We are meat eaters here.
Meat good.
Except we just welcomed a full time, 100% vegetarian to live with us for 5 months.
So, meat not so good anymore.
I needed to figure out how to eat less meat. It became a challenge, and something that could potentially be very healthy for our family. So, for the past week we have been ensuring that every meal is “vegetarian friendly”
And it has been awesome.
Our food budget has already decreased and the kids are eating things they may not have considered in the past. By making simple shifts, everyone is adapting perfectly fine.
We are still eating meat, we just are building our meal around it. It is now a side dish, not a main course.
Which, according to basic health and nutrition, is how is should be.
So, what ARE we eating?
Friday night we had easy homemade thai coconut soup with toasted cheese sandwiches. It had been a long day, and all we needed was a snack.
Saturday I marinated 2 chicken breast (cut in half to make them thinner) and served them to the carnivores alongside a mixed salad, green beans, carrots and homemade yam fries. Everyone got 1/2 of a small chicken breast.
Sunday – We had some fresh crab so I made a pasta with olive oil and garlic. Mixed in olives, artichokes, mushrooms and fresh tomatoes. Those who wanted crab, added crab. Those who didn’t, devoured it without.
Monday – Homemade quesadillas, treated much like we would make your own pizza. We had a variety of veggies and 1 sautéed chicken breast, and people added what they liked to their quesadilla before it was cooked. The kids went back for seconds on this.
Tuesday was vegetarian chili. Now chili is a regular meal at our house, but always made with an extra serving of ground beef. We, of course, left that out this time and the craziest thing happened: no one noticed!!! And my kids ate it, all. Not even picking out the stuff they would have been disgusted at in a beef chili.
Wednesday is leftover night, so we are cracking open the chili again and servicing it alongside a roasted beet salad. A meal full of veggies, and not a bit of meat.
I am excited to keep this trend going and can see that even after our exchange student leaves we will continue on with meatless, or meat reduced meals. I believe that it is better for our health, and our wallets and that by reducing our meat consumption we will be making yet another step towards reducing our footprint.
Meat is expensive to produce, and as a society we eat too much. To meet the demand we had to create faster and cheaper ways to make meat, and that has had a negative affect.
Our family believes in a quality over quantity concept for all things, and finally we have shifted it to meat as well!