Since the horsemeat scandal, people have been looking more closely at their meat intake, and that has been us too. Recently, just this week, the news has reported the dangers of eating too much processed meat, including what can be a frugal family meal, sausages. There is a thread on MSE at the moment in the Old Style section, entitled, "Can't afford to eat meat" and so a combination of all of these has meant more of us looking for vegetarian meals.
(image from bbcgoodfood.com)
There are large sections of the internet devoted to vegetarianism, and indeed there are magazines and books available too.
But I always think personal recommendations are best, so I was delighted to find a link on the MSE thread I mentioned above to a blog entitled, "A girl called Jack" where one can read the heart-rending story of Jack and her son, really struggling to survive on the most meagre of incomes, although she has a job now. But she spends £10 a week to feed the two of them, eating mostly vegetarian meals, and mostly using Sainsbury's Basics range. Do go and have a look in her recipe section - there are some great ideas there that I am going to be trying out for myself. She has some recipes for soups there, and some interesting breads that I want to try.
The "trouble" for me with vegetarianism is that if I give up meat, to add to my already dairy-free state, I actually become vegan...so I will never be giving up meat completely! I do think that a couple of meat-less meals a week would do us good.
Whether you dabble in vegetarianism or you are a full-on vegetarian, I'd be glad to hear your favourite recipes too.
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6 comments:
We love veggie shepherd's pie. Just replace the mince with veggie mince. Supermarket own veggie mince goes further than Quorn.
Sft x
We adopted a plant based diet with no added oil last Summer for health reasons. The book 'Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease' by Caldwell B Esselstyn had been recommended to me, and after reading it we decided to make changes. We don't have money to invest for our future, but we decided to invest in our health to give us the best chance possible of living a longer life than our fathers did( mine died at 55, my FIL died at 61).After all, what use is lots of money in the bank if you are eating yourself into an early grave? We don't consider ourselves vegan, because we think veganism goes much deeper than what is on our plates. We still eat well, and I still bake. It has just been a matter of looking for alternatives, and trying things out.We love, amongst many other things, aduki bean kievs, 3 bean chili, chickpea curry, gardener's pie( like shepherd's pie but made with beans/pulses and veg rather than meat or meat substitute), tomato and lentil soup,sun-dried tomato hummus,vegetable stew with fatless dumplings, scones made with apple sauce rather than fat, muffins and fruit cake made without fat and with heated linseeds rather than eggs.I make my own bread without any added fat( despite what the breadmaker recipes state, it's completely unnecessary) and pack it full of seeds and grains. I have saved pounds in my purse and we have lost pounds on the scales, purely by cutting out animal products.I had my annual cardiac check-up recently and the results were astonishing - better than when I was exercising for between 7 and 10 hours per week at the gym.Making changes isn't for everyone, but we feel that it's been very worthwhile.
We often have a couple of veggie meals a week, one OH really likes is cauliflower and calebrese gratin with baked tomato's and a jacket spud. We will be having it tomorrow now I have got some big spuds.
I'm on a similar quest to you - thanks for the heads up on the blog!
Lesley x
Thanks for all the ideas. Only thing to add is that I am not going to go into meat replacements as I can't eat Quorn or soya either, so it is pretty basic vegetables and grains for me, I think. I can eat quinoa and rice, so we have some flexibility, but I can't do pasta at all, of any kind! I am going to be aiming for a couple of meals a week, but I don't want to make life too complicated for myself at the moment, with everything else that is going on.
Thanks for the comments - lovely to hear from you all and I will be looking for some recipes for some of the ideas mentioned. xx
If you can eat quinoa then try making a risotto type thing with that, it's delicious. As you mentioned in another post different veg makes it different each time. It's great for using up leftover or bits and bobs hanging about in the fridge.
I don't know if you can eat lentils but a shepherdess pie made with lentils instead of mince is really delicious, if you have some a small amount of marmite really meats it up (can't stand it raw but when it's cooked it's delicious).
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