Traditionally, I have never been a HUGE meat eater. Especially red meat. And especially the fatty stuff. Sure, I love a good cheeseburger, pot roast or good steak. But, a meal without meat doesn't bother me a bit. Given a choice of chicken or steak in any restaurant I always pick chicken. I gravitate towards it. My husband on the other hand is a HUGE meat eater. He was brought up with Southern unhealthy eating habits for sure! Not a meal unless it has meat. He is a very heavy eater, many of our meals are heavy, which is fine, but probably should happen on a more occasional basis. It is just a matter of getting creative. I love a Mediterranean diet. I could eat at Pita Jungle every single day. I need to be better about portion control, but I love that style of eating. Yum.
Along with the yoga, comes a lot of perspective into one's eating habits. Many Yogi's are vegan or vegetarians. At the very least, most that practice seriously are pretty healthy eaters. I have been reading a lot about different life style's and have had many friends cut back on their meat intake and notice favorable increases in energy, lost weight, less bloating. So, I am intrigued. Not too the point of total vegetarianism (though I probably could do it, Neil, NEVER gonna happen!) but I thought, in the interest of our pocketbooks, waistlines and health, about going meatless one day a week. Meatless Mondays has a nice ring to it. And I must have heard of it somewhere because there is a whole website dedicated to just such a thing. Perhaps I need to research some yummy, healthy recipes for my husband, no meat certainly doesn't mean no flavor. Now I just have to convince the hubby of that! Anyone have any yummy tips, tricks or recipes for healthy, vegitarian, affordable dishes??
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Yah, meatless Monday is not happening around here with the hubby. BUT I will try to dig out some of my good recipes from my vegetarian days. Did you know I was an herbivore for 6 years after high school? I will have to find some of my favorite recipes. . .
ReplyDeleteNo I didn't! What made you come back to meat eating? I have just read so much and I have many vegitarian friends. Less meat seems to be connected with good health! I wish we could afford to eat all grass fed, organic beef and chicken. I just figured maybe one day a week would be good to cleanse and commit to being healthy..... Neil may play along, but eat a cheeseburger as soon as I'm not looking! His cholesterol is really high, it is heriditary, so I really wish he would eat better. I just want to make sure he is healthy (and me too!) so I figure maybe he could humor me for one day. Or at least the mealswe eat together on Mondays!
ReplyDeleteAny recipes, tips, or anything I always welcome! I am a fish out of water on this one. Found some good recipes on the meatlessmonday website.
ETHNIC FOOD! It fun, different and almost always quasi-vegetarian! You already mentioned Pita Jungle- what do they serve? Middle Eastern food! Also look into Indian cuisine, anything Asian (Thai, Chinese, Japanese, etc.- TOFU galore!), various Mexican/Latino foods (lots of beans), Mediterrean, etc. I've said it before but if you try to take the meat out of typical American meat and potato dishes, you'll likely feel deprived but if it's something that naturally doens't have meat (like a bean burrito), you won't even miss the meat. Good luck! BTW vegetarianism never needs to be all or nothing, every little bit helps your health, the planet, animals, and a million other things:)
ReplyDeleteI got married to a carnivore. I had actually started eating some chicken and fish before we got married because otherwise it was just too hard for people to have me over or to have people over. I'll dig out my recipes sometime this week for you. I had some good ones. . . Spinach quiche, black bean burgers. Mmm...
ReplyDeleteYou should read Real Food- it's so awesome! While we are not vegetarians, we do eat organic, with grass-fed or pastured meats (depending on the type of meat). I've just gotten creative in my grocery shopping to make it work.
My hubby also hails from a "no meat, no meal" part of the country, but I was partially raised with vegetarians, so I have no problem finding alternate sources of protein. We go meatless at least once per week, usually more (hey, meat is expensive!).
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite vegetarian dishes is chili. I sub Quorn (brand name) crumbles for beef, use plenty of beans, and proceed as usual. Neither of us has ever missed the meat. Bonus: no neon orange film of fat on your chili! I really recommend Quorn brand because it's not soy-based. We get ours at Whole Foods. You can do a similar beef/Quorn swap on spaghetti sauce, tacos, or anywhere else you'd use crumbled ground beef.
Quinoa, albeit a grain, is a "perfect protein", so it's pretty filling, as grains go. I whip up our favorite veggies in a tasty sauce and serve the whole thing over a bed of quinoa. Tastes awesome and is SO easy. I'm actually making this in a few days...balsamic-sauced veggies over quinoa with goat cheese. I recommend cooking quinoa in broth, or in liberally seasoned water, because it's pretty tasteless on it's own, lol.
Vegetable lasagna. You can load these bad boys so full of veggies and low-fat cheese that no one would ever even think about meat! Super Target sells whole-wheat, no-boil lasagna noodles, or you can forgo the pasta entirely by subbing very thinly sliced (lengthwise) eggplant for noodles. This might be my hubby's favorite meat-free dish.
I'm sure I'll think of more...I'll hit you up on Facebook. :)
YEA! Thanks everyone. I want to be more ofa 3 daysno meat type of gal, but it is a jumping off point. I am trying to convince Neil to go meat free for lent. He traditionallyloves to do lent and usually gives up something big. Hopefully I can convince him this year!
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