Building a life with less meat

This year seems to be the ‘Year of 10 Women’ for me.  Firstly, I’m (supposed to be) training to do the New York Marathon with a group of 10 women.  From a zero-fitness base –- I’ve actually never been fit in my life -- I’ve built up to a whopping 20 minutes, running without stopping. In 10 years I may almost be ready.  

And reading EnviroMom’s fabulous blog 2 weeks ago, Heather and Renee gave me a great reason, with 10 other women, to introduce regular meatless meals into our family routine, via the Meatless Supper Club. After pointing out the shocking fact that industrial livestock creates 18% more greenhouse gasses than cars, they invited 10 eco-bloggers to join them in cooking meatless dinners for their families, once a week, for the next 8 weeks.  We are to be brutally honest about the family reaction -- whether they wolfed the veggies down or turned green themselves and retreated to the bathroom with suspiciously full napkins.  I figure I’ll be the only contributor from New Zealand, a country with a proud meat-eating heritage, boasting over 12 sheep for every person living here.

The household critics have assured me they’ll be fair, but given that they include a 7 year-old, a 23 year-old and a 49 year-old, all die-hard carnivorous males, I’ve decided to use my secret weapon.  The guys in my house love to build. I figured out a while ago that they love eating stuff that they can build themselves at the table so over the next 8 weeks my cooking will resemble more of a construction site than gourmet vegetarian.  I’m hoping that the fun of being able to noisily pass materials across the table, move around to create masterpieces and compare assemblies, will distract them from the fact that they are eating “rabbit (or sheep) food”.

The obvious first choice was Mexican tacos and wraps.  Instead of the usual ground beef, I let them choose from a few different fillers and rate their preferences.   

The building materials:

• Refried beans (you can make them yourself if you have time and virtue – I had neither)
• Pinto beans (cooked with finely chopped onions, Mexican spices, coriander and lime)
• Shredded cos lettuce
• Chopped fresh tomatoes
• Grated cheese (I put out only a teensy bit of cheese, bearing in mind we are also trying to ditch the dairy -- and no sour cream) 
• Chopped spring onions (scallions)
• Roasted red bell peppers (grilled with olive oil)
• Guacamole (combined avocadoes, plenty of minced fresh garlic, scallions, lime juice, salt and pepper)
• Salsa (again, I was time- and virtue-challenged so resorted to a bottle of the family favourite)
• Quartered fresh limes

The verdict:

Luckily this meal was more of the wolfing variety.  While the pinto beans were declared a bit too “bean salad” for them and the bell peppers remained pretty-much untouched, they loved the refried beans and guacamole.

Burrito wraps were more popular than the taco shells (although I preferred the tacos myself) and I was pleased to see they didn’t use a lot of cheese.  The table at the end of the meal looked like a bomb-site so, based on the mess,  I declared the meal a success. It just needed 10 women to help me clean up.

Here are the other 10 Meatless Supper Club recipes for week 1. 

Comments

[MondayCampaigns]

Great idea to "build" tacos at the table. I think it gets the whole family involved in the process and that's when kids learn the most about what they eat. It's also a fun way for children to approach dinner time. If you need more ideas for meatless recipes and kid friendly cooking check us out at www.meatlessmonday.com!
~VP

[Andrea Deely]

Thanks! Friends of my 7-year old have already put their order in to come around and try it. I think they just like the idea that can go crazy at the table!

Your Meatless Monday website is FANTASTIC! I'm going to check it out for other meal-building ideas over the next 8 weeks. I'd love to use one of your recipes and feature your website, if I may?

[Olivia@Sift]

Eating less meat is a great way to reduce waste (think of all those styrofoam meat trays not going to landfill) and making it easy with picking one day and making it interesting with a make your own is great. We love this at Sift.

[Melissa]

Yum!! Actually the only meal my husband can make are "wraps" (burritos) - yummy with hommous and falafel too!