The Mountain Kitchen started participating in the Meatless Monday campaign in January 2013. At first, I started cooking vegetarian meals as a challenge. It allowed me to be more creative with meal ideas during the week. As time went on, preparing vegetarian meals once a week became more than just a challenge.
In September of 2013, The Mountain Kitchen was invited to become an official Meatless Monday “Blogger on Board.” We were asked to join the growing ranks of food bloggers spreading the word about this healthy movement. What an exciting opportunity! However, I needed to study up what the campaign was all about.
After familiarizing myself with the movement, I was even more excited to become a “Blogger on Board.”
WHAT IS MEATLESS MONDAY?
Meatless Monday is a global movement with a simple message: one day a week, cut the meat. It can make a big difference in personal health and the health of the planet.
Here’s a quick video for you that sums up what the Meatless Monday Movement is all about:
HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGN
Meatless Monday is a campaign initially started during World War I to help the American people reduce food consumption. In addition, the campaign helped to supply the troops overseas. The campaign made a repeat performance during World War II for the same reasons. The Meatless Monday campaign continued after the war to help struggling European countries recover from the war.
Launched in 2003, Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, worked in collaboration with the Center for a Livable Future (CLF) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to bring back the Meatless Monday campaign for personal health and the health of the planet.
Today, Meatless Monday is supported by millions of people in countries worldwide.
Here’s a short video about the history of this campaign.
WHY WE WENT MEATLESS ON MONDAY
David and I are celebrating our 10th year as participants in the Meatless Monday movement in 2023. That’s 520 Meatless Mondays!
At first, I started cooking vegetarian meals as a challenge. It allowed me to be more creative with meal ideas during the week. As time passed, preparing vegetarian meals once a week became more than just a challenge.
What I didn’t realize then was that Meatless Monday aims to reduce meat consumption by 15% to improve personal health and the health of our planet. So not only was I getting the challenge to get out of the rut of the same old meals every week, but I was also doing something that would be healthy for David and me while at the same time helping the planet.
WHAT ARE THE HEALTH BENEFITS?
Going meatless once a week may reduce your risks of chronic preventable diseases, such as obesity, cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Consuming less meat and more plant-based foods such as vegetables, beans, soy, and nuts can offer many of the following health benefits:
Improve heart health and reduce the risk of heart disease by going meatless one day a week.
Replace a half serving of meat a day with a plant protein such as beans or tofu could decrease your risk of getting type 2 diabetes.
Maintain a healthy weight by substituting plant-based foods for meat.
Cutting back on meat and eating more plant-based foods can promote kidney health.
Surprisingly, beans, nuts, soy, and other vegetables can give you all the protein you need in one day.
The information about health was provided by MeatlessMonday.com
HOW DOES IT HELP THE PLANET?
Reducing meat consumption can help reduce the production of greenhouse gases that impact climate change. It can also help lessen the demand for environmental resources such as land, water, and energy.
Livestock production creates more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector – This includes all cars, trucks, planes, and trains in the world!
Livestock production uses 75% of the earth’s agricultural land.
Producing only 1 quarter-pound beef burger uses 425 gallons of water – that’s enough water to fill 10 bathtubs!
Producing 1 quarter-pound beef burger uses up enough energy to power an iPhone for 6 months.
Skipping one serving of beef every Monday for a year saves the equivalent emissions to driving 348 miles in a car.
The information about the environment was provided by MeatlessMonday.com
HOW DOES IT SAVE MONEY?
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, one pound of beans is about $1.34 versus spending two and a half times more money for boneless chicken breast ($3.32+/pound) and lean ground beef ($3.51+/pound) and four and a half times more money for sirloin steak ($6.00+/pound).
WOW! You can save every week and every month in the year 2023.
OUR HOPE FOR YOU
Providing you with delicious recipes is important to us. We care about our impact on the health of our readers and the environment. So we want to share some healthy recipes that are good for you and good for the planet.
PLEASE JOIN US!
We want to encourage you to participate in the Meatless Monday campaign with us. Even if you don’t skip meat on Monday, try it ONE DAY a week for one month.
Technically, that’s only 4 days out of 31 with no meat.
I mean, really, if I convinced my very carnivorous husband David Spivey, the pork-loving, brisket smoking, Mr. BBQ man he is, TO GO MEATLESS ONE DAY A WEEK, can’t I encourage YOU to go meatless one day a week too?
WHAT DO I COOK ON MEATLESS MONDAY?
Ok, you are probably wondering what in the world to cook for Meatless Monday.
I can help you!
That’s how we became meatless once a day. Want you to join us?
Visit MeatlessMonday.com for more information about the movement.