You Know What Day It Is

I have decided to start a Monday theme. I know, great… a theme day I must be running out of things to blog about…well yes and no. This theme is something I actually find very important. My new theme day will be called Meatless Mondays, so obviously it will take place every Monday. What does this Meatless Monday theme entail? You might ask. Well, every Monday from now on I will be posting a meatless Monday recipe for you to try out, stare at, mock, or ignore. It is your choice what you do with it but I encourage you to give it a try. It’s just once a week, but it can have some awesome benefits to your health, and the environment. If you don’t want to try my recipe but still want to give Meatless Monday’s a try, then that’s awesome! I am only lending out ideas, the possibilities are endless! The only rule of Meatless Monday is that you go meatless.  *High Five

You may have already heard of Meatless Mondays but just in case you haven’t, here is a brief little description of what it is.

Meatless Monday is an international campaign that encourages people to cut out meat on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet. Reducing meat consumption by 15% (the equivalent of one day a week) lessens the risk of chronic preventable illness and has a strong positive impact on the environment.

For a more detailed description you can go to www.meatlessmonday.com to explore more recipes and the rest of the story behind Meatless Monday.

So now for my recipe for Meatless Monday

Vegetarian Shepherds Pie

4 or 5 russet baked potatoes, peeled and cooked
    2 teaspoons olive oil
    4 cloves garlic, minced
    1 medium onion, chopped
    1 cup mushroom or vegetable broth
    3/4 cup plain soymilk/milk
    8 oz. slice mushrooms
    1 head broccoli, chopped or grated, stems and all
    2 carrots, chopped or grated
    2 celery ribs, chopped
    1 teaspoon cornstarch plus 1 teaspoon flour
    2 handfuls French fried onions

Directions:

1.Mash cooked potatoes with as much soymilk/milk, butter/margarine as you need to make them nice and creamy. Add some salt and pepper and a sprinkle of garlic powder.

2.Heat the oil in a large pan and sauté the garlic and onion over medium heat until soft and translucent. Add the broccoli, carrots, mushrooms and celery and cook until veggies start to wilt.

3.Add the broth and soymilk along with the cornstarch and flour. Let the mixture come to a boil, stirring frequently. Sauce will thicken up a bit. Season with salt and pepper if you need to. When all the vegetables are cooked, remove from heat.

4.Spray a 8"x8" baking dish with nonstick oil spray and spoon the vegetable mixture onto the bottom. Cover with the potatoes and smooth them down.  Sprinkle the top with French fried onions. Heat in oven for 10 minutes or so until top is slightly firm and onions are browned.

The best part about this recipe is that you can use pretty much any vegetables you have, it doesn’t have to be the vegetables called for in the recipe, so you can use whatever you like!

Serve with garlic toast or fresh bread. Enjoy!
Another way to prepare this is to spread half the potatoes on the bottom of the dish, add the veggies on top, then spread the remaining potatoes on top of the veggies. Either way it is delicious!
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 30 minutes

I hope you enjoy your Meatless Monday, let me know your thoughts, or if you tried out the recipe. Feel free to post some Meatless Recipes as well!