The Kelly family took on the meat-free challenge last week.
Patricia, her husband Martin and their children Natasha and Curtis swapped ham sandwiches for feta frittatas and roast dinners for chickpea burgers for an entire seven days! We caught up with mum Patricia to find out how they got on
1. What made you apply to the call out?
It was through the kids' school, they brought home these forms so I asked them if they wanted to do it and they said they did so we filled out the form together and a few days later I asked them if they still wanted to go ahead with it. They said yes so we sent them in.
The questions were all about what we had eaten over the past few days and to be honest, it was a lot of processed food and takeaways because it was the week coming up to Christmas.
We wouldn’t usually have that many takeaways but that week we did and we actually used the meat-free week to start eating healthier all round, we stopped eating sweets and things like that as well.
2. How does the challenge work through OT?
Dr Eddie came out to the house and gave us some recipes and told us all the different meals we could make and a shopping list with all the ingredients.
3. People think that a meat-free diet means a drop in iron, were you told anything about this?
I actually wasn’t told anything, I never even thought to ask and I am low in iron!
I take iron supplements every day but actually I felt that I had more energy that usual. I don’t know whether that was because we weren’t eating sweets or the meat but I definitely felt better.
4. How much meat do you eat?
We would eat a lot and we would eat a lot of processed meat so it was a big change because none of us really eat fish except the husband. I did try some cod now but we wouldn’t be big on fish.
5. What was your reaction to the news that processed meat is being linked to bowel cancer by the World Health Organisations (WHO)?
I was really surprised because my father had some bowel cancer and I never knew that processed meat could be linked to that. I only found out myself when I was watching the show last week!
6. What’s the hardest part of the challenge?
Missing the meat, definitely. Even when we had food we liked, like the creamy pasta dish, we were saying “Oh I’d love if there was a bit of chicken in this”.
7. What was the best part of the challenge?
As I said, more energy and do you know what? We were fuller, you know? We weren’t looking for anything after dinner like we usually would, just a small something for tea but I think we were all feeling fuller.
8. Any recommendations to other families?
The creamy mushroom pasta recipe was definitely our favourite.
9. We're bad in this country for relying on an easy ham sandwich for lunch. Do you have any tips for avoiding it?
Well, I use peanut butter on the sandwich now instead and I use brown bread because it's a bit better. I try and give them snacks with the sandwich like popcorn or lighter crisps. Also, I give them a good filling breakfast like Ready Brek or something like that.
Anyone wanting to challenge themselves to go Meat Free next week will find recipes for meat-free options at www.rte.ie/ot and watch Operation Transformation Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8.30pm on RTÉ One to find out how the leaders got on going meat-free.
