Meatless Month

Last month, Kelly and I were talking about our nutritional habits. All the kids love meat, and even though I try to use it prudently and minimally (you'd be surprised the number of meals I can get from one chicken!), I still find that we spend an alarmingly high portion of our food budget on meat products, and especially with the prices of meat rising, it seems prudent to make some further changes. The kids and I agreed to try to make it the whole month of January without meat.

I've been thinking about this for a while. The word of wisdom in our religion tells us to eat meat sparingly. I'm not sure what "sparingly" is or if our use of it would be considered so. In addition, I've been considering switching to organic meat products anyway, because I know there are really high rates of antibiotics and other awful things being fed to the animals we end up eating. And meat handling practices are questionable. I raise my own chickens for eggs for that very reason. If we make it through the month, we will add small portions of organic meat products back into our diet.

Already, I've found there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm from Kelly, who suggested it in the first place, about menu planning. And the kids keep talking about how many days it will be until they can have meat again! I chuckle and know that they will come to appreciate healthier eating from this month ahead of us. In the meantime, I find I'm having to think harder about what to make every day. Saturday, we had bean and rice burritos (the pinto beans I made turned out SO good!!), and Sunday we had potato soup. Tonight we're having Cajun dirty rice, steamed broccoli, and home made rolls with salad. I'll be needing a lot of ideas!!