Meatless Mondays!

Whether you're the type of person has has lots of meatless days of the week or the type that orders their steaks at a restaurant "still mooing" (y.i.k.e.s.) the concept of "Meatless Mondays" can still rock! I think I originally heard of this concept as more of a health based suggestion. It's true, reducing the amount of meat you consume weekly can be extremely healthy for you! 

Check out this list from www.meatlessmonday.com -

• LIMIT CANCER RISK: Hundreds of studies suggest that diets high in fruits and vegetables may reduce cancer risk. Both red and processed meat consumption are associated with colon cancer.
• REDUCE HEART DISEASE: Recent data from a Harvard University study found that replacing saturated fat-rich foods (for example, meat and full fat dairy) with foods that are rich in polyunsaturated fat (for example, vegetable oils, nuts and seeds) reduces the risk of heart disease by 19%
• FIGHT DIABETES: Research suggests that higher consumption of red and processed meat increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
• CURB OBESITY: People on low-meat or vegetarian diets have significantly lower body weights and body mass indices. A recent study from Imperial College London also found that reducing overall meat consumption can prevent long-term weight gain.
• LIVE LONGER: Red and processed meat consumption is associated with increases in total mortality, cancer mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality.
• IMPROVE YOUR DIET. Consuming beans or peas results in higher intakes of fiber, protein, folate, zinc, iron and magnesium with lower intakes of saturated fat and total fat. 

 I don't know about you, but for me the words mixed up in the bullet points above are some of the scariest one's I've ever come across. Cancer?! Diabetes?! Obesity?! and of course LIVING LONGER - that's a big one! Might be worth throwing in some "Meatless Mondays". 

For me "Meatless Mondays" mean even more to me than just the benefits we've already talked about. I really (really really really really) love animals. I really am struggling lately with how ridiculously cruel our nation is to animals. I think I was made so much more aware of this while I was in Australia and there was no concerns of pregnant pigs being so caged up they will never in their LIFE do anything other than lay down or stand up - literally MILLIONS of them, forced into a constant state of pregnancy, injections and hormones. SO SO sad and quite frankly down right disgusting. That fact - I learned from a site I subscribe to, and their investigations of Tyson industries. (you may want to steer clear of all things Tyson ever day of the week!) 

All around environmentally though, here are some benefits to "Meatless Mondays":

• REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide . . . far more than transportation. And annual worldwide demand for meat continues to grow. Reining in meat consumption once a week can help slow this trend.
• MINIMIZE WATER USAGE. The water needs of livestock are tremendous, far above those of vegetables or grains. An estimated 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef. Soy tofu produced in California requires 220 gallons of water per pound.
• HELP REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENCE. On average, about 40 calories of fossil fuel energy go into every calorie of feed lot beef in the U.S. Compare this to the 2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy needed to produce one calorie of plant-based protein. Moderating meat consumption is a great way to cut fossil fuel demand.

                          

I've reduced my meat intake a lot more than just on Mondays at this point - but you have to start somewhere and I think "Meatless Monday" is a great place for a beginning. I'm going to start posting what we had each week on Monday for dinner! 

Last night we tried this: 

Trader Joe's Mushroom Ravioli with mushroom truffle sauce. It was delicious and took about 7 minutes to make. We also had a salad to start. We ended the night with a very yummy blended fruit shake for dessert!

If you have a "Meatless Monday" recipe I'd love to see it!

Melbourne...or Melbin for the locals - Day 1.

The first thing to know about Melbourne, AU is not to pronounce it Mel-born. It's properly pronounced Melbin. Since this city reminded me quite a bit of New York, you don't want to sound like a tourist - because there are people who will take advantage of you, and well - that's not cool. So say it right.

