Feeding a family of four on a half pound of meat

Yesterday morning, in what I believe was a moment of fate, I switched on the TV for a moment and caught Mark Bittman's cooking segment on the Today Show. Bittman is a personal hero of mine, and I've sung his praises in the past. He's a believer, much like another hero, Michael Pollan, in a diet that emphasizes plants, not meat. So here he was on the Today Show talking about how you can feed a family of four using just 1/2 pound of meat, treating meat like a condiment. The segment's spin was purely focused on saving money, but I know Bittman was also secretly relaying his own less-meat-more-veg values.

Raising meat the industrial way is terrible for the environment, the animals and our health. (See: Food, Inc.) Raising pastured, organic, free-range meat is much better for the environment, the animals and our health, but it's not sustainable at the current levels of America's meat consumption, which is 200 pounds per person per year or 1/2 pound per day. So a good alternative is to eat the drug-free meat, but eat less of it.

The Today Show hosts had serious doubts (surprise, surprise) about Bittman's recipes -- whether they'd be filling enough -- so I tested one out last night. I made his Stir-Fried Vegetables with Ground Chicken in Lettuce Wraps except I used ground pork and did not use lettuce wraps. (More on what I subbed down below.) I pretty much followed the recipe exactly as listed, though maybe not so much on veggie measurements. I just sliced and peeled until it looked like I had enough for my family.

This recipe got major thumbs up from everyone. Yes, even the children. Yes, even the picky one.

We're talking cabbage, carrots, garlic, mushrooms (shitake not necessary, button or crimini are fine), red onion (instead of scallion, for me), ginger, 1/2 pound of ground meat, soy sauce/tamari, stock or white wine (the latter, for me), a little sugar, salt & pepper. Crushed peanuts for garnish, if you like. Prepared just like he described in the link above. Delish. Flavorful. Filling. The perfect amount for a family of four, though if I had two teenage boys I might have doubled the veggies. This is like an $8 dollar dinner, $2 per person.

This dish would be great over a little brown rice. We're experimenting with a low-carb diet over here, so I cut long ribbons of a zucchini with a vegetable peeler and sauted them in olive oil, salt & pepper for two minutes. For us, it's kind of like noodles. So good. I'm sure the lettuce wraps would have been tasty, too.

Yes, America, it's possible to feed a family of four on 1/2 pound of meat. Listen to Bittman. Give it a try.

PS: I realize that most of America is not reading this blog and that I'm speaking to a bunch of people who pretty much get it. But still, it's good to revisit this once in awhile.