Question about mince meat on red days.

[AMUL]

Hi,

I don't live in the UK and I can not find extra lean or even lean mince meat here. It seems to be just normal mince meat. I do the red/green day plan and am just wondering what I should do about eating mince on my red days? If it is not lean/extra lean would some of it be syned? I have avoided eating it at all until now, but it would make some family meals a lot easier!

All thoughts welcome!

 

[rootsfran]

I would either get some lean steak and mince it myself or get the fatty stuff, cook it the night before and drain off the fat and put in the fridge, in the morning heat up and drain again and you get most of the fat off.

 

[lolacola]

You could try using Quorn mince instead? I find it just as good.

Regarding the cooking and draining fat off - our consultant told us that you can't do this and consider the meat to be free, so in my opinion it would still need to be synned.

 

[BritMumInCanada]

yep cooking normal mince and draining it, unfortunately doesn't make it free, as there will still be fat contained within the mince.

If you imagine cooking a steak with fat on it, although some of the fat drains off, you still can end up with a lump of fat on it, this will be the same for the non extra lean varieties of mince.

To the OP, where abouts do you live? Do you have any butchers? instead of an actual supermarket, as they will be able to mince up a lean piece of meat for you, ensuring there is no fat.

 

[Clara lou]

I live overseas too and find the local supermarket will mince lean steak for me or I use quorn (when I can find it) x

 

[Pommette]

When I discussed using ordinary mince with my SW consultant in the UK (before we moved to Spain) she said that cooking and draining normal stuff whilst not ideal was better than nothing. You can also "blot" it with kitchen paper to soak up the excess fat too. Remember too that even mincing lean steak - there will also still be fat "within" the beef even though it superficialy looks lean.

Unless I do a longish drive, most of the time I can't get hold of low fat mince. So I buy the leanest beef I can find and mince it. I never bother with cooking and draining. As long as you don't eat pounds of the stuff you can still lose weight - albeit a bit more slowly. I've managed to lose an average of 1½ lbs a week and we usually have a chilli or a spag bol once per week. And I'm no angel . . .

Be pragmatic - just keep the amount of mince down and bulk it out by adding some grated carrot when you are cooking a bolognaise sauce. It isn't noticable in the end result and is a great way of getting extra veg down veg-hating kids!

 

[N1CK1]

I have been using normal mince and draining once, then back in pan and draining again. I have managed to lose weight so I am happy to do this even though its not the 'proper' way. Sometimes living abroad you just have to do the best we can with what we can get

 

[Pommette]

Here Here

 

[AMUL]

Thanks everyone for your replies! I think I will try buying some lean steak and mincing it myself. I haven't actually ventured in to a butcher's yet, but maybe I will and see if what they have on offer is different to in the Supermarkets! Thanks for taking the time to reply! In the mean time i will just keep my mince intake to once a week!