Karen Kummer (6)

My final Meatless Monday was probably the most healthy I’ve had so far.  For breakfast, I had hardboiled pickled eggs, a yogurt parfait, and a glass of cranberry-apple juice.  Lunch was a quesadilla with cheese, tomatoes, peppers, black beans, and mushrooms on a white tortilla shell.  Dinner was a large spinach salad with leftover ingredients from lunch and a hardboiled egg.  I also made the French lentils from the Co-op and put them in the salad.  I researched a couple of different ways to make the lentils and decided to keep it simple and boil them.  I boiled them on high for about 4 minutes and turned them down for the last 15 minutes of cooking.  I wasn’t exactly sure how to tell if they were done, but I tasted them and they eventually seemed alright.  They tasted pretty good.  I drank water, tea, and cranberry apple juice for most of the day.  I also had a lot of leftover Easter chocolate and pretzels during the day for a snack.

I spent a little bit more money this week because I had to buy spinach for the salad and I usually just eat what is at home and not spend any money.  My Meatless Monday affects the rest of the week because I have left over spinach, lentils, tomatoes, and black beans so I had another salad for dinner today.  Lunch and dinner were both affected, but dinner was definitely the most affected because I had to figure out how to make the lentils and incorporate them into my dinner.  Going meatless affected my mom and dad because my mom wasn’t going to have a quesadilla for lunch, but mine looked delicious so she decided to make one.  At dinner, my mom and dad tried the lentils and thought they were alright.

            Throughout the past six Meatless Mondays I learned a lot, including how to make easy meatless meals and also how to make healthy meatless meals.  A lot of people think meatless is automatically healthy, but sometimes it’s not that much healthier than a meal with meat.  My main challenge was the fact that Meatless Monday is on a Monday, which makes it hard to prepare for after a long, busy weekend.  I feel that a Meatless Monday on Tuesday would have been easier for me because then I could use Monday to think about what I would eat and plan out my meals.  It has also been difficult seeing others around me eating meat while I cannot.  This is especially true for family dinner because on Fridays during Lent, I am used to abstaining from meat and since my whole family is abstaining from meat also, I have extra support.  Since my family ate meat on Mondays, that extra encouragement was not there.

I actually didn’t try as many new foods as I would have liked, but I tried French lentils which I will eat again.  I also, made homemade falafel, which I had previously tried but had never cooked myself.  I also started eating a more nutritious breakfast which usually consists of eggs, which I eat everyday now.  I eat more green salads after completing Meatless Mondays, especially spinach salads.

In future classes, I think it would be helpful if students were able to choose whether they want to have a Meatless Monday or a Meatless Tuesday because Mondays are busy for some people and Tuesday would offer a “second chance” in case anyone forgot to go meatless on Monday.  Another idea for future Meatless Mondays is to have a list of “mandatory foods” that they have to try at least once during Meatless Mondays.  These could include tofu, lentils, quinoa, and more.  While this would cost a little extra for college students, it might be worth it because I feel like some students end up putting in more effort than others.  This would also give students suggestions for what to incorporate into their meatless diets.  It would be beneficial for the Meatless Monday blog to have a “recipe” section which allows students to use to find recipes to make, but also for students to post recipes they have made throughout their Meatless Mondays.  A separate section for recipes would help because then if a student wanted to cook something from someone’s blog, they don’t have to go back to the blog; only to the recipe tab.  Overall, I think Meatless Monday became easier as the weeks went on and is a good program to try new foods, learn about vegetarianism, and learn how to cook some meals.  It’s also healthier than eating meat and can help the environment if it is done correctly.