This morning's Meat Free breakfast was absolutely delicious, simple and a great source of nutrition.
Yogurt breakfast bowl - Serves 1
Ingredients
100g, 4oz Greek yogurt (use low fat if wanted, I didn't because I like the taste of full fat.)
A handful of strawberries and 1 fig (or use any other fruit combination you like)
Approx 8 almonds
2 tsp runny honey
Method
Put the yogurt into a bowl.
Top with the chopped fruit. Chop up the almonds and put these on top and finish with a drizzle of honey. Delicious!
It's a funny thing when you're not 'trying' to eat healthily, you end up doing so accidentally. This is a great source of fibre, vitamin C, protein, calcium, B vitamins, vitamin E and lots of lovely other stuff and it leaves you feeling very full. Definitely having this again and mixing it up with different toppings, perhaps blueberries, raspberries and hazelnuts?
Meat Free Week
I had a lovely week of food in the main. Here are the links to my favourite recipes from the week:
The delectable fig and feta salad
The delicious pakoras
Surprisingly simple Balsamic onion tart...
...and indulgent tarte tatin
My last day of vegetarian food and I'm almost disappointed! I had so many food plans for this week and I've not done half of them. The recipes I thought I'd cook but didn't get round to?
Dhal definitely. I love dhal but it's one of those things you need to make a bit of an effort to make a big batch of then you have it in the freezer ready for a quick meal for ages.
Quesadillas are lovely things, crispy, delicious, cheesy. Yep, no idea why I didn't make them. They're on the list for later.
Lentil salad; I had half an idea for lentil and feta but the awesome fig and feta salad got in the way!
Vegetable chilli. How did I not make vegetable chilli? It's one of my favourite things!
Sweet and sour. This is madness, I've even got a pineapple as well.
Anything with tofu... ok, in general I'm not a fan but I wanted to give it a go. There must be a way to make it taste nice.
Saag paneer. I've got the paneer, how did I forget to make this?
Soup. How have I not made any soup? I also had a plan to make a really filling soup with vegetarian dumplings. How did I not get round to it?!
So the killer question is, did I miss meat in my meat free week? Not a huge amount. I missed fish a bit and there was one day I would have loved a steak (I wondered if I was low in iron so took a multivitamin with iron and the feeling went away) but I've in no way felt deprived. So the killer question is...
Am I going to become vegetarian?
In all honesty, no. It's not something I'm planning to do right now. I enjoyed this week, I will be eating more vegetarian and vegan meals going forward but I'm not going to exclude meat and fish.
I came across the term "flexitarian" online this morning. I had never heard of it and honestly find it laughable. It's apparently a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat. Basically that is what all meat eaters should be! Meat shouldn't be every meal nor even every day. So in it's strictest meaning, I suppose I'm a flexitarian (or possibly a "reducetarian") but I won't be proclaiming that to the waiter in the next restaurant I visit.
As soon as the week is over, I will be cooking something Thai. As I said on some other posts, after 3 months of no nuts and no coconut, my son has now been given the all clear on all nuts apart from Brazil nuts and also he's being encouraged to eat the others to avoid future allergies. For 3 long months, no Thai food has been eaten in this house and I have to admit, even if it will mostly be made with vegetables, there is something joyous knowing that fish sauce will be back on the menu by Monday!
After sneering a little at the terms Wikipedia are trying to convince me "all the cool kids are saying", it did make me think. Meat eaters in general could do with eating less meat and certainly less processed meat. This is for health and for the environment. It takes far more resources to produce meat than fruits and vegetables. It would make far more difference to the environment and to our health if each of us had a few meat free meals a week. Perhaps meat free Monday isn't quite enough? Maybe 2-4 meat free days a week? That feels really achievable and would have more impact on our environment and public health than the minority adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet.
I've linked this up to recipe of the week.
So many of us find ourselves eating alone or as a couple and, as a result, so many of us reach for convenience solutions. What if we cooked for ourselves like we were cooking for someone we loved? This is what this site is all about. Some of the food is healthy, some isn't, all of it is made with love.
The saag looks yummy Must give that a go #ThriftyThursday
ReplyDeleteDo, it's lovely and paneer is a great substitute for meat that even meat eaters like.
DeleteYou've inspired me to try some more vegetarian meals. Everything you had looks amazing! Thank you for sharing on #ThriftyThursday
ReplyDeleteWow thank you! The great thing about it is that having more veggie meals is good for your body, the environment and your wallet.
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