Thursday– 20% off all Oral Care (bamboo toothbrushes, toothpaste/tabs, mouthwash, floss, tongue cleaners)
Friday– 20% off Florida Makers (Happy Willow, Stinky Lewis, Made Up Gossip, Nellie’s Beeswax Candles, Honey, Resident Coffee, Earth Tonix, Beat It, Bohemian Reves, Tangie)
Saturday– 15% off Store-wide Sale
Also be sure to check out our new Gainesville Resources page for tons of places around Gainesville that you can get items mended, shop secondhand, and support local sustainability efforts!
Speaking of buying used, The Reuse Alliance of Alachua County is holding another Buy Used Day on Saturday, January 28th. Participating secondhand stores around Gainesville will be holding sales, so be sure to check the Zero Waste Gainesville website for more details!
When: Friday, January 27th from 12pm-7pm
Where: Life Unplastic, 2441 NW 43rd St.
Bring a puzzle or board game to swap for a “new” one!
When: Saturday, January 28th at 2pm
Where: The Repurpose Project, 1920 NE 23rd Ave
Want to learn simple ways to reduce waste? Join us at the Repurpose Project Community Center for this special event!
If you Google “Meatless Monday Recipe” you will find no shortage of options — from Pumpkin Roulade with Quinoa Stuffing to Crunchy-Topped Lentil Gratin, the internet is exploding with insta-worthy food made by stay-at-home food bloggers and influencers.
And it’s an amazing resource for anyone who wants to bask in the blissful ecstasy of their dinner after spending an entire Sunday learning five new cooking techniques.
But what about for the rest of us? We don’t have a ton of time to cook every night (or frankly, don’t want to)… not to mention the clean up afterward.
If you’re like me, you’re just an average person trying to make your life a little more sustainable. Cutting out some meat consumption is a highly effective way to do that, and #MeatlessMonday is a fun way to hold yourself accountable.
So here are 22 meatless Monday meal ideas that will delight your taste buds, are easy to execute, and need minimal clean up!
Two things to keep in mind:
If you’re looking to make an eco-friendly impact, you don’t want to replace all your meat with cheese and dairy — these products are also large resource suckers like beef. I have included some as options here because it can be tough to go full vegan, but I did try to lean towards the plant-based alternatives.
Living a busy life and staying sustainable is tough. Many of the most convenient options (take-out, premade sauces, pre-chopped fruit and veggies) come in unnecessary single-use packaging.
Just remember, it’s all about balance and finding what works best for you and yours.
BREAKFAST
Meatless Breakfasts to Grab On-The-Go
We’re talking real world here. And if you’re anything like me, you might get a nice sit-down breakfast once a week, but 9 times out of 10 it’s time to get out the door and you really don’t want to think about it.
Quick and Easy On-The-Go Breakfasts
The trick here is to think simple, with a flair. Our taste palate loves variety, and turns out our brains do too. Don’t forget to eat the rainbow! They’ve done studies on this — Food that has more bright colors actually tastes better to participants, yet blindfolded tasters can’t tell the difference.
Toast: Buttered and Beyond!
Toast
I know, I know — but do you switch up your bread on a regular basis? Try different multigrains? Here some ideas for a bit of flair:
Cinnamon toast with cream cheese and raisins or craisins.
Multigrain toast with Everything Bagel Seasoning (you can actually just buy this seasoning now – I personally LOVE IT).
Peanut butter toast with berries and/or bananas on top.
Sourdough toast with pesto and red bell pepper slices.
Wheat toast with mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and balsamic.
Multigrain toast with cream cheese, cucumbers, and dill.
(example: I recently diced and froze a single yellow squash I was trying to save from the compost and have been adding it little by little to my morning smoothies.. I can’t taste it, but am loving the extra vitamins!)
You can also add any leftover leafy green, avocado, citrus, yogurt, berries – just chuck it in there and hit blend.
Apple or Banana with Nut Butter
2) Make It Once, Eat All Week
If you do have an hour or two on a weekend or weeknight and want to invest a little time toward your breakfast for the rest of the week, these are great recipes that are meatless and save nicely:
A quiche can be really quick to make if you buy a premade crust, but of course that usually involves more packaging. If you make your own crust do yourself a favor and make extra, then freeze what you don’t need. Also consider just making an “egg pie,” basically a crustless quiche.
