You are NOT alone.

If you have joined the Meatless Monday bandwagon, you are in good company. Obviously, you have US :). But lots of other really awesome people and groups have dedicated themselves to getting the word out about going meat free for just one day a week!


http://www.meatlessmonday.com/whos-going-meatless/

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/recipe_slideshows/10_vegetarian_recipes_you_must_try


~Venus
* I'm sorry about the lack of recipe content. We are in the middle of a big move and I'm not cooking. Once we are settled in you can expect recipes and pictures to return!

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Meatless Mondays

Who needs meat when you can make gorgeous treats like this...


you need phyllo (let it thaw in the fridge over night)
cheese (i used mozz/parm/feta)
I used fresh basil and some italian seasoning
tomatoes thinly sliced (roma is my fave)


Brilliant colors and textures... meat cannot compare



I'm not the vegan one, I really do adore cheese



When using phyllo, keep it covered. I used melted butter in between the layers. olive oil would work. Even spray oil would work, you just have to have some fat sticking the sheets together. I also put a little cheese mix in the middle after I did a few layers.



Place the veggies and herbs you like on top. Sprinkle on cheese mixture.



These cook pretty fast so don't go start another big project or anything. Look at the flaky goodness!



So Yum!  These are just perfect cut into tinyish square appetizers



~Venus

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Meatless Mondays BONUS!

In honor of Meatless Mondays, and because I have been a recipe slacker, I wanted to add a recipe today.

TACO SALADS!

Easy and quick dinner that is so good. For my picky kids, I deconstruct it and serve all the components separately along with a bowl of chips.

I make my own taco seasoning (many kinds contain dairy ingredients FYI) but your favorite packet is easily substituted. Like I blogged before my favorite veggie crumbles to use are Morningstar, one bag equals 1 pound of cooked ground beef. I heat the crumbles, add the seasoning and some water, I add a can of rinsed and drained beans to stretch it out and add some fiber, and continue to heat on low for 10 minutes to let the flavors meld. And then from there it's a matter of personal taste, I like lots of lettuce, tomatoes, taco meat and beans, and instead of cheese or sour cream, avocado! I love avocado. For dressing I use salsa, but French or Ranch would be good. Salsa mixed with sour cream is also yummy.

Pictures of my taco salad, and recipe below.



First the baby spinach.



Next, mixed baby greens and grape tomatoes.



The taco "meat" and beans are then added. I need a bigger bowl.



My beloved avocado, I had to restrain myself not use the whole half.



And finally, a couple of spoonfuls of salsa. Mmmm, jalapeno salsa.

Taco Salad
Serves 4

1 12 ounce package Morningstar Grillers Recipe Crumbles (or your favorite vegetarian ground beef substitute)

2 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp EACH onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, oregano, black pepper, and salt.
Generous pinch of cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup water
15 ounce can of black or pinto beans, rinsed and drained or 1 1/2 cups cooked beans

Baby spinach
Salad greens, like romaine, mixed baby greens, green leaf lettuce, etc.
Your favorite salad accompaniments, like grape tomatoes, sliced cucumber, chopped red onion, diced avocado, etc
Shredded cheese
Sour cream
Salsa
Your dressing of choice, French, Ranch, or salsa mixed with sour cream
Tortilla chips

Heat crumbles in a medium saucepan over medium heat until warm all the way through. In a small bowl mix together spices and flour. Sprinkle over crumbles and stir to combine, then add 1/2 cup water and stir again. Let it continue to cook over medium for a few minutes, add beans and mix again, then lower heat to low and cover for 10 minutes while you prepare the salads.

In large bowls add spinach, mixed salad greens, your favorite salad vegetables. When taco "meat" is done sprinkle a 1/2 cup portion over the greens. Add any of your favorite toppings: cheese, sour cream, salsa, dressing, and crushed tortilla chips. And enjoy!

Also, I ran my taco salad through a nutrition calculator and it came out to be 328 calories, 43 grams of carbohydrates, 10 grams of fat, and 20 grams of protein. How awesome is that to have a huge meal for under 350 calories!

Happy Meatless Monday!

-Empress

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Meatless Mondays

This is a movement I 100% support and honestly I think is a very realistic goal for the average family or person. The fact is most people are not going to go vege full time but it is important to get the info out to the public that cutting back on your meat consumption and other small diet tweaks make a huge difference.


This was posted on a vegetarian facebook group this week...

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

- 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;

- 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;

- 70 million gallons of gas -- enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;

- 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;

- 33 tons of antibiotics.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:

- Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;

- 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;

- 4.5 million tons of animal excrement;

- Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

My favorite statistic is this: According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads. See how easy it is to make an impact?

Other points:

Globally, we feed 756 million tons of grain to farmed animals. As Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer notes in his new book, if we fed that grain to the 1.4 billion people who are living in abject poverty, each of them would be provided more than half a ton of grain, or about 3 pounds of grain/day -- that's twice the grain they would need to survive. And that doesn't even include the 225 million tons of soy that are produced every year, almost all of which is fed to farmed animals. He writes, "The world is not running out of food. The problem is that we -- the relatively affluent -- have found a way to consume four or five times as much food as would be possible, if we were to eat the crops we grow directly."

A recent United Nations report titled Livestock's Long Shadow concluded that the meat industry causes almost 40% more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's transportation systems -- that's all the cars, trucks, SUVs, planes and ships in the world combined. The report also concluded that factory farming is one of the biggest contributors to the most serious environmental problems at every level -- local and global.

Researchers at the University of Chicago concluded that switching from standard American diet to a vegan diet is more effective in the fight against global warming than switching from a standard American car to a hybrid.

In its report, the U.N. found that the meat industry causes local and global environmental problems even beyond global warming. It said that the meat industry should be a main focus in every discussion of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortages and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Unattributed statistics were calculated from scientific reports by Noam Mohr, a physicist with the New York University Polytechnic Institute.

Source article

The Meatless Monday site is wonderful!  Chock full of info. Here is a page on great seasonal produce.
http://www.meatlessmonday.com/category/seasonal-picks/


This is such a small change to make. An easy change!  Would you join us and pledge to go Meatless every Monday in 2010? 


~Venus

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