3 Diffrent meals for a family of three driving me mad + costs more money!!

andycarmi

In our household their is

DH- meat/fish eater.
Myself - vegetarian
DD- Weaning + Milk intolerance...

Its driving me mad cooking three diffrent meals for the family every night:rolleyes: It all so cost a lot more to cook 3 diffrent meals. I know when DD gets a bit older she can have either what I m having or what her Dad is having but right now its driving me crackers.

I have been thinking for a while I might try to eat some fish but I can't bring myself to eat it. I have been veggi for 20yrs.

Has anyone turned veggi to meat eater? How did you do it?

illmonkey

Cant you do a Veggi meal for yourself and then just slap a bit of steak on for your husband, and he can have some veggis as a side? I dunno what babys can eat, but i assume they could have some of your veggi ? and possibly some of dads steak?

Other thing to do is cook loads of certin things and freeze it into small portions, so each night you only need to defrost something. Would maybe take you a few hours every weekend and 15 minutes each night.

Head over to the Old Style board for more help.

C_Ronaldo

or cook a lasagne, separate the mixture between 2 bowls; 1 with meat in and the other with no meat and cook away, obviously youd do the veggie 1 first then add the meat to the other half of teh sauce in the pan and tehn put it inot the other dish,

or

pizza, do a pizza on 1 tray and split it into 2, 1 half for you and the other half for you OH with meat on

or a chilli/curry, make the sauce in a pan, split into 2 dishes 1 with meat and 1 without meat and cook,

there may be other ideas which i cant think of at the min

katglasgow

Hi I understand your dilema I was in your situation a whole ago, got to the point where my son was 18 months and a really picky eater realised I wanted more than anything just for us all to sit down and eat the same meal togther as a family! I hadnt ate meat for c.17 years and hadnt had fish for 15 years (started eating it when pregnant). It was acutally quite shocking how easy it was to start eating it again. My partner and son both eat veggie for 2 or 3 times a week, but we also eat fish and white and red meat so the meat I am eating is balanced out by the veggie meals my OH is now eating. Because we dont eat meat every night, I can often afford to go for the free range or RSPCA approved option too. I have to say for me its been a great decision as my son now eats much better and I am so muich less stressed getting meal times organsied and planning the meals/shopping, its freed up loads of my time.

katglasgow

My first meat meal was CHristmas Dinner at my mum's house. I just quietly told her not to make me anything different that year and I'd see how I felt. I had a small slice of turkey and stuffing and eating them was kind of weird, its just tasked exactly how I remembered it all this years ago. Didnt make me feel ill or funny at all. I probably still have smaller portions of meat than others and more veggie but thats just because I dont think meat is the be all and end all of a meal if you know what I mean!

Justie

I had 15 years of not eating meat or fish but for health reasons needed to up my protein so I now eat some chicken but only a couple of times a week max and usually about half what most meat eaters would consider a portion...

If you want to start eating meat or fish that's your choice but there are lots of ways to combine a veggie and non-veggie meal so that you're not cooking everything separately.

Cooking the veg accompaniment (pasta, potatoes, rice whatever you're having with it) and then having grilled meat for DH and a veggie burger for yourself (you can make home made or buy frozen ones whcih ever you prefer) is easy. Making something that's basically veggie that your DH then has a slice of meat or fish with. Bulk cooking as has been mentioned. Making something like jacket potatoes with cheese and beans for you and tuna for him with a salad is dead easy. It depends how veggie you are there are somethings that I'll cook and then I'll eat the veg etc that's in it but not the meat (casseroles etc). Or you could cook a veggie sausage casserole and your DH won't even notice it's not meat...

I'd make DD's food up in bulk and freeze it presumably she eats before you anyway? Or even if she doesn't defrosting it whilst you're cooking is dead easy.

Spendless

What sort of meals do you eat? If you're doing veg can't you mash up some for your baby? Or what about doing a bulk cooking of baby food and freezing in ice cube trays so you are just re-heating their food instead of doing a completely seperate meal.

Rachie_B

agree with the cooking and freezing ( esp baby food ! so easy to do and just freez ein ice cube trays)

maybe batch cook once a week or once a month ?

then all you have to do is take out of the freezer the night before,and cook the rice / pasta / veggies etc to go with it

would your hubby sometimes eat meat free meals ? i am not veggie,however i like meat free meals and so once or twice a week we will do that,hubby doesnt mind so long as he gets meat at some point during the week lol

Gingham_Ribbon

Will your husband eat veggie some evenings?

You can freeze the baby's stuff in ice cube trays and defrost the night before or mash up the veggies you have cooked for yourself.

You could make pasta/stir fry/curry etc for yourself and have some diced meat/chicken in a seperate pan to add to it at the end for DH. If you're doing veggie burger/nut cutlet/roast etc with potatoes, you could stick a chop or steak on for him at the same time. If you make your own pzzas, you could half the dough and make one veggie and add meat to one.

That should make it easier than making completely different meals.

andycarmi

Thanks some great ideas here. DH would look at me very strange if there was no meat or fish in his meal. LOL I eat a lot of pasta and he won't!
I like the home made pizza idea. Also the cassarole make it with veg stock then add meat after I take mine out.

We go to veggi restaurants DH not keen but goes for me, its nice being able to pick anything of the menu.

I m going to have a look on the OS board thanks.

bumpybecky

can you use quorn? I suspect some products have dairy stuff in them, but might be worth a look? I started using quorn mince as I was doing slimming world. I didn't tell DH and the kids it was veggie and they didn't notice!

I was veggie for 10 years and started eating meat shortly before I got pregnant with dd1. It's been easy to adjust to eating meat again, although now after 8 years I'm beginning to think I need to cut back on the meat a bit as I'm eating it virtually every meal.

Would you find it easier to eat happy meat?! you can get free range organic meat fairly easily now. It's not cheap, but might be emotionally easier!