Growing up in the Hong Kong Cantonese culture, my family often talked about not eating too much meat and you can never eat too much vegetables and fruits.

 

As I get more custom to the Western meals, I notice how a main course is usually a large piece of meat, and the "side dishes" are much smaller portions of vegetables.

 

When I met my husband five years ago, his diet often included tofu and that surprised me a little.  The last thing I would think an engineer would eat is tofu.  In Hong Kong, if you are poor or tight in food budget, you may have more reasons to eat more tofu.  Soon I discovered it was not just for money reason that Damon would eat tofu.  He was trying to control his cholesterol as well as lower his carbon footprint. He has encouraged me to make more of our food from scratch.  I must say that I have never baked bread, made pizza, and ate veggie burger until I had gotten married.

 

One day when my five month old baby Alexis grows up, she may ask me, "Mom, what did you do to care for the environment?"  I can answer, "One way was to prepare more and more meals without meat."

 

Tonight our family had Trader Joe's Masala Veggie Burger with their wheat bun plus hummus.  I also made a side of red potatoes.  The meal was filling, yummy, and cost about $3 to $4 for both Damon and I.  Check out a description on the Veggie Burger from the current Summer Fearless Flyer from Trader Joe's.