It's time for an EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club!

Who's in?

OK, let me back up a sec. I recently read two stats that stuck in my brain:

Industrial livestock creates 18 percent more greenhouse gases than cars. (UN Food & Agriculture Organization)

An estimated 70 percent of our nation's antibiotics are used in livestock feed. (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Holy cow. (Literally.) Now, if you're like me, you try really hard to buy only drug-free, pasture-raised meat. While this is good, a scant percentage of the population is doing this. Small meat farmers could not produce enough meat to support the US population's consumption of it, which is why we all need to be eating less of it and knocking down the industrial meat industry. But I still think about meat first when I think about dinner. I'm still stuck in the meat-centric meal plan. It's time to change that. Enter the EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club!

Here's our thought: We want to find 10 bloggers who will cook meatless dinners for their families once a week for eight weeks. Each week you'll post your recipe on your blog, with photos. Every Friday, Renee and I will post our own recipes and include descriptions and links to the 10 bloggers' recipes. That way, we'll all have access to a bunch of family-tested recipes that we can try at home. The goal of the Meatless Supper Club is to get everyone preparing a meatless dinner at least once a week (and then bump it up to twice a week!). We want to create a library of recipes to pick and choose from, with photos and reviews from the bloggers' kids.

Some ground rules for the bloggers: let's not go crazy on the dairy. Dairy can be present, but minimal. Same with eggs. Recipes should be geared to busy families with young-ish children -- so let's keep the ingredients accessible and not too numerous. We want to know what your kids think about it, and what you'd do differently the next time to make it more palatable for them.

Now about protein. How did we become so fixated on protein? The more I read, the more I realize that we're probably getting way more protein than we need. Plants (veggies, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts) are loaded with protein. As long as we're eating a diet primarily of whole foods, our protein needs are going to be met. So as we incorporate more meatless meals into our diets, let's not be so fixated on protein; let's be fixated on eating a variety of whole foods.

Renee and I are super amped about this idea, and we're wondering if anyone else is, too. Are you guys ready for some meatless inspiration? Are you interested in being one of our recipe bloggers? Leave a comment and make sure to include your email in the form -- we'll be in touch! Or send us an email at enviromompdx [at] gmail [dot] com.

(FYI Portland, the VegFest is this Saturday, Sept. 19 from 10am-8pm at the convention center.)