Our family is decidedly Flexitarian. We’ve tried eating only veggie, but we prefer to eat a little Free Range meat or some fish on occasion. Nevertheless, our society eats way too much meat and we could all benefit (the people and the planet) from eating more vegetarian meals. Thus, I’ve decided that I can have more positive impact in the food realm, by hosting a monthly Vegetarian Challenge, and only posting vegetarian recipes.

So, I’ve decided to change my weekly meal plan post, to a once monthly Green Me Vegetarian Challenge. The Challenge will be posted on the 2nd Saturday of each month. If you would like to participate in the Challenge you will have 3 days (Saturday, Sunday or Monday) to make your pledge to eat vegetarian in the comments. There will be a small prize each challenge to encourage folks to participate. I will post vegetarian recipes and a meal plan to assist participants in eating vegetarian; however, if you chose to participate (on your honor) you can eat whatever you wish, as long as it is of course, vegetarian!

For previous weeks recipes see below:

Mixed Recipes & Review of the Enchanted Broccoli Forest

First Vegetarian Challenge & Recipes

Mixed Recipes (both veggie & non veggie)

If you are not already an experienced and healthy vegetarian, it can be difficult to know what to eat and how to make sure that you are getting adequate nutrition. Newbie veggie heads often make the mistake of eating too much cheese (whoa — cholesterol!) or too many refined carbs (whoa — blood sugar!). The Mayo Clinic has some nutritionally sound advice on eating various vegetarian diets. At the end of the article is a link to a selection of meatless recipes. I haven’t tried any of the recipes posted on line, but I have a Mayo Clinic Williams-Sonoma Cookbookthat is filled with delicious (Flexitarian) recipes, so I am confident that the online vegetarian recipes should be tasty.

The next Green Me Vegetarian Challenge will be March 8, 2008.