Ready, Set, Green, Week Two: Vegetarian Venture

Now that I do most of the cooking, I'm trying to find a balance between those two extremes. I still prefer vegetarian chili to the meat version and I eat a lot of veggie burgers for lunch, but we like steak in our enchiladas, and sausage or chicken in our pasta. So this week, I tried to cut out cooking meat entirely. When I asked my college roommate for her favorite recipes, she kept it simple: "Pizza," she said. "Make pizza."

Easy enough. Topping a pre-made crust with sauce, mushrooms, onions, and peppers took 10 minutes, and it didn't seem like we were missing anything. Same with the Parmesan-and-pepper pasta we made the next night. On Wednesday we went to a barbecue and ate chicken, but here's some food for thought: Would it have been more eco-friendly to eat the meat they were cooking anyway, or to stop and buy pre-packaged veggie burgers?

So far, so good, but tonight is the real test: black bean and corn enchiladas. I'm guessing that with enough cheese we'll never even miss the steak.

Buy the Book Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks to Modern Eco-Living.

Blythe Copeland is a freelancer writer living on Long Island. Read more about her foray into the green life in her previous columns as she follows the plan set out in the book Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks to Modern Eco-Living.