Sooooooo, this one is a two-fer....lucky you! This week, you get a green tip AND a health tip! Woohoo! Now let me tell you why...
So here's your tip: Eat less meat! Try being a vegetarian....
Okay, if you know me, you know that I really try hard (semi-hard) to be a vegetarian, but I'm more like a flexitarian. As in I'm flexible about it. If I eat over at your house and you make me meat, I'm going to eat it and not go outside and throw red paint at your house. BUT, when I'm making my food own choices, I'd say I'm about 80% non-meat (as in no land and air animals - fish beware!). I try. There are 2 VERY good reasons:
1. I am painfully aware of the chaos going on in our environment and I try to lessen my impact as much as I can, and
2. I do not want to die from cancer at an early age. Duh. I want to be old and decrepit and look like a troll when I go.
Green why: The livestock industry is totally out of control right now and is wreaking havoc on the environment, in case you hadn't heard. So, here are some facts:
*Global livestock contributes more greenhouse gas emissions in a year than every car, train, ship, and airplane combined! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.....
*Of those emissions, 65% is from their burps, farts, and manure (gross). 20% from their feed, then land-use change, energy use, and post-farm activities.
**80% of the deforestation across the Amazon rainforest can be linked to cattle ranching (sob!)
Health why: Meat consumption is linked to cancer, heart disease, and obesity. Big time to cancer. The end. Watch the documentary Forks Over Knives. Seriously.
Boo! Was that totally depressing? If you like meat, it was! And, I gotta admit, meat tastes goooooood. Duh, that's why we're in this predicament. Well, here are a few alternatives.
1. Growing up, if we had pasta, we had ground beef in our pasta sauce. OMG, yum. It was sooo good. Well, I still like that taste, so as an alternative, I found this awesome fake meat (I know, I know, fake meat is DISGUSTING, but this is the exception) called Beyond Meat that has a very similar texture to ground beef, and they add spices and stuff to give it a good flavor. And it's made out of protein from peas, so it's healthy. Just saute this to warm it up, and then add it to your pasta sauce. They also have fake meatballs if you're into that. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.....
2. And yes, Beyond Meat has the same thing, but taco flavored, so you can use it for tacos, burritos, whatever else you would use taco meat for. And it's good. Trust me, I like to eat so I know what I'm talking about.
3. I LOVE LOVE LOVE sandwiches. All kinds. And you can make a million of them without meat and they are delish. I'm basically happy with bread and mayo, so if you can dress that up, I'm in! So, if you want 19 veggie sandwich recipes, courtesy of Domino, click here. Just look at this and tell me you're not drooling on yourself. I am.
The very vegan jalapeño pesto sandwich from alextcooks.com
Well, that's your green tip for this week, and seriously, you should be thanking me because now you get to eat this planet back to health and treat yourself at the same time!
Until next time....
*From the Washington Post
**From Scientific American