, and count as a vegetable portion. If you like raw veg, then serve with a chopped salad. Also try houmous and carrot sticks for a healthy snack.

You could also try veg pies, supermarkets do some in a creamy sauce, and these can be served with extra veg, might be more tempting if covered in gravy I find.

laineyc_2

I find soup a great way to get the kids to eat more vegetables. I also make my own tomato sauce for pasta and add lot's of veg in that.