We haven’t looked at veggie meals for a while, but you should always be considering vegetarian meals, at least a little, because it’s not only better for your health but super keen for the planet as well. While you don’t need to totally cut meat from your diet to reap health and earth-minded rewards, you should attempt to cut at least three meat-based meals per week.

If you’re looking for a way to get started on meatless meals more often, but are worried your family will freak, a good way to go is with some simple tweaks. You can make tons of mainstream meals meatless – you don’t even need to utter the words tofu or bean sprouts to be a good part-time vegetarian.

Some great veggie meal ideas for the typical meat eating family…

• Vegetarian Meals for Meatlovers
• Spaghetti and sauce sans meatballs
• Veggie, cheese, or vegetarian Mexican taco pizza
• Black Bean Chilaquile – so good!
• Bean and rice burritos
• 7 Cheap and Easy Vegetarian Meals
• A veggie soup, salad, and bread
• Stir fry minus the meat – pack in lots of veggies and have rice and fruit on the side.
• California Grilled Veggie Sandwich

To learn more read:

• Why Go Meatless More Often?
• Meatless Meals: Veggie Books for Kids
• Meatless Meals: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
• Tofu Recipes for Kids
• Meatless Monday

What are you waiting for? Try a meat-free meal tonight!

When was the last time you ate a great meatless meal?

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Me? I’m not a vegetarian, but I do eat several meat-free meals each week. My spouse eats what I cook! Actually, he doesn’t mind the meat-free thing.

Are you trying to make changes in your diet to become more meat-free?

Maybe you’ll be inspired by World Vegetarian Day on October 1.

It’s the beginning of vegetarian awareness month. Visit World Vegetarian Day for some veggie cookbook suggestions, as well as tips on how to celebrate Veggie Day.

Other posts we’ve done on vegetarianism:

Tofu Recipes for Kids

Meatless Meals: Why Go Meatless More Often?

Meatless Meals: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

One More Reason to Eat Meatless (This one is playful, but you’ll appreciate it if you’ve ever known a cat.)

One Small Step: Eat One Meatless Meal

Meatless Meals: Veggie Books for Kids

Image via stock.xchng

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in September 2008

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1. Pack green silverware and plates. That means real dishes or at the very least a smart eco-alternative.
2. Bring at least one meatless main dish.
3. Aim for a healthy organic picnic.
4. Block the sun with eco friendly sunglasses.
5. Toss an earth friendly Frisbee.
6. Don’t forget the human safe bug spray and sunscreen.
7. Forget stuff like balloons to mark your picnic spot. Use something safer for the environment like paper streamers. If you must have balloons make sure you don’t allow them to fly free.
8. Take something fun along for water play.
9. Don’t take too much stuff – if you’re out in nature, explore, and learn about the area, before relying on tools and games. Make sure to take a map, and stick with your pals.
10. Take it with you: Don’t pollute nature. When the fun is over, put out all fires, pack up, and haul out all your picnic trash, and that includes food. Human leftovers are no good for animals.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in July 2008

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• Meatless Meals: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
• A Veggie Resource in the Health and Science Channel
• Meatless Meals: Veggie Books for Kids
• Tofu Recipes for Kids
• You can also get involved by taking the Meatless Meals Poll

So, back to our one meatless meal. Having been a vegetarian for years and years, people always think I’m going to bring the suck dish to the potluck or family event. Here’s one meatless meal I make that everyone LOVES. I’ve never had a meat eater complain about it, not once.

I got it a long time ago from the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites cookbook. After you taste this you’ll want to own it. It’s a nice recipe because it can easily be adapted for vegans too.

The recipe is Black Bean Chilaquile and I went looking for it at a Moosewood site (so I wouldn’t have to type it) and I didn’t find it there, but I did find it at another blog called Kitchen Window. This blogger already typed out the recipe so I’ll just send you there. Bonus, she has a picture of the finished product.

Notes:

• Like this blogger I also omit the salt – you really don’t need it.
• I only use organic ingredients in mine – you should at least use organic spinach.
• I make mine with homemade organic salsa that’s fairly spicy, but you can use any kind you like.

I swear everyone I know loves this dish. Wait, you know Cedar doesn’t – but he doesn’t love mixed foods, he likes whole foods better, but everyone else loves it.

So, this week omit one meat meal, conserve land and energy, and be a bit more healthy.

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And if you missed the Meatless Meals posts, here they are in the eco cooking category.

