Make Friends with Veg
Has your GP told you to lower your cholesterol or improve your diet? One of the easiest changes to make is lowering your consumption of meat. This can seem impossibly difficult to some who thinks to do this they need a fancy new cookbook or a lot of time, but the truth is that there are a lot of easy and quick online recipes out there that cater towards healthy living and eating. Think of creative ways of taking your family favourites and making them into veggie delights. Here are four really easy suggestions:
1. Veggie Spaghetti Bolognese: In your favourite recipe replace the ground mince with finely chopped green peppers, onions, mushrooms and a tin of drained green lentils.
2. Shepherds Pie: Dry veggie sausage mix that you can get from either Holland and Barrett, ASDA or your local health food shop, is very economical and very versatile. Add water according to the package directions and then fry as you would mince.
3. Creative Curries: You can do a veg curry with potatoes, carrots, peas, runner beans, and mushrooms, but what if you want something more substantial? Try cooked and halved hard boiled eggs, lightly fried tofu chunks, or some veggie convenience food like falafel or veggie chicken chunks. One of my favourites is a veggie kofta with a mix of dried veggie sausage mix, grated mushrooms and breadcrumbs. Bake it in the oven and simmer gently in your curry sauce.
4. Mash and Gravy: Except add something bright green and delicious to the mash and make the gravy substantial with mushrooms and onions. I personally like to add finely chopped fresh spinach to the drained potatoes, or chopped broccoli in the last minutes of cooking. You can serve it with veggie sausage, or add lots of veggies to the gravy to make it more of a stew.
It takes a bit of practice to remove some of the meat from your diet, but don’t be intimidated. Just one or two meals a week can put you on the road to a healthier lifestyle.