Welcome To Meatless Mondays

Yes, I realize it is Tuesday.

Meatless Mondays is an initiative that encourages people to give up meat one day a week (Monday) in order to "improve personal health and the health of our planet." According to the website:

"Going meatless once a week may reduce your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. It can also help reduce your carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel."

Sign me up. Drew was easily persuaded too! He even agreed to pack a PB&J for lunch rather than his usual turkey sandwich on Mondays. You see why I love him? :)

As you may or may not know, I'm a recovering vegetarian. Hi, my name is Jamie and I've been eating meat for 6 years. Holy cow that makes me feel old. Anyways, having spent a large part of my adult life making meat-free meals, I'd like to think I'm pretty darn good at it. So in this newest weekly installment of "Meet The Gibsons" I'll be providing fun meat-free recipes and meal suggestions that will keep even the most meat-loving individual happy.

I encourage you to check out the Meatless Mondays website for more information on the benefits of going meatless and some fab-looking recipes; PB&J Pancakes, you will be mine.

Without further ado, I present the very first Meatless Monday:

Being the multi-tasker that I am, I combined the cook book of the week with Meatless Monday and invited some guests to prove that meat isn't necessary for entertaining. This week's book is Fix It Quick. Its another book of recipes made just for the Crock Pot. This particular book was a birthday gift from J. Greene (or Burley, whatev). Back when we lived together she got a first hand look at my crock pot love. Kait is our lovely book model:

Please note the strategically placed "window" in the blinds behind her. That was a project completed by Ari AKA the Beast. He was tired of pushing the blinds aside to look outside, so he cleverly snapped off the blinds so he wouldn't have to fiddle with pushing them aside every time the mailman came by. This is why we can't have nice things.

Back to Meatless Mondays! I picked Layered Mexican Casserole as our main dish. Mexican food is one of the easiest kinds of food to go meatless with. Beans, salsa, cheese... with so many tasty flavors you don't even need meat! If the recipe does include meat, it's easy to substitute beans (black beans, yum!). It will probably still taste great, and you'll save money too. Didn't know I was so thrifty, did you?

And the recipe? It was 3 layers of cheese, tortillas, and a salsa/corn/black bean mixture. Yum. Katy likes it too:Kait had some trouble enjoying her food because she was busy fighting off the Beast. He snuck under the table and decided that Kait's leg tasted awfully good.

If you remove meat from your meal and feel like something is still missing, try wine. Wine makes meatless better: right Melinda?

Nom nom nom:

Dessert came from the crock pot too! No, I don't have two crock pots. But I knew Katy had one, so I snuck into her house in the middle of the day while she was at work and rummaged around her kitchen to find it. I'm assuming she gave me a key to her house for just such a crock pot emergency.

Dessert was Steamed Pumpkin Cake with a side of B&J Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream. Kaitlin asked, "So what is in this cake? I mean besides heaven." If that tells you anything about how it tastes. We then had a long conversation about whether pumpkin cake is made with real pumpkins. In case you're wondering, I use canned. I do not hack up a pumpkin for its fruit. Although someday I hope to have that kind of skill.

Mya went meatless for Monday too:

The Beast had to wear a leash all night so I could try to (unsuccessfully) control his jumping and licking of the guests. I'm sure we're all aware of his behavior after the guests left.


Thanks Melinda, Katy, & Kait for being my first guests for Meatless Monday! And thank you to Katy for taking pictures and promptly emailing them to me so I could blog! If you'd like to be a guest for an upcoming meatless Monday give me a shout. Requirements: You must own a camera and be willing to take pictures and promise to send them to me within 24 hours. You must also bring booze and be willing to be jumped on and licked by the Beast. Any takers?