Our Experience with Vegetarian Meals

I’ve been on a semi serious health kick for a few months now. Something about eating healthier just makes me feel better about life in general. I don’t know, maybe it’s that eating more vegetables is you know… Good for you? But it’s never been easy to add more to our diet. I’ve invested in Intermittent Fasting which means I eat two meals a day, brunch and dinner. I can fit spinach easily into my breakfast burritos so that hasn’t been a problem. But there’s only so many vegetables you can add in for dinner. But what if you substitute the proteins for more vegetarian options? I mean switching out our meats for some delicious Lekker Veggie by Jumbo options.

How it started
I’m always on the hunt for a good deal when it comes to groceries. I mostly shop from the sale section so when I saw that vegetarian “meats” were on sale buy 2 get the 3rd free, you bet I jumped on it. I was hesitant about cooking vegetarian meals at home though. I’m always open to trying new things. I’ve had vegan products in the past but they were… Less than impressive. So I saw this as a new opportunity to give vegetarian meals a try. What worried me was Sander because he’s the picky eater in the house. So I placed the order and waited for delivery. We’ve ordered online for our local grocer since the middle of last year due to quarantine rules.

How it’s going
It’s been nearly 3 months now and we mostly eat vegetarian “meat”. It’s been an amazing experience too. It looks amazing and even smells like the real thing. Not to mention it’s easier to cook and I don’t have to worry about the sanitation that revolves around meat and handling it. The taste and texture is fantastic! Packaging does still use a lot of plastic, which is unfortunate, but we’re consuming much less meat. It’s easier for our stomachs and better for the environment too. The meals require the freezer either, which is a huge plus. We have a small Dutch freezer and space is limited. The “meat” looks realistic, needless to say. If you told me 10 years ago that I would enjoy vegetarian foods, I would have laughed. But the “meat” has come a long way and I’ll continue to buy it for our consumption.

Not 100% there
I doubt that Sander and I would ever go full vegetarian. We both love bacon and huge bowls of chicken ramen. But any step that I can take towards being healthier and more environment friendly… You bet I’m going to explore those options! So far all the vegetarian meats we’ve had have been super delicious. And it turns out that these soy based meats are even cheaper than the real thing! Who would have thought?