Saving on meat expenses

Most of my readers must have noticed that we're not eating a lot of meat. I was pretty much raised as a vegetarian, so I'm familiar with vegetarian/vegan eating. My husband, on the other hand, was raised with a more meat heavy diet and not eating meat for a day was out of the question in my MIL's home! So you can image that was a bit of a shock for both of us when we first got married. It took a while, but after some time we did find a good balance of meat, fish, vegetarian and vegan meals. Now, my husband says he couldn't eat meat everyday - regardless of the price. And this goes the same for me; I couldn't go back to completely vegetarian. 

The thing is, meat can be very expensive so for most people, it's typically the biggest expense of all their groceries. We're certainly no exception to that! (Although olive oil is getting more expensive every year and will eventually become an even bigger expense... But that's another topic.) I remember when we went through hard financial times, meat was the first thing to cut back on. There are so many people in the world for whom meat is a rare treat. And for me as a former vegetarian, it was a logical thing to do anyway, as meat is so expensive and you technically don't even need it. Not that much, anyhow. We still had it every so often though, and really enjoyed it when we did. But it was a good way to cut back on our spending. As time went by, I've just stuck with my "less meat policy", as it just hurts to pay that much for foods. There are others ways to spend the money I would have spent otherwise on all that extra meat - but that's just me, I do realise that others value meat more than we do, and that's ok. Throughout the years, I've come up with many tricks to save on meat expenses. 

First of all, the quantity: try to have meat as an ingredient, instead of the main meal. We usually have meat as a side, with carbs (grains/legumes) and vegetables being the fillers. You really don't need that much even to satisfy yourself taste wise, in my experience. There are also many examples of dishes where  meat is stretched a lot. For example, mince (ground beef) in pastas- just use a bit less. A baked chicken/rotisserie chicken can be used for at least a few meals worth of meat - you can use shredded chicken in about everything; soups, salads, rice and pasta dishes, on sandwiches, etc. And then just try to stretch the meat as much as possible. When I make pulled chicken, I stretch it by adding low cost vegetables, such as onions and shredded carrots. That way you don't even notice there isn't as much chicken in it.

The kind of meat: red meat is most expensive, so that's obviously a thing to keep in mind. In a lot of dishes, red and white meat can be used interchangeably- it will affect the taste somewhat obviously, but it's still as good. You can even use fish instead - I like using sardines instead of beef/lamb mince for making kofta, and even fish haters don't notice it's fish. I've heard that turkey is the best replacement with mince. I've never tried that, as my husband doesn't like turkey, but I'm keen to try it. Texture changes the taste so I guess turkey mince should taste different from, say, a part of the leg. You can still splurge on red meat once in a while if you want to obviously, but it's good to realize that there are cheaper options and can splurge just every so often on the more expensive favourite meat. 

Vegetarian options: I obviously had to mention this one, but I really makes so much difference in your budget! Even when I compare our local legume prices with the cheaper meats or fish, legumes are much cheaper. One kg of lentils is about €2, whereas chicken is around €5 per kg. But, a kg of dried legumes will stretch a lot better than a kg of chicken, as the lentils will expand whereas the chicken not only just doesn't expand- it actually will shrink when being baked. So you'll even save more if you take that into consideration. You obviously don't have to eat only vegetarian meals, but a few times a week will make so much difference already. What I like to do is when I batch cook, we'll have one meal with meat and the other batch without. That way it still has the flavour- meat can be such a flavour enhancer. I do this too with legumes; when I make lentil stew in advance, for example, I cook some chicken in it for extra flavour. And then I take out the chicken to have with the meal we're eating that day. You can obviously cook lentils without chicken, but it does give the dish more flavour. I also like making my own tofu and seitan, which I hadn't done in a long time but recently started doing again. I know not everyone likes tofu, but I think seitan is definitely adaptable for meat eaters compared to other plant based alternatives, as it has a bit of a meaty texture. 

Nose to tail: I've talked before about how we love nose to tail eating, which essentially means to eat ALL the parts of the animal, not just the more popular parts. Not only is it healthier but it's usually cheaper too. You don't necessarily have to buy organ meats (although I would highly recommend it!), but there are many alternatives for the more expensive cuts of meat. And that's not just the case with red meat. When I want to use chicken breast, I never ever buy a chicken breast, but instead I buy a whole chicken of which I cut the breast off, then use the remaining parts for other dishes. I usually use the legs/tighs/wings together a dish and then what remains are the frames and the necks, which makes a very good base for any soup. My husband also likes to eat the necks as is, so if I have a lot of them I might cook them up separately and only use the frames for soup. 

Using everything: we're very big on not wasting anything, and this applies even more so for meat. As it's so expensive and does have quite a big environmental impact, I just can't not be frugal with meat. I really use everything - the bones (for making bone broth), chicken skins to render, sheep fat to render, etc. Scraps also make good cat food. When I make broth with chicken necks/frames, I take off the meat after cooking which our cat obviously loves!