No meat this week

So I decided this morning, when I did our weekly meal planner (yep we have one) that we would do what I have been talking about doing for a couple of weeks now: meat-free dinners for the entire week. There are a number of reasons why I want to do this, and a number of challenges in doing it. But I am up for it, I hope! Talk to me at the end of the week, and I will let you know how it went (potentially in-between mouthfuls of meat as I scoff down what I missed all week, or not).

So, for a while now I have felt we eat way too much meat as a family. There is meat in nearly every meal we eat, particularly lunch and dinner. Don’t get me wrong, I love a beautiful lamb roast or a scrumptious duck curry, but I just feel we are eating too much meat. We need some balance. In order to avoid freaking out my family of meat-eaters, I have had to introduce this concept, of reducing our meat intake, slowly. I started by introducing one meat-free meal a week then two. We have also been having lots of conversations, usually at the dinner table, about being conscious of what we eat. Paying attention to what we are eating, how it makes us feel and the impact on both our health and the health of our environment.

This week, we are going meat-free for all dinners. Every single one. And there were a couple of key reasons, which made me make this decision today. Firstly, being a little lazy (or busy, you choose which label you want to give it). We’ve had a lot going on this week and nobody wanted to go to the market today to do the meat and veg shop. We just couldn’t be bothered. It was just too hard for anyone this morning to do the meal plan, put together the shopping list, make the trek, do endless circles in the car park until you finally find a park, fight the crowds with our trolley as we purchase our goods and then head home to face the unpacking, freezing, labelling and perhaps some cooking. I’m exhausted just writing about it. Nope, no one was up for that job today. And so, meat-free meal week here we come. Because I refuse to buy meat from our supermarket down the road from us. Not only is the meat over-packaged with plastic and more plastic, it doesn’t ever cook the same or taste as good as the meat we get from our butcher at the market. And yes, I could have gone to the butcher up the road, they sell really nice meat, top quality, but we want to be able to pay our mortgage this month. They charge some serious prices for meat.

This leads nicely into the other reason we are embracing a meat-free dinner week. We’ll save some money! And given we are hosting two Christmas meals for family this year, we might need to be a little frugal in the lead up to the festive season. I did suggest that we do a plant-based meal for Christmas this year. That didn’t go down to well. My daughter said she would literally kill me if I did. Threatened to put me on the spit. So we’ll stick to our regular Christmas meals this year. A Christmas eve lunch the Lithuanian way with smoked salmon, trout and eel, pickled herrings, beautiful salads and more. And the traditional Christmas dinner with roast pork, ham, some roast chicken, cooked vegetables and no doubt a lot of desserts. With all that meat in just two days, I think it might do us all some good to do a couple of meat-free meal weeks in the lead up!

Our health is key to the decision to cut down our meat consumption. Although it also presents the biggest challenge with going meat-free. Particularly, with two growing teenagers in the house. My daughter is a middle-distance runner and my son is recovering from recent operations. Meat is a quick easy way to get the protein and other nutrients their bodies need. Get it to them in a tasty meal. Happy to go meat-free, but I want to make sure, even for a week, we do it in such a way that we are eating responsibly for our health. Years ago, many years ago, when I had just moved out of my parent’s home at the age of 17 and a half, to go to university some 200km away, I decided to go vegetarian. I didn’t do it well. I didn’t eat the range of food I needed to, in order for my body to get the nutrients it needed. And I ended up getting quite unwell. So, I am really conscious of the need to ensure the meat-free meals we make give us what our bodies need. Although, as I write this, I realise how ridiculous it is to think that as long as there is meat on the plate, you have everything you need. I don’t focus on my meat meals like I am focusing on my meat-free meals. I am not thinking about all the different vegetables we need alongside the meat on the plate, to nourish our bodies. Hmm. Perhaps an outcome of doing this meat-free week will be to become more aware and conscious of what we are eating, and what our bodies need, regardless of whether or not it is meat-free or has meat as part of the meal.

