Yesterday, I roasted a turkey breast and we enjoyed it for dinner along with sweet potatoes and peas. My husband had told me he didn't want any of the rutabaga, but I cooked half of it for me thinking I would eat some last night and the rest today. As it turned out, I was too full after eating the potatoes and peas, so I will enjoy it today.
I was searching Amazon's Prime last night to see what was available and settled for a follow-up to Forks Over Knives called The Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue with Rip Esselstyn. He was working with two families to get them to change their diets completely to plant based. One mother had been a vegetarian for 19 years but she still ate dairy and a lot of processed foods. It was interesting and entertaining but I will not be going in that direction. I like eating meat and we don't eat a lot of it.
The first few years we were married, we ate a lot of regular ground beef and chicken. If there was such a thing as lean ground beef, I was not aware of it. We ate it mostly because it was very economical at $.29 a pound for chicken and $.45 a pound for ground beef. This was in the 1960s. I cooked many dinners of chili, stroganoff, meat loaf, hamburger steak with grilled onions and other concoctions using a whole pound of ground beef. Believe it or not, we would split these dinners right down the middle. There were very few vegetables in our diet except for lettuce and tomato.
For a while I even managed to be around the weight I am now because we didn't have a car and did a lot of walking. We didn't even have a television set for the first couple of years we were married.
Compared to those years, we're practically vegetarians. I use half a pound of lean hamburger or ground turkey in recipes that call for a pound and that is plenty. In a typical week, we might eat one pound of meat.
Back to work on the taxes. Ugh. :(
TAXES???? I haven't even gotten any statements yet. But I "resolved" to not play ostrich this year and actually start organizing my own stuff (business files) and get in to see my accountant ASAP in February...and not just stare morosely at a pile of unopened mail until April 13 and then have him call me to see if I was still alive. :( I get all kinds of anxiety about that for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI went through a "vegetarian" period (let's just call it what it was: a phase) in college and for a while after. Of course, that meant I lived on pizza, pasta, eggplant parmesan, cheese, snack foods, cheese, "veggie" sub sandwiches (with cheese and mayo), omelettes, and, of course, cheese. I felt that meat was murder but that dairy and eggs were only slavery.
Boy do I remember the days when meat was that cheap. We were married in 1969 and we ate a lot of ground beef too. Beef Roast with potatoes and carrots was one that we had almost every week because it was so cheap and we could stretch it out for later meals. My husband finally said he's had enough of it and I didn't make it or a long time. He still cringes if I make it. I agree that I have really cut down on the amount of meat I make. My husband thinks he has to have meat at every meal, but I limit the portion sizes. I've been adding a lot more veggies to the meals to help fill up our plates.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is a vegetarian that eats very little veggies. We call her a pasta & carbatarian. She loves her carbs and cheese. I don't think I could completely cut meat out of my diet. I could go several days a week without eating it though.
Love Forks over Knives and the Engine 2 guys :) I'm not here to push my way of eating on anyone, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to give up meat altogether. I've been (about 99%- I still consume a small bit of dairy) vegan for almost 3 years now and have not missed meat at all, and I had always been a "meat and potatoes" person. There are so many alternatives nowadays that make it pretty simple. And I love to experiment in the kitchen ;)
ReplyDeleteYes I too have noticed we eat less red meat than we used to. Lately we just eat less meat from all sources. When I was a very young dad and penniless three days before payday we ate potato's because they were cheap. Hash browns for breakfast, fried potato's and onions for lunch, and homemade French fries for dinner. Now I hardly ever eat a potato.
ReplyDeleteMeat is very expensive here as well as chicken, but breasts have been not too bad in price at $4.50 a pound and that's good. A lot of meat here is up to $6 a pound. Salmon, which I've never bought is $15 a pound. I don't know how an average family can buy it. Hence we eat a lot less meat! Even lean hamburger is $6 a pound. No cheap meat here in Australia!
ReplyDeleteWe also eat much less meat than we used to. On most days, I don't eat any meat. Eating less meat is good for the environment since, apparently, cows fart a lot, which is bad for the environment. But I still enjoy my occasional steak/burger indulgence.
ReplyDelete:-) Marion
Being brought up in England we definitely ate meat/potatoes/veg every night for dinner. Lots of sugar as well. I have definitely changed how we eat and feel a lot better for it. I even have no meat days :)
ReplyDeleteAll I eat is meat...I'm great at finding a good sale and stocking up!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen those movies but I may look them up on Amamzon Prime. I have been a vegetarian my whole life but for different reasons than health, obviously lol. I need to make something with a sweet potato, I never have, but I hear good things. :)
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I used to think sweet potatoes were only good in pies or topped with marshmallows. I've found that a cold baked sweet potato right from the fridge tastes as good as candy. My husband does not share my enthusiasm, but he did eat the sweet potatoes I mashed up with a little cinnamon.
DeleteAfter 4 years of eating only veggies & fish, I've readded meat to my diet. I still don't like white meat but I do enjoy red meat every once in a while.
ReplyDeleteEver since my husband's colon cancer surgery, his appetite hasn't been the same, but in a good way! Used to be if I made a roasted chicken, I'd have some breast meat and a wing, and he would eat the rest. Now we split a steak, split a pork chop and it works out great.
ReplyDeleteThat's one thing I miss about working in Chicago - I used to bike to the train station 2 miles from my house, then walk 1 mile to my office after I got off the train - now I sit in my car for 30 minutes on my drive to work!
I grew up eating so much ground beef that once I left home it took me years and years to like it again. I still don't cook with it very much outside of making hamburgers or meatballs.
ReplyDeleteLots of times I have meatless meals but I'm married to a meat and starch sort of guy so he wants a hunk of meat of some sort every dinner - unless we're having pizza!
Sweet potatoes are something I've learned to love after being certain I would hate them. I like them roasted in the oven as "fries" and I experiment with different seasonings. I don't eat a lot of ground beef now, mostly ground chicken breast or ground turkey. Every now and then, I will enjoy a small portion of steak.
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