Meatless Monday
Sid Lerner | Photo via NPR
This morning on NPR I heard a great story about Sid Lerner’s new campaign: Meatless Mondays.
For those who are unfamiliar with Lerner (like I was), he’s the brains behind the “Don’t squeeze the Charmin” ads, as well as a number of other successful ad campaigns.
Now he’s taking on a new challenge — encouraging people to cut back on saturated fat by eating three meatless meals on Mondays.
I think it’s a great idea!
One day towards simply changes.
Personally, I’m not a vegetarian, but I definitely see the advantages of cutting back on our meat consumption.
We’ve cut out almost all red meat in our home and our meals generally consist of chicken or turkey.
America’s changing diet
Back in 1950, when Lerner was a young man, the norm was about 2.8 pounds of meat a week. The average American now consumes an 215 pounds of meat each year (or more than 4 pounds a week).
That’s a shocking increase!
And the idea behind Meatless Mondays goes beyond just the heart healthy message as well…
“To be conscientious at this age about our Earth and our environment is really important to us,” says John Brummer, who was dining at Dovetail
A lot of consumers have lots of questions: Where is my meat coming from? How was it raised? And what is the impact on the ecosystem?
“One of the biggest advantages of cutting back on meat consumption is the reduction in the water demand,” says environmentalist Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute.
Gleick says people are shocked when they realize how much water it takes to grow the grain needed to feed cows to produce 1 ton of beef.
“It takes 140,000 bathtubs full of water — that’s millions and millions of gallons,” Gleick says. And it’s not something people consider when they try to imagine their “water footprint.”
That said, I think this is a great idea for those of us wanting to Live Simply.
To help get the ball rolling, the Meatless Monday campaign has a number of great recipes on their site and I’ve put together a few other I’ve found as well…
Simple vegetarian meals…
- Ten Tasty Sushi Ideas
- Seitan wings with BBQ sauce and vegan ranch dressing
- Three bean vegan chili
- Top 12 most popular veggie burger Recipes
- Vegetarian meals via HEB
- Quick weeknight meals (includes meals for omnivores as well)
- Tracey’s black bean burritos
Now, if I can just get My Life to enjoy mushrooms and tomatoes…. 
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We’ve regularly gone on meat fasts for the past several years. When the Professor is out of town, I don’t cook any meat or eat it unless I’m at a restaurant. Speaking of restaurants, I’m finding that I enjoy eating out less and less–my own home cooked meals just taste BETTER.
Couldn’t agree more – when I take the time to cook something I enjoy – cooking at home is hard to beat. It’s when you don’t prep carefully enough and you feel rushed or unprepared that cooking can become the last thing you want to think about.
The key is always in the prep work (menu, shopping, etc).