How to eat less meat

[Scott]

and that's really the biggest problem....just not enough access. where i reside there is only one dinky farmer's market and i'm not even sure what they have is actually local. and supermarkets.....we have one whole foods in the entirety of this particular state and it's 100 miles from where i'm at.

i miss the european way that i had grown accustomed to...there were green grocer's on almost every main street and i often bought my produce that way. in fact,i never even bought meat except for the odd shrimp or fish once a week from real fish mongers. mostly i ate veggie dishes or pasta dishes with veggies in it. and i cannot begin to tell you what a great affect it had on me either....more energy and i lost a considerable amount of weight,healthily.

 

[papa_levante]

^

As far as the "American" culture, I see meat at almost every meal: sausage patties, turkey sandwich, meatloaf. I think rarely do many of us consider fish as a main course unless it's sushi. I hardly see anyone preparing a salmon. I think Meatless Mondays that Belowen and fashionista-ta have been discussing in the Vegetarian/Vegan thread would be incredibly difficult for many Americans.

 

[sarehak]

Re: Costco. We get our meat there too! Their beef cuts & salmon are amazing, as is the fresh king crab & jumbo shrimp. Most of the meat our family buys, we get from Costco, Whole Foods, local farms or halal stores.

I'm kind of surprised not more people eat fish as their daily entrees. We eat seafood every other day whether it be tilapia, salmon, kingfish, shrimp, you name it. Then again, part of my culture's cuisine is very international & less so "American" for lack of a better description, lol.

That being said, I could never ever eat meat from a fast food restaurant. I do not trust the sources of their processed meats. Processed meats </3.

 

[papa_levante]

^ I love that "broken heart."

fashionsita-ta mentioned eating at Wing Stop, and let's just say the quality of the meat was obvious to spot with the naked eye. Um, sick.

I tried to steer clear from fast food when I didn't go vegan, but most of your options for food fast was through drive-thru's. And people know that fast food means food-that'll-kill-you-as-soon-as-you-sink-your-teeth-into-it.

 

[fashionista-ta]

and that's really the biggest problem....just not enough access. where i reside there is only one dinky farmer's market and i'm not even sure what they have is actually local. and supermarkets.....we have one whole foods in the entirety of this particular state and it's 100 miles from where i'm at.

i miss the european way that i had grown accustomed to...there were green grocer's on almost every main street and i often bought my produce that way. in fact,i never even bought meat except for the odd shrimp or fish once a week from real fish mongers. mostly i ate veggie dishes or pasta dishes with veggies in it. and i cannot begin to tell you what a great affect it had on me either....more energy and i lost a considerable amount of weight,healthily.

Are there any farms that offer CSAs in your area? There are some good websites for looking up this stuff by zipcode ... but I'm not sure where at the moment. I'm thinking there may be some other 'hidden' sources. I am lucky to have a really great grocery store that is very thoughtful about where it sources meat, has its own organics line, etc. But it's also amazing the huge variety of things that are available from small farmers here, from rare heirloom turkeys to raw milk to CSAs and everything in between.

At a little farm shop not too far away I've bought some fantastic local (from my state) raw cheese--I wish it were convenient to buy that.

Aside from its tasting great, one thing I like about artisan cheese is that the makers tend to treat their animals well. Some chose the business just so they could be close to the animals all day every day ...

PS Is there a chapter of Slow Food in your state? They would be in the know about all the good local stuff.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I love that "broken heart."

fashionsita-ta mentioned eating at Wing Stop, and let's just say the quality of the meat was obvious to spot with the naked eye. Um, sick.

I tried to steer clear from fast food when I didn't go vegan, but most of your options for food fast was through drive-thru's. And people know that fast food means food-that'll-kill-you-as-soon-as-you-sink-your-teeth-into-it.

I haven't seen the stats here lately, but over the past few decades the percentage US households spend on food has gone down significantly. And IMO that has largely happened by reducing the quality of the food ... using artificial means to grow both plants and animals faster and cheaper, cutting every possible corner, etc.

It always completely galls me when I see people saying, Oh, buy pork shoulder, what a bargain, you can find it on sale for .65/lb (or whatever).

At what cost?? Both to us and the animals. (Nina Planck's book, Real Food, does a great job explaining exactly how & why 'real' food is better for us than factory farmed food.) I have great doubts whether a happy pig has ever ended up at .65/lb. Which is why I think the best way to spend less on meat is to eat less of it. And, I think it's very worthwhile to support farmers, producers, stores, etc. who care about producing meat in the best way possible.

 

[Belowen]

I guess I am lucky that in Australia there is a big focus on fresh food, and especially as I live in Western Australia there is a big call for people to support local farmers and local produce. We are also lucky in that we have access to a lot of fresh seafood and seasonal fruit and vegies. The culture here is very much about eating meat, (or seafood) but I wouldn't say it's meat for every meal. I couldn't even imagine eating meat for breakfast every day. I maybe have bacon with breakfast once a fortnight on a Sunday.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I agree, it's more than a bit heavy first thing in the morning! But I suspect most people going through the drive-thru for breakfast are having some meat ... lots of sausage biscuits, chicken biscuits ...

