The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat and meat products. That makes these weeks a time to break out all of your best meatless recipes! I’ve started making a list of some of the simple vegetarian meals that I can make.

Besides “it’s the rule,” there are lots of good reasons to go meatless at least one day a week:

• Eating less meat unites us with the poor in our communities and around the world for whom healthy, protein-rich meals are, at best, an occasional event.
• Eating less meat can be healthier is we replace the meat with healthy, plant-based proteins, healthy grains, and fruits and vegetables. (It’s hard to claim that macaroni and cheese or cheese pizza are healthy.)
• Eating less meat is easier on the environment. Raising animals for meat requires large amounts of land and water. It creates significant amounts of pollution. And much factory farming fails to respect the dignity of the workers and the animals they raise.

So, even if your faith tradition doesn’t ask you to abstain, you might want to give it a try.