Meatless Mondays
 

I recently learned about the Meatless Mondays movement. According to the website the idea of Meatless Mondays dates back to World War II and going meatless one day a week has a significant impact on both your health and the environment.

I plan to experiment with this idea starting this Monday. Does anyone do Meatless Mondays? Or are you interested in starting? Let's share ideas and recipes! :chef:

I don't really participate in this, but there are days when I don't eat meat because I like a lot of those vegetarian meat products from Morningstar.

The vegetarian section has quite a few recipes:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/vege...d-recipes-150/

Fat Free vegan is one of my favorite blog/recipe sites
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/

And there are a lot of good recipes from The PPK
http://www.theppk.com/recipes/

And anyone is welcome to discuss issues/questions/whatever in the vegetarian forum here, we would just ask that you refrain from talking about meat (including fish). But if you need ideas, substitutions, etc, feel free to ask.

I was a vegetarian for many years... and a strict vegan for 5 of them... and even though I do currently eat meat and fish as part of my diet now, I'm still a big fan of lots of vegetarian meals...

I didn't know that Meatless Mondays goes back that far... I mean I knew that it's been around awhile, because I used to try to do it with my family several years ago..

I try to do 1 or 2 vegetarian meals for my family a week... but it's usually something like homemade lasagna or homemade pizza with a really nice salad... so it tends to be a little bit heavy on the dairy... since even though there is no meat in the meals they don't really see it as "vegetarian"... but that's OK.. and since I'm not really eating pasta or pizza these days... I just have a really big salad with maybe some added goodies and keep it vegetarian...

Actually, recently... I've been thinking about trying out Mark Bittman's VB6 concept... the whole "vegan before 6" thing... where you eat vegan until dinner... but I would do it vegetarian for the most part... and since I only eat 2 meals a day usually, because I incorporate IF into my plan it would simplify things since I would only have to make a meat or fish dish for dinner if I wanted...

I was actually considering buying vegan before 6, mostly because I saw some of his recipes in vegetarian times and I'd like more lunchy and breakfast ideas and his focus in it seems to be lower calorie items. I have to see the book first though.

I'm Catholic, so we do Meatless Fridays every week. Usually we have some sort of veggie stirfry, soup, or homemade veggie burgers.

These are super delicious though:

http://www.generationyfoodie.com/201...til-cakes.html

I've met Mark several times and actually worked with him once... I like his books... I use his "How to Cook Everything" and "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" cookbooks a lot... I think they're pretty good "reference" type cookbooks to have around..

I think VB6 doesn't come out till the end of April... but I want to take a look at it too... before I decide to buy it... But I'll probably pick it up anyway, because I can't really help myself when it comes to "collecting" cookbooks, especially this one since I probably be get able to get him to sign it, if I give my old boss a call... lol...

I never cared for his other books but I'm also pretty selective and favor completely vegan books (although I've bought quite a few non-vegan and even non-vegetarian ones if they were unique enough). I have a lot of cookbooks though, a lot. But a cookbook that focuses on other meals besides dinner and isn't baking focused sounds like a decent one to look at, at least.

One cookbook that I really like is "Vegetarian Suppers" by Deborah Madison... the recipes in that book would be perfect for "Meatless Mondays"... a lot really simple recipes, but actually pretty elegant at the same time that really are perfect for weeknights...

Thanks for the comments everyone. I've been scouring the internet for recipes to try and I'm really looking forward to experimenting today.

I went to the supermarket for quinoa on Saturday. I couldn't find it so I went to customer service to ask if they carried it. The woman gave me a blank look so I repeated my request. She then got on her walkie talkie and said to someone, "There's a customer looking for *puzzled look at me* keeenWOAH. Do we have that?" :lol: The quinoa was eventually located and I'm about to make a bowl of quinoa porridge.

One thing I forgot to mention is that ethnic food can help. Many, many years prior to being vegan, I'd often choose vegetarian meals at Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants because I liked them. After going vegan, I discovered Ethiopian which is naturally very veg friendly. Your local library can be a resource as well. If you are interested, I'd look at some serious cookbooks like Vegan Eats World, World Vegan Feast, 600 curries (non-vegetarian cookbook but great), and anything by Madhur Jaffrey (I think all her books are vegetarian but I could be wrong).

Also, although it is not updated anymore, Vegan Dad has a blog with various recipes but I've used his Ethiopian ones and enjoyed them. His other recipes get rave reviews as well.
http://vegandad.blogspot.com/

So, here's what I ate for my first Meatless Monday.

Breakfast
Quinoa Porridge with Nuts and Raisins (recipe)
Chobani banana Greek yogurt with fresh strawberries

Lunch
Cheese Quesadillas with guacamole
Tossed salad with veggies and a basic vinaigrette dressing
Sliced mango

Dinner
Chipotle Barbecued Tofu (recipe)
Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower "Rice" (recipe)
Dairy-Free Lemon Pudding (recipe) with Coconut Whipped Cream (recipe)

This was so much fun! I really enjoyed the food and definitely found some keeper recipes.