Meat, less. And more blegging.

Mark, getting more and more interested in sustainability, has been urging me to cut back on the animal protein in favor of vegetable protein.  I see his point -- sure, our family can afford to eat as much meat, fish, eggs, and cheese as we want, but six billion people can't eat like that.  We could make a few sacrifices without sacrificing our health and be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. 

I am the only trouble.  I'm the only person in the family with any sort of chronic health problem at all, and that problem is overweight.  Combine that with a family history of diabetes, and it's a high priority in meal-planning to make it easier for me to keep my weight down.  The easiest way for me is to stay fairly low-carb, and the way to do that is to get most protein from animal sources, since legumes and grains mostly pack a high starch load.  That's why in the last few years we've moved away from the vegetarian dishes that used to make up about a third to a half of the dinners I made, and towards meat-veg-veg plates with the occasional side of rice or potatoes or pasta. 

But the rest of the family doesn't seem to have that problem, so maybe we can cut back on animal protein as a whole family while still letting me follow what I've learned works for me.  When I make my meal plan this week, I'm going to try for combinations that use some meat and some vegetable protein, that I can serve to family members in different proportions.  Hannah helped me brainstorm some possibilities that will seem natural and not complicate things too much:

• Meat and bean enchiladas: make some very beany and some very meaty.
• Chicken picadillo enchiladas: make some very almondy and some very chickeny.
• Pan grilled salmon served over lentils, a very nice recipe I will share sometime.
• Mjadra, a middle eastern lentil-rice-onion dish, with grilled sausages on the side.
• Extra-beany minestrone soup with shredded cheese on top.
• Vegetable stirfry with a bit of meat stirfry on the side, served with high-protein quinoa instead of rice.
• Ma po tofu, a pork-and-bean-curd-and-green-pea dish.
• Bean soup with ham, the ham shredded separately and mixed back into the soup in varying proportions.
• My fast chili, made extra beany and with some of the browned meat kept back out; also, the kids and Mark can serve it over pasta, and I'll eat it neat.
• Now that there are some new higher-protein pastas, macaroni and cheese can be an excellent protein source; I can have it as a side dish with a serving of ham or tuna, the kids and Mark can have a little ham or tuna mixed in.
• Black bean tostadas -- always a favorite around here -- with chicken or beef as a topping.
• Serve high-protein edamame as a vegetable next to a smaller portion of meat -- that's tonight's plan (see below).
• Pitas stuffed with hummus, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, and a bit of seasoned ground beef (all you need is oregano, onion, and salt -- a little yogurt-dill sauce and you're in business -- my family loves this meal and it goes together very fast).
• Stuffed peppers -- some with rice and hominy, others with mostly beef.
• Spaghetti and meatballs. I'll just eat the meatballs.
• A simple approach: Make a mess of vegan rice and beans in the beginning of the week, and serve it every day as a dish to stretch whatever else we're having. Recipes are earnestly requested (that's the blegging part); hit "comments."

I'll start tonight -- the plan is for grilled fish, edamame, a big salad, and some rice.  I'll try to make the rice more interesting, like fried rice or pilaf, to see if the family can be satisfied with only 2 oz of fish per person.  Since fresh wild-caught fish is freaking expensive (I decided never to buy frozen packaged fish again, it's so frequently yucky -- we're getting it from The Fancy Grocery Store fish counter or else from a can from now on), I'm thinking my cheapskate frugal husband won't mind.

Comments

[SteveG]

Erin,
I am in the same boat, excepting that my wife does 60 to 70% of the cooking (meaning I have less control).

Being the only one who needs to deal with my weight by staying mostly low-carb has presented a real challenge, especially since I don't want to put any more burden on her regarding preparing dinner (i.e. special requirements for me).

With three munchkins underfoot, that's already challenging enough.

In this effort I've tried just about every low carb eating plan over the past 15 years. The one that I've found works best is the Carbohydrate Addicts diet.

Before I go into an explanation about it, I'll first ask...do you know about this way of eating?

[bearing]

Yeah, I know about CA. It's pretty flexible and realistic compared to some of the other ones. It's particularly well adapted to families with only one member who's got to do the low carb thing, since you can have a more or less "normal" family dinner.

I don't need to follow any strict rules anymore myself -- it's sort of second nature now. I just keep my breakfast and lunch simple (eggs; salad with cold cuts), and dinner balanced to suit me, and it's not been a problem. The we-should-eat-less-meat thing is the only real tension it has created. Oh, and there is sometimes the gosh-I-missed-when-you-used-to-make-pizza-all-the-time...

If you're looking for a special meal request that won't make more work for your wife -- speaking as the cook and the low-carber -- Honestly, I think the easiest way to do low-carb dinners is to switch from meat-veg-starch to meat-veg-veg, with the veg being kept simple (e.g. salad and baked sweet potato; cooked frozen green beans and a bowl of baby carrots) and let carb eaters eat bread and butter if they want some. At least, that's the format I follow when I'm not feeling very creative.

[SteveG]

Great suggestions...the only problem is that bread won't be an acceptable alternative.

They are all nuts about pasta (which I actually don't even much like-I am a potato/bread addict) and removing them from the menu on a regular basis would be a non-starter.

the best I've been able to do on that front is to get them to switch over to the whole grain versions (some of the newer ones aren't too bad0.

I've mostly got it under control now as well. The way I manage is to, more often than not, just skip breakfast, eat the low-car lunch, and then give myself a little extra leeway at dinner.

[Christy P]

Really, you are doing pretty well on the sustainability front by consuming local, sustainably raised animal products. The mission to consume less is commendable, and still a great idea, but recognize and celebrate what you are doing already for global sustainability.

[bearing]

Thanks for the cheerleading ;-)

[Adrienne]

Canned fish? Really? We live in the midwest, so I'm really gun-shy about getting fish at all, it is so frequently disgustingly "fishy". But canned fish sounds scary. What kind do you get? How do you use it?

[bearing]

Well, tuna of course! I've never thought of canned tuna as even remotely scary. :-)

But there is also canned salmon (for salmon patties or salmon loaf, mostly) and sardines and kippers.