At our house, we love food. We love all kinds of food and especially new recipes. We love breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. When it comes to food, we don’t discriminate. My husband would prefer to eat out more often, but for the most part we cook at home. Overall, we eat fairly healthy. Lots of fresh, whole foods and organic when possible. I would say that while our meals generally have an equitable representation of all the food groups, we probably eat more than our fair share of meat. It is definitely present at most, if not all, lunches and dinners. Tim grew up in the Midwest where, as he likes to say, “It’s not a meal without meat.”
Sour Cream Enchiladas with Spicy Black Beans
Sadly, all that meat eating isn’t very good for us. Tim has high cholesterol and a history of heart attack in his family. We both want to eat in a more healthful way and set a good example for Olivia. One way of doing that is to eat organic, grass fed meats. The hit our wallet takes to buy that type of meat exclusively is not something we are willing to endure at this point. So, the other option is to cut back on our meat consumption, which led me to Meatless Mondays.
Stuffed Shells
Meatless Mondays began during World War I as an effort to support the war and reduce consumption of key staples. It returned during World War II and then again in 2003. Its recent popularity is based not on any war effort, but on the desire to be more healthy and environmentally conscious. The idea of Meatless Mondays is to cut meat out of your diet for a day. The movement chose Mondays because Mondays are like the January of the week. It marks a new week and can function as a fresh start for those looking to make a change in their lives. In addition to offering the healthful benefits of less meat consumption, Meatless Mondays also benefits the environment in that less meat is being consumed, so arguably less meat is being produced. Meat production in this country has a huge impact on the environment from water usage to land degradation. It’s a small impact, but an impact nonetheless.
Stuffed Shells, Green Salad, and Garlic Bread
So far in our house, we have sort of “leaned into” Meatless Mondays. Our breakfasts and dinners are definitely meatless. Lunch is still a work in progress as we often eat leftovers from another dinner for lunch. I would rather eat our meaty leftovers on Monday than throw food away because it spoiled. Also, don’t tell anyone…but Monday isn’t always meatless. Sometimes it’s Thursday. Or even, gasp, Sunday. I know, I know, we’re such rebels. All of the pictures on this post are examples of some of our meatless meals. I would love any meatless recipes you enjoy. Please post them in the comments section of this post.
Veggie Pizza
Here are the recipe links for the meals in the photos:
Sour Cream Enchiladas and Spicy Black Beans
Pizza Crust
Stuffed Shells
Happy Meatless Monday, friends!
Veggie Quesadilla with Salsa and Sour Cream
