Curry tonight, I wimped out on the Quorn and did a veggie version. Neither Harry or Mikey like curry so it was just three of us, all of whom liked it but it was the first time I've missed meat in a meal. I think it was because the curry was similar to those I make with chicken which made the absence more noticeable. I've realised I need to make our meals distinctively different to those we ate with meat.
Day 7, Saturday morning breakfast was always going to be a bit of a challenge as it's usually bacon butties for 5. Today we had scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, beans and mushrooms. Everyone ate a bit of something and Mikey ate three Linda McCartney sausages. They really turned my stomach so much so that I had to leave the room whilst he ate them. It was the smell as much as anything, they smelt as though someone had died. Really not appealing.
Tea was pizza for the kids and as it was Matthew's birthday tea with friends he had a pepperoni pizza. I know, I know ... Phil and I were good though and had a salad with egg and cheese :-)
Saturday 21 January 2012
Friday 20 January 2012
Day 5
Really nice pasta bake this evening, pasta in a tomato, peppers, onions and mushroom sauce with a cheese sauce on top, eaten happily by 4/5 of us. A good 8/10 (would have been a 9 if one who shall not be named hadn't refused to try it).
Day 6 - woken up feeling great but went on facebook which was a bad idea. So many people are planning to have bacon butties for breakfast. Shhh, people, you're not helping. Consolation plan is a cooked breakfast of field mushrooms, hash browns, scrambled eggs and beans. Which is perking me up a little. Right, up and at it ...
Day 6 - woken up feeling great but went on facebook which was a bad idea. So many people are planning to have bacon butties for breakfast. Shhh, people, you're not helping. Consolation plan is a cooked breakfast of field mushrooms, hash browns, scrambled eggs and beans. Which is perking me up a little. Right, up and at it ...
Wednesday 18 January 2012
A quick update
Day 4 - okay so the hard and fast ethical veggies may not approve, but tonight's tea was fish (I ended up making salmon parcels, pan fried cod and fish fingers to satisfy everyone's whims),along with mashed potatoes, carrots and peas and parsley sauce. Not sure how I feel about us eating fish now we've had some, it feels a bit like we've cheated. I suspect I have the enthusiasm of a born-again Christian or a new non-smoker. I want to do it properly if I'm going to do it though. So I think I might take fish off the menu too, just for me and Phil. Poor man, I suspect he will be fantasising about MacDonalds by the end of the month.
On being a veggie
Day one - it was all Phil's idea. We'd talked about it on and off over the years and had tried on a few occasions to limit ourselves to chicken and fish, but somehow we always fell off the wagon. Either we had a steak when we ate out or I ran out of ideas for meals or the kids looked a bit pale and peaky and I felt the need to get some iron into them. However, having a history of bowel cancer on Phil's side of the family (sorry, not a very cheery start to my first ever blog; I shall never speak of it again ...) and being in the grip of the heightened awareness of our mortality that being in our forties has brought about, we made a seemingly impulsive decision to give up meat entirely. For a month. As a trial.
So that night we had a mushroom and Parmesan risotto. The kids eyed it suspiciously and asked where the meat was. Confused by its absence, they poked at the rice with their forks looking for chicken. Then one of them tried it and - result - liked it. One had a meltdown and refused to touch it and ate only garlic bread. One picked at it and made polite noises whilst stirring it around their bowl. (Not naming names so that there is a slight chance one of them might look after me when I am old and dribbling into my soup.)
We all survived relatively unscathed. Phil and I liked it a lot. I'd give it an adult rating of 8.5/10 and a kid rating of 5/10.
Day 2 - lunch was an egg mayo sandwich on brown bread with a glass of fresh orange and a few crisps. A knock on effect I can already feel is wanting to eat healthier food in general, hence the brown bread. Mikey had bread and homous in his lunch box instead of the usual chicken sandwich, a yoghurt and a smoothie. All of it was eaten and he swears blind he didn't just put it in the bin but actually ate it. I 'think' I believe him.
Tea was a really lovely cheese and potato pie courtesy of the BBC Good Food website. It really was good. Eldest two loved it, especially Matthew, plenty of veg to go with it too so that was good. Mikey went on hunger strike and had bread and cheese and a smoothie. Sigh. 'It's pastry, Mikey, what's not to like?' A resounding 9/10 from the rest of us though. Mikey tells me it was a big fat nil point from him.
Day 3 - beans and cheese on toast for lunch. very nice but left me wanting chocolate for some reason. Thank God for the post Christmas Quality Street tin.
Tea was a winter vegetable soup. The kids took one look at it and sniffed it and declined the offer of a bowlful. I was feeling kind after the positive response to the pie last night and made them baked potatoes instead with cheese and beans. The veg soup was okay but a bit boring and left us both starving later so we had some vile falafel with guacomole and tomato salsa. Lots of advice on facebook on how to make them palatable but I remain unconvinced. They have gone on my list along with marmite, olives, peanut butter and mustard. So a huge resounding nil point for falafel (evil evil food item) and an average 6/10 for the soup.
So that night we had a mushroom and Parmesan risotto. The kids eyed it suspiciously and asked where the meat was. Confused by its absence, they poked at the rice with their forks looking for chicken. Then one of them tried it and - result - liked it. One had a meltdown and refused to touch it and ate only garlic bread. One picked at it and made polite noises whilst stirring it around their bowl. (Not naming names so that there is a slight chance one of them might look after me when I am old and dribbling into my soup.)
We all survived relatively unscathed. Phil and I liked it a lot. I'd give it an adult rating of 8.5/10 and a kid rating of 5/10.
Day 2 - lunch was an egg mayo sandwich on brown bread with a glass of fresh orange and a few crisps. A knock on effect I can already feel is wanting to eat healthier food in general, hence the brown bread. Mikey had bread and homous in his lunch box instead of the usual chicken sandwich, a yoghurt and a smoothie. All of it was eaten and he swears blind he didn't just put it in the bin but actually ate it. I 'think' I believe him.
Tea was a really lovely cheese and potato pie courtesy of the BBC Good Food website. It really was good. Eldest two loved it, especially Matthew, plenty of veg to go with it too so that was good. Mikey went on hunger strike and had bread and cheese and a smoothie. Sigh. 'It's pastry, Mikey, what's not to like?' A resounding 9/10 from the rest of us though. Mikey tells me it was a big fat nil point from him.
Day 3 - beans and cheese on toast for lunch. very nice but left me wanting chocolate for some reason. Thank God for the post Christmas Quality Street tin.
Tea was a winter vegetable soup. The kids took one look at it and sniffed it and declined the offer of a bowlful. I was feeling kind after the positive response to the pie last night and made them baked potatoes instead with cheese and beans. The veg soup was okay but a bit boring and left us both starving later so we had some vile falafel with guacomole and tomato salsa. Lots of advice on facebook on how to make them palatable but I remain unconvinced. They have gone on my list along with marmite, olives, peanut butter and mustard. So a huge resounding nil point for falafel (evil evil food item) and an average 6/10 for the soup.
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