Meat Free Monday

I love "Meat Free Monday".  When we started down the path of questioning our meat eating it was such a revelation to me that I could give up some meat without necessarily giving up all meat! That sounds a bit strange, but being vegetarian is usually shown as such a passionate and total thing, being part way there doesn't occur to you!

We started (before Meat Free Monday began) with one day a week without meat as a trial - (it was Monday initially, but then moved to Tuesday). At first it was hard to think of ideas and adjust the way we planned meals but once we got our heads around it,  it shifted without much further thought to Monday to Friday without meat, and for a while there it became rare on weekends too. (Right now we are eating a little more meat on weekends after Christmas and our country holiday.)

So Meat Free Monday seems a great idea to me! It seems it may be a realistic stepping stone to much less meat consumption by many more people.


Now I have discovered the Meat Free Monday Cookbook! I borrowed it from the library last week and within 24 hours I had bought it for myself with a book voucher a colleague gave me for Christmas.

I have decided to try to cook my way through it in a "Julie and Julia-esque" way. Well perhaps not every recipe but some from every week. The book is laid out with a breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert as well as a packed lunch alternative and a side dish or two for each week, 13 weeks worth for each season.  They seem tasty and varied, yet simple enough to be achievable on a busy week night with a little added cool factor that many are recipes contributed by famous people. I really look forward to trying so many of them. I'll let you know how I am going along the way.

Nicola