Today I’ve got a guest post from Stephanie over at I’m Counting UFO’s. She recently went for a week without eating any meat and so I asked her if she would like to share her experience with us, so here’s what she has to say…..

We’ve recently undertaken a bit of a challenge in our house: A week of vegetarianism. Yep. No meat. Not a single mouthful of animal flesh for an entire seven days.
I’d say on average, we eat either meat or fish pretty much every day. Thinking about it, it’s unlikely anyone who lives in my household has ever gone a week eating a vegetarian diet since we were weaned as babies. I’m not talking about a steak every day, it’s sometimes nothing more than a sprinkling of diced pancetta added to a veg-based pasta sauce, or some leftover chicken in a sandwich, or a tin of tuna split 4 ways. But nevertheless, meat there generally always is.

So I thought not eating meat or fish for a week would feel like a big deal, and that I’d feel our food was lacking something. I thought since I was actively avoiding it, I’d miss it, and crave it, and be counting down the hours until the next shop. But I really haven’t missed it, or craved it. None of us have. In fact, I am loving my week of vegetarianism, and there have been no late night trips to the fridge to poke around for a slice of ham or piece of chicken, Nigella style. It’s given me a bit of a culinary boost. I’ve found myself scouring the BBC Good Food website for delicious veggie recipes, and I easily got a week’s worth of meal ideas from people who’d commented on my post at the start of the week.

So what have I learnt so far?

1) Vegetarian food is a delicious, creative way to get your five-a-day. I’ve been using mushrooms to bulk out dishes and give them a meatier consistency. Everything I’d made has tasted fresh and almost clean. It’s been a very pleasant change.

2) Eating a vegetarian diet is kind on the finances. Even with throwing a few more dairy products in my trolley, my weekly shop was less than normal.

3) My kids love their greens. I’ve had no complaints about our dinners this week. Every meal has been inhaled with gusto. It’s not that I never served vegetables when we were eating meat, it’s just that they would fill up on the protein, and push the vegetables around their plates. Or lob it on the floor.

4) Chickpeas are not just for houmous. Actually, this is a bit of a cheat, as I knew that already, but I was given a recipe for a chickpea bake, which was devine. It’s the kind of meal I’d want to add slow roasted lamb and feta cheese to, but found that on it’s own, it was beautiful.

5) I could keep this up indefinitely. I don’t think we will exclude meat from our diets, but it’s good to know that we could. I am now thinking that we could happily eat vegetarian at home, but won’t limit ourselves to it if we eat out.

6) And finally, I seem to have lost a tiny bit of weight. Not much, just a couple of lbs, but if that isn’t encouraging, then I don’t know what is!