My husband is vegetarian but I haven't given myself the title yet. I haven't bought meat in a good long while though... no sense in making a roast if I'm the only one eating it. After researching diet (husband just cut out meat, no research) we've gone more to a whole food diet, local if we can, minimally processed if processed at all.
We've been enjoying some venison from the neighbor... some from Indiana, some from Ohio, and some from Kentucky. We had some Kentucky grass fed all natural, aged beef. WOW.
Meat is supposed to be small servings. Gone are the days of 16 ounce steaks for us. 6 ounces, tops. Usually I use a small amount and mix it into a rice/grain dish or chili... to stretch it thin through the meal to reduce actual meat consumption. A large t-bone steak can cook enough for 3 meals (6 servings), the big thick kind of steaks.
The key to any diet is variety. I try to get at least 1 of every color veggie into a meal, with a whole grain base. No more iceburg and ranch salads. A salad has everything in it... Roma tomatoes, Sprouts, Romaine and other lettuce, raw mushrooms, almonds, shredded carrot and purple cabbage, cucumber, little bit of diced sweet onion, strips of red and green peppers, and a home made dressing. When you want to change the flavor, add and subtract the components.
We do the same with Chili. 4-5 types of beans, then on from there. Done in a crock pot, each item added when needed for it's cook time, so that no one thing is over/under done.
Rice/grains almost always gets lintels cooked with it.
You don't have to become a vegetarian... but a lot of the recipes are REALLY good, so it's good to try out recipes until you have a little collection of favorites. Doesn't mean you have to call yourself anything... just eat healthy with as much variety as you can without using anything overly processed, artificial, or full of poison.
My main ingredient of anything is Garlic... garlic in EVERYTHING.
