Sandna Kaur (1)

On March 2, 2015, I participated my first “meatless Monday”. At first, I was concerned that I would accidently eat meat that day, especially when I am packing a meal for school because I would usually pack a sandwich using lunchmeat. However, I was surprised that participating in the “meatless Monday” was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Throughout the day, I would just grab colorful vegetable and fruits instead of meat products.  By end of the day, I realized I had more “plant on the plate”.

             I think the meal that was most affected was dinner because my family usually have a meal containing chicken. That evening, I was happy when my mother had made “mutter paneer” (Indian cuisine made of peas and cottage cheese).  The fact that I spent majority of my time at home helped a lot because the meatless resources were easily accessible.

            For breakfast, I usually have an egg omelet with toast but this past Monday I had oatmeal with blueberry and cranberry. During lunchtime, I was really hungry and was really happy that the preparation for a salad was not long. I had spinach, lettuce, mozzarella cheese, cranberry, sunflower seeds, carrots, and wheat crackers.  Also for school, I packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For dinner, my mother had prepared a vegetarian Indian cuisine. I was glad that I was successful in being meatless for this past Monday.  Since I had gone meatless on Monday, I noticed it impacted my diet on the next day because I was considering other meatless option before the meat one for a meal.  My observation for this “meatless Monday” was that it is possible for many people to join this campaign and eat meatless for one day.

 Hopefully in upcoming meatless Mondays, I can try different vegetarian recipes or cuisines. I might even ask my friend, who is a vegetarian, the products she eats in order to have a well-balanced diet.