Monthly Archives: February 2009

I’ve confessed that my family is carnivorous.  We enjoy a pork chops, hamburgers, steaks on the grill and  broasted chicken as much as anyone–but we recognize the health benefits of eating less meat and the HUGE environmental benefits of reducing our meat intake.  If every American skipped one meal of  chicken a week and substituted  grilled cheese and tomato soup, egg salad sandwiches or vegetable or cheese omelettes once a week the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads according to Environmental Defense.

Modern-day agricultural practices produce unhealthy meat laden with antibiotics and other chemicals–and the energy and resources required to raise meat is ridiculous.  Between water pollution from runoff, air pollution from manure, soil erosion, overgrazing, and the cost of raising and transporting meat supplies, meat should NOT be a staple for a healthy diet–and yet most Americans eat more than the recommended amount each day with super-sized portions contributing to their meat consumption.  (Did you know a serving of meat should be the same size as your palm?  That sure puts a quarter-pounder in perspective!)  According to Scientific American, growing a pound of corn requires 100-250 gallons of water.  Growing corn to produce a pound of beef requires between 2000 and 8500 gallons.  By simply CUTTING DOWN on our meat consumption, we can reduce our environmental impact while enjoying the benefits of a better diet for ourselves.  Click on How to Win an Arguent with a Meat Eater for some other interesting facts.

Here are some fast vegetarian recipies for your health and for our planet’s sake:

Arugula Toasts

4 slices bread

4-8 thin slices of feta cheese

4-8 leaves arugula

1 ripe tomato sliced

olive oil

pepper

Toast the bread and then arrange a single layer of feta cheese on each slice of toast.  Top with a single layer of arugula, then a slice of tomato.  Drizzle with olive oil, add pepper, serve.

Pasta with Squash Sauce

Dump Soup

1 can Progresso Minestrone Soup

1 can black beans rinsed & drained

1 can tomatoes with oregano and garlic

1 can diced tomatoes (I use a bag of frozen tomatoes and add my own oregano & garlic)

1 can white corn (do not drain)

1 can mixed vegetables (do not drain)

Dump in crock pot and simmer on low for 2-3 hours.

Bon appetite!

When signing up my middle son for summer park and rec. activities, he was posed with a choice of t-ball, soccer or both. “Soccer,” he declared. “Okay, but not t-ball?” His father is the assistant coach for our high school’s varsity baseball team–and middle seemed to enjoy t-ball last year when he played. “Nope,” he explained, “you get a trophy for soccer. They don’t give trophies in t-ball.”

Oh. Yet when pressed, my son could not tell me where last year’s soccer trophy was. This exchange led me to thinking that we’ve raised the bar in a foolish and wasteful fashion. Kids expect a prize just for showing up. They get prizes in fast food meals, in boxes of cereal, at grocery store check-outs, at birthday parties for other people–I’ve even been to rummage sales where there’s a stash of grab bags full of crap waiting for customers under 12. When did it stop being enough just to participate? Why have we allowed this Pavlovian response to condition our children to the point where they’ll refuse to have fun because the reward at the end isn’t good enough?

I’m a mom who keeps a lot of prizes at bay–my kids never get the proffered tokens at our grocery store check-out or happy meal toys. I don’t give our kids gifts for minor holidays like Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day or Halloween. I want my kids to appreciate fun the old-fashioned way–it was enough to go to the amusement park for the afternoon, we don’t need to bring home a cheap plastic token on top of everything. I want it to be enough that they go to a birthday party and play games and eat cake–they don’t need a goodie bag sent home when they’re leaving the party. On family vacations we don’t stop in every shop hawking t-shirts and fudge–fun isn’t defined by what we buy or get, rather, fun is defined by what we do.

I have 3 sons under the age of 10 and they’ve already acquired a box full of trophies, plaques and medals–prizes handed to them by well-meaning adults who in their fervor to reward children for participating, cheapen their participation by rewarding it. It was enough for my sons to play on a well-groomed field for 8 weeks of summer under the watchful eye of volunteer coaches. It was enough for us to go for soft-serve ice cream cones after each game–to sit under the bluish cast of the streetlight and watch the stars come out. It was enough for them to run with their teammates for an hour each week, giggling and yelling.

This year I’ve proposed to our town’s park and rec. department that they forgo the prizes. Trophies mean nothing when they’re handed out so liberally and there are plenty of meaningful ways to recognize excellence when the time comes to do so. Free soft-serve ice cream cones will do JUST FINE.