This is week two in my Meatless Monday experiment, where I vow to go meatless every Monday, so I'm still really excited about preparing my meals. But with the excitement also comes some uneasiness that I won't feel full without meat. I love giant salads for lunch, but I usually like chicken in my Caesar salad. I feel like I need something dense to help me along.
BEFORE LUNCH: Today, you guessed it: I’m having a salad. Instead of chicken, I cut up a Fuji apple. The salad will also have pomegranate-flavored Craisins (dried cranberries) and a light raspberry vinaigrette.
BEFORE LUNCH: Today, you guessed it: I’m having a salad. Instead of chicken, I cut up a Fuji apple. The salad will also have pomegranate-flavored Craisins (dried cranberries) and a light raspberry vinaigrette.
Meatless Mondays meal #2: Romaine lettuce, Fuji apple, Craisins and raspberry vinaigrette
I’ll probably miss the chicken a little. Not only does it help to fill me up, but it gives me protein to keep me going. Sadly, I'm short on nuts, the obvious replacement, at home. I don't want Meatless Mondays to be costly. This experiment should be sustainable for the environment and for me. I'd love to make this a life choice.
On the side, I have "heirloom cherry tomatoes" from Harvest Valley Farms. Last week, I went on the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture farm tour and sampled some of these delicious tomatoes off the vine. Co-owner Art King told me that he calls these pointy-ended cuties, "heirloom cherry tomatoes" because he planted large heirloom tomatoes that somehow only grew a little larger than cherry tomatoes. My boyfriend and I celebrated the start of the heirloom cherry tomato season by visiting the farm store on Sunday and buying a basket.
Heirloom cherry tomatoes from Harvest Valley Farms
AFTER LUNCH: It's 1 o'clock, and I've just finished my lunch. Actually, I couldn't finish it. My salad was way too sweet. I could only eat half of it. My blackberry pomegranate yogurt remains untouched. I even had to walk over to Kassab's, a Lebanese restaurant in the South Side, to buy some baba ganoush so that my stomach wouldn't grumble for the rest of the work day.
This all comes after I had a peach and MultiGrain Cheerios for breakfast. It made me wonder whether I could consume too much natural sugar -- I realize that a lot of the items in my lunch are not natural. According to the Daily Mail, the fructose naturally found in fruit can lead to obesity. Next time, I'll make sure to pack foods that are a variety of different tastes.
On a side note, NPR Morning Edition released today an interesting story about how people are smarter because our ancestors changed from a fruit, leaves and nuts diet to a meat-based diet. This allowed our bodies to direct our energy away from digestion and toward our brains. Though I don't think my brain will atrophy with this discovery, it's some food for thought.
Post and photos by Estelle Tran
This all comes after I had a peach and MultiGrain Cheerios for breakfast. It made me wonder whether I could consume too much natural sugar -- I realize that a lot of the items in my lunch are not natural. According to the Daily Mail, the fructose naturally found in fruit can lead to obesity. Next time, I'll make sure to pack foods that are a variety of different tastes.
On a side note, NPR Morning Edition released today an interesting story about how people are smarter because our ancestors changed from a fruit, leaves and nuts diet to a meat-based diet. This allowed our bodies to direct our energy away from digestion and toward our brains. Though I don't think my brain will atrophy with this discovery, it's some food for thought.
Post and photos by Estelle Tran
Some other salad-friendly proteins are chick peas, lentils, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs. You could also try some of the smoked/flavored tofu cut into cubes or strips (or flavor and sear/bake your own).
ReplyDeleteIf your cereal doesn't have much protein (and I don't think Multi-grain Cheerios does), for breakfast on your meatless days, you might want to consider incorporating peanut butter (pb&j, added into a fruit smoothie), or maybe having a 1/4 cup of trail mix for a mid-morning snack.
If you just have the munchies btwn meals, think fruit or grapes -- something you can eat in bulk w/o adding a lot of calories or fat. Protein & fat do help you feel full, but you don't want to overdo it, so think of some low-cal/lowfat things that you don't mind eating. Sometimes I chop celery into big pieces and eat it like popcorn--satisfying crunch and nearly no calories. Popcorn, if popped w/o oil in an air popper or microwave dish, is also good.
Good luck!! I commend your efforts! Here are a couple of my favorite recipe sites:
http://www.101cookbooks.com/
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/series/recipes_for_health/index.html
Thank you so much for your input! That NY Times page is great. I definitely need to start building up my pantry. I like to put almonds and peanuts in my salads for crunch and a salty contrast. Do you participate in Meatless Mondays or are you a vegetarian? If I have success on Mondays, who knows how far I'll takes this? :P
ReplyDeleteBest wishes,
Estelle
Hi Estelle! I am an (ovo-lacto) vegetarian, so I participate by default in Meatless Mondays. :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's wonderful that people are trying it out! It's a great, non-threatening, undaunting way to try some new foods, and you might just find that it's not so hard after all!
I hope you have fun with your Monday menus!
Meatless Mondays was featured on NPR this morning! http://m.npr.org/news/front/129025298?singlePage=true
ReplyDeleteWhat's in your lunch today? ;-D
(I've got leftover homemade Indian food from dinner at my friend's house on Friday--her mom makes srsly nommy noms... )
Thanks for your interest! Now that I'm blogging, I feel pressure to make delicious lunches, like a regular cooking blog would feature. But, this week I was in a pinch and made some instant macaroni and cheese. http://thegreenbeet.blogspot.com/2010/08/instant-organic.html I'm envious of your Indian food. Maybe next time :)
ReplyDeleteHaha - it will be a while (if ever!) before I am able to cook Indian like my friend, let alone her mom! :-)
ReplyDeleteToday's lunch is a caprese salad: "egg yolk" salad tomatoes from my garden and red tomatoes from the farmer's market with red rubin basil and fresh mozz. Mmmm!