Part-time Veggies

I used to be vegetarian. In fact, I didn’t eat meat for several years, more or less throughout my twenties. For me, it was a statement thing, showing other people that I had an opinion about animal welfare. It certainly wasn’t that I didn’t like meat and eventually the lure of a juicy burger or a tasty bacon sandwich became too much to bear and I fell off the veggie wagon.

These days, we eat meat regularly, but we try to have at least one (but more often a couple) of days each week when we don’t have meat for our main meal. This is mainly to do with the health aspect, but it also has the advantage of often being cheaper and sometimes actually tastier. If you already have meat-free days, then I’d love to hear some of your veggie meal ideas, if not then I urge you to give it a go. There’s a wealth of good veggie cookbooks out there as well as the ever increasing online resources. Here are a few dinners that we regularly eat:

Chick Pea Spicy – devised by G, this is a dish based around cous cous flavoured with veg stock and incorporates a variety of vegetables plus chick peas. We serve it with harissa and minty yoghurt (and sometimes pitta breads).

Halloumi and Potato Tray Bake – pinched from the fab Crumbs blog.

Chilli Bean Risotto

Vegetable Curry

Quorn Stir Fry with Noodles – use Quorn pieces instead of chicken and a pack of stir fry veg.

Quorn mince chilli or bolognese – same as the minced beef versions, but with Quorn mince

I find that so long as these dishes taste good, we don’t miss the meat!

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