I am sure you have heard of the trend “Meatless Mondays,” and in honor of FULL DISCLOSURE, I (obviously) did not invent it, but as a nutrition professional (NDTR), I have heard much about it and I have totally jumped on the band wagon. Why? Several reasons, but mostly to SAVE:
Reasons to incorporate Meatless Mondays into your dinner repertoire:
1. Save money: we all know one of the most expensive items we put in our shopping cart is meat. As an added bonus, by replacing the meat with more high fiber and nutritious fruits and vegetables, you might save on your health care costs, too!
2. Save the environment: animals raised for food use water and fossil fuel to farm, and at a much higher rate than growing vegetables, grain, or fruit. The US consumes more meat than any other country, by almost a quadruple amount! Taking just one day a week off from meat improves our carbon footprint.
3. Save your life: OK, not exactly, but you can lose weight, reduce fat consumption, reduce cholesterol, reduce risk for diabetes and cancer, and maybe even live longer. Go to Meatlessmonday.com to see all the details.
March has four Mondays and you have plenty of time to get organized, make your list, and do the shopping. This will be a four-part series to get you started, but you can always use whatever recipes you like. All of my recipes have been kid (and picky husband) tested and my family loves them! You don’t have to only do it on Monday; pick any day that works for you. If you enjoy it, you can always add more days, too, which I do for my family often. We skip meat about three times a week, on average. One of the best things to come out of this experiment is that my four year old is more willing to taste new things, and she isn’t turning her nose up to all things green as much as before.
Meatless Monday Recipe #1
Eggplant Marinara
Ingredients:
1 small onion
3 carrots
1 green pepper
4 cloves garlic
1 medium eggplant
1 cup baby Portobello mushrooms
3 Roma tomatoes
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons prepared coffee
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon honey
fresh oregano
salt/pepper
red pepper flakes
3 Bay leaves
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons olive oli
Pasta of choice
Directions:
Finely chop the first four ingredients and saute’ them in olive oil on medium heat, until soft. Chop the eggplant, mushrooms, and tomatoes and add them to pan. Add spices, chicken stock, vinegar, honey, coffee, and Worcestershire Sauce; bring to a boil and turn down to simmer. I usually transfer it to a crock pot at this point and let it simmer 2-4 hours on low. Serve over pasta, and top with cheese. Enjoy!
[…] once a week. It can also save you calories and help your family eat more nutritiously. You can see part 1, part 2, and part 3 of the series by clicking those links, and with all four of them you have […]
[…] “Meatless Mondays” where she features healthy (and tasty!) recipes. You can find them here, here, here and here. I’m no Barefoot Contessa. Our meals are simple and don’t have a million […]