Quiches are a wonderful way to use up any leftover veggies or cheese from your week. Just saute in a pan and be sure to drain off excess liquid before you add it to the eggs.
Whether you’re a night-before prepper or a morning-of scrambler, lunch can’t be complicated either. It’s way too easy to snooze one more time and then grab lunch while you’re out.
You know that making food at home is more sustainable, and if you’re looking to go meatless, your local lunch options might be limited. So here are a few easy veggie lunch ideas so you can get to work on time and stick to your sustainable goals:
Dump into a bowl, bam – salad!
The classic PB&J — plus a few twists! Try adding:
Pomegranate seeds
Coconut flakes
Dried apricots
Apple chips
Salads
Boring I know, but they don’t have to be! It definitely helps if you have your veggies pre-chopped to save time throwing it together in the morning.
Also try mixing up some dry goods like roasted pumpkin seeds and dried fruits so you have an easy grab-n-go salad topper that satisfies.
Make sure to add a protein to help fill you up. Chickpeas are a great option!
This is one of my favorites because it’s so easy and yet delicious.
Try pesto instead of hummus for a twist.
Some of my favorite veggies: cucumber, carrot, bell pepper, broccoli, greens, sprouts.
If You Have a Little More Time
Again, if you do have a little more time you can make some delicious vegetarian meals with only slightly more effort than that 10-minutes-before-you’re-late-to-work allows. These are all great to prep the night before, then throw together for lunch during the week.
I am also always thinking about what little bits of leftovers I can clear out of the fridge – the combos can be as varied as your imagination!
DINNER
Meatless Monday Dinners That Are Actually Feasible on a Weeknight
And finally, Meatless Monday would not be complete without a family-friendly vegetarian meal that you can whip up in 30 minutes or less. Sound impossible? It’s not. Here are some of my faves:
Stir fry — this is one of the easiest meals you can make if you find a sauce you really like. Just fry up some veggies and throw it over rice or noodles.
Curry — again, this can be a bit more complicated if you make it from scratch. And though that’s more eco-friendly (and healthier), if you’re looking for a weeknight option I recommend finding a curry paste you like. It’ll become one of the easiest meals in your arsenal.
Cauliflower fried rice — this is a great shortcut to fried rice, and so much healthier. No need to wait for the rice to cook!
That said, if you have leftover rice, regular fried rice is another easy vegetarian option.
Veggie spring rolls with peanut sauce — a really fun way to eat more vegetables. It’s like a salad only ten times better. Plus any leftover veggies after rolling are already cut up and great to throw on salads for lunch the next day.
Vegetarian chili — okay it takes a while to cook, but the actual prep time is low so I included it.
Portobello “burgers” — just throw some olive oil and salt+pepper on full size portobello caps and toss them on the grill. They’re done in no-time and you can dress them up just like a regular burger.
Pasta gets a bad rap, but for a weeknight dinner, it’s honestly amazing what you can whip together. It’s also an effective way to reduce food waste because pasta is so versatile with ingredients.
If you have a whole bag of leafy greens like spinach or kale you forgot to eat (it’s okay, it happens!) try throwing the greens in a colander and “blanching” them. When the pasta is done cooking, you just pour the boiling water and pasta over top of the greens and let it drain. Then toss it all in some marinara sauce and you’re good to go! Or try some of these other pasta variations:
Are You Ready to Try a New Meatless Monday Recipe?
I hope this has given you some very realistic ideas to try for your next Meatless Monday. If you’ve taken up the challenge, I want to say thank you. You’re doing it! Keep going, trying new recipes, and spreading the word.
Double the effectiveness of your Meatless Monday by getting your groceries plastic-free at the refillery!
The more we can all work together to be just a little more sustainable, the better the world will be. Don’t forget — if you try one of these Meatless Monday recipes tag us @unplasticgnv with #MeatlessMonday!
