About eating meat

[Jenise]

Loafing around the house killing time today alone, I turned on the news to eat my midday lunch with, something I do occasionally even though I'm not a daytime TV watcher at all. The news was awful, so I surfed and found myself watching a bit of The Chew. Which I hate, but I got roped in by Michael Symon talking about the fact that he's married to a vegetarian, so "about two nights a week" he eats vegetarian for the sake of peace in the household. Later in the conversation he added that in spite of his reputation as a red meat guy, all the meat he eats the rest of the week would only add up to "about 10-12 ounces". He didn't qualify the statement further, so was seafood included? Poultry? Dunno.

But I was pretty surprised by that. Five dinners, seven lunches and seven breakfasts, and less than a pound all-in? If anybody but a chef who obviously understands measurements had said that, I'd presume they didn't know how little 10-12 ounces actually is. The average chicken breast weighs about that.

It made me consider how much we eat. I'm not sure, I've never added it up. It's certainly more than 10-12 ounces, though. I'd estimate that meat is involved in maybe one breakfast a week (most days we only eat two meals not three), and meat is part of lunch maybe only 25% of the time. Dinner is where we're most likely to consume meat. If I'm serving a meat dish, we generally eat about a half pound serving each--and by meat, I mean any animal sea or land as compared to eating vegetarian. To my mind it's not a lot, but it's certainly quite a bit less than we ate 20 years ago. And deliberately so.

How about you guys? Cutting back?

My family members are meat eaters, and I like meat but I eat less of it than everyone else. I eat probably one real meal a day, snack most of the day. Will eat breakfast about once or twice a week, which may include some kind of meat (maybe 2 rashers of bacon or two meat patties). More often than not breakfast is yogurt and tea. Will eat beef about 2-3 times a month (find it difficult to digest). Most of my meals consist of pork or chicken and sometimes lamb (when meat included). Mostly, I will eat the salads and vegetables and perhaps 2-4 oz of meat, about 5 times a week (and often, vegetables are most of what I have left over).

We're not vegetarian but we don't eat much meat.

When we do have meat always have a lot of veggies with it.

Every Sunday we have a roast in evening (our main meal of the day), on Sunday it was beef and I had four thin slices (+ yorkshire, roast pots and parsnips, steamed brussels, cauliflower & broccoli florets, carrots.
Yesterday, Monday - no meat (dinner, homemade pizza w tomato sauce topped with mushroom, onions, pepper, anchovies, olives, capers)
Today, going out for lunch to place with amazing kitchen made meat pies like mum made so will have a slice, no meat tonight (dinner, penne pasta with htomato & aubergine sauce)
Wednesday, going to restaurant in evening so will have a escalope of veal Holstein there
Thursday no meat (dinner, home made veg curry)
Friday, no meat (dinner, grilled fish, pots, green veg & salad)
Saturday, (dinner,chicken breast, pots and home made baked beans)

I find myself eating less and less meat as I get older..
-Almost never at breakfast
-Meat at lunch maybe once or twice/mo..
-At least 2 dinners per week are meat free and the others have very little animal protein.
If I had to guess, I consume about 24oz. a week. Now if I had ready access to quality fresh seafood that number would be much, much higher.
BP

I eat a lot less red meat than I used to. Two years ago Betsy decided she needed to lose some weight (she didn't) and I joined her (I did need to lose) on Sonoma Diet. One of those wave/stage diets. 10 days of pretty strict (though not depriving), then a pretty balanced rest. One of the big components is portion size of protein -actually weighing at each meal. 3 oz at lunch, 4 oz at dinner. Actually way more than you guys are discussing, but less than I typically ate before.

So now I probably have one slice of bacon or one piece of country ham per week with breakfast
Probably 50% vegetarian lunches, rest 3 oz portions
Probably have flesh 6 dinners per week (probably 40% seafood, 40% chicken, 20% red meat), with 4-6 oz portions
Probably 40 oz a week, more than you guys, but less than I used to eat (no more 18-24 oz steaks- probably 12 oz of actual meat- at one meal) Meat is typically leaner cuts as well.

