Money Saving Meals

Cutting back on meat

Friday, 05 August 2011

Make it a tasty side show and not the main event and you'll be doing your budget, your health and our planet a favour.

Meat is a big budget item, and one way to save on household bills is to eat less of it, make casseroles with cheaper cuts and have a couple of meatless meals each week. 'Spend as much as you can at the greengrocer, as much as you need at the butcher and as little as you can in the supermarket,' is one of our favourite tips that readers have shared with us.

'It's a great tip,' says dietitian Nicole Senior. 'Meat is a highly nutritious food that provides essential nutrients like iron and zinc that are more difficult to obtain from plant foods, but we in rich countries have grown up thinking it should be the main event right there centre stage on our dinner plate, when in fact it just needs to be a tasty side show filling no more than a quarter of the plate. I normally allow around 100g/3½ oz meat or chicken per person for everyday meals. As for worrying about getting enough protein, most of us get far more than we need – and we forget that legumes and many everyday foods made from grains (like bread and breakfast cereals) give us some protein, too.'

Here's a taste of how much protein you can get from popular everyday foods derived from plants.

Legumes (pulses)

• ½ cup baked beans (in tomato sauce) provide an average of 7g protein
• ½ cup canned, drained cannellini beans provides an average of 8g protein
• ½ cup cooked red lentils provides an average of 9g protein
• ½ cup cooked split peas provides an average of 6g protein

Breakfast cereals, breads and grains

• ¾ cup Kellogg's Special K original provides around 6g protein
• ¾ cup Kellogg's All-Bran provides around 7g protein
• ¼ cup raw traditional rolled oats provides around 3g protein
• 1 slice Tip Top 9-grain Original bread provides around 4g protein
• 1 slice Burgen Soy-Lin bread provides around 6g protein
• 1 cup cooked brown rice provides around 5g protein
• 1 cup cooked white rice provides around 4g protein
• 1 cup cooked pasta provides around 6–7g protein
• 1 cup cooked soba/buckwheat noodles provides around 7g protein
• 1 cup cooked pearl barley provides around 4–5g protein

Nuts and seeds

• A small handful (30g) of most nuts or seeds provides around 5g protein