We haven’t eaten beef or lamb for years, and only buy free range pork or chicken from Waitrose. We eat smaller quantities of it, too, often share one chicken breast between the two of us. OH would like to go completely vegetarian but he does enjoy meat. We have therefore used veggie meat substitutes quite a lot, and find them very good. I do suspect that Quorn might have given us tummy upsets in the past, but no problem with the textured soya mince, and Linda McC veggie sausages. I do keep in tins of mixed lentils, and mixed beans, and use them for versions of shepherds pie, ‘bolognese’ sauce for pasta, or topped with pastry. Delicious heated through in a fry up of onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and celery. I don’t think slow cookers lend themselves too well to veggie food, as so little of it needs long slow cooking to tenderise, and they’d don’t get hot enough for things like raw red kidney beans. I mainly use mine to make rice pudding! Because we both drink our tea and coffee black, I used to struggle to use up milk and hated to throw it out. I bought a small cheap slow cooker, and whenever I think I’m going to have a glut of milk, I make a rice pudding. OH’s favourite, and definitely doesn’t get wasted, I reckon it paid for itself within a matter of months.
I agree with you about the quorn. Maybe it’s why it made you sick, you may have been on one of these medications at the time. when I read about the ingredients it puts me right off.
“Calcium chloride is an inorganic compound, a salt with the chemical formula CaCl₂. It is a white coloured crystalline solid at room temperature, and it is highly soluble in water. It can be created by neutralising hydrochloric acid with calcium hydroxide”
Before taking calcium acetate,
tell your doctor and pharmacist if you are allergic to calcium acetate, any other medications, or any of the ingredients in calcium acetate preparations. Ask your pharmacist for a list of the ingredients.
tell your doctor and pharmacist what other prescription and nonprescription medications, vitamins, nutritional supplements, and herbal products you are taking or plan to take. Be sure to mention any of the following: digoxin (Lanoxin). Take a fluoroquinolone antibiotic such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro), gemifloxacin (Factive), levofloxacin, or moxifloxacin (Avelox) at least 2 hours before or 6 hours after taking calcium acetate. Also, take levothyroxine (Euthyrox, Synthroid, Tirosint) at least 4 hours before or 4 hours after taking calcium acetate. Take a tetracycline antibiotic such as demeclocycline, doxycycline (Monodox, Oracea, Vibramcyin), minocycline (Dynacin, Minocin, Solodyn), or tetracycline (Achromycin V, in Pylera) at least 1 hour before taking calcium acetate. Your doctor may need to change the doses of your medications or monitor you carefully for side effects. Many other medications may also interact with calcium acetate, so be sure to tell your doctor about all the medications you are taking, even those that do not appear on this list.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I grew up on a mixed farm, and have been a smallholder ... I took our animals to a local abattoir and I trust the family firm that still runs it. I know it is possible to rear animals humanely for meat ... but it does cost a bit more. I'm not rich, so I eat smaller portions of meat and have two or three meat free meals a week.
We buy from farm shops and butchers that trace their meat back to its source and those sources are farms I know and farmers I respect. It does cost a bit more, so we eat a bit less of it and have huge portions of vegetables ... also locally grown as much as possible.
I also believe that well-reared non-intensive, humanely produced meat is sustainable in a mixed agricultural system, and that given the UK topography and climate it is the most positive way forward for the environment.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ironic we have a heatwave, I almost always batch cook. The slo cooker is brilliant for veg soup. We have a village butcher,the meat is on the South Downs bang opposite. My hubby was told to eat less meat for health reasons and now a few years down the line he isn't really missing it. Is meat defined by colour, yes,of course, always been talked about in terms of brown,dark or white meat.i wonder if you could cook a nut roast in the slo cooker?
There are some Ottolenghi recipes on BBC Food. He does a very good lasagna using mushrooms blitzed in a food processor instead of minced meat. I'm planning to try it this winter when Possum's not looking cos she thinks she doesn't like mushrooms but I doubt she'll spot the difference. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spicy_mushroom_lasagne_12453
OMG... that recipe is to die for! Also, with my kids it's the texture of mushrooms they don't like, not the taste, and this recipe completely changes the texture.
(I, like a lot on here, eat meat, but trying to cut down. The vacuum packed puy lentils are a great, if a little expensive, standby...)
I prefer a chilli made with a mixture of beans to one made with meat. We have to be soy free here so no tofu or quorn or any of that processed stuff.
I grow quite a few beans for drying, including borlottis and Greek gigantes. Both are very 'meaty' and filling as the main component of a meal. Gigantes plaki Gigantes plaki recipe | BBC Good Food is a really good mid-week supper and you can make it with ordinary butter beans if you don't have gigantes. Fresh borlottis are delicious in a minestrone with cavolo nero from the garden.
