Last week, when we were away, we decided that we wanted to try giving up meat. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a little while, and it’s something that J has done to an extent before due to a veggie ex, and the decision came about quickly after we ate bacon as part of the hotel breakfast. My metabolism has slowed down obviously and I can’t manage big meals, it’s very much little and often for the next few weeks and J just felt terrible after eating meat for breakfast. So we decided. And we have been vegetarian (temporarily?) since the 1st of March.
Initially, the plan was to just have no meat in the house, and if we fancied meat when we were out, then we would have it. But it seems we’ve gone the whole hog. No meat at all. The girls won’t eat meat when they’re at home but we’re comfortable with them eating it when they’re out or not with us. For now. I’m sure if we continue on after the month is over and it becomes something permanent, then we’ll come to a decision about them. It occurred to me today that, if this was a permanent thing, our baby wouldn’t ever eat meat.
These are my observations so far:
1. It’s really easy when you’re at home. Yes, it requires a little more preparation, it means you can’t put chicken in everything, it means that some meals require actual chopping and cooking, but the alternatives are excellent, Quorn is brilliant and we had veggie mince over beef mince before. And you try new things, and some things work and some are truly disgusting. Guess which category cauliflower rice fell into….
2. It’s much harder when you’re out. On Thursday, the first day, we went to M&S while the girls were at nursery and we had a gift card so thought we might get some food from the cafe. Well, I fancied a sandwich and the ONLY veggie option was mushroom and emmental. J doesn’t like mushrooms and I didn’t want it, so we bought a baguette and made rolls at home. On Saturday, we took the girls to McDonalds and they had chicken nuggets and we had one of the three veggie options available. The vegetable deluxe. Well, that should be in inverted commas, as it tasted of nothing. Fortunately we shared one, and didn’t waste money on one each.
3. You do feel better. I feel less sluggish and have a bit more energy which as someone who is eight months pregnant, I’ll take as a win. I’ve given up things I like whilst pregnant anyway, brie, cheesecake etc, so this is fine and doable and I think J feels better too.
4. I’ve felt strangely ethical about it as it’s continued. I’ve read stuff over the years about the meat industry and how it’s run and I’ve long held an intense dislike for handling raw meat. This led to feeling uneasy about eating something that I didn’t want to handle and I do feel much better morally for not eating meat.
5. I have no desire to go vegan. I don’t think that it’s financially viable for us anyway, as far as I can tell, all the vegan alternatives to staples are more expensive than the dairy/non vegan options. Milk for example and we drink a lot of milk, cereal, tea, coffee, in cooking. I can’t imagine how much it would cost us if we replaced all of that with non dairy milk. And would you need a different one for each thing? Does coconut milk taste good in tea? Or almond milk in coffee? And can you make a white sauce with any of them?
That’s it for now. It’s been good so far. J is struggling with lunches at work (see point 2) but the girls have been fine and it’s been OK. We’ll see how we get on as the month progresses….
Fairy Lights and Fear 