Tag Archives: vegetarian

A Cheap and Easy Meal

Take a bag of ready chopped stir-fry veg, a pack of noodles and some sauce. Put them in a wok, mix them together and let them heat through.

It takes ten minutes, is very simple and is safe for those of us with poor knife skills.

I ordered it from TESCO as a special offer package deal on our last Click & Collect order but they didn’t have any sauce so they just sent me the veg and noodles. I wasn’t happy and really, if they don’t have all three offer items, they shouldn’t just send you two. Fortunately I had suitable sauce so we were OK.

Cost about £2 for two large portions. It could have been cheaper if we’d cut our own veg into little strips but a few pence seems good value to avoid cutting my fingers. It’s healthy, though I’m sure the sauce has a lot of sugar in it.

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Stir Fry Vegetables

Note how I have avoided mentioning flavour. It’s quite bland, even with a good helping of plum sauce, and the bean sprouts can be overpowering. It would probably benefit from some prawns or meat, but as we are trying to cut down our meat consumption, we are trying to like the taste of vegetables.

That isn’t quite fair, as I do like the taste of carrots, parsnips, peas, beans, chickpeas, broccoli, cabbage and onions, to name just a few. It’s bean sprouts I’m not that keen on, they are watery and they somehow seem to kill the flavour of the meal. They aren’t just tasteless, they seem to drain flavour and make everything else seem less tasty. When we are doing our own stir fry we tend not to use them, though I suppose we really should start growing our own as they are cheap and easy.

The cupboard is bare!

A few months ago, I decided to go meatless one day a week. It was mainly because I don’t see meat as a good use of world resources and I felt that it didn’t involve much sacrifice but could make a difference.

Let’s be clear – I like meat and I have no plans to give it up. I’m also way past the point where I’m going to be able to repair the damage I’ve done to my body in the last half century, despite what those inspirational films may say.

It was surprisingly difficult to go meatless all day – whether it was the temptation of bacon sandwiches in the morning, the lure of pre-packed ham sandwiches or the shortcut of meat-based ready meals for tea. This was made more difficult by not wanting to tell people I was going meatless. I have coped with the process of becoming a non-drinker and non-smoker over the years, but becoming slightly vegetarian was a step too far.

I’m an omnivore who choses not to eat meat on Mondays. Just like I’m a smoker who has decided not to have a cigarette today (as I have done every day for the past 15 years).

I didn’t actually intend to join the Meatless Monday thing but it crept up on me. After going on their website I’m beginning to regret it. I’ll happily cut out meat one day a week, but maybe not Mondays. I just don’t like being part of a movement, particularly one that has a jazzy, happy website and a recipe for Cauliflower and Chickpea Curry. I’m not saying these things are bad. They just aren’t for me.

I’m actually more concerned about Earth Overshoot Day, the day we manage to consume a year of resources. It’s today. We have used up a year of resources in seven and a half months. Now, I have no idea how you calculate this and don’t altogether believe the calculation is possible, but for a moment let’s assume it is. It doesn’t matter whether it is or isn’t, what matters is that it’s come six days earlier than it did last year and months earlier than in 2000 when it arrived in October. IN 1961 it didn’t come at all – we only used 75% of a year’s resources.

I’m not overly worried for myself – I’ll be old fairly soon, my appetite will decline and a bit of global warming will help eke out my Winter Fuel Payment. I’m actually worried about what we’re doing to the world we pass on to our kids.

I can’t see that we will cut back on consumption and, having been promised much by scientists in the 1960s, I can’t see us farming under the sea or on the moon.

I have a suggestion, and I know it isn’t going to be a popular suggestion, but by 2100, when the planet is groaning under the burden of 13.3 billion people (compared to today’s 7.3 billion) you may thank me for daring to suggest it.

We are going to have to start eating people.

If we start with the vegetarians it will also free up supplies of cauliflowers and chick peas.