Our health, our nature and our poor animals could all do with a little less (or a lot less) meat consumption. How about those meatless mondays, huh?
These last few years, I've started eating less and less meat. There's plenty of reasons to do this, like our health and the health of our entire planet (the only home we have). Ofcourse the animal abuse is horrible aswell. Delve into the meat industry, watch a couple of documentaries about it and try not to care about all of the hurting (or better yet, care, care a lot).
It's not easy to switch to a plant based diet when all you've ever known in life is meat for every dinner. It's even harder when you have a husband who doesn't want to give up 'The idea of meat'.
Luckily, there are many substitutes out there now and anyone living in a prosperous, rich country really has all the choice in the world. And when you have a choice, why would you pick cruelty? Why would you go for most impact on our planet?
Due to hubby, my options are a little restricted. The first thing we did was to switch out minced meat for a plant based fake. We use minced meat in various oven dishes and pasta's, but with all of the various ingredients and sauce mixed in there, you really can't tell the difference between real minced meat and the plant based fake. So that was a painless first step, even for hubby and one I can really advice you to give a try yourself.
Then, I started buying random plant based burgers to replace the meat based ones. The quality and taste varies greatly and if you try this, all I can say is: Don't give up. You'll buy some you hate, but you'll find a few you love aswell. We now have a few good ones to replace hamburgers, so that's more meat we will never have to buy again.
(We find the 'Garden Gourmet Sensational' line has some great options, although I don't know if they are international or just Dutch.)
We are now at a point where I don't buy any more meat or eggs for us. Hubby will eat a meat based burger with co-workers from time to time, but he's okay with our meatless dinners at home. He even recommended a vegan option from Burger King to me, having tried it himself.
Personally, I try to lessen the use of milk aswell. I have plant based yoghurt and milk, but hubby still has his regular yoghurt. There's also cheese. There is no way I can take cheese away from him. I still eat cheese sometimes aswell, although I want to find a good substitute for it for me.
I don't call myself vegan or even vegetarian. I don't like the 'strictness' that comes with it and honestly, if someone would make us dinner with meat during a visit, I would probably eat it. Not like I can make any kind of change by then. And I will probably eat sushi again somewhere in the future, although I'll more likely
go for substitutes now. Either way, most of the time I just do the best I can and I appreciate every small step anyone takes in that direction.
I like things like Meatless Monday, because they make you think and try something new. They might help someone make a small step towards a better world and just think about what a big effect it would have if everyone would eat a little less meat weekly.
Today, me and my picture ^ up there, would like to tell you: It doesn't have to be hard or take a lot of your time! This is one of our favorite, easy dinners: Falafel wrap.
It's so simple. Just heat up your falafel, grab a few wraps, take whatever sauce you like best, add whatever veggies you like (or have lying around), maybe add some herbs, and you're done! We enjoy our falafel wrap with garlic sauce, slices of red beet, chives and some leafy greens, like arugula or spinach. The picture above shows the lack of enough spinach in our garden, but atleast it's something. When lacking beets, I'll usually add some cucumber and tomatoes.
You could make your own falafel, grow you own beets and greens, make your own sauce, do super fancy things. You can also just buy everything in the store and you'll be done within 15 minutes (perfect for a busy monday). We're somewhere inbetween right now and it's all fine. It all tastes good.
I do want to try and make my own falafel eventually though... It gives you more choices about the taste!
How about you?
- Have you (partially) switched out meat from your diet?
- What were/are your motives to move to a more plant based diet?
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My wife and I eat less meat (we now share a portion instead of one each) adn we cook without meat once or twice a week. Otto Lenghi cooking book is helping us and falafel is a favourite of us.
Oh, what a great idea! They do say we eat way more than we would need if you look at the nutrients, so other than missing a few extra bites of good taste, that should still work out fine.
I'll have to google that one! Most of my vegetarian meals are pretty uninspired, just a plant based fake, so my husband can still have the idea of meat. Now that I've quit my job, I do want to find some nice recipes that just don't require meat at all.
Many of them also consume meat. Usually each other. Either dead or alive. My bird (a Harris's hawk) also eat me.
I do not see any problem with meat eating. What more, eating meat is not just/only delicious, but I heard that it also improves brain fuction.
They do, but they do this to live, to survive. They don't have any other choice. Humans do. Humans have done plenty of science and found out that any nutrient meat provides, a plant based diet can also provide. With less of the downsides of meat to our health (like an increased chance of heart disease and cancer). So where health is concerned, plant based is probably a better idea. Just eat more nuts and seeds for your brain.
From all the information out there, I think most of our current problems concerning the climate could be avoided if everyone who could, would go plant based. Instead, because people want to barbecue, we have to come up with a shitload of other, also annoying, solutions and hope they will be enough.
So yes, I do see a problem with eating meat, even if you ignore the animal abuse, but I understand that it's a hard thing to give up for many people.
The climate part is probably a fair point, but plants are also living things, but interestingly no one says plant abuse.
By the way, besides meat, I also eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I like them too. And I also like !PIZZA.
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Yes, plants are living things, but to get to the eating meat part, we first have to feed animals a whole bunch of plants and then we eat the meat, so that's plant and meat abuse. I guess just eating plants straight away is the least amount of abuse we can get away with while still staying alive and healthy ourselves ;-)
That's good, it's a well balanced diet I think! If you would go meatless, you have to think about replacing some much needed nutrients and you'll probably be eating more things like nuts, seeds and beans, or... legumes I think is the right word? Then there's the B12 thing, but the add that to many meat replacers. There's a little planning and education involved in that path, but very doable. (Not trying to convert you by the way)
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Sorry pizzabot!