We're not vegetarian either, but we're eating far less meat than we used to.

Especially red meat.

Partially because my wife elected to reduce meat intake when she had problems digesting beef, and we began to focus more on chicken/fish. I naturally went along for the ride, because marriage. Partially because of the Bambi issue on my wife's part as well, but it's more the digestion thing. There are other and easier sources of protein out there these days. Not always the tastiest, but far better than it used to be.

(All that said, chicken (the chardonnay of food) can be booooooring, even with creative cookery applied.)

[Jenise]

Answers are about what I expected, thanks for your responses. Almost everyone I know is eating not just less red meat--smaller portions AND less often, but less animal protein period. In fact, I realize in writing this that I myself haven't had any meat in three days--but of course, I'm writing this before dinner.

And like Bill Paumen, I really regret not having more seafood available. When we vacation in places like Costa Rica and Hawaii that's about all we eat. But good fresh fish at home isn't very available in spite of the body of salt water that laps at the edge of my property line--and taunts me--and the way we're poisoning the planet this is only going to get worse. I've seen the changes in just the 13 years we've lived on this bay. The salmon that spawned here as recently as five years ago haven't returned the last three years, the herring population has been reduced by 90% per estimates, and the seals and larger marine life have left in search of better prey base. Nearly all the seafood we eat at home most of the year is frozen (scallops, shrimp and mahi mahi, which unlike most fish freezes quite well).

The biggest dilemma for me as a cook (and modified Atkins dieter) is how to reduce meat without greatly increasing carbohydrates. I would happily eat pasta every day of my life but I'd blow up like a whale if I did. And even though nobody's ever had to force me to eat my vegetables so dearly do I love them, variety is a cold-climate issue.

Well, someone has to be the nay-sayer on this thread; might as well be me.

Pumpkin and I typically have a half-pound of animal protein with each dinner, whether that's salmon, sausage, scallops, chicken, whatever. His breakfast and lunch are typically meat-free. I do not eat breakfast and lunch varies widely (but often enough includes a sandwich and we know just what the old Earl was up to... putting his meat between two slices of bread!).

The biggest dilemma for me as a cook (and modified Atkins dieter) is how to reduce meat without greatly increasing carbohydrates. I would happily eat pasta every day of my life but I'd blow up like a whale if I did..

Not liking eggs is another big problem for you there!

We have yogurt and fruit (my wife adds oats) for breakfast pretty much every day of the year.

Of the 14 remaining weekly lunch/dinner meals, for protein we typically have fish/seafood once (or maybe twice if we eat out), cheese three times, eggs twice and the remaining eight meals are some combination of beans/lentils/tofu.

[David M. Bueker]

Laura and I are eating less meat, but not much less. If we still had to buy pork/beef at the grocery store we would likely be eating a lot less. With the local farm stuff we have kept eating it.

We are eating less carbs. More vegetables. Sadly, due to longer work hours (therefore less exercise time), we have not lost any weight.

[Jenise]

More often than not breakfast is yogurt and tea.

Yoghurt is such a useful, healthy breakfast. Combined with grains and fruit, it's a perfect food.

[Jenise]

The biggest dilemma for me as a cook (and modified Atkins dieter) is how to reduce meat without greatly increasing carbohydrates. I would happily eat pasta every day of my life but I'd blow up like a whale if I did..

Not liking eggs is another big problem for you there!

We have yogurt and fruit (my wife adds oats) for breakfast pretty much every day of the year.

Of the 14 remaining weekly lunch/dinner meals, for protein we typically have fish/seafood once (or maybe twice if we eat out), cheese three times, eggs twice and the remaining eight meals are some combination of beans/lentils/tofu.

