If 10,000 people prepare a vegetarian meal for their family once a week, in a year we’ll save enough water to fill 2,423 Olympic-size swimming pools.

Why?

Because one pound of grain uses less than 1% of the water needed to produce a pound of beef.

Think about cutting back just a couple times a week on the meat you eat, multiply that by the number of people at your dinner table, and think of the change you could make! Some meat free dinner ideas: spinach lasagna, Thai peanut noodles, pancake night, pasta primavera, veggie avocado wraps, burritos stuffed with cheese, beans and salsa, baked potatoes filled with veggies and sour cream, matzo ball soup…

Statistics from idealbite.com.

Here is some interesting information about substituting sugar when baking with a natural sweetener from Sparkpeople.com:

Honey, made by bees from the nectar of flowers, is a ready-made sweetener that contains traces of nutrients.

Cooking notes: To replace 1 cup sugar with honey in baked goods, use about 3/4 cup of honey and lower the oven temperature 25 degrees and reduce liquids by about 2 Tablespoons for each cup of honey.

Maple syrup comes from the sap of maple trees, which is collected, filtered, and boiled down to an extremely sweet syrup with a distinctive flavor. It contains fewer calories and a higher concentration of minerals (like manganese and zinc) than honey. Don’t be fooled by ”Maple-flavored syrups” which are imitations of real maple syrup and contain many artificial ingredients. To easily tell the difference, read the ingredients list on the nutrition label. True maple syrup contains nothing but “maple syrup.”

Cooking notes: To replace 1 cup sugar with maple syrup in baking, use about 3/4 cup of maple syrup and lower the oven temperature 25 degrees and reduce liquids by about 2 Tablespoons for each cup of maple syrup.

The MessyMom at OneMessyKitchen is a real choc-oholic. Her favorite dessert is chocolate cake with chocolate filling and chocolate icing with chocolate shavings and a side of chocolate mousse. You get the idea!

But since we try to be somewhat HEALTHY, that’s not a dessert we actually make.

Sparkpeople.com has a great article to help you figure out which chocolate isn’t SOOO bad for you.

MessyMom’s new favorite is the Endangered Species supreme dark chocolate (72%) chimpanzee bar, sweetened with beet juice instead of sugar. It is made with all-natural, ethically traded supreme dark chocolate that is O-U kosher. On the inside of the label you can learn about chimpanzees as well as conservation tips.