Bean dip

My big idea to institute Meatless Mondays at our house was a bust the first Monday I was hip to do it. Mainly because Wayne boycotted my tofu meal idea.

Then last Monday I had volleyball so Wayne decided just to get something for himself.

However, thanks in part to Tami from Meatless Monday, I didn’t give up. We didn’t use one of the yummy recipes we found on there. (Holy cow! You can have a true Meatless Monday the whole day because they have recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Plus snacks!) Maybe next Monday.

But we did pull off a Meatless Monday dinner meal: bean dip.

Sounds more like something you’d find at a party doesn’t it? But Wayne loves it for dinner sometimes. So…since it’s meatless, I agreed to make it for him last night.

Woohoo!

It’s a start…

Wayne wasn’t so hip on my Meatless Mondays idea. Health nut that he is, he also was raised the good old-fashioned Colorado way….meat and potatoes, baby.

But to be fair, he might have been more game to give Meatless Mondays a try if I had chosen a different inaugural dish. I was going to make one I love and often make when he’s on the road: stir fry Swiss chard (or spinach, depending on my mood and which looks freshest) and tofu over rice. Yum!

Because I make it spicy (with lots of garlic and a Szechuan sauce), I figured he’d be willing to give it a go.

No.

He can’t get past the tofu. He thinks it’s gross and that he hates it. I can’t get him to remember the time he tried this dish and actually liked it. He was surprised by the flavor and the texture was not at all what he assumed it’d be.

But I could not for the life of me convince him of that Monday.

So, since I hadn’t gone to the store (in part because I feared he’d stage a revolt and I knew if I had other food on hand he’d insist I cook that instead), we had to eat out.

We ended up going to Sushi-O-Sushi up the street and spending $50 (!) on rolls and nigiri. Which, budget-busting as it was, ended up being a lot of fun because we tried new-to-us rolls that were outstanding.

I wish I could remember the names. Something moose and I think Smoky Mountain were two of them. But they had a bunch of interesting combinations we’re excited to go back and try.

One that sounded good to me were some of their fruit rolls. Especially the one with kiwi, strawberry, cream cheese and tuna.

So…bust that it was, Meatless Mondays was not without merit after all!

Image from stock.xchng

My dad gave me a subscription to Woman’s World last year and one of the features I like about it is their menu planning calendars. They’re usually in the back after the recipes. (Though I haven’t seen one of those calendars in a while, come to think of it.)

Anyway, they seem to have theme dinner days. Like Meatless Mondays or Fish Fridays.

I know I need to eat more veggies. I’m HORRIBLE about it.

It’s not that I don’t like veggies. The ones I know how to make I like just fine.

But that’s the trouble. I don’t really know how to fix a lot of veggies, aside from eating them raw, steaming or sauteing them. And to do it the way I know how only makes for a good salad or side dish, not a main course. (Unless I want to make a whole bunch of veggie side dishes and eat them as a main course. I could always do that. Smorgasbord veggies…hmm, it’s a thought.)

And sometimes we do have salad nights. Chef salad. Pasta salad. You get the idea.

But the other day when we went to the Indian buffet I realized there are a lot of items there I like that are vegetarian. Ones I could easily eat as a main course by themselves.

“Maybe you need to make Meatless Mondays more fun. Like trying new recipes and stuff. Somehow inspire yourself by making it a game,” I thought.

It was the inkling of my idea. Which caught fire after I watched the inspiring in more ways than one Julie & Julia….ah, that totally delighted my inner chef.

If you saw it, you know the scene where she fries up slices of bread then tops them with incredible chopped veggies? That looked absolutely scrumptious! I’ve been craving it ever since.

Not that it would make an entire meal, but it got me thinking how that’d be a nice way to add in more veggies. Tasty and healthy and something different. All while experimenting too!

So, I decided last night when I made sliced tomatoes topped with mozzarella and basil leaves drizzled with a balsamic glaze (ORGASMIC!) for my salad, that I’d do like Julie did: use my blog to help me cook.

Although this idea of mine isn’t as grandiose as cooking my way through anyone’s cookbook. I just hope it’ll help make it more fun to see what recipes Wayne and I end up loving enough to make Meatless Mondays a tradition we might carry through to other nights of the week too.