Plus, did you know that you can make chocolate zucchini bread? Here’s a recipe from All Recipes. Try it out.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Solonynko.

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Look for these books the next time you go to the library:

Oliver’s Vegetables. Oliver learns that there are other foods besides french fries.

A Turkey for Thanksgiving. Well, not really. The book is a fun portrayal of a vegetarian Thanksgiving holiday.

Aldo Applesauce. Aldo is a new kid and a vegetarian who gets made fun of at first.

The Jumbo Vegetarian Cookbook. I think the name speaks for itself.

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One post you might especially like to try out is 5 ways to slowly go vegetarian. Or, semi-vegetarian, whatever your goals are.

Veggie Chic features recipes, tips on staying meatless while traveling and info on restaurants for veggies. And a lot more yum stuff.

Also, check out Weird and Wacky Facts. Wow, someone out there makes bacon-scented air fresheners.

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Now, I might as well go ahead and say it, “I love tamales.” If I try a new Mexican restaurant, I always try the tamales first. I’m also quite the tamale snob. So, of course the first recipe I tried in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian was Naked Tamales with Chile Cheese Filling.

I don’t typically like to cook anything other than desserts, but it’s necessary. So, I cut up the onions, the Anaheim peppers, did all that. I cheated and bought already roasted and peeled red bell peppers though. But, if you are just getting accustomed to cooking more often with veggies, I think it’s acceptable to make things a little easier for yourself.

I probably can’t give you the recipe here since Mr. Bittman might get a bit upset with me. In case you’re wondering why the tamales are “naked,” it’s because you don’t have to use corn husks with this version. You bake them in the oven in ramekins, placed inside a baking dish with water. It’s like making creme brulee. No wonder I liked it.

What did I think of this dessert, ur, meal? Sorry. I’m still thinking of the baked cappuccino custard I wanted to make. I bought the espresso beans, but forgot the cream. The tamale pies were so wonderful. Masa, peppers, cheese — how can you go wrong? Not too much cheese though.

One really nifty thing about this cookbook is that it gives you lots of options. You don’t just get a recipe, you get a recipe with choices, depending on what flavors, etc. you are in the mood for. Also, Bittman refers you to other basic recipes within his book. For example, when I made the tamales, I could have also made my own sauce and my own veggie stock. He gave me the page numbers for those recipes.

I also tried the Blue Cheese Apples, but used cheddar and thyme instead of blue cheese and sage. See, these are the options I spoke of. And, you know, I did buy that cream and made the Baked Cappuccino Custard recipe. Oh, yum. Most desserts are already vegetarian, but he gives some good ones anyway. The custard photo didn’t turn out so well, but enjoy the tamale and apple photos.

If you missed them, check out Why Go Meatless More Often and Meatless Mondays. Also, check back on Saturday for Veggie Books for Kids.

Don’t forget to enter to win tickets to the First Eco Wedding & Lifestyle Show in Canada!

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Meatless Monday is a national health campaign to help prevent health problems caused by eating too much meat. The website offers recipes, health and nutrition info, tips, recipe e-cards and whatever else you might expect from a site called Meatless Monday.

It’s not your granny’s cookbook site. In fact, I’d even call it a somewhat manly site. They have a section called Monday Night Foodbowl.

If you don’t get enough inspiration from that site, try out Vegetarian Times or Vegetarian Journal for more recipes and ideas.

Vegetarian Times has a useful vegetarian starter kit PDF you can download.

In case you missed them, check out my intro to the meatless meals posts and Why Go Meatless More Often. Also, check back Saturday for Veggie Books for Kids.

Don’t forget to enter to win tickets to the First Eco Wedding & Lifestyle Show in Canada!

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It’s good for you and the environment:

Research shows that vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and some cancers. Also, eating less meat can help lower body weight and cholesterol. So, even if you don’t totally veg out, you can still gain health benefits by lowering your meat intake.

“Growing” meat takes a lot of resources. Animals eat a lot of grains. The energy it takes to produce a pound of meat greatly exceeds the energy demands of growing vegetables. (And when you choose organic veggies, you help the environment even more.)

It requires seven tons of grains to produce one ton of beef. (Source: Environmental Nutrition)

We won’t even talk about the amount of animal waste that is produced, or land that is cleared for grazing.

Inspired yet? Check back this week for some resources for meatless meals.

Don’t forget to enter to win tickets to the First Eco Wedding & Lifestyle Show in Canada!

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