We are big meat-eaters, but I decided to put new food rules at our home (starting Monday). Partly because I want to punish ourselves for losing the Green Card, and partly because it would be good for our health. It’s a “take a bad thing and turn it into a good thing” effort. Essentially, we will be cutting down on meat and animal products a lot and follow a much healthier and balanced diet. We won’t become vegetarians (I don’t want us to be), but we will come pretty close considering to what we usually eat now: out of the 365 days in the year, 350 days have meat in them.
No more.
Meat or fish now will be served only twice a week (ideally, once fish and once meat). Natural yoghurt twice a week. Cheese almost daily (besides, I am married to a French man), but in smaller quantities. A cup of low-fat milk every day, if one desires to (yoghurt must be mandatory if we don’t drink milk). Eggs once a week. Green or tomato salad almost every day, fruits & bread every day. No frying as a cooking method. Butter usage very rare. Here’s the programme I put together:
(Main dishes mentioned only)
Monday dinner:
Beans
Tuesday dinner:
A vegetarian dish
Yoghurt for dessert
Wednesday dinner:
Meat or fish
Thursday dinner:
Eggs
A vegetarian dish
Friday dinner:
Beans with/or veggies
Saturday lunch:
A vegetarian dish
Yoghurt for dessert
Saturday dinner:
A vegetarian dish
(or veggie pizza with cheese)
(or dinner out)
Sunday lunch:
Meat or fish
Sunday dinner:
A vegetarian dish
(or big salad)
I can live with such a diet (and I am not on a low-calorie diet anymore). It’s not the first time that I cut down on meat anyways. My weekday lunches will be vegetarian. JBQ eats lunch at work on weekdays though so I can’t control what he eats there (neither I should). But in our kitchen during dinner, I am the boss from now on.