Variety of meals, is also a challenge. Cooking tasty meals everyone will enjoy. Seems a little harder without meat, but that is simply because it is just what we are used to. What we are in the habit of doing. For a while now, our weekly Mexican meal has become one of our weekly vegetarian meals, as we all decided the Tacos were tastier with refried beans, black beans and a bean chilli dish. Yes, we all love the chilli con carne recipe from Jamie Oliver with the sun dried tomatoes. It is a beautiful dish with Tacos or Nachos. But the beans are just as good. Just as tasty. And so, meat isn’t needed on this one. Plus we get our pulses/legumes in. A win. So it really isn’t that hard. And Jamie Oliver has just come out with a vegetarian cook book, I am off to purchase it today. It is not all plant-based meals, not vegan meals, they are vegetarian meals. Egg and cheese, milk sometimes part of the ingredients. But that’s okay because we aren’t going animal-free, just meat-free, to start. I will work us up to the completely plant-based weekly meal plan.

Another reason we are doing this is for the environment. And doing something for the environment is usually a good way of getting our kids to do something we want, which they aren’t necessarily keen on. Such as a week of meat-free meals for dinner. Earlier this week I listened to Suzy Amis Cameron being interviewed about her family’s journey to embracing a fully plant-based diet. She recently launched her book The OMD Plan, which is about swapping one meal a day (which is what OMD stands for, I am going to have to forgive her for using an acronym given what she is trying to achieve), swapping one meal a day to a plant-based meal to improve your health, and the health of our home, our planet. A great idea, which doesn’t involve making an enormous and overwhelming lifestyle change. Surely, one meal a day, which is plant-based is achievable. Her family has been completely plant-based for over seven years. She believes there have been significant health benefits to her family, and the environmental impact is significant. These benefits she would like others to have too. She breaks the myth that we have to have meat to be healthy, that we have to have milk for strong bones. She was inspired after watching the film Fork over Knives in 2012 and immediately changed her lifestyle. A film I am yet to watch, but plan to this weekend, particularly after watching the trailer. My husband doesn’t know it yet, but he is watching it with me tomorrow morning. Within 24 hours of watching the film, Suzy and her husband (film maker and director - of Titanic, Terminator, Avatar etc., - James Cameron) cleaned out their kitchen of all animal products. Although, as she says, this is not necessarily how everyone rolls. Phew, as I am not sure I am ready for such extreme measures. But let’s see where I land after watching the film.

Some key things which she shared in the interview must have sat somewhere in my subconscious, influencing my decision this morning for us to have meat-free meals this week (at least for dinners). Not quite having the one meal a day that is plant-based that she talks about, but meat-free is a start. Suzy says that for one person, changing one meal a day to a plant-based meal saves 200,000 gallons of water, that is over 750,000 litres! It also saves the carbon equivalent of what is used when we travel close to 3000 miles, which is almost 5000 kilometres. These are crazy numbers, and yet it is such an easy switch and not such a big deal to do one meal a day. Is it?

Suzy states that ‘animal agriculture is the second leading cause of green house gases and climate change, more than all transportation combined, every car, every aeroplane, every bus, every thing.’ And what I learnt through listening to her was that it isn’t the farting of the animals, which produces the methane. It is their breathing. With every breath they take they are producing methane. We breath much more often than we fart. So the animal’s methane production is constant.

A gradual switch is not difficult. My daughter and I have already convinced my husband to change his coffee milk to almond milk. He has agreed to do this for a week to see if he likes it enough to continue. I am hoping after watching Fork and Knives tomorrow, he might have some additional reasons to prompt him to keep going. Too often we eat poorly, eat things that aren’t the best for us because of the convenience and the cost. I am hopeful, that one day this will change as more people choose healthier alternatives.

You don’t have to become fanatical about things or make sweeping changes to your life. But we can all make a difference, even through some of the small changes we make in our lives. A difference to our health and the health of our planet. So this is an invitation to anyone inspired to join me and try one plant-based meal a day, or do a week of meat-free dinners, if you don’t already. Or perhaps even just start with meat-free Mondays, like the café around the corner from my work has just introduced. An invitation to become just that little bit more aware of what we are all doing to ourselves and our environment through the choices we make.

Hoping my kids read this post before they see the meal plan on the fridge. After I cook myself some dhal and rice for lunch (man I love dhal) I might make myself scarce for a while and go do the vegetable shop, while they come to terms with what we are doing this week (which actually starts from tomorrow night, as tonight we have an family event we are off too).

Although, I don’t really care if the kids aren’t too keen on the whole thing, because, I must admit, I am really looking forward to seeing what meals I can create throughout the week. What new discoveries I might make about cooking a little differently. Luckily, we live in an age where there are a plethora of resources online for inspiration for recipes and meal ideas to easily get through the week. And to get creative with my cooking. Bon appétit!