 

[fashionista-ta]

You can search by zipcode at localharvest.org. If you just put in your zip, it will show you everything in the area ...

 

[baldrick]

i have severe nutritional deficiencies, so i can't stop eating meat.

Me too. I'm borderline anaemic and extremely protein, and therefore iron, deficient. I've never really been into red meat, but my nutritionist is really strict about it. If you aren't deficient, though, and need protein, you could always try quinoa. It's kind of like rice or cous cous, but it's a complete protein and you can use it just like you'd use rice. Quinoa pudding (like rice pudding) mixed with dried fruit is great!

 

[cestmagique]

The other thing, Scott, is that often-repeated recommendation to use meat as a 'condiment' ... for some reason I find that word in relation to meat annoying

But recently I bought about half a pound of ground bison and split it in half. Half I cooked & put into several servings of macaroni & cheese, and the other half I cooked & used to doctor bottled spaghetti sauce, which went over several servings of stuffed shells. At a restaurant, all of that could easily have gone into one burger ...

I sort of do too, even though I still use it. It's a good way to communicate how big a portion you mean, though.

 

[Scott]

At a little farm shop not too far away I've bought some fantastic local (from my state) raw cheese--I wish it were convenient to buy that.

Aside from its tasting great, one thing I like about artisan cheese is that the makers tend to treat their animals well. Some chose the business just so they could be close to the animals all day every day ...
.

that makes me think back speaking of dairy...i can recall as far back as a 4 and five years old and my uber-southern grandmother churning real butter! there was a highly productive dairy farm not very far from her and this is what she did every few months. not to mention where she got her milk and other dairy products. and i'm not saying i would or anybody else should churn their own butter or anything like that but i think the natural product of a readily available farm has pretty much gone obsolete today,thanks to mass market and big business. and i'm talking about the south too where it used to be everybody lived and swore by almost everything from farm/garden to kitchen. it was what i grew up seeing quite a lot of. none of this exists anymore where i'm at.

i checked that link and found there is a market in the larger neighboring town held twice a week. i will certainly try to get there when they have it and see(and hopefully buy)what their selection is.

 

[papa_levante]

Thanks fashionista-ta for the localharvest.org link.

But the only thing close to me is a rhubarb farm! I don't know if I wanna eat that.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I'm glad they had something, Scott I'm hopeful that we're headed back in that direction ...

papa, have you ever had rhubarb? Where I grew up, a lot of people had gardens, and there was always rhubarb growing in the corner for some reason! Actually I guess that was because it's perennial, to keep it out of the way of the rototiller. It's good, but it sucks up a lot of sugar because it's totally sour.

I saw your post about white sugar ... no idea whether that's true (sounds like an urban legend in the making to me ), but what I use, in addition to brown sugar, is organic evaporated cane syrup, which is a pale beige color. It's perfectly fine to substitute for refined sugar in any recipe ... I bake with it, etc.

 

[Belowen]

You could try Agave Nectar as a substitute for sugar also

 

[papa_levante]

^ I like the idea of a nectar as a sugar substitute. I need a way to sweeten my teas and I've always used white sugar. I tried brown sugar today and I don't think it did anything. Just made it browner.

 

[[vogue]]

^I love how brown sugar makes it look even more tasty! But I think that's just me. Definitely stay away from white sugar. It's the worst.

 

[Belowen]

^ I like the idea of a nectar as a sugar substitute. I need a way to sweeten my teas and I've always used white sugar. I tried brown sugar today and I don't think it did anything. Just made it browner.

Agave is a great vegan alternative to honey - you can use it in cooking, as a sweetner, or just drizzle it over slices of fuji apple like I do. Delicious! You could also substitute 'raw sugar' for the brown sugar you're using. I use raw sugar instead of white (and over processed sugar) and it's fine.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Raw sugar is yummy too ... I like it in coffee, but it's slow to dissolve because the crystals are so big.

Brown sugar is more flavorful than white because it also has molasses ... I would suggest buying a natural brand, though, because I have heard that brown sugar is sometimes made by spraying white sugar with molasses. Also an urban legend? Who knows ... but it sounds like the kind of stupid thing that would be done

I bought bison stew meat for the first time yesterday, and made barley soup ... it turned out well.

 

[BerlinRocks]

^isn't raw sugar and brown sugar the same ? in France, we just say "sucre roux" (roux because of the colour) ...

how can you from "how to eat less meat" to butter and sugar ? is that a pie thread ?

anyway, i'm not a big eater of meat (i don't really like that) and the only meat i eat are steack (horse or beaf), chicken, rabbit and duck ... that's a lot actually ...
lol

but as i have already eat meat from USA, I know where the big deal is about your meat ... it's FULL of hormones !!!!!! I remember after 2 weeks of eating meat full of hormones, i looked like a balloon (and i'm not the tiny type, so that was horrible !!!!). then go back to France, and everything was fine.