meat free mondays

look at me go! two blog updates in a week.

i am a follower of gwenth paltrow's blog: goop. someone told me about it once and i found that it usually has some great recipes and travel tips for a whole list of cities she has been to. in one of her posts, she blogged about "meat free mondays". if you want to read the whole blog you can go here: http://goop.com/newsletter/68/en/

in summary here is what it says:

in 2006, the united nations issued a report which stated that the livestock industry as a whole was responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the whole of the transport sector put together.

in reponse to this fact, paul mcCartney (yes, the beatle) launched meat free mondays in the UK, and many other countries are following suit. meat free mondays are to encourage people to take a small, but practical step in reducing the negative effects the livestock industry has on the environment.

mike and i decided to keep mondays meat free. mike is from alberta, the land of alberta beef, and i'm american, fast food burgers and mcdonalds chicken nuggets are staples in my diet, but we want to be more conscious of not only what we put in our bodies, but how the food we eat effects the world we live in. anyone else like to join us?

here is a vegetarian receipe mike and i really like that i thought i would share. it is from allrecipes.com with a few revisions.

eggplant parm

the ingredients:
1 eggplant, peeled and thinly sliced
1 egg, beaten
2-3 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
3 cups spaghetti sauce
1 (16 ounce) package mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
fresh basil (for me, the more the better!)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Slice the eggplant into slices. Sweat the eggplant slices by sprinking salt on them and letting them sit for 20 minutes or so. Rinse and dry.

3. Dip eggplant slices in egg, then in bread crumbs. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with olive oil. Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes on each side.

4. Reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees F.

5. In a baking dish spread spaghetti sauce to cover the bottom. Place a layer of eggplant slices in the sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with the cheeses.

6. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown.

We usually boil up some spaghetti to go with it. Enjoy!