Meat/travel reducers thread week 2.

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Deadeye 02 May 2019

Following https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/off_belay/week_1_thread_for_meat_reducers...

It went ok on the whole.  Picking recipes ahead and buying the right ingredients was a good plan and helped reduce temptation.  However, temptation it still surely is and I disproportionately enjoyed the chicken casserole at the weekend.

I had one disappointment - a pub meal where I ordered the only veggie option but, hey, it's one less ham/egg/chips or pie/mash I guess.

For the coming week I have raided the BBC recipes archive... and the fridge appears to be mostly full of peppers and mushrooms.

Cheese remains a significant problem... and my real crunch will come when all the freezer meat has gone.

How did it go for you?

Post edited at 18:40
3
Lusk 02 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

I've just soaked 1.5kg of chickpeas overnight, need to cook them now before knocking up some Morroccan style dish/es.

Seeing as there's only me and the Mrs this weekend, looks like lots of variations on a chickpea theme!

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 mbh 02 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

We had our weekend blowout of chicken sofrito from Claudia Roden, but apart from that it has been vegetables all the way. Well, for my wife it has. I keep snacking on smoked mackerel in bread rolls. Salt overload heaven!

We ate:

Courgette/spinach soup

Aloo Gobi

Roast vegetables and baked potato

Noodle soup. This means, the noodles I brought back from Hong Kong (oops!) + various vegetables. I also used some of the fermented beans I have had in a jar for ages.

Smoked paprika vegetable stew (with red pepper  + baked aubergines for thickening + whatever I feel like.)

Puttanesca. This is spaghetti + tomatoes + olives + (if my wife is in a relaxed mood) anchovies.

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 Alyson 02 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

I've been reducing my meat intake for a while now. Can thoroughly recommend Quorn mince for chilli, bolognese etc (I've discovered most people can't tell the difference, though to my mind it's a little softer in texture than fried beef mince). Quorn pieces as a chicken replacement I'm less enthused about. Much prefer tofu.

Tonight I made a sweet potato, spinach and coconut curry. Yum!

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 aln 02 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

The supermarket magazines have recipes that are often good. Obviously geared towards the stuff they're selling but they're also fairly seasonal. I don't shop in the Co-Op much, but their mag has had some good ideas. There's one with leeks, peas walnuts and pears in pasta which we love. I could post or PM the recipe.p

Post edited at 19:32
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 girlymonkey 02 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

This is a favourite in our house at the moment. Super tasty 😊

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 tjdodd 02 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

I've done pretty well this week.  Only meat has been some prosciutto for a meat fix (gives a lot of flavour per gram though).

Pasta with homemade sauce (red peppers, courgette, bit of ketchup, balsamic vinegar, herbs with slow cooked whole plum tinned tomatoes until they break down - gives a really rich tomato sauce)

Ciabatta pizza (just buy some ciabatta bread, cut in half and top with ingredients) with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella (and the prosciutto)

Quiche and salad

Breakfasts are muesli or porridge with soya milk or water.

Cheese is my biggest problem as well.  Lots this week and it seems to taste even better the less meat I eat.

My waste reduction has nearly reached a steady state now.  Over the past couple of months I have steadily shifted to buying as much as I can loose (from a great shop called unwrapped in Crookes in Sheffield).  Almost no plastic waste now - my big issue here is I love squash as I do not drink hot drinks.

Post edited at 19:55
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 Naechi 02 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

To add to the theme of the thread, maybe focus some meals/recipes on locally grown seasonal produce with minimum mileage?  Plenty of supermarket foods coming from south America, Africa, the middle East, China - No sense skipping those sunny climate climbing trips if your lunch sees more countries to get to your plate...

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 Sl@te Head 02 May 2019
In reply to Naechi:

Agree or better still grow your own...

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 girlymonkey 02 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

Oops, meant to link to the favourite! I'm good at all things technical! Lol

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/indian-chickpeas-poached-eggs

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 KS132 02 May 2019
In reply to girlymonkey:

Thank you for this recipe - it sounds lovely. Will certainly try it over the next week. 

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 tjdodd 02 May 2019
In reply to Naechi:

The other thing I am trying is to cook less to reduce energy use.  So salad at least a few times a week (although I accept the food miles might not be brilliant on some of the veg).

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XXXX 02 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

Our house went vegetarian 2 or 3 days a week for cost reasons some years ago, but it's really hard to do as for someone used to cooking meat, it needs a lot of effort to find new recipes and learn new ingredients. We struggled on for a year or so even after the finances recovered, but with the same vege recipes every week, which was dull and tedious.

