Tuesday, March 13, 2012

No-meat feat: Meatless Monday helps families save money, their health and the planet

Published March 13, 2012 in the Commercial Appeal
Going meatless one day a week can make a big difference to personal health and the environment.

The national group, the Monday Campaigns (mondaycampaigns.org), says Monday is the January of the week, which is the perfect time for a fresh start. The group believes that people are more likely to begin exercising, start a diet or quit smoking on Monday than any other day. "It's a call to action built into every calendar -- offering 52 chances a year to live a longer, healthier life!"

Wendy King, who is a stay-at-home mom of three, started doing Meatless Mondays about a year ago, when she heard Kathy Freston, author of "Veganist," on TV mention it. King Googled it and discovered that there was a website (meatlessmonday.com) and a Facebook Page.

Meatless Monday is a nonprofit initiative of The Monday Campaigns in association with the Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt galvanized the nation with voluntary meatless days during both world wars. The intention for Meatless Monday is to revitalize this American tradition.

The website provides information and recipes for participants to start each week with healthy, environmentally friendly meat-free alternatives. The goal is to reduce meat consumption by 15 percent in order to improve personal health and the health of the planet.

After scrolling through the site, King and her husband talked about it and decided it was something they could do. "We'd been wanting to implement some meatless meals for a while, but didn't really know how to," explains King.

Their main reason for signing up was because money was tight. "I'd recently watched "Food, Inc" and decided to go to only organic meats. Since organic meats are more costly, incorporating some meatless meals was a way to lessen the expense," says King.

Additionally, when the family started, Wendy King had just started to focus on losing weight. "Meatless Mondays allowed for a lower-calorie option -- in most cases -- than our meat-based meals," she says.

Now, the family has three to four meatless meals a week. "This was huge for me, as we never had a meal that didn't include meat when I was growing up."

Two of King's children have autism, so they are also on a gluten-free diet. Some Mondays, their meals are as simple as spaghetti made with gluten-free spaghetti noodles and a traditional marinara sauce. King says they also eat a lot of lentils.

"I will usually fix them with carrots, onions and celery. The leftovers can be used to make lentil burgers," she says. King also uses the leftover lentil burgers to make tacos.

Other family favorites are "Snobby Joes" (Sloppy Joes made with lentils), eggplant manicotti, vegetable soup (using vegetable stock instead of chicken or beef stock), potato quesadillas made with gluten-free tortillas and "skinny" taco dip with refried beans served with chips.

The Meatless Monday website suggests that going meatless once a week may reduce the risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.

Going meatless can also help reduce one's carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel. For meals that include meat, the organization strongly recommends grass-fed, hormone-free, locally raised options whenever possible.

Meatless Mondays not only offer health and environmental benefits, but convenience. Shelli Smothers, her husband and two sons live in Northeast Shelby County, where they raise sheep and cows. They believe in eating real food, as close to the source as possible.

"Yes, we eat the animals we raise," says Smothers. "We put a cow in the freezer at Christmas time. It should last about 18 months." They hope to grow to producing nine or 10 sheep a year to eat.

This year Smothers has started seeds for eggplant, several squash varieties, several pepper varieties, watermelons and herbs. She also grows blueberries, blackberries, figs and muscadine grapes.

The family started doing Meatless Mondays after Shelli Smothers heard an interview with Paul McCartney in the fall of 2009. "He was talking about how eating less meat is good for us and the planet," she says. "While what Sir Paul said made sense to me, I was concerned mostly about health issues -- like cholesterol, teaching my children to make thoughtful decisions about food and the expense of the meat."

In addition to Meatless Mondays, the family does "Taco Tuesdays" and "Fish, Rice, Broccoli Wednesdays." It makes the "What do you want for dinner?" conversation happen less often, Smothers says.

Meatless Monday dinners are often black bean burgers, eggplant parmigiana, a Southern veggie plate or homemade sushi.

Midtowner Leslie Tiscia has found that Meatless Mondays are a good way for her "blended family" to enjoy a meal together. She is an on-again, off-again vegetarian, her 9-year-old daughter is a vegetarian who will eat fish on occasion, and her boyfriend would eat meat at every meal if given the opportunity.

Tiscia started Meatless Mondays a few months ago when her daughter, Liv, decided she wanted to become a vegetarian. "Honestly, Liv's never been much of a meat eater and just loves all animals. As she has discovered more about factory farms and their treatment of animals, she has rejected eating animal products," explains Tiscia.

All of the meat that Tiscia buys now typically comes from local suppliers, but her daughter still refuses to eat it. "I read an article about Meatless Mondays online and thought it would be a good way for everyone in the household to participate in a meat-free diet at least one night a week," says Tiscia.

Tiscia follows Meatless Monday on Facebook for ideas and encouragement. Her typical meatless meals include lasagna, pastas, tacos, soups, salads, sushi and chili.

On the Meatless Monday website, (meatlessmonday.com), participants can make a pledge to go meatless; download tool kits, posters and banners; and even register personal blogs that document the process. There are also a host of recipes, articles, and fellow advocates to learn from on the site.

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