Meatless May

Thus far in 2014, I've been meal planning a month at a time.  We've experienced many benefits to this process that could probably be their own post.  In mid-April, I began to think ahead about events, trips, and meals that would occur in the month of May.  I can't recall the exact inspiration now, but I decided to discuss with hubby the possibility of having a meatless month.  We had successfully experimented with some meatless recipes and I felt we could take on the culinary challenge rather tastefully.  To add to the challenge, we are basically dairy free in the house because we all have varying degrees of sensitivity to dairy.  So we couldn't just eat a bunch of meatless lasagna, mac and cheese, or quesadillas.

Steve and I both grew up, like most southern Americans, in steak (cubed, that is) and potato homes.  Since we've gotten married, we've loved trying new recipes and cooking methods.  Somewhere along the line, we added "Meatless Mondays" to our repertoire.  It felt quite radical at the time. :)

Being the nerds, I mean intellects, that we are, we enjoy watching documentaries of all types.  Our favorite genre is food related documentaries.  Approximately 4 or 5 years ago, we watched the movie Food Inc.  Our eyes were opened about a lot of things in the food industry.  Food Inc. is a movie I highly recommend that everyone watch.  Regardless of whether you are a foodie or what type of eating habits you ascribe to, you can take away important information from the documentary.  

Other inspiring documentaries we've watched include Forks Over Knives and Vegucated.  Both of these movies discuss veganism.  Veganism goes beyond vegetarianism to eliminate dairy, eggs, and other animal byproducts. The advantages of veganism are not only health related but also environmental:

• reducing risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity
• reducing carbon footprint created by the meat industry (fossil fuels from animals and processing facilities)
• reducing water usage from watering animals and animal feed

(Source: sustainabletable.org)  

Now don't get me wrong.  We Ate Meat in May.  We attended Steve's brother's wedding in Kansas City.  How can you go to KC without eating some BBQ?!  It was so delicious!

But what did we take away from a month of meatless meals at home?

1. We feel better after a meal that does not contain meat and especially dairy.  We leave the table satisfied but not bloated.
2. Meatless meals can be exciting to create.  We found recipes from around the world.
3. Basing meals around legumes, grains, and beans rather than meat is much cheaper.  When we purchase meat, we purchase high quality meat.  So the savings added up quickly.

What are we doing going forward?  I hope we will continue to eat mostly meatless meals.  I am not opposed to eating meat and definitely not opposed to eating eggs at this point in our culinary journey.  I am personally going to do my best to avoid red meat as I seem to have digestive issues with red meat.  We will likely plan meals with meat at least once a week.  And we will not avoid meat away from home. 

More than anything we are inspired to continue educating ourselves on what we're putting into our bodies.  We are, afterall, what we eat.  We may look back and laugh at what we thought was healthy based on the information we have now.  But at least we can pat ourselves on the back for thinking outside of the meat case and attempting a new challenge.