Last year we went vege for a month to force us to think creatively about vege food and increase the variation. Now it's really easy for us to go three or four days a week without meat and with some thought we can go 'full time', which we do for a few weeks at a time in each season. We still love meat and buy less, better quality cuts. 

Some changes became permanent, so no more meat in sandwiches at home or if I have to buy one out. It's always cheap meat, so I'll save my 'quota' for something really nice at home. I'd recommend going vege for a month to anyone trying to cut down on meat. 

The Part-Time Vegetarian is a great recipe book, we bought it as a 'treat' before our first month off and it's nice to have something physical to look through when finding new recipes. And you can add meat to any of the dishes if you want.

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 twoshoes 03 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

Without trying to derail your thread, can I add a third 'reduction'? 

I buy/consume far too much 'stuff'. An extra pair of climbing shoes because they might edge better, a new tie because there's a wedding coming up, a dvd at the supermarket because I'm bored etc etc. In every case I already have something that does the same job. I'm just consuming more than I need (and is sustainable), ultimately adding to landfill and adding to the pollution from the manufacturing and transport industries because I'm being greedy.

I'm aiming to fly less and I don't eat meat, but I think that for me cutting down on general consumption would probably have more impact than either of those. And I'd have more money.

Edit - I just bought a thin hoody because it was too cold to boulder in a t-shirt yesterday but too warm for my bigger jumpers. Ffs. Why didn't I just stick a thermal under my t-shirt? What a chump. 

Post edited at 08:02
In reply to Deadeye:

This week I've successfully only eaten meat on an evening! Including no Friday bacon (yet, its only 8am...)
Commute to work as normal (train + electric longboard)
 

Next week I'm going to try for a couple of vegie evening meals as well

 MeMeMe 03 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

Still on our hols in Spain (via the coach).

It’s not the best place for veggie/vegan food but we’ve mostly eaten in (much cheaper anyway!) and the vegetables are loads better here so I’ve actually been enjoying salad and bread for lunch which isn’t something I thought i’d be saying!

We’ve eaten out twice, once in Madrid where we had a salad sandwich and cheese sandwich in a bar. That was pretty bad. Then once in our resort where we had a great veggie paella and the kids had pizza. I wish we’d stuck to our guns and just had more paella though, the paella was really great and the kids would have loved it too if we’d just not ordered the pizza.

Surprisingly it’s really easy to get soya milk here so we’re avoiding cows milk (although I’m not convinced that soya milk is much better ecologically speaking but it’s what we’re doing for now). We’re undoubtedly having butter in the many breakfast pastries we’re eating but they’re impossible to resist!

Deadeye 03 May 2019
In reply to tjdodd:

> I've done pretty well this week.  Only meat has been some prosciutto for a meat fix (gives a lot of flavour per gram though).

Hmm.  I may have to add chorizo to my danger list (which currently stands at cheese).

Deadeye 03 May 2019
In reply to twoshoes:

> Without trying to derail your thread, can I add a third 'reduction'? 

Noi worries - go for it.

> I buy/consume far too much 'stuff'. An extra pair of climbing shoes because they might edge better, a new tie because there's a wedding coming up, a dvd at the supermarket because I'm bored etc etc. In every case I already have something that does the same job. I'm just consuming more than I need (and is sustainable), ultimately adding to landfill and adding to the pollution from the manufacturing and transport industries because I'm being greedy.

> I'm aiming to fly less and I don't eat meat, but I think that for me cutting down on general consumption would probably have more impact than either of those. And I'd have more money.

I'm relatively on top of this - everything I own is old, worn and full of holes, including, it seems, my body.  My mum is of the war generation and loathes waste.  Duct tape is king in her house.

 subtle 03 May 2019
In reply to Deadeye:

Hmm, Ive done ok, ish.

Slow cooked a large ham last weekend, it was used in three nights dinners and four day's of lunches during the week - made it last long time by using lots of non meat things to pad it out - the usual ham would have been devoured on one Sunday meal and one lunch sandwich with other meat being eaten the other times so this is still a reduction in meat right?

Also had meat free (no baon/sausuage) breakfasts, and lost of veg soups, in fact no other meat all week other than the ham. This is between two of us so actually not a bad reduction.

Pizza and fish on the menu for this weekend, will see what next weeks brings though.


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