Meatless Monday recipes: salad edition

It’s time for some Meatless Monday recipes!

Meatless Monday is a nonprofit initiative aimed at encouraging people to give up meat just one day a week. The movement has been making the news a lot lately, and I’m a big supporter. Going meatless, even just once a week, is better for your health and better for the environment. Plus, you’ll probably save money on your grocery bill as well. To learn more, check out the Meatless Monday website, where you’ll find lots of delicious meatless recipes.

My friend Ellen, who blogs at Within My Means, recently threw a baby shower for a friend. The spread included five delicious meatless salads, and the post “Baby Shower for Chloe”  includes photos along with the recipes. Most of them are really simple, and Ellen also includes some time-saving alternatives just in case you’re making them all at once for a party, like she did. They all sound and look delicious, and include a wide variety of flavors.

The salads are: couscous/pineapple/mango, quinoa/corn, grape, jicama/grapefruit, and Italian bread salad. All the recipes are in one post.

I want to try all of them! I definitely need to find more ways to eat couscous and quinoa, and the grape salad looks delicious and is completely new to me. I do make an Italian bread salad, but I like Ellen’s variation with cherry tomatoes and small mozzarella balls.

Thanks Ellen for those great salad ideas. I don’t know about you, but I can never get enough salad. Lately I’ve been eating arugula almost every day. It has such a strong flavor for such an unassuming little leaf. Last night we ate it tossed with Newman’s Family Italian, without any other additions.

Do you go meatless on Mondays? Every day? Please share your favorite meatless recipe ideas in the Comments section and I’ll include them in the next Meatless Monday recipes post. The easier, the better. Send your fallback or standby meals, the ones with just a few ingredients that you can explain in a couple of sentences.

Click here to check out previous Meatless Monday recipes posts.

Comments

  1. says

    I’ve been doing Meatless Monday for years – they have such great recipes! For me it’s all about the abuse of animals on factory farms. I’ve stopped eating beef altogether and limit myself to veggie, chicken, turkey and fish. Here’s a recipe I posted on my blog over a year and a half ago and it’s still the most popular page on my blog: http://lifebeginsatretirement.blogspot.com/search?q=three+bean+chili. Actually the link to the recipe is in that post plus my changes/additions to it.
    Cheers

    • Angela says

      Jane- Wow, I didn’t even know Meatless Monday had been around that long. Good for you, and I agree that they have some great recipes. I have the same diet as you, because of the abuse and animal rights issues, I don’t have much problem eating fish, turkey, or chicken. My logic is that I can or would kill them myself. Thanks for the recipe, chili is one of my favorite meatless meals with a wide variety of ways to prepare. My own favorite chili recipe includes 3 beans as well- pinto beans, black beans, and kidney beans, plus chili powder and adobo sauce. Delicious.

  2. says

    Thanks for promoting meatless meals. Better for us, the planet, and the animals we would otherwise be consuming. Here are 3 of my recent posts:

    Meatless lasagna: http://nrhatch.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/rustic-lasagna/

    Split Pea Soup: http://nrhatch.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/split-pea-soup/

    Thai Noodles with Peanut Sauce: http://nrhatch.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/thai-noodles-with-peanut-sauce/

    I have plenty more. Just search “Recipe Ideas.” They are ALL meatless. And YUMMY!

    • Angela says

      Nancy, thanks so much! I am so excited about your recipes, and will definitely be trying them. I have never made split pea soup because I used to work at Pea Soup Andersen’s when I was 19. The “traveler’s special” was all the soup and bread you could eat, and I spent my days spooning soup and then clearing the half-eaten congealed bowls from tables. But that was a long time ago, and I think it’s time to enjoy some fresh homemade split pea soup! I will pot these on the next MM recipes post, thanks!

  3. says

    Hi, Angela. We are inconsistent Meatless Monday eaters, though since arriving in Ecuador we’ve been meatless probably 5-6 days each week. We are staying at an ecolodge called Casa Mojanda which has their own organic garden, and weekly access to the huge Otavalo Market means just about every kind of fruit and vegetable you need. Meals in the dining room are healthy, delicious, and filling. Meals I cook in our house are not quite there yet. :)

    Even though I’m not yet a great meatless cook, I can attest to the fact that you can eat really filling delicious food without meat on a regular basis (and not even lose weight if you aren’t careful!). One of the goals on our long trip is to learn to cook and eat healthier, and that means far less meat. So we will be following along from afar and will let you know when we find especially delicious meatless recipes from around the world.

    • Angela says

      Betsy, I would love to hear about your favorite meatless recipes from around the world! Send them along! How great that you’ll be learning to cook so many great dishes, and that you’re surrounded by such an abundance of healthy fruits and veggies. Sounds wonderful to me.

      The jury is out for me on whether vegetarians or people who eat less meat are thinner than the average carnivore. A lot depends on whether they exchange a lot of sugar and empty carbohydrates for meat, or if they learn how to cook with beans and grains and other foods that are healthy and filling and suppress the urge for sweets somewhat. Of course it also depends on their lifestyle and how active they are, and finally- how much they drink! I have known plenty of veggie alcoholics.

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