Anyone not feeding their baby meat?

[Blah11]

I think I'm going to just start making more veg meals. Amelie just turns her nose up at meat unless its a chicken nugget and even then she takes 2 bites and thats it so she usually just has a potato or pasta and some peas or something. I'd rather start making specifically veggie meals for her so theyre a bit more balanced. I don't eat that much meat either but OH is a big meat eater so she'll never be 100% veggie and neither will I.

 

[Elphaba]

Those of you who feed meat substitutes, do you restrict which ones you give? DH and I use a LOT of substitutes for ourselves (mianly Quorn and Redwoods) as we're quite lazy about cooking but I've been a bit in two minds about what I give Xavier due to the salt content of some of the products. He's had Quorn mince in chilli and spag bol but I've yet to give him anything like the nuggets or fish fingers etc as they seem high in salt. Not sure how they compare to the meat versions that other children might have though.

Would like him to be able to have more Quorn etc as it's an easy source of protein and what child doesn't like chicken nuggets or fish fingers?! Is it a no-no salt-wise or ok as long as it's not all the time.

 

[Thumper]

I can't stand quorn, and got food poisoning from it once years ago, enough to put me off for life. I'm not a fan of meat substitutes. I use tofu a lot which has great nutritional value and can be made to taste great. I do love veggie sausages though, but not many. It's not hard to make your own though. I guess it helps I uses to be a chef in a veggie/vegan restaurant...

 

[xemmax]

Those of you who feed meat substitutes, do you restrict which ones you give? DH and I use a LOT of substitutes for ourselves (mianly Quorn and Redwoods) as we're quite lazy about cooking but I've been a bit in two minds about what I give Xavier due to the salt content of some of the products. He's had Quorn mince in chilli and spag bol but I've yet to give him anything like the nuggets or fish fingers etc as they seem high in salt. Not sure how they compare to the meat versions that other children might have though.

Would like him to be able to have more Quorn etc as it's an easy source of protein and what child doesn't like chicken nuggets or fish fingers?! Is it a no-no salt-wise or ok as long as it's not all the time.

Oliver has substitutes a couple of times a week - usually mince in shepherd's pie, and a fish finger/part of salmon cake (have you tried these by the way? Soooo good!). He has tried everything though - the chicken fillets, nuggets, sausages etc. As he only has a substitute 3 times a week max, I don't worry about the salt content of anything he has - he has fresh cooked meals every other day. I think they're fine in moderation but obviously it depends how much Xavier would eat too - Oliver would only have 1 fish finger max. He absolutely loves the deli slices though so he has them most days in sandwiches.

 

[Thumper]

OMG those deli slices- I detest them and yet when I was pregnant I craved them! I made OH go and buy me them and that awful fakon (fake bacon) as I HAD to have it!

 

[xemmax]

I can't stand quorn, and got food poisoning from it once years ago, enough to put me off for life. I'm not a fan of meat substitutes. I use tofu a lot which has great nutritional value and can be made to taste great. I do love veggie sausages though, but not many. It's not hard to make your own though. I guess it helps I uses to be a chef in a veggie/vegan restaurant...

I was never bothered about meat substitutes until my boyfriend became vegetarian when we met. He was a huge meat eater as he is a weight lifter and has a high protein diet and Quorn is a great low fat high protein source. He often says that he couldn't be vegetarian and have kept his meat cravings in the early days under control if it weren't for Quorn! As a result our freezer is constantly bursting with the stuff.

I should have mentioned my boyfriend earlier when the previous poster suggested that vegetarian diets potentially lack protein. He would definitely disagree with that!

 

[xemmax]

OMG those deli slices- I detest them and yet when I was pregnant I craved them! I made OH go and buy me them and that awful fakon (fake bacon) as I HAD to have it!

Haha and did you get people suggesting that maybe you're craving it because your body NEEDS meat? Pet peeve...

 

[Blah11]

i dont understand why people use quorn and stuff? why would you want to eat something that looks and tastes like meat?

 

[xemmax]

i dont understand why people use quorn and stuff? why would you want to eat something that looks and tastes like meat?

Quorn isn't just targetted at vegetarians - it's also targetted at meat eaters to be used as a low fat replacement.

As I said above though, for people turning to vegetarianism in later life it's great. My boyfriend was 25 when he became a vegetarian for moral reasons - up until then he ate a LOT of meat (like whole turkey crowns for dinner ) so it was brilliant for him as he found it easy to replace a lot of his diet with meat alternatives. I've never eaten meat so I have never really been bothered - however I did eat fish until I was 7 and even though I'm 25 now the smell of fish still makes me salivate, and so perhaps because of that, I LOVE Quorn fish fingers!

