Want to go half veggie

Lotus-eater

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

By the way OP I am not really understanding why you won't let your daughter be a vegetarian. Not 'allowing' her to be a vegetarian? Seriously, why not let her do this if she is really set on it? It isn't going to harm her in the slightest. It could even improve her health..

That's our choice as parents.

I've said when she's 12 she can make up her own mind, atm she's only 8 and not mature enough to make that desicion IMO. She also knows little about how the food industry works and wants to be a vegetarian for (IMO) the wrong reasons.
I think that's fair, we're helping her alot and travelling down the road there ourselves.
When she's older and able to deal with the realities, I will tell her what happens and show her the bad side of the meat/milk/egg industry. But I will also show her the other side, where we get alot of our meat/eggs from. How animals can be treated, how there wouldn't be these animals around our house if people didn't use them.
How you can have a balance without having to have a label stuck on you because someone somewhere decided that was the way.

TBH having been a "label" veggie myself 20 years ago and seeing on here how people jump on you for the smallest thing when you talk about vegetarianism, I'm more inclined to not ever say anything to anyone about being a (mostly) veggie. What happens if you mention you don't eat meat thankyou at a BBQ, then someone sees you having a outdoor bred lovely bacon sandwich, or if I get venison from a friend of mine who shoots them, you're going to be blasted by the veggies and blasted by everyone else as well. But mostly it's the veggies.

I don't care about labels, I just care about doing what I think is right and eating the way I want to.

</rantoff>

daska

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Is that your health reasons, or are too many soya products bad for everyone?

I have no idea if they're bad for everyone but they're bad for me and a lot of my family have problems with soya products as well - primarily indigestion but continued consumption causes us all sorts of gyp. With any major change your diet your body will behave differently so 'be mindful' - chances are things will settle down, but if they don't try cutting out something new or adding back in something you've cut out.

musharoom

I cut down on my meat intake to save money and reduce waste, and for practical reasons: I moved into a small flat on my own and have no freezer!

Rather than turning complete veggie (I love meat too much) I enjoy it as a treat at weekends.

I find inspiration for midweek meals from magazines like goodfood (they do a really helpful veggie mag as well as including some veggie dishes into their main mag) - you don't have to buy the mag though as recipes are online. There ase loads of other veggie food websites too.

I like to pick a vegetable and focus my meal around that. I find that is easier than just taking the meat out of the meal and being left with steamed veg and boiled spuds!
Recently I've made:
Aubergine, almond and coconut curry
Stuffed peppers
Baked Ratatouille with goats cheese and herb crust
Bean chilli
Butternut squash pithivier
Mushroom and lentil burgers
Veg & cashew nut stirfry
Lentil ragu

I could go on but I'm sure you get the gist...I really don't miss meat during the week now, I used to be a meat-and-two-veg kinda gal!

Sorry if I've duplicated any previous comments the thread is too long to read all the posts!

sandraroffey

i eat meat, but gradually cutting it down. now its just me here on my own, i can eat whatever i fancy and i will quite happily have a tray of roasted veg with nothing else.

i aquired, last week, linda mcCartneys book of home cooking at the charity shop for the grand sum of £2.49. really interesting recipes in there and intend to make use of it very soon. bit of a busy time at the mo and need some time to look at the book properly.

some years ago i had a friend who always said that he wasnt vegetarian, he just didnt eat meat. this was because when he was younger and out in the world on his own, he didnt know how to cook meat, and often couldnt afford meat, so left it alone. but even after lots of years, he still missed bacon!!!

ceridwen

musharoom wrote: »

I cut down on my meat intake to save money and reduce waste, and for practical reasons: I moved into a small flat on my own and have no freezer!

Rather than turning complete veggie (I love meat too much) I enjoy it as a treat at weekends.

I find inspiration for midweek meals from magazines like goodfood (they do a really helpful veggie mag as well as including some veggie dishes into their main mag) - you don't have to buy the mag though as recipes are online. There ase loads of other veggie food websites too.