We eat fish a couple of nights a week - the local town has a market with a mobile fish van who has nice fresh fish and quite varied, so we can have lemon sole or red mullet or sea bass on one day and then salmon from the SM. We try to eat veggie for all our lunches and a couple of evening meals a week, so meat 3 times a week, as a rule.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
OH won't even think about giving up meat, but we have cut it down a lot. I often use half-and-half mince and lentils for chilli, ragu-style pasta sauce, cottage pie and suchlike, as well as adding different types of beans to the chilli. For curries, stir-fry dishes etc I use less meat than I used to (eg one medium-sized chicken breast between us) and lots of different veggies. Brown or green lentils keep their shape and texture better, red split lentils soften more and make a thick sauce.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Britain's uplands are badly overgrazed, and about 70% of our crops are fed to livestock. There'll always be a place for some livestock, but the idea of getting back to using less meat makes a lot of sense.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
I know it is possible to rear animals humanely for meat ... but it does cost a bit more... I eat smaller portions of meat and have two or three meat free meals a week. ...We buy from farm shops and butchers that trace their meat back to its source and those sources are farms I know and farmers I respect. It does cost a bit more, so we eat a bit less of it... I also believe that well-reared non-intensive, humanely produced meat is sustainable in a mixed agricultural system, and that given the UK topography and climate it is the most positive way forward for the environment.
This is pretty much my approach too. I only eat organic meat - beef mostly, because I like it - no chicken or lamb, very little pork. No processed meat after I had cancer (nitrates and nitrites). There is decent data to suggest processed meat (cured meats, bacon, most sausages, salamis etc) gives a significantly higher cancer risk. I do love salami, but hey ho.
I have stopped eating fish because I think our oceans just can't afford it. Arguably marine life is an even worse plight than land farming. I used to eat a lot of fish, but I don't miss it.
I tend to think that very fresh foods give a zing and treat to meals and make them so special that the protein bit of the meal is not the star. Those who grow their own veg know this, I guess. I love south-east Asian food best. A soup with fresh bok choi, limes, lemongrass, and maybe green beans and chillies, fresh corriander - this can be a wonder. You could add some prawns or a bit of beef or noodles, but the taste is the star. This is easier in the summer, if eating seasonally. I refuse to import green beans from Kenya - the height of craziness.
To cut down on beef usage, one way might be to make good beef stock and freeze it. A little goes a long way. That way you get the meatiness and richness of beef, without the beef.
Some recipes - you can adapt the recipes and the protein element
Posts
I do keep in tins of mixed lentils, and mixed beans, and use them for versions of shepherds pie, ‘bolognese’ sauce for pasta, or topped with pastry. Delicious heated through in a fry up of onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and celery.
I don’t think slow cookers lend themselves too well to veggie food, as so little of it needs long slow cooking to tenderise, and they’d don’t get hot enough for things like raw red kidney beans. I mainly use mine to make rice pudding! Because we both drink our tea and coffee black, I used to struggle to use up milk and hated to throw it out. I bought a small cheap slow cooker, and whenever I think I’m going to have a glut of milk, I make a rice pudding. OH’s favourite, and definitely doesn’t get wasted, I reckon it paid for itself within a matter of months.
when I read about the ingredients it puts me right off.
“Calcium chloride is an inorganic compound, a salt with the chemical formula CaCl₂. It is a white coloured crystalline solid at room temperature, and it is highly soluble in water. It can be created by neutralising hydrochloric acid with calcium hydroxide”
Before taking calcium acetate,
We buy from farm shops and butchers that trace their meat back to its source and those sources are farms I know and farmers I respect. It does cost a bit more, so we eat a bit less of it and have huge portions of vegetables ... also locally grown as much as possible.
I also believe that well-reared non-intensive, humanely produced meat is sustainable in a mixed agricultural system, and that given the UK topography and climate it is the most positive way forward for the environment.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
(I, like a lot on here, eat meat, but trying to cut down. The vacuum packed puy lentils are a great, if a little expensive, standby...)
I grow quite a few beans for drying, including borlottis and Greek gigantes. Both are very 'meaty' and filling as the main component of a meal. Gigantes plaki Gigantes plaki recipe | BBC Good Food is a really good mid-week supper and you can make it with ordinary butter beans if you don't have gigantes. Fresh borlottis are delicious in a minestrone with cavolo nero from the garden.
We eat fish a couple of nights a week - the local town has a market with a mobile fish van who has nice fresh fish and quite varied, so we can have lemon sole or red mullet or sea bass on one day and then salmon from the SM. We try to eat veggie for all our lunches and a couple of evening meals a week, so meat 3 times a week, as a rule.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”