No Meat May

I'm anaemic and advised to eat red meat! However, I use an iron supplement in the form of a cheek spray. Iron tablets make me constipated. My haemoglobin is now normal but I need to get my ferritin up yet.
Don't dismiss plants as having no protein! Black beans are 16% protein and have mega fibre as do all the pulses. Even potatoes are 12% protein but are not a complete source. You need to add complementary sources of incomplete proteins to provide all the essential amino acids that are vital for your body to function properly. The complete plant proteins include soy (tofu, tempeh, edamame) quinoa, buckwheat, hemp seeds, chia seeds, spirulina, amaranth and pistachios.
Search Google for plant foods essential amino acids

Would seem fish and fowl would be excluded in no meat May.

MayBee70

I’ve bought some cans of chickpeas ( lots of protein in them) but haven’t worked out what to do with them yet.

Soak then cook chickpeas, drain.

Use in curries, hummus, chili, bean salads, falafel, soups.

Macaydia

Eating fish more often than once a week is unhealthy but red meat is listed as a carcinogen (from W.H.O.) whereas chicken is not. What do you like for your starches? Pasta, rice or potatoes? Do you eat fruit?

Not according to the BHF website and the NHS. It’s recommended to eat 2 to 3 portions of fish per week, one of which should be an oily fish such as salmon or sardines.

No meat May, no way!

I eat a lot of fruit and veg and very little meat - fish on Fishy Friday.
I love vegetarian dishes so I’ll give it a go and see how long it is before I’m tempted to have a chicken curry. 😂

mum2three

Eating the flesh of what was a living, feeling creature is a very primitive, barbaric activity. The civilised thing to do is give up eating meat altogether.

Eating other organisms is how life on earth is sustained. Every creature eats and is eaten by other creatures. As the prime top predator we just kill, but rarely eat each other.

Eating plants is damaging beings that we now know have complex interactions with other plants. Their relationships are symbiotic, when we crop and eat them we disturb these relationships and there is evidence that they feel the pain
www.theguardian.com/n]]otesandqueries/query/0,,-83446,00.html

The uestion is how far down this living pain suffering chain you go down before feeling you should not eat them. Would you eat fish, insects, algae, bacteria etc.

My justification for eating meat is that I only eat wild meat, organic chicken and ruminants that have been raise to Pasture for Life standards.

The animals so reared have the best of two worlds. A life that meets all their needs in their natural habitate but safe from predators and receiving medical treatment when they are ill or injured. Wild animals are, of course at risk of predation especially if they are ill or injured and in danger of dying from starvation or drought, if weather conditions are unfavourable.

But any food you eat is killing and destroying a living organism.

Price of meat, it will be meat free May, June, July… for some families 😊

MayBee70

No excuse now then! I did think about putting them on the mantelpiece with a candle next to them and use them as a homage to the month. Having said that I eat very little meat anyway. Meat I can live without, it’s cheese that I love more than anything.

Ooh MayBee I'm with you on the cheese.

A couple of times a year I share a cheese order with my daughter from The Cheese Lady. Got one yesterday and had to practice great restraint in not opening every single one and having a try.

Expensive but honestly, worth it for a treat.

I've many a can or packet lurking in my cupboards that could join your chickpeas on the mantelpiece. Actually, some of them have been there for so long that's probably the only place they're good for. I always start with such good intentions.

No excuse now then! I did think about putting them on the mantelpiece with a candle next to them and use them as a homage to the month. Having said that I eat very little meat anyway. Meat I can live without, it’s cheese that I love more than anything.

Google says you should eat at least two portions of fish a week including one oily and one white.

That’s good because we live on fish and veg!

Eating the flesh of what was a living, feeling creature is a very primitive, barbaric activity. The civilised thing to do is give up eating meat altogether.

MayBee70

I’ve bought some cans of chickpeas ( lots of protein in them) but haven’t worked out what to do with them yet.

Ah, now I can help you there.

I've opened a large tin and I'm using half to go in a Keralan style veg curry - Potatoes, spinach, cauliflower, green beans and squash, spices, curry leaves, vegetable stock and coconut milk.

The other half I rinse and dry in some kitchen towel or a tea towel (some of the husk will peel off naturally if you roll them about to dry them). Toss in a little olive oil and salt and I throw them in the air fryer for about 12 - 15 mns @ 200 degrees. Use as a snack. You can use any seasoning you fancy befor roasting them, garlic salt, onion salt, paprika.

I’ve bought some cans of chickpeas ( lots of protein in them) but haven’t worked out what to do with them yet.

Whitewavemark2

You could meet it all half way as it were.

I alternate - 3 days. Meat, fish and veggie. That works OK.

Yeah I do similar to that, it cuts down on meat and is easy to do.

Grandmabatty

Why is eating fish more than once a week unhealthy? I've never heard that

Yes, I was wondering the same. We have fish at least twice a week so can you please enlighten us Macaydia?

No meat is very easy, as all these meals suggest. What I can’t find is vegetarian-and-low-carbs-and-low-fat.

Why is eating fish more than once a week unhealthy? I've never heard that

These are things that helped me transition from red meat: Increase your fruit variety. Batch cook veggie soups and fill your freezer so you have portions ready to enjoy once a day. Increase your starch portions, double your veggie portions and half your meat portions. Experiment with vegetarian recipes and choose only one day a week that is strictly meatless. Seven days a week with no meat will likely make you want it more. Later, you can designate two days a week and so on. I have not heard of any health issues from eating birds.

Yes I eat fruit, any starch is ok.

We eat red meat once each week. Fillet steak. Won’t be giving them up any time soon.
We’re omnivores 🤷‍♀️

Eating fish more often than once a week is unhealthy but red meat is listed as a carcinogen (from W.H.O.) whereas chicken is not. What do you like for your starches? Pasta, rice or potatoes? Do you eat fruit?

Some great ideas here, thank you!

Cheese & onion & ta'atie bake.
(Grease a lidded casserole.
Cover the bottom with a layer of sliced potato - roughly 2mm slices
Add a layer of sliced onion and a sprinkle of ground black pepper.
Add a generous layer of sliced or grated tasty cheese, eg: vintage Cheddar or vintage red Leicester.
Repeat these layers.
Finish with a layer of sliced potato.
Put the lid on and cook in the oven on Mk 3/160ºC for a couple of hours or until all the vegetables are soft.)
You can make this in whatever quantity suits you, depending on the amount of ingredients and size of dish you have to hand. And, if someone's late for dinner, it won't spoil for hours. Just turn down the thermostat a little and leave it cooking slowly.
It also works extremely well in the slow cooker.

I don't like meat at all and haven't eaten any knowingly for almost 40 years.
I eat a lot.
How do you think of vegetarian meals as a starter?
I also suggest curries if you need strong flavours - at least to start with. Many Asian cultures are vegetarian or vegan.

I also eat fish about once a week. I'm looking forward to the first fresh herring.

I loathe the very idea of chicken unless truly free-range because of the way they are forced to live their short lives.

I was intrigued to read that quite a few Olympic medalists are vegetarian, so they must be getting plenty of protein.

Good luck with no meat May!