Meatless Mondays Review

We have been participating in the Meatless Monday Movement in our house for over a month now. I’d like to share my personal review of how it’s been going.

As I described in our first Meatless Monday post, we decided to try going meat free once a week for the following reasons:

• Increasing fruits and vegetables in our diet
• Decreasing red meat in our diet
• Cutting costs at the grocery store
• Expanding our family’s horizons when it comes to different types of cuisines

As of today, we’ve participated in 5 week’s worth of meatless dinners! At first I found it a little daunting because I was concerned that we’d be hungry after only eating a vegetable based meal for dinner. However, I can honestly say that never once were we hungry or unfulfilled after a Meatless Monday Meal.

I shared each meal (with a full review) on the blog, but as a refresher these are the entrees (with links to their original posts) we’ve enjoyed thus far:

• Gnocchi Vegetable Skillet
• Spicy Thai Noodles
• Grilled Eggplant with Fresh Tomato Salsa
• Baked Eggplant Parmesan
• Spaghetti with Basil Pesto Sauce

Meatless Monday has definitely increased our consumption of vegetables. However, It’s also expanding the types of vegetables that we eat. I found that we got stuck in vegetable ruts, where we tended to have the same vegetables on rotation. However, eating vegetarian once a week forced me to seek out new vegetables and try preparing them in different ways. Some of our favorites have been eggplant, mushrooms, cauliflower, and spinach.

Meatless Mondays has also made preparing dinner a bit more fun. It’s been refreshing to look up new recipe ideas and inspiration while meal planning. Pinterest and Instagram have been a great source! I’ve also learned a lot more about using different spices to jazz up a dish instead of relying on the flavor of chicken, steak or fish. My spice collection has definitely grown!

One of the biggest benefits of Meatless Mondays has been saving a little bit of money at the grocery store each week. I break down the cost per serving of each dish weekly on the blog, but it’s definitely been less expensive to make dish that centers around vegetables as opposed to buying steak or chicken.

I think Meatless Mondays is here to stay for our family!

Has anyone else been trying to go meat free once a week? I’d love to hear how it’s been going.

Disclaimer: I was not paid nor received an y compensation for this post. The ideas and opinions expressed in this post are solely my own.