Meatless Monday Inspiration

April 4, 2022
Heidi Boortz
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If you’re new to meatless, you might be here to get inspiration for getting started. If you’re old hat, you might be here for new Meatless Monday recipes to add to your rotation. We welcome you no matter why you’re here and we hope you’ll find your Meatless Monday Inspiration with us!

Meatless meals are, of course, trendy in some circles. They seem to be gaining popularity in other circles as well since the prices of meat continues to climb with no end in sight. And, meatless can be, for sure, very budget friendly.

Some people are even considering going meatless more often in order to support their health goals. And, there are studies that suggest that going meatless, even some of the time, boosts our overall health.

NOTE: This doesn’t mean that we think meat is BAD for you! Not at all. In general though, we could all do with more plants in our diet.

But don’t be fooled into thinking all meatless meals are less expensive, or even healthier, than those containing meat. There are definitely inexpensive meatless meals and definitely expensive ones, depending on what you’re making and where you’re shopping. And, of course, if you’re replacing meat with highly processed meat substitutes containing added sugar, chemicals, or worse, then even meatless meals aren’t healthy (or cheap).

If either budget friendly or healthier is your goal, you might be missing the point by just choosing “meatless” for your Meatless Monday without reading the ingredients.

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Of course we’ve all witnessed the attention that Beyond® products are getting. Marketing, flavor improvements, fast food chains, and, yes, even politics have contributed to “meatless meats’” ever-growing status in the US. (And, honestly, when has food ever NOT been political?) But we are certainly not here to talk about politics, and thank goodness for that!

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However, Beyond® and other “fake” meats are highly processed, relatively pricey (in my store 1 lb of Beyond ground beef is $9.99), and, in my opinion, best saved for occasional consumption, rather than a regular staple. This does NOT mean I think you should eat real beef instead, or anything like that. You want to be meatless? Great! You want to be carnivorous? Fine with me! I’m just saying switching from a high meat diet to a high fake meat diet isn’t really the best idea for your health or for your budget. No Meatless Monday inspiration there, if you ask me.

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There are SO many ways to eat meatless without fake meats as a substitute for meat. In a lot of recipes you can just leave out the meat and make no other changes and there you have it.

I know some of you will worry about protein when the meat is gone, so we created a long list of healthy meatless meals, complete with protein from nuts, seeds, quinoa (technically a seed), legumes, dairy, eggs, fruits, and vegetables. You CAN be meatless and eat a healthy whole food diet AND get enough protein all at the same time! Now, that is Meatless Monday Inspiration!