Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Part-Time Vegetarian


Tree Hugger's website has an article on being a part-time vegetarian.

Right now, my family does this...sort of. We eat one vegetarian meal a week. Sometimes two and my kids don't even really know it. They just get bean and veggie soups or portabella mushroom burgers for dinner and think nothing of it, never missing the meat.

I make mock crab cakes using zucchini (the recipe is on my blog in the archives). My husband's friends love when I make them and ask when I am making them again, and beg to be invited over for them.

I am not sure about 5 days straight of going Vegetarian, at least not cold turkey to start...maybe Pescatarian (fish eaters) but I will try to do every other day vegetarian and see how it goes. It not only is great for your health, but the health of our planet too.


My husband grills the greatest portabella mushroom "burgers" and the kids love when he is making them.



I hope to get chickens in the spring, then I will have more control over what goes into my eggs...because we eat alot of eggs in my house. (We currently have ducks and I do not like duck eggs..plus they are higher in cholesterol than chicken eggs). We do grow our own veggies all summer but I have to do more canning and freezing to try to get them to last longer.

for those who want to eat meat but want safe meat...here are a few links...or great for the part time vegetarian's weekend indulgences.

http://100milediet.org/ if you want to find out more about eating locally...

www.eatlocalchallenge.com offers resources and encouragement for people trying to eat locally.

www.eatwild.com lists local suppliers of grass-fed meat and dairy products.

www.localharvest.com connects you with local farmers.


(Jamie Oliver)
go to the site for the full article...here is just a trickle of it.

Chef Jamie Oliver is a TED Prize winner, and he's made a great wish: "I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity." The plan is to create an organization that pushes forward a movement inspiring people to improve how they eat. We TreeHuggers are no strangers to the idea that we need a big change in how we raise and consume food - not only will the change improve our health, but it's a primary way of improving the health of the planet. Luckily, Graham Hill is at TED 2010, and gave a three minute talk on his concept for weekday vegetarianism - just such a concept that can go far in granting Oliver's wish.

The weekday vegetarian plan is simple: go vegetarian during the week, and reserve your meat intake for the weekends. BBQ, grill, broil and saute organic, sustainable meats all you want on Saturday and Sunday, but during the week, stick to meatless meals. This drastically cuts down your meat intake, and therefore drastically cuts down the amount of meat we as a country raise, the amount of pollution generated by factory farming, the amount of fossil fuel going into raising corn which goes into raising meat.

Benefits:
It's easy to follow.
It's non-binary.
It's significant (reduces impact by 70%).
It's not too restrictive.
It'll save you money.
It's good for your health.
You can start today.

Oliver's plan calls for, "The grassroots movement must also challenge corporate America to support meaningful programs that will change the culture of junk food." The weekday vegetarian concept helps to accomplish this very thing.


You can help Oliver achieve his wish by not only going veg during the week, but also by signing his petition for a food revolution.

More on Weekday Vegetariansim
Try a Weekday Vegetarian Diet: Eat Green Food without Taking the Plunge
Reduce the Meat in Your Diet: Become a Weekday Vegetarian
Eat a Vegetarian Diet, Reduce Your Carbon Footprint by a Ton



From Tree Hugger





















1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting! Thanks for doing this; I look forward to reading more!