Veggie meal ideas for a meat loving hubby!!

[MrsT&Ben]

We spend a fortune on food, a lot of our food bill goes on meat. My hubby insists on having meat with every meal. But we simply can't afford to live like this anymore.

Can anyone give me some meal suggestions to persuade him the veggie food can be just as tasty!

Thank you

 

[Pirate]

This can be tough! I'm also a meat loving girl (with a DH who would have no problem being vegetarian). What I do is make most meals with meat, but pair them with another filler and veggies so that I can use less of the meat. I make a lot of meals with hamburger and chicken because those are "cheap." For example, last night we had a cheesy pasta casserole with cubed chicken and broccoli in it. The pasta made up so much of the dish that I only used 1/2 of a small chicken breast. I use a lot of rice and potatoes too. i would like to use more beans but DH really doesnt care too much for them (I love beans). I also batch cook and freeze everything (usually every other month) so that I can buy in bulk and just pull something out of the freezer a day in advance to heat up. I did main dishes and most sides for two months for about $130 for DH and I.

 

[MrsVenn]

I would highly suggest taking a look at my MIL's blog. She's a veggie with a full meat eating family. I've now made DH to eat more veggie in our house and when we go there, I insist we eat veggie. Her food is amazing, so tasty! Take a look, your DH won't feel like he's missing out trust me, the nut roast is amazing.

https://simply-veggie.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[bumpy_j]

I'm the same here now, we buy meat once or twice a week tops if at all - I'd rather splash out on a good bit of fish. Spice things like beans in the same way as you'd spice meat, I save a tonne making bean tacos instead on beef.

This is the recipe I use:

https://thugkitchen.com/post/48129205342/there-aint-nothing-zesty-about-a-drive-thru-diet

Beans are your best friend if you want to save money. You can mash them up for burgers, 'meatballs', add them to quinoa or bulgar wheat for a 'meatier' texture. Chickpeas and lentils are great to have in the cupboard too.

I find Vegan blogs seem to be the most creative on that front (since they can't add things like cheese or cream to make a meal richer). This blog is pretty good for faux meat inspired meals:

https://theveganstoner.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[Kittycat155]

Since you pre cook what about a dual pan that has some veggie meal and some meat. He may get more into the non meat one. Or a thick soup and meat meal.

 

[summer rain]

The mouthwatering vegan is another amazing vegan blog, the lady basically recreates meat dishes using more mainstream ingredients you can buy from most supermarkets. I've made a few of the recipes from it though a lot of them are more special occasion dishes than everyday stuff. My OH and I are vegan so we completely avoid meat and animal products, overall it has saved us a lot of money. We eat quite a lot of beans and lentils, we also love the Asda chicken style pieces which are made of a mixture of seitan (wheat protein) and soya protein and they are shockingly like real chicken especially if you cook them long and slowly such as in a curry or an oven baked casserole. They are cheap too, 2 good sized bags for £3. Each bag contains 300g but they expand somewhat when cooked so 300g ends up being more like 500g+ of normal chicken pieces.

Another good meat alternative is soya mince and chunks, it's not great to have soya all the time but 1-2 times a week is fine. I have found that the traditional dried soya mince and chunks are more versatile, considerably cheaper and easier to get tasting like actual meat than the frozen versions. What I do with the dried versions is soak it in hot water covering it with a generous amount of yeast extract such as marmite and some vegetarian gravy granules or powder mixed in. I then leave it to soak in for an hour or longer, by which time all the water should be soaked in and the mince or chunks then has a much more meaty look and flavour. I use the marigold organic vegetarian gravy powder for this, as gravy it's crap but for this purpose it's amazing. Ends up tasting almost exactly like beef. Asda and Sainsbury's also do dried burger and sausage mixes, Sainsbury's under the granose brand, Asda under their own brand but they are the same products. The Lincolnshire sausage mix is amazing as is the burger mix. The sausages taste like real sausages but don't look like it but the burger mix, when cooked tastes and looks like a proper beef burger. They both turn out best if cooked with very little oil on a cast iron pan, or in a George Foreman grill. Since being vegan I don't cook any new recipes really instead I adapt old ones and the vast majority of the time it does work really well, and sometimes better than the original version xx