Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

Yes, I use a lot of beans and lentils. I made a huge vat of spicy carrot and lentil soup a few days ago and am working my way through it for lunch every day.
I always drink soya milk, I don't subscribe to any of the fashionable fears about soya (or about wheat or seed oils). The vast majority of soya grown is fed to animals raised for meat, so I don't have rainforest clearance guilt either.

 

Mostly I cook from scratch and use a lot of pulses and veggies.

I do buy the occasional "sausage" or "burger" product for convenience, most of them aren't really that bad and are healthier than the meat equivalent. The supermarkets are starting to sell more things like Seitan and Tempeh though - products that have been used in the far east for centuries.

I like Alpro yogurts too, I've never had any success making my own.

I don't touch the cheese replacements as most of them are just flavoured coconut fat with no nutritional value. I've had to accept that cheese is gone from my life.

I have absolutely no problem keeping the weight on - sadly.

 

@simone_in_wiltshire Aldi source much of their meat from the UK.

 

When i used to haul loads of wheat/barley/oats/oil seed rape i've seen many of things that shouldn't be in there and where some is stored and some would put you off eating anything
Rats dead & alive + poo
Mice dead & alive + poo
Fox dead
Cats dead
Dog 1 alive + 1 dead + poo
Birds dead
Chainsaw
Strimmer
Petrol cans+ petrol
Chains
Cow poo because it was stored in a cow shed with out being cleaned
Seed corn
Stones
Even a can of waste oil
Just some of the things in a load MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

 

On ethical grounds, I would like to be vegetarian. On digestive grounds, I can't be. I have to match my diet with what my body can cope with. Not ideal, but then little in life is.

I would be happy to pay much more for cheese, chicken and eggs if it came with a guarantee the animals and birds had been treated well. Sadly, within the entire food industry the trend is for cheaper and cheaper, lowering the quality by degrees in the hope people won't notice, and adding more and more ultra processed, non-food ingredients along the way.

 

With dairy and eggs, I don't see any way to make it kind.
To get milk, you have to make the cow pregnant every year and then take her baby away from her as soon as it's born. And then kill the baby.
To get your laying stock for eggs, you have to kill any male chickens that hatch as they're worthless. Sometimes they're gassed. Sometimes thrown into plastic sacks where they suffocate. Sometimes they're fed alive into a grinding machine.

 

Well since most people are, there's not really any need to state it. I always assume as much until I'm told otherwise.

 

Something I have always found difficult is explaining that I'm not really a meat eater.
I eat small amounts but mostly I just don't like it,how anyone eats or even manages to chew their way through a steak is something I've never been able to do.
When I mention this most people just jump to the conclusion I must be a vegetarian and i end up with rubber sausages made of god knows what or even plant based tuna.

Can anyone explain why half the time the vegetarian option is something that is made to look like meat.

 

@Escarpment , there's a new "cheese" from Violife called Cheddarton and the protein content of that is much better than others. Quite nice for an occasional change. I always used to drink soya milk, even 40 years ago when it wasn't at all nice. I still use it in tea.
Recently I've been making soups using the old-fashioned bags of "soup mix" and it's become a daily routine at lunch time. Soup made with one bag will last two people for about four days.

 

I think it's just to tempt people who have only ever eaten meat @pete. Make it easier to switch.

 

It's just practical. When I can't be bothered to cook and just want a bit of protein and some vegetables, that's what I go for. I don't care whether it tastes like meat or not - I don't really remember what meat tastes like. Keep a supply in the freezer and you can just throw a couple in the air fryer, and then steam a lovely mix of fresh veg to go with them.
Though there is a movement afoot that is going to ban us from actually calling them "sausages" or "burgers" so it will be interesting to see what new names are invented.

 

The plant based tuna is truly disgusting.

I was actually turned off meat quite badly before I went vegetarian, because I saw my (very much younger) brother choke and my dad pick him up by the ankles and thump his back. I always found it hard to swallow after that.

 

I’d happily go vegetarian, if OH would join me. He would also go vegetarian if he liked vegetables, nuts and pulses. Our compromise is to only buy British meat, and only from Waitrose, who are gradually shifting more of their own brand meat products to free range only. It may well be more expensive, but we don’t buy much, and I tend to buy on price ie if I’m going to spend £6 on chicken pieces, that’s how much I’ll spend even if that means a smaller portion of better quality and more ethically produced. No value packs for us. We always share an individual pie between the two of us, I just have extra vegetables with mine, and OH has a few extra chips.
A family member used to know a buyer for Lidl, and was told that a lot of their vegetables are not far off organically produced, but it’s not worth going through all the paperwork hoops to state that. If I have a reason to stop off at Lidl, I do stock up on their fruit and vegetables as they are usually excellent quality, otherwise I save petrol and pick up what I need in Waitrose. I do pop into Sainsbury’s for their own brand Earl Grey tea, but don’t buy their vegetables, which seem to go off as soon as I get them home.