9.26.2009

Seeking Veggie Variety. Meat Need Not Apply.

After I stopped eating meat I found myself eating zucchini, summer squash, portabello mushrooms and asparagus a lot. I'd sauté some or all of these lovely veggies and toss the colorful collection with angel hair or linguine and a fresh balsamic vinaigrette.

But what happens after you start getting sick of tossed asparagus? As much as I love my vinaigrette it seemed as though it was becoming as commonplace as, dare I say, ketchup. I need a variety of dishes that I can prepare and enjoy. Seeing as how meat is no longer appealing I can see myself stuck eating the same thing over and over and over again. Problem is, I'm not "natural" cook like some folks I know. I can't toss a random assortment of ingredients together and proclaim Voilà! I'm lucky that I can cook pasta al dente.

God bless the library. Do you have any idea of the sheer number of cookbooks that they have? While I look for vegetarian cookbooks my eyes glaze over the spines of such books as:
  • High Fiber, High Flavor: More Than 180 Recipes for Good Health
(I'm not looking to get that intimate with my diet)
  • A Taste of Murder: Diabolically Delicious Recipes From Contemporary Mystery Writers
(Should I be worried that these dishes will do me in?)
  • Beer-can Chicken and 74 Other Offbeat Recipes For The Grill
(Beer. Can. Chicken. Seriously?)
  • Cookies to die for!
(Lead me not into temptation...)

I finally run across a couple of vegetarian cookbooks that I like and pull them from the shelves. They had pictures. I gotta have the pictures. If there aren't any pictures how the hell am I suppose to know what the meal is supposed to look like?

With cookbooks finally in hand the next order of business will be deciding which I will try first: the Spaghetti with Black Olive and Mushroom Sauce or the Honey-roasted Eggplant with Sesame and Hummus in Pita Bread?

Decisions, decisions. Wish me luck.

4 comments:

Katy said...

I'm pretty sure the woman who writes the blog 101 Cookbooks is a vegetarian. I bet there are some other great blogs out there on the topic as well.

Elizabeth said...

Oooh, thanks for the tip Katy!

White Hot Magik said...

Is the murder cookbook vegetarian? Just seems non congruent. Do share your favorite recipes...

Unknown said...

No more meat? But what are the guys gonna do that grow all those cows?