Cooking with less meat ideas? (to save money)

[Cassandra]

I am trying, with some success, to reduce the amount of meat my family consumes. Like, the other night, we made stir-fry and used a couple of chicken breast filets, which amounted to less meat than one split chicken breast. That was enough to feed the four of us, as it was stretched out with rice and vegetables.

I have also been making pintos and cheese about once a week. I season the beans with bacon ends, but that is the only meat in the dish.

I'm not aspiring to become vegetarian or anything. And, truth be told, a big slab of medium cooked steak is right up there with bliss, in my opinion. My whole family pretty much agrees (though John prefers pork chops.) We love meat. Just last night, we had bacon sandwiches for dinner and as I sampled a piece I said to John, "Man, I always forget how good bacon is until the next time I have some." LOL

HOWEVER, I do want to save money and I am willing to forego my future thick slabs of beef in order to do that.

Can we share recipes for lower meat consumption. Now I don't want to go out and buy any fake meat products. No TVP or Tofu or vegie burgers. When I want a hamburger, I'll eat a hamburger. I'm not trying to REPLACE meat, I'm just trying to reduce it.

Any thoughts?

Oh! One of my favorite quotes. (I hope it doesn't offend anyone; I think it's hilarious):

**If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?** ~Twiztr


Cassandra

 

[enjoy the ride]

I mentioned this once before but my Mom made a thing where she took hamburger, kneaded it some to warm it then spread it over hamberger buns and broiled it. This made a sort of thin layer of hamburger open face sandwich that everyone topped with what ever they found appealing with regular hamburgers- onions, catsup, cheese, etc. We kids loved it.
She also made Spanish rice which had only a little meat in it.

Almost any chinese cooking can stretch meat out a lot.
Of course meat loaf has bread, vegetables and other things in it to stretch out the meat. As do meat balls.

My Mom also made this thing with flank steak- she pounded it thin then rolled it up with onions and other things - they were held together with a tooth pick. She usually fried them some then put them in a baking dish, made some gravy with the fry pan dripping, poured the gravy over the rolls and baked til done. Another family favorite - sort of the American version of Nagamaki.

 

[patandchickens]

I like your quote, Cassandra A similar one from a slightly um different viewpoint is from the old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip; Calvin (the boy) asks "Do you ever wonder why people were put here on earth?" and Hobbes (the tiger) replies "Tiger food"

What about eggs? Egg burritos make a good dinner entree (egg, onion, and green or red pepper, and you can add a little bit of sausage or ham if you really want, all fried up fairly hard and loaded into tortillas with some salsa etc). We have my infamous "Leftovers Frittata" about once every week or ten days, and it's almost always REALLY good (putting a wee bit of grated parmesan on top when it's almost done is especially good). Actually, a fried egg sandwich, or french toast, plus a bowl of hearty soup makes a good dinner too.

If you serve things using chicken breasts, like breaded and pan-fried, or chicken parmigiana or that sort of thing, try slicing the breasts in half flatwise, so they look the same from above but are half as thick. (Or you can pound 'em flatter and then cut smaller, but my way's easier )

Also, anything where the meat is 'diffused' thru the dish in small pieces makes it seem like you've used more meat than you have. Beef or hamburger stroganoff with lotsa mushrooms and onions, over noodles. Fried rice (oh yes, fried rice is a good one meatless too, just scramble up a couple eggs hard in tiny pieces in it along iwht the veggies) or chinese-style fried noodles. Or what about, everyone has a different name for it but you know where you cook up rice in some tomato-product-containing liquid with a buncha fried onions and peppers and corn and other veggies in it and some little pieces of meat. Macaroni and cheese, maybe with tiny slivers of cooked ham in it as a sop to the obligate carnivores in the audience

Anything helpful there?

Have fun,

Pat

 

[enjoy the ride]

Any salad thing can stand a little chicken or ham too. Soup with a few thin slices of meat floating on top to a stew with lots of root vegetables too.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Well, not sure if you would like this or not, but my DH loves what we call "Poor Man's Hamburgers".

Usually I make this if I need to make the ground beef stretch to have enough burgers to go around. I chop up green and red peppers and onion. Season the ground beef with salt and pepper and I kind of knead the chopped veggies into the ground beef. I also put in rice, rolled oats and crunched up crackers. Sometimes I put in diced tomatoes.

I grill em or fry em, put em on buns, top like regular hamburg!

 

[Cassandra]

Ok mouth watering. (It's almost lunch time) Good stuff, everyone. I am taking notes.

Along the lines of the poor mans hamburger, what could you do with this to make a lower meat sloppy joe type thing... What I'm wondring is, how little meat you could actually use but still have it taste, you know, like sloppy joes. Are there some kind of tiny little beans you could add that wouldn't change the flavor too much...

Cassandra

 

[patandchickens]

I've tried adding lentils or barley or brown rice or bulgur to sloppy joes and similar things. Alas, to my tastes, it doesn't take much of any of 'em to be quite noticeable. The bulgur is least obtrusive, to me.

Pat

 

[DrakeMaiden]

As a vegetarian who never really liked the taste of meat much, my opinion is that there are tons of dishes that taste way better with no meat in them!

Yeah, I don't expect any of you to agree.

There are tons of soup recipes that don't include meat (unless you use chicken broth).

Lately we have been eating portobello burgers (you marinate the mushroom caps and then grill them, add cheese and a roasted bell pepper sauce) which goes really well with a side of roasted potatoes!

There are lots of pasta dishes that don't require meat. This time of year I particularly like homemade fettucine alfredo with brocolli in it.

For sandwiches, you might try using some hummus (chick pea spread). I really like broiling bread and melting mozzarella on it and then slapping on some sun dried tomato hummus!

 

[TanksHill]

I thnk one pot meals in general stretch further. You can add a variety of veggies and potato or pasta depending on what your making. I am really surprised at how much bean and pea soup I can fit in. The kids are loving it. As long as theres fresh biscuts or corn bread their happy.

 

[FarmerChick]

Pound out flat your chicken breasts. I do this all the time. 1 "kinda fat" skinless/boneless chicken breast can pound down into 2 easily. then bread and fry for like parmagna or eat like that or bake,,,,whatever....but it makes 2 and stretches it and it is enough portion size definitely.

I can't do meatless hardly ever. We are meat lovers but I do stretch the amt.....so I guess that is a reduction in my own way like you are trying to do.

Hamburger.....just put less in your spaghetti sauce etc. When I get ready to brown meat for hamburger, I got in the habit of taking one good sized hamburger patty out and freeze it. In a few meals after using hamburger in them, I then have 4 burgers ready to eat in the freezer. Tony eats 2, me and Nicole 1 each. It is just a way to have more from the package you are using.


another trick is to shred pork and such for sandwiches or bbq type meals. A small piece of pork can be shredded into what seems like a TON.


hope some of that helps ya