Surprisingly, yes!  This die-hard carnivore is instituting Meatless Mondays at casa de Goldfarb.  Can you believe it?  I’m not sure I fully do yet.  We love meat: beef, pork, lamb.  Did I say beef?  And poultry and seafood – we eat a lot of it during the week. Rationally, I know if I ever had to give up meat permanently I wouldn’t die but I’m pretty sure it would break my heart and leave my tastebuds very, very depressed.

So why are we doing this? I’ve been hearing about this campaign a lot for the past year although it launched in 2003.  But we are not undertaking this commitment because it’s becoming fashionable but rather because we like to eat healthfully.  The idea of setting aside one day a week to enjoy a meat-free meal sounds good.  And challenging, which peaks the interest of my competitive spirit.  Can we have great meals without turning this into a 52-week pasta feed?

Meatless Mondays were born out of World Wars I and II.  In WWI, Americans were encouraged by the U.S. Food Administration, then led by future President Herbert Hoover, to reduce their consumption of key food staples in order to preserve them for the troops.  The program came back during WWII to help provide food for the people of war-torn Europe.  Times were tough but this was another way that the people in the U.S. could help with the war efforts.

The grassroots Meatless Mondays campaign is an initiative with a goal of reducing meat consumption by 15 percent. Healthier bodies, healthier planet and easy on the pocketbook.  Sold!  So now I’m on the hunt for great meatless entrée recipes.  If you have any favorites, please pass them along!  We are also going to use this time to finally try some of the city’s vegetarian restaurants.  To kick things off we are starting with Seattle Chef/Restauranteur Ethan Stowell’s Eggplant Parmesan.  Loved this because I was able to make it a day ahead.  All that’s left to do is sprinkle the bread crumbs and bake!  A great green salad and glass of red will round out the meal.  Delizioso!

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