I like to pick a vegetable and focus my meal around that. I find that is easier than just taking the meat out of the meal and being left with steamed veg and boiled spuds!
Recently I've made:
Aubergine, almond and coconut curry
Stuffed peppers
Baked Ratatouille with goats cheese and herb crust
Bean chilli
Butternut squash pithivier
Mushroom and lentil burgers
Veg & cashew nut stirfry
Lentil ragu

I could go on but I'm sure you get the gist...I really don't miss meat during the week now, I used to be a meat-and-two-veg kinda gal!

Sorry if I've duplicated any previous comments the thread is too long to read all the posts!

Baked ratatouille with goats cheese and herb crust sounds nice:). Any chance of a recipe please?

Flibsey

I prefer the term "opportunist Carnivore".

LameWolf

gratefulforhelp wrote: »

Please don't tell people you are vegetarian when you make this change, or people who are completely vegetarian will get served up fish/chicken

"but lotus-eater eats fish and s/he's a vegetarian"

my worst vegetarian meal out was whole, raw swordfish to be cooked on hot slabs at the table...

Well said, grateful. I've lost count of the times I've explained that I'm veggie, only to be offered fish or chicken...._pale_

As it's been mentioned on the thread, I'll tell you all that I don't eat meat or fish because I can't stand the taste, or even the smell... I have to hold my breath to go past a butcher's or a fishmonger's, or I'll heave!:eek:

But I digress.... what I wanted to offer the OP was....

If making Shepherd Spy with veggie mince, don't use Quorn mince; I find it comes up too dry. Mr T's or Mr M's soya mince seem to do the job nicely, though. HTH:o

burntfingers_2

My other half when we first got together ate mostly vegetarian meals, this was because he just doesn't like the texture of meat, he won't eat lamb, pork or beef (apart from mince in a chilli) he eats chicken and fish. As I was a meat eater things changed slightly and he says he eats more meat than he ever had done previously. But then reading this post I have realised that we actually eat very little meat.

Some nights when we get home from work we aren't really hungry and may just have things like nacho's, pasta with goats cheese and pesto, goats cheese with red onion and peppers tarts, beans on toast. We use a lot of passatta for the bases of our tomato sauces, but also we use chorizo and pancetta/tomato sauce and stir this into freshly cooked pasta. Although this isn't vegetarian but just a small amount of meat can seem a lot more so whilst your not doing with out meat its more a case of reducing the amount of meat which surely is a good thing....:)

laloopi

tilly2484 wrote: »

For me once I made the choice not to be any part of animal suffering again it was easy. I watched a video called earthlings and that day I went totally vegan.With some careful meal planning, a bit of research and looking through lots of recipes I do not miss out at all.

My husband and I watched that (free online) a few days ago. It horrified me, but I'm too nervous to go vegetarian completely as I have a toddler to feed. So I'm now trying to make the best choices I can while cutting out meat/dairy as much as possible e.g. only buying occasional organic free range meat from Abel and Cole who guarantee that their meat is "happily raised". Hopefully I'll gain more and more confidence and rely on animals less and less. Though I don't imagine we'd go wholly vegan as I am not a fan of lots of "artificial" food, which is what most vegans I have met seem to rely on.

tilly2484

laloopi wrote: »

My husband and I watched that (free online) a few days ago. It horrified me, but I'm too nervous to go vegetarian completely as I have a toddler to feed. So I'm now trying to make the best choices I can while cutting out meat/dairy as much as possible e.g. only buying occasional organic free range meat from Abel and Cole who guarantee that their meat is "happily raised". Hopefully I'll gain more and more confidence and rely on animals less and less. Though I don't imagine we'd go wholly vegan as I am not a fan of lots of "artificial" food, which is what most vegans I have met seem to rely on.

It really is a tough thing to watch- i cried so much but I'm glad i did.

It think even if people make small changes like say eating meat once a week etc it helps.

i was also very scared of going fully vegan but to be honest I don't miss anything. And it's made me more creative with my cooking.

I never try to push my views on people but I'm vegan for my own peace of mind- I was finding it hard to cope with the guilt. But my partner is an omnivore and I respect his choice but ask him to buy the more etically sourced meat from local farmers etc.