Meat Free Monday

In honour of Go Green Week, we've handed the climate blog over to colleagues to share what they are doing in their own lives to make a difference.

Laura Stevens from our PR team is our first guest blogger...

I like the idea of being a vegetarian, but the fact that all you have to do is say “bacon sandwich” and I’m salivating means that it’s just not going to work. But in honour of Go Green Week, I’ve decided to take a simple step to help reduce the amount of meat I eat.

This may sound strange, but I actually think vegetables are rather beautiful.

The variety, the colours, the texture – everything about them is appealing. Apart from the taste! I’m still a little childlike in my vegetable choices, sticking with familiar favourites like peas, carrots, cabbage and broccoli. But I’m keen to get more veggies (and a wider variety) into my life, for the health benefits and because eating less meat is a really simple way to make my life a little greener. I’ve started out ok, with courgettes, chard and butternut squash creeping onto the menu, but how do I push myself a little harder?

The challenge
Three little words – Meat Free Monday. Instead of going to whole hog (unfortunate choice of words, I know!), I’m going to try and cut out meat completely on Mondays. Even the husband-to-be seems to be is on board and he’s definitely a carnivore.

How am I going to do it?
- Meal planning – I’m already a huge advocate of this. Planning ahead when it comes to food means you only buy what you need so you spend less money (good for you) and less food gets wasted because you use up what you’ve got (good for the planet).

- It’s all in the timing – I’ll be timing my weekly shopping trip to make sure there’s plenty of scrummy fresh vegetarian options lurking in the fridge ready for Monday morning.

- Read up – Buy/borrow a vegetarian cookbook for inspiration. I got one for Christmas last year and most of the recipes look amazing. So who’s up for the challenge of Meat Free Monday?

Has anyone got any ideas for recipes to make Monday the most delicious day of the week? Please do share them if so!