I eat too much meat. I’m beginning to think that we, as Americans, living in the land of plenty, simply tend towards it because it is so readily available. And tasty. But we eat too much of it, and it’s bad for us and the environment to do so.

However, I’m not ready to give it all up completely. And to be honest, I don’t think I ever will. I like having the freedom to have some sort of animal flesh if I want to. I just know that I shouldn’t do it as often as I do.

With that in mind (and being inspired by my recent adventure at the Boston Vegetarian Society Food Festival) I’m thinking of cutting down my animal consumption to just once or twice a week. It’s not really a big sacrifice and it definitely helps Darren and I get more healthy veggies and grains into our diets – which is awesome. It will also encourage me to expand my repertoire, and we all know how much I enjoy tinkering in the kitchen.

Budget-wise, this is also a good move for us. We’ve been trying to trim the fat, figuratively and literally, from our lives, and let’s face it: meat is expensive. Unless something is on crazy sale, you buy a pack of steak and a couple pieces of chicken for dinners for the week and you’re already up to ten or so dollars. Ten dollars gets a whole lot of great fresh and/or frozen veggies, with the added benefits of all those vitamins and fiber and not all that fat and cholesterol. (Sorry if I’m getting preachy, but I’m just running through my thought processes for the past week) I just can’t see a downside to cutting down on our meat consumption.

So our new plan of attack at the grocery store is to stock up on produce and only buy 1 animal protein per week. 1 pound of ground turkey, 1 can of tuna, 1 pound of steak, or 1 small chicken, you get the idea. I almost always end up with leftovers when I cook so 1 package of meat will invariably translate into 2, maybe 3 nights worth of food. And that is cheaper, and still a generous amount of meat to consume. I’ll pad out the rest of the week’s meals with tofu and veggies. And there’s never anything wrong with a nice grilled cheese sandwich and cup of tomato soup. =)

So that’s it. Sorry if you were expecting something more earth-shattering or tasty (or both) from me. Promise I’ll faithfully put up recipes if/when I discover new and exciting things.

Thanks for tolerating my brain-dump. =)