Hollywood, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/14/2012 -- LivePlate helps promote Meatless Monday by offering families free online cooking classes and lots of easy recipes. Many families, organizations, and schools are supporting Meatless Monday as a way to improve their health by eating meals made with nutritious whole grains, vegetables, and dairy products. The Humane Society of the United States is now promoting Meatless Mondays as a way to improve the lives of farm animals, especially those in factory farms, by reducing demand for meat.

But for Judy Mowrey’s family, Meatless Monday helps stretch the family grocery budget. “We are on a fixed income, and meat is definitely expensive,” commented Judy. “I enjoy making healthy vegetable omelets or pasta dishes on Mondays.”

Pescetarian Journal author Alaiyo Kiasi has hosted several cooking classes online through LivePlate’s interactive platform, including The Joy of Soy, where people cooked with their friends to make soy-based spaghetti and toasted coconut soy shakes. Many vegetarians and pescetarians, who do not eat beef or chicken at all, share recipes on LivePlate’s platform.

Meatless Monday began in 2003, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The “cut out meat one day a week” program is active in 23 countries around the world. Ghent, Belgium became the first city to go meatless in May 2009 and Paul McCartney introduced Meat-Free Mondays to the UK soon after. Since then, Meatless Monday has rapidly expanded into an international movement with a simple message: it’s good for your health and it’s good for the planet.

LivePlate is a cooking site where people cook together socially with live video chat. Anyone can set up a live cookalong just for fun, to meet new people, or to learn new cooking techniques. Professional chefs and food blogger of lead interactive cooking lessons, where people can cook along with their friends while learning the latest recipes, like this one for a Ricotta Frittata with Fresh Tomatoes. “We wanted to support Meatless Monday movement for health, budget, or environmental concerns by making these fun cooking classes available to families online, “ said Andrea Fuentes of LivePlate.

For more information, contact Andrea Fuentes andrea@LivePlate.com or 305 978 6155.