Last Monday, I tweeted (why does that still sound ridiculous?) that I was making my Better-Than-Sex Mushroom Risotto with the baby portabella mushrooms from our first Greenling local box for Meatless Monday. Since then, I’ve gotten several questions and comments about how our Meatless Monday works.
Crimini Mushroom Risotto - A Meatless Monday Meal
Meatless Monday, a movement started by Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, is a challenge to eliminate meat from your diet one day a week. According the their research, reducing your meat consumption by 15% (all three meals one day a week) “may reduce your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.” In addition, it helps the environment by reducing the greenhouse gasses associated with meat production, processing, transportation, and sale and helps to reduce the use of natural resources like water and fossil fuels.
While Kevin and I haven’t made the full jump to all three meals on Monday yet, but hope to do so soon. Our breakfasts are typically meatless anyway (we both usually make oatmeal at work), so eliminating meat from our lunches shouldn’t be too difficult. Right now though, we’re focusing on eliminating meat from our Monday night dinners.
Roasted Winter Vegetable Soup- Another Meatless Monday Meal
For us, Meatless Monday is not Vegetarian Monday (and especially not Vegan Monday). We still eat cheese, eggs and even use beef and chicken broth in our meatless recipes. How do we dare call ourselves “meatless” then? Simple. There’s no beef on our plates. No chicken or pork or venison (which we eat on a regular basis). We were raised in the meat-and-potatoes Midwest, so to us if there’s no hunk of delicious, juicy meat on the table, it’s meatless. This might tempt you to call us cheaters or say that we’re only making a half-attempt. We don’t feel that way, though. We’re proud to have participated in Meatless Monday faithfully our way for the last three weeks in a row… and we will be again tonight. Our Greenling local box came with some gorgeous portabella mushroom caps that we intend to have for dinner (I still have to find/make up a recipe).
Potato Leek Soup- another Meatless Monday Meal
If you have more questions about the official Meatless Monday movelment, the logo above is linked to the Johns Hopkins’ site. I’ll be happy to answer any questions about how Kevin and I are participating (all I ask is to keep the comments positive 🙂 ) and to share any and all of our Meatless Monday recipes (and now that we’re getting our weekly Greenling local box it’s going to be even easier to transition).
What do you think about Meatless Monday? Would you ever give it a try?
PS- After looking for some of our meatless recipes, I’ve realized that our Recipe section (and House Tour and Wedding pages, for that matter) is woefully out of date, something I hope to rectify soon!
Little House. Big Heart. 