It doesn’t seem that long ago that I wrote about 12 ways to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle and challenged you to pick one to focus on each month. Well somehow it’s JUNE and the Plastic Free EcoChallenge is coming up in July, so I thought to myself, what is the best way to prepare for the eco challenge?
A Trash Audit.
If your goal is to live closer to a zero-waste lifestyle, then the first thing you need to know is how much waste you’re currently creating. It’s true what they say — awareness is the first step. And also, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
So how do you do a home trash audit? Start by picking a method.
Step 1: Choose Your Trash Audit Method
There are a few different methods for performing a trash audit, and while some may be more precise than others, just choose the one that sounds the best to you and that you’re most likely to actually do. Progress, not perfection!
The Full Inventory
This is where you truly get a piece by piece picture of every bit of waste you create. This can be done two ways:
After the fact: On the day before trash day, head out into your yard or throw a tarp down and dump all your trash out. (Don’t do this on a windy day — we don’t need any accidental littering!)
Then you’ll simply write down and tally up every single item in there. If you’re not already composting — this is a great time to start, because digging through old food is absolutely no fun. You can also keep your “dry” trash separate from your “wet” trash for the week when you plan to do your audit.
Do this process with your recycling, too. While recycling is better than landfills, it’s not a perfect system and we can’t discount that this is still a form of “waste”.
As it goes in: Instead of digging through old trash — cause, yeah… not really that fun — you can keep a clipboard or tape a sheet of paper over your garbage can and add or tally every item right when you throw it away. The trick here is you’ll need an easily accessible sheet for each of your garbage cans (don’t forget your bathroom trash!), your recycle bin, and your compost.
The advantage to this type of audit is that at the end of the week you’ll have a very detailed account of all of your trash. This lets you really understand exactly where it’s coming from and how to tackle curbing it.
Really short on time? Consider doing your audit by weight instead.
The Weight Method
Instead of identifying each individual item, this method just helps you get an idea of how much trash you’re creating.
If you have a luggage scale that can work, or just weigh yourself holding the garbage and subtract your own weight.
This method is very quick, so try weighing your landfill garbage, your recycling, and your compost for the week. Because this is a faster method, you can repeat it more often and challenge yourself to simply reduce the overall amount each week.
Step 2: Make an Action Plan
Once you know what you’re throwing away, you can create a precise plan for how to reduce the waste. For instance, if you see that a lot of your trash is food packaging, choose a few specific action steps to reduce that waste category.
Don’t forget your reusable produce bags!
That could look like:
Challenging yourself to buy more whole fruits and vegetables that are unwrapped. Bring reusable bags if you’re used to bagging loose produce.
Getting creative about how to use food scraps to prevent food waste. The less you throw out the less packaging you will buy.
Shopping the bulk bins (or ordering at our refillery!) and bringing in your own reusable containers.
You get the idea.
Maybe you discover a large portion of your bathroom trash is cotton balls and you decide to try washable cotton pads. Or you realize you’re doing pretty well on waste until that time of the month comes along… (P.S. If you’re ready to ditch the single-use period products, check out my friend Stephanie’s menstrual cup manifesto: “‘Menstruation’ is Not a Dirty Word.”)
Keep At It
Whatever your action plan you settle on, write it down someplace that you can revisit regularly. The key is to try — give it a little focus every now and then, and you’ll be amazed how far you can come in a year. And don’t forget to celebrate your successes!
Our local teaching zoo, Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo, invites you to take action and create plastic-free habits with us while we prioritize public health and safety as much as possible!
The Plastic Free Ecochallenge is a 31-day global challenge to reduce and refuse single-use plastics. Inspired by the Australian-founded initiative, Ecochallenge.org has partnered with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to help you discover, learn, and explore new ways to take care of wildlife and the world we all share.
Throughout the Ecochallenge, share your progress, success, and reflections with fellow Ecochallengers. The combination of collective inspiration, camaraderie, and friendly competition makes change a little easier — and a lot more fun!
Join an existing team or create your own – if you want to join the SF Teaching Zoo Zero Wasters team we are offering team members a discount at Life Unplastic all month long! Don’t worry, the challenge is hosted completely online, so you can participate – and take advantage of the discount 😉 from anywhere!
