Monday, May 21, 2012

Meatless Monday a new tradition

I've been reading a ton of books about our food industry and I have to tell you, it's pretty depressing. Our whole country is being poisoned by cheap, addictive food. I know, no duh - but when you really delve into how deep it goes it becomes even more sickening. I won't bore you with all of my wanting to rant about that right now...

I've been making the move towards eating organic and when possible - locally. Definitely cleaner. I've successfully given up all artificial sweeteners - it's got be at least 6 weeks now and I've really cut out most processed foods and I'm avoiding wheat. 

5 color stir-fry
This week I decided to finally make a move I've been thinking about for a while, a totally meatless day of the week - today I decided to do meatless Monday.

It was way easier than I thought it would be.

Breakfast was my standard 'organic' oatmeal.

Snack, a handful of raw cashews and a few raw almonds

lunch sweet potato and Dr. Praeger veggie burger with tomato slices (drizzle of olive oil)

snack - juiced carrot/lemon/orange and celery

dinner - brown rice, homemade hummus and 5 color stir-fry. Stir fry was yum. Onion, garlic, zucchini, red pepper, baby portabellas, grilled corn - drizzled with a little olive oil.

I'm feeling good and satisfied. Even hubby was happy with dinner - though I have to say he's come a long way and I really do drive the health boat around here. If I served him a greasy pork-chop, he'd eat it. If I serve him a veggie stir-fry over brown rice - he'd eat it. If I eat healthy, we all eat healthy. That's a good thing. 

I was going to have a cup of greek yogurt but I don't even need it. 

Do you have a meatless day every week? Would you ever? Do you have a picky spouse or family?

XO
Jen


9 comments:

Mary said...

My beloved is a very picky eater - hates veggies, hates cooking at all! He eats most meals out, except Chobani for breakfast. He's still lost about 70 pounds, but we've been talking about the calories vs. nutrients - just because something fits in your plan calorie-wise doesn't make it the best choice. He liked cooking together when we were in the same city; I've started putting together a Pinterest board of recipe ideas that are man-friendly, and easy to work in some veggies!

Mary said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Frickin' Fabulous at 40 said...

My husband also eats whatever I put in front of him. I get the same reaction whether it's hot dogs or a meal made laboriously from scratch- "It's good." He does notice when things are made with turkey or chicken instead of ground beef, but he doesn't complain. I guess that should make me happy.

nikki said...

that's awesome, jen!! monday is pasta night...protein plus. love.

Lealah said...

Great idea! Last week I went meatless for all my lunches (this is coming from someone that has a turkey sandwich for lunch almost everyday) and I felt great, although I'm really not sure if it's because of being meatless or because I ate more veggies in lieu of meat.. That looks delicious!

Erica Gorman said...

We tend to alternate between meat and no-meat days but I would do no-meat everyday! I just added meat in for dear hubby....he really craves it and I got tired of making two meals....one for him and a veggie for me. However, on the meat days I focus on more veggies. :)

Jason said...

Congrats on the meatless day.

Pretty soon you will be like me......welcome to the veggie side!!!!! HA HA HA!

Sara said...

I am disturbed by the food, what is in it and what it is doing to us. Did you read any books about that? I would be interested in knowing even more than I already do.

My husband generally does not like to eat "healthy" and it drives me nuts! So, we often cook separately so that is really frustrating. How can you not want to eat healthy?! If/When we have kids, I'm cooking one thing and it will be healthy.

I eat meatless from time to time, and it is usually when I make veggie stir-fry - yours looks really good and I am a HUGE stir-fry fan!

Unknown said...

Thanks all for your comments.

Sara, I just read this book (partially what has inspired meatless mondays and clean eating in general) called the Omnivore's Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat by Michael Pollan. Very eye-opening. It even makes you scratch your head over "organic." Organic is becoming big business as well and you'd be surprised to learn that "cage free" rarely means shit. (Organic is still better but…) Many major organic companies are owned by big industry. Like General Mills owns Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen for example.

I'll probably do a bigger post about this in the future.