When we landed in Melbourne, we made our way to the hotel (probably via the longest route we could have chosen, which Derek tried to convince me it was a "Free" tour of the city), got settled in and of course headed to a pub for fish and chips (ok and a pint - ok two pints, sheesh). We had good reason for needing the pints. After 2 weeks of international traveling I unfortunately hit my limit of rude people. When we were waiting in line for the bus to take us to the hotel, a lady came up and budged in front of everyone. I let that one slide. Then, once the bus actually got there and parked in front of the rest of the group and not her, she budged again in front of us. Finally, when the bus driver got out and told people to bring their suitcases to the back she literally pushed Derek out of the way to rush her suitcase back and be the first one on the bus. Sadly every single annoying person/thing that had taken place during our vacation came to head and I had an "oh no you didn't just push my husband" moment. I got on the bus and the crazy broad already knew I was annoyed with her because she looked, smirked and said to her friend "blondie doesn't like me". This is the part where I should have just shut my blond face but instead I went with "No, actually it's not that I don't like you - I don't like you pushing my husband!" She of course claimed she did nothing of the sort and I then explained to her she was the last person to that bus stop - the rest of us had been waiting at least 15 minutes and somehow she had found herself on the bus first. I asked her how she could possibly explain being last there and first on without being pushy - apparently she didn't know because she only flipped me off. Yes - she literally flipped me off on a tourist shuttle. Then I said "As I can see you're Australian, I only hope somebody is as nice to you when you visit the US as you have been to us" She just flipped me off again, and by this point Derek was begging me to be over it. Ugh. (mind you Australia is FILLED with Asian tourists - who are about the most difficult people to travel around, they are VERY pushy (literally) and totally rude. Rude as in I saw two different ones spit loogies on the carpet at the airport. Gross and totally rude. It was after all that I had my "oh no you didn't moment". I'm not sorry - and if I ever see that scruffy old broad again, I'll tell her the 20 other things I thought of after I was no longer with her.

On a much more relaxed note (thank goodness) - we had a "Little Penguin Tour" scheduled at 4:00pm so we made our way there next. The penguins live on Phillip Island. This was one of the tours I was the most excited about before we left for our trip - I had no idea though the level of crazy awesome this was going to be. Little Penguins is actually their name, not just something I call them because they are adorable (even though they are!) and tiny. They weigh around 2.5 pounds. Every night just after dusk the Little Penguins come up in "rafts" from the water. Their groups are called "rafts" because before dusk, if you can spot them hanging out further in the water - they get so close to each other it looks like a big raft. The Little Penguins are coming in to go to their burrow's for a night or two before they have to go back to the water and fish. The coolest thing to me about this whole event was the way this part of nature has been preserved by humans. The visitors center and everything in it is 100% non-profit/volunteer. Every penny goes back into keeping these penguins in their natural habitat, living the way they were born to. LOVE it! The first great thing we had a chance to see were all of the penguin burrows up in the woods. Who knew penguins would come in at night and climb a pretty steep hill, and go to their burrow. Penguins are apparently very sensitive about their space and do not share burrows - unless it's with their partner. Hanging out by the burrows in the daytime though when we were there was a lot of Wallaby's! These ones were pretty large too which was cool.

 Mac (our tour guide) explained to us since all native animals in Australia are "soft footed" (as the Wallaby is) they are harmless to the Penguins burrows. Also, they are not a predator to the Little Penguins. Seagulls and hawks are their biggest predators. This is why they do not come up out of the water until dusk. It helps them feel safer. We went down the boardwalk which was again surrounded by burrows, to the benches we could sit on to watch the show. The penguins can literally go anywhere they want - it's 100% natural for them, so you have to check under your car before you leave:

We waited about 10 minutes and since we were less than 50 yards and up higher from the water, we had a chance to see these little black floating things surfing the waves in. Suddenly then as the wave pulls back into the sea- you can instantly see this entire raft of penguins standing up in unison and coming all the way out of the water. It was nature at it's absolute best and I couldn't believe it. Then the Little Penguin's start walking towards their own burrows. Some went up the path they have made on the hill, some went the other direction, but some went down the patch RIGHT next to us. If we would have reached our hand just an inch out of the barriers we could have touched them all. All in all about 2500 are living there, so through out the next our or so rafts of Little Penguins kept surfacing and the all kept dispersing. When they came out of the water was my favorite. They come up in their groups because they feel there is safety in numbers. Once they are out they do some grooming too. After about a half an hour we heard the sounds they were starting to make. The ranger told us they are calls to their friends to let them know they got to their burrow safely. We did hear one fighting with another one - over a burrow apparently. We weren't allowed to take any pictures - even without flash. The rangers are super sensitive that the penguins stay as natural as possible, and they do not want camera flash's or noises effecting them. I did purchase some pictures though which was good. Phillips Island is absolutely beautiful too - here's a pre-sunset picture we took. 

This experience was an absolute favorite of mine on this trip!!