Actually, I've learned to like eggs. Big change. A hardboiled egg grated (mimosa) over a salad in a French restaurant changed me. I will eat the occasional one for breakfast dotted with hot sauce. And I like scrambled eggs okay if they're done right (there are more ways to do them wrong than right, I'm afraid). I actually ordered an omelet in a restaurant for the first time in my life too--just once, but that's a start (a black truffle omelet to pair with a 30 year old burgundy). Still can't abide a runny yoke and that will never change, but at least I'm a bit more flexible, and I prepare eggs on the days where I think a protein-start would be beneficial.

It would actually be more helpful if I liked yoghurt, it's such a perfect food. But I can't bear it. Yesterday for breakfast I ate a bowl of peas. Day before, corn. Day before that, leftover Chinese food re-prepared as a fried rice. Day before that, oranges. Day before that, avocado toast. Somewhere else in there, tomato soup. That's pretty much my life--I would not survive without vegetables.

Speaking of beans/lentils/tofu, my new favorite vegan (not just vegetarian, vegan!) dish involves collard greens, dill, garbanzo beans and basmati rice. And it's not just good "for something vegan", it's fantastic period. I should post the recipe.

Had chile last night - only do it for the veg part (tomato)

Actually, I've learned to like eggs. Big change.

Progress!

And I like scrambled eggs okay if they're done right (there are more ways to do them wrong than right, I'm afraid).

I don't know. What is 'done right' to you? For me, as always, so much is in the ingredients. In general I'm pretty picky about scrambled eggs and like to do them very slowly (~10 minutes) over low heat, with just a dollop of butter, so they come out creamy and pure (no added milk/cream). But, I only buy eggs from the farmers market which are so damned good that even if I go faster and finish in 3-5 minutes, they are still gorgeous. Rushing to get them too dry and crisp ruins them for me.

But I suspect you may not like them creamy.

It would actually be more helpful if I liked yoghurt, it's such a perfect food. But I can't bear it.

Jenise-
I was right there with you for most of my adult life. Hated the stuff. Tasted like sh!te and the texture was like eating chalk dust. Fast forward to about 3 years ago when I tried some yogi and actually liked it. Now I have it for lunch 4 or 5 days a week with fresh fruit and a few spoonfuls of NJ's homemade granola added to it.
Whoda thought?
BP

[Jenise]

Actually, I've learned to like eggs. Big change.

Progress!

And I like scrambled eggs okay if they're done right (there are more ways to do them wrong than right, I'm afraid).

I don't know. What is 'done right' to you? For me, as always, so much is in the ingredients. In general I'm pretty picky about scrambled eggs and like to do them very slowly (~10 minutes) over low heat, with just a dollop of butter, so they come out creamy and pure (no added milk/cream). But, I only buy eggs from the farmers market which are so damned good that even if I go faster and finish in 3-5 minutes, they are still gorgeous. Rushing to get them too dry and crisp ruins them for me.

But I suspect you may not like them creamy.

Within the context of my other aversions I can understand why you suspect that, but in fact it's the opposite. I cook them about like you do for an end goal that's soft and velveteen but not uncooked in any way, though I do add milk (1%) which relaxes the stretchy texture natural to eggs and enhances that velvet thing I want. Not crisp, not browned.

Oh, and I do like fried egg whites. There, crispy's wonderful.

Wish I could get good farmer eggs here in winter. Unfortunately, the hens seem to go on hiatus until the days get longer.

Wish I could get good farmer eggs here in winter. Unfortunately, the hens seem to go on hiatus until the days get longer.

Tough.

We can still get them from the farmer's market in Chapel Hill during the winter, but the supply goes way down and it becomes very competitive. You have to get there very early before they all sell out. Or, you have to get one of the farmers to save you some eggs. I've never seen a market with so many secret lists and 'reserved' products. But, the desire to keep eggs as part of our weekly eating routine gets me up and out of the house!

We're in Berlin now and the winter farmers market eggs are good (and plentiful) but not as amazing as the ones from Chapel Hill.

That said, plenty of other good tradeoffs, including yogurt and dairy products. All of which are just so much creamier and richer in Europe. (Not to mention less artificial)