I am not a vegetarian. But I often go a few days without eating any meat. Some folks like to describe themselves as carnivores and talk as though every meal must have dead animal in it or they’re not happy. So, I’m curious. How often do you eat meat?
For the purposes of this question, I’m only interested in meat as part of a ‘main dish’. Bacon bits on the salad don’t count, nor does pepperoni on your pizza, or stock in your risotto. I want to know how often you choose meat specifically, as opposed to meat being a coincidental and secondary component of another dish.
I’m also not looking for vegetarians to respond to the poll. It’s about how often meat-eaters eat meat.
Typically twice a day, but I like vegetarian meals too. It’s not like I purposely go out of my way to include or exclude meat, but most meals seem to have meat as the main component, whether it be a sandwich at lunch or a BBQ, roast, fried, baked something with supper.
If I have a ham and cheese sandwich does that count? As a percentage of the overall total the ham is minor, but it’s an integral part of the meal.
Generally though I’d say we have meat four or five days as a main ingedient (i.e. chicken breast, minced beef etc). The other days will usually contain some meat, but perhaps a lesser amount (e.g. lasagne with chunks of ham, or chicken and vegetable soup which may or may not count under the OP’s criteria).
Rarely we’ll have a totally veggie meal, but that’s perhaps once or twice a month.
The meat is always chosen for what it adds to the dish - a vegetable soup is one thing, a chicken and vegetable soup quite another.
For a lot of years, when I was younger and more active, I’d eat meat as rarely as once a week.
Now that I’m older and more sedentary, I find that I can’t stay satisfied and within a good calorie range without having meat about once a day. Poultry and fish are just the best, lowest-calorie ways to get a big wad of protein into you. So I eat it almost every day… there’s a rare day, maybe once a week, when I go all veggie.
It averages out to every other day, I think. I make a big meal, then eat leftovers til they’re gone. Then I make another big meal, repeat. Somewhere around every other time, the main component of the meal is meat. I don’t do a lot of snacking, and if I do, the snack is a vegetable, cheese, or meat-free junk food.
2-3 times a week. I typically eat a lot of pasta, rice, and curry-type dishes which are easy to make with or without meat, and I generally just use veggies or tofu in “filler component” types of dishes.
If meat is a genuine feature of the meal, i.e. salmon, steak, coney-island dog, then I embrace the carnivore
I think it averages out to every other day. Most dinners we do have meat, but I almost never eat meat in breakfast or lunch unless it’s leftovers. And at least 1-2 dinners per week are vegetarian.
I voted once a day, but sometimes I go a few days without meat (I like a lot of Morningstar Farms products so eat those regularly), and sometimes I eat meat twice a day. It averages out to about once a day I guess, though.
Every meal, and even in between meals, I’ll snack on things like cold hotdogs right out of the package. If I don’t eat meat, I still feel hungry. I’m pretty much all about meats and starches. I detest vegetarian fare.
I voted 1 - 2 times a week, though that isn’t quite right it’s closest. Just about never for breakast or lunch. Supper is chicken curry Friday and Saturday, veggie mince based stuff at least three days a week. Whether I eat meat the remaining couple of days depends on what was on offer at Waitrose, I’m not principled, just mean
Dinner is generally centered around meat (this includes seafood) at our house, although I will make dinners occasionally that, by happenstance, qualify as “vegetarian.”
As for the rest of the day, breakfast is usually something like eggs (sometimes with meat, sometimes without) or Fibre One, yogurt, oats, that sort of thing. Lunch might be a can of tuna and some toast, or it may be sandwich, yogurt, cheese, etc. And there might be one or two other small meals like that.
I voted once per day, but it’s more like 1 and a half on average.
Yup, just about every meal needs meat. Very rarely, I’ll eat some form of pasta without actual meat in it…but there’s usually at least a meat flavored sauce. I have no interest in doing otherwise. Meat is good.
I’ll have nuts, pasts, cereal, etc. enough that I can’t say every meal. But if I don’t have meat for at least one meal a day, I get a little out-of-sorts. I can feel the effect on my metabolism. Very rarely is it red meat, though–I eat a lot more poultry & seafood than pork & beef.
