Meatless Monday: Tomato Soup With Broiled Cheese Toasts

This evening's choice for our Meatless Monday meal is a comfort food classic:  Tomato Soup with some open-faced cheese toasts that I'm going to pop under the broiler.

Yummmm!

I'm cheating again this week because today has been an errand-filled disaster of a day.

Say it with me:  it's okay to use a canned soup if you use a healthy one that is still pretty good for your family.  I can hear that little perfectionist voice in my head as I type this:   It is, right?

No mom guilt, here, thank you very much.  I'm feeding my family healthy veggies today.  And I'm taking that as a victory.

So, the soup is from Amy's organic line:  it's a tomato bisque that smells wonderful as it is heating up.  I've added a little extra sea salt and some freshly ground Tellicherry black peppercorns -- just a pinch, because certain wee girlies don't like things that taste too spicy.  I figure we can all add more pepper to our own personal taste buds, but I can't take it out once it is in there for the wee one.

Meatless Monday And Beyond: Dipping A Toe Into Healthier Family Meals

We spent some time talking over the weekend about returning to vegetarianism -- something we were exclusively for several years until our fertility doc recommended I add meat back into my diet back in the days when we were tinkering with why we were having trouble being pregnant.

I'm glad we did, because it resulted in us having The Peanut, who is the joy of our lives.  But...isn't there always a "but?"

We eat way too much meat these days.  Add to it that we eat way too much crapola in general, and need to add in far more veggies and fruits and whole grains and...well, you get the picture.

I've decided we're at least going to dive in with a meatless Monday regime and make that change and then see where that takes us.  We have an almost 9-year-old very picky child to consider and a 20-year-old nephew living with us, so a whole hog switch to sprouts and kale isn't something we can do immediately without a wailing mutiny (at least from The Peanut, anyway).

Although, as Mr. ReddHedd says, "when she gets hungry enough, she'll eat."  True, dat.

I'm not inclined to issue wholesale food changes by fiat, but at the same time we are definitely going to be shifting what we eat.  Just, perhaps, a little more gradually so that small persons have some time to adjust along the way.

My plan is a very simple one:  transform the side dishes into the main course, and the meat -- when we use it -- into more of a condiment.  Plan more meals based on healthy whole foods, mostly veggies and fruits and whole grains, and come up with more meatless meals wherever possible.

In short, what we should have been eating all along will hopefully become our norm.