Mostly Plants

Here we are – halfway through our 10-week seminar. It's time to look back and admire our accomplishments. The premise of the seminar “Once-a-week Vegetarian” was that we could all benefit from eating a meat-less diet one day out of seven. And even more, our planet would benefit. We'd like to set an example for others – sharing with them our learning about vegetarian living and how easy it is to prepare meals based almost exclusively on plants. I'm reminded of an old advertising jingle which goes, “delicious, nutritious, makes you feel ambitious”. We've enjoyed our lunches and have felt well- fed, physically, and spiritually.

The class has had conversations about the detrimental impact that commercial meat production has on the environment. For example, calculations of greenhouse gases attributed to the total life cycle of beef consumption – raising the animal, slaughtering, transporting, and eating it – attest to the unsustainability of meat consumption at its current rate. And we are reading about world-wide trends toward increased meat production as countries like China with huge populations move away from their traditional diets and adopt a “western diet.”

While reasons for following a vegetarian diet vary from person to person and can be about choices that effect only the individual, the environmental implications of my meat-eating, and your meat-eating go beyond the personal. This is an issue that will effect everyone.

The motto for the seminar was taken from Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food:

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

So how are we doing? Looking back at our five weeks of vegetarian lunches, I list the following plant foods that we have used:

tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, peas, asparagus, carrots, spinach, pasta, quinoa, couscous, polenta, tortillas, wheat berries, tofu, mushrooms, oranges, avocados, cranberries, pistachios and pine nuts, parsley, cilantro, red and yellow onion, shallots, scallions, black beans, olives, millet, brown rice, lentils, barley, apples, blueberries, walnuts, peaches, bulgur .... I'm sure I've left some out.

The animal-based foods we've had to date: eggs, cow's milk, parmesan and ricotta cheese, honey.

Doesn't this make your mouth water?. You can join us without being a member of the seminar by reading through the rest of this blog. Try some of the recipes, read a few of the suggested articles. Read Michael Pollan's book , mentioned above, or Mark Bittman's new book Food Matters. You don't need a vegetarian cook-book as such although there are a lot of good ones. If you're an experienced cook, you can put into practice vegetarian cooking principles without reference to a recipe. We're not suggesting a radical change in your lifestyle. Remember, our aim is once -a- week, eat plants, not animals. The globe will thank you for it.