 

[Bexxx]

I only use substitutes when I'm feeling particularly lazy and I can't really be bothered cooking. I can just throw it in the oven

 

[xemmax]

I only use substitutes when I'm feeling particularly lazy and I can't really be bothered cooking. I can just throw it in the oven

Same here - other vegetarian options (veg cakes/fingers etc) tend to be really oily and fatty. Meat substitutes tend to be much healthier.

 

[Thumper]

The thought of fishless fingers makes me gag, but then I've always hated fish.
Emma- your point about Quorn etc being a lower fat protein thing is a fair one. I just don;t like it. My DH likes meat replacements any yet he hasn't eaten meant for yonks so it'snot like he is trying to replace meat, he just likes them as a foodstuff in their own right (his taste buds are lacking lol). He eats the Lind Mac pies that make me feel a bit yuk as to me they look and smell like meat, but they don't phase him.

Oh, and yes, I *needed* meat when I was preggers!

 

[LuckyD]

Yeah, not a huge fan of meat substitutes, although I must say some vege sausages at a BBQ are a must-have!

 

[xemmax]

The thought of fishless fingers makes me gag, but then I've always hated fish.
Emma- your point about Quorn etc being a lower fat protein thing is a fair one. I just don;t like it. My DH likes meat replacements any yet he hasn't eaten meant for yonks so it'snot like he is trying to replace meat, he just likes them as a foodstuff in their own right (his taste buds are lacking lol). He eats the Lind Mac pies that make me feel a bit yuk as to me they look and smell like meat, but they don't phase him.

Oh, and yes, I *needed* meat when I was preggers!

I don't like most replacements - I don't like any of the brown Quorn besides the mince as it tastes too meaty to me (or at least how I assume meat tastes haha). I'm not really a fan of any LM for the same reasons as you, my boyfriend eats some of her burgers (think they're peri peri?) but they're too meaty for me.

I don't like any chicken fillets or anything either. When I was pregnant I developed a huge aversion to anything frozen (only had 2 things from the freezer in 8 months) so I cut all Quorn from my diet.. it was very strange but I'm still iffy about it all now (besides the fish range which is AMAZING).

 

[Thumper]

I like Linda Mac sausages Yummmm for breakfast!

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I use quorn just because I like it better and its lower in fat I will have normal beef in burgers.

My daughter is mostly veggie though, wont touch meat at all.

 

[xemmax]

I'm more of a vegetable finger than a vege sausage kind of girl. Vege finger sandwich... mmmmmmmm...

 

[veganmum2be]

yeah we use substitutes in moderation.

i dont really see the whole 'if you dont want to eat meat then why are you eating something that looks like meat?' thing.
it doesnt look like meat as it comes, flesh. it looks like it does when you've shaped it, minced it or whatevered it, and the substitute is soya, why not shape it mince it or whatever it as when its like that its more usable. yes it also happens to be made like that to appeal to the meat eaters.


and *cough* jessie.

it's not forced! well it is, but every parenting decision is forced, because until they can make their mind up on things they need their parents to make the deisions for them.
so theres nothing cruel about raising veggie kids.

 

[Blah11]

i dont understand why people use quorn and stuff? why would you want to eat something that looks and tastes like meat?

Quorn isn't just targetted at vegetarians - it's also targetted at meat eaters to be used as a low fat replacement.

As I said above though, for people turning to vegetarianism in later life it's great. My boyfriend was 25 when he became a vegetarian for moral reasons - up until then he ate a LOT of meat (like whole turkey crowns for dinner ) so it was brilliant for him as he found it easy to replace a lot of his diet with meat alternatives. I've never eaten meat so I have never really been bothered - however I did eat fish until I was 7 and even though I'm 25 now the smell of fish still makes me salivate, and so perhaps because of that, I LOVE Quorn fish fingers!

bleugh i think quorn is vile. I do like the linda mcartney sausages though the quorn sausages are the worst thing ive ever tasted in my life!

 

[Rachel_C]

i dont understand why people use quorn and stuff? why would you want to eat something that looks and tastes like meat?

Why not though? If something tastes nice, it tastes nice, it really doesn't bother me whether it's copying the taste of meat. If somebody brought out a human meat substitute, I'd be up for trying it . In fact years ago there was a hoax online about hufu - human flavoured tofu. I was very disappointed to find it wasn't actually real! I know opinions vary wildly on this but I'm the kind of person who cares about what stuff actually IS rather than what it's copying. If the whole world suddenly went veggie and meat substitutes didn't exist, if somebody discovered how to make Quorn it would just be something tasty and nobody would have a problem with it. You can think about it the other way round too - maybe meat just happens to taste like Quorn processed in a particluar way