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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Don’t flip out. You can go organic while avoiding all the organic chaos. Here are some tips:

Integrate slowly. If you don’t know where to start, try looking at this handy list of the best foods to buy organic. You can also read: 11 Ways to Save Money on Organic Food. If you don’t even have time to read the above posts, you should know that non-organic dairy, meats, and poultry are the first foods you should consider switching out for organic. These contain high levels of nasty stuff.

Learn to read labels. A quick primer will help you manage the world of organic food labels. A good guide is the Organic Food Label Decoder from The Daily Green. If labels like “natural” vs. “organic” vs. “USDA organic” have got you all confused, carry a cheat sheet to the grocery store – no on will know. Everyone will just think you’re looking at your grocery list.

Be open to change. Your favorite cookies, cereal, and yogurt may not come in organic versions – don’t panic. Explore your new organic options. See what is offered in organic foods rather than looking for what you’re used to.

Hit the farmers markets.  It’s easy to find organic produce at farmers markets, and it gets you out in the fresh air.

Eat less meat: Switching to organics can be a hit money-wise, at least until you get used to buying organic and finding the best deals. Personally I buy more organics now then I did years ago, and I also spend less money; I’ve just learned over the years what to buy, and where to buy it. Cutting meat will lower your initial cross over to organics. Read:

• Why Go Meatless More Often?
• Eat One Meatless Meal
• How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
• A Veggie Resource in the Health and Science Channel

The above tips should help you out if you’re looking to go organic. Most of all you should keep in mind that going organic is a major diet adjustment. It’s like getting used to being vegetarian, or trying to create a low-sodium or low-fat diet. If it’s new to you, it’ll take time to perfect. No worries, take it slow, and your mind will stay happily intact.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

• 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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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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I’m won’t try to convince you to become a vegetarian, but I’ll hopefully inspire you to incorporate more meatless meals into your cooking routine. And, if you’re a vegetarian, please leave us some comments on your favorite meals.

So, check back this week for:

Why Eat Meatless Meals? There are some very good reasons.

Meatless Monday. It’s a cool gig.

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian cookbook review. You’ll see photos of my cooking!

(By the way, this is also a photo of my cooking. It’s a favorite meatless meal of mine: roasted taters, steamed carrots, cornbread made with yogurt, sliced maters and green beans cooked with onions. Variations of this meal and hummus with feta and tomatoes on pita were my two all-veggie standbys, but I need to expand.)

Veggie Books for Kids. Because kids can love veggies too.

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

Post from: Tree Hugging Family