April 22 is Earth Day and I want to urge all my readers to think about caring for ourselves and the planet everyday not just Earth Day.  I started about 2 months ago doing one day a week vegetarian. It was for personal reasons but I soon realized that if I am going to do this blog and see my vision through I would need to be open about everything including the idea of eating vegetarian. This post Vegetarian for a Day  Mushroom Stroganoff Recipe is my first effort into sharing my living a day a week as a vegetarian.

As you probably have garnered by reading my blog I am a lover of all things meat, a self confirmed carnivore. I eat meat everyday in one form or another.  Beef, pork, chicken I love it all. So you may ask….

Why??

Short version of a long story.  I want to make a difference in the earths future and my future.  Eating one day a week vegetarian is one way I can actively cut my carbon footprint, possibly live a longer and healthier life.

For a large part of my life I  was an active participant in food chain logistics. I know where our food comes from and the path it takes from producer to table. I know what happens when there is a hiccup in that food chain. weather, economics, politics they all effect everything from availability to the cost of our food.

We humans have a great way of forgetting things we may have once known. I had filed all my knowledge on this subject away in my brain somewhere it just was not something I needed to use on a regular basis until one day I was surfing and stumbled on Years of Living Dangerously. Binging on all the episodes I  discovered I needed to care about the planet far more than I had been. I also had a great platform in Tripping Vittles to help other people care also.

Vegetarian for a day What does that mean??

I am sure some of you have heard of Meatless Mondays is not a new idea its roots can be traced back to WWI and the “food will win the war” slogans.  It made a comeback in WWII and again in 2003 but this time  around it was about making the campaign helpful in saving the planet.   Vegetarian for a day is Tripping Vittles version of Meatless Mondays.  I have no intention of becoming a health food blog or a vegetarian recipe hub. That said I am trying to go vegetarian at least one day a week in my personal life and I would appeal to  you all to do the same.

To help myself and my readers once a month or so I will share a great vegetarian recipe with you.   My hope is to introduce you to some people who do the vegetarian lifestyle and what they cook.  In addition bringing to you people who are helping make our food supply more sustainable and healthier for  humans, animals and the environment.

Three reasons its good to go vegetarian for a day

1. One meatless Meal can save nearly 133 gallons of water
2. You could save 416 pounds of CO2 per year by just eating one meatless meal a week
3. We each can save up to 24 square feet a meatless meal of land lost to deforestation,overgrazing pesticide and fertilizer pollution.*

Vegetarian for a day The Recipe.

I choose the Mushroom Stroganoff recipe to start with for a few reasons. The first being beef stroganoff has been a lifelong favorite of mine. What better way to test a vegetarian recipe then against its meat filled counter part my taste buds needed to answer the question does this stand up against the heartiness of beef stroganoff?  Will it be able to comfort me like its meaty counter part. I found the answer to be yes.  The second reason being I love mushrooms. All kinds of mushrooms,  you will soon see that mushrooms make a great meat substitute maybe one of the best so this recipe seemed a great place to start.

Vegetarian for a Day Mushroom Stroganoff Recipe

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• Author: trippingvittles
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x

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Description

A wonderful vegetarian version of Beef Stroganoff made with mushrooms, onions and garlic.  You may not go back to the meat version after you try this.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 small onion minced
• 2 cloves garlic minced or crushed. Easy to peel and crush garlic press
• 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon Paprika
• 8oz white sliced mushrooms
• 8oz sliced baby portobello mushrooms
• 24oz vegetable broth
• 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce, Louisiana hot sauce is my favorite.
• 1/2 teaspoon worcestershire  sauce
• wondra flour for thickening Wondra Flour
• 1 cup sour cream
• Medium or Wide Egg Noodles My favorite noodles Mrs Millers
• Salt and fine pepper to taste

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Instructions

Add the olive oil to a hot pan.

Toss in the onion and garlic sauté until soft.

On medium heat add the mushrooms and sprinkle with the paprika cover and sweat the mushroom, garlic onion mixture for about 5 min. until soft.

Add the  vegetable broth, hot sauce and worcestershire sauce. Simmer covered for 20 min.

Thicken with Wonder Flour to liking.(I prefer mine beef stew thick) season with salt and pepper to taste

Remove from burner add 1 cup sour cream

Serve over egg noodles.

Notes

This is an easy recipe and you can tinker with it to your liking.  Thicker, thinner  or over rice instead of noodles. Make it your own. Enjoy.

• Prep Time: 15 min
• Cook Time: 20 min
• Category: Main Course

*Taken from Environmental fact sheet http://cok.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/MM-Environment-Fact-Sheet.pdf