One Green meal a day Challenge

One Green meal a day Challenge

Have you seen Food Inc?  Let's take action! Here is how this works: Plan on eating one meal made entirely of Whole Foods. Have them anyway you like raw/cooked/sprouted/baked/steamed/mixed/juiced/blended/etc...  

Examples of some Whole Foods include 

•  Vegetables(Broccoli, Spinach, Cabbage, Carrots, Tomato)
•  Fruits(Apples, Pears, Oranges)
•  Beans/Legumes (Navy, Mung, Split Peas, Lentils)
•  Grains (Quinoa, Rice, Barley)
•  Nuts/Seeds (Walnuts, Brazil Nuts, Sesame Seeds, Sunflower Seeds)

Committing yourself to replacing one of your meals with one meal consisting of only vegetables each day can be a real challenge for some people, if you are new to this, relax and start by participating in the One Green Meal A Week initiative and build yourself up to one meal a day. 

Why is it a Green Meal Challenge? Here are some facts that will help answer this question:

• Eating 1 lb. of meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gasses as driving an SUV 40 miles (more info)
• Eating more Fruits and Vegetables is protective against all disease (more info)
• More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals.
• It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat!
• An area of rain forest the size of seven football fields is destroyed every minute to make room for grazing cattle, and eating less animals saves acres of tress every year.
• Of all raw materials and fossils fuels currently used in the U.S., more than one-third goes to raising animals for food.
• You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you would by not showering for an entire year!
• Here is a nice site that more visually explains the impact of our food choices

Holiday Dinner Recipes

I just made two dishes for our New Years Dinner - I will call them Peachy Keen Salad and a YB-Rice.  Every year we celebrate by having a holiday dinner where we remember and remeniss of the current year.  The good, the bad, and just everyday non-eventful normal stuff :)

All ingredients are organic for extra goodness.

To make the YB-Rice you need some Rice, Vegetables, Dried Fruit, Nuts/Seeds, Seasoning, Liquid

Rice

3 cups brown rice

1 cup wild rice

Vegetables

Broccoli

Green Peas

Spices

1 tbsp garlic powder

1tbsp fiesta mole seasoning (tomato based seasoning)

1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast

2 tbsp dried chives

Dried Fruit

1/2 cup Raisins

1/2 cup cranberries

Nuts/Seeds

1/2 cup Walnuts small chunks

1/4 cup sliced Brazil nuts

1/8 cup ground flax seeds

Combine and rinse the rice, place in a big pot with a few sprays of oil, and spices. I added the garlic and mole, reserving the yeast and the chives for last step. Turn the pot on and bring about 5 cups of water to a boil in a kettle and pour it over the rice.  Cover and cook on high heat for 5 minutes.  Turn down the heat to medium and cook for another 20 min, then cook 5 min on low and turn off the heat and let stand covered for 15 min.

At this point the rice is done, add the vegetables, with the nuts/seeds and the yeast (if using) and dried fruit and mix it up well and cover.

To make Peachy Salad

Take some greens, veggies, spices, fruit, berries, and nuts/seeds that you have on hand.  This recipe is what I had at the time.

Greens

2 Shredded Romaine stalks

Vegetables

Diced zucchini

Diced radish

Spice

Red Onion

Sliced Greens of Green onion, no white part

Dried Fruit

Raisins

Mulberries

Cranberries

Berries/Fruit

1/2 cup Blueberries

1 Persimmon                                        

Nuts/Seeds

Sunflower seeds

Sesame seeds

Hemp seeds

Pecans

Peachy Keen Dressing - measurements are approximate

Fruit

1 cup Frozen Peaches

few pieces of Dried Mango

Nuts/Seeds

3tbsp Hemp seeds

Vegetables

Broccoli (sneaked a few in there)

Liquid

1/2 cup Orange Juice

1/2 cup Pear Vinegar

Mix the salad ingredients, add the fruit on top.  Blend the dressing in high power blender. Enjoy!