we are a vegetarian family- if you're not vegan it's crazy easy and if you are vegan it's still not hard. My brother is vegan and looks like a body builder. I'm not a huge fan of the moosewood books (sorry mal) i own 4 of them, but i find their food slightly bland- since i live in so cal i'm used to exotic and spicy. I recommend the Native Foods Restaurant Cookbook and then just find ethnic foods you like and buy the veggie version cookbook.
I really recommend just finding which ethnic foods you like and then start making the vege versions it's really easy to cook vegetarian
Italian
Greek
Persian
Japanese
Thai
Mexican
here are some typical things we make for each meal.
Breakfast:
Cereal
Oatmeal
Scrambled Eggs with spinach and beans you can toss it into a tortilla and cover with salsa or enchillada sauce
Egg Stratas with noodles, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes and parmesan cheese.
Pancakes
French toast
If you're really craving bacon or sausage you can buy the morningstar products (they have a bunch of crap in them, but they taste the most like meat)
Personally I like to add soyrizo (it's like chorizo) to my eggs.
Lunch:
Sandwiches- there's so many it's ridiculous. Go beyond the sprouts and avocado- try hummus or babaganouj: i like to melt parmesan cheese on a pan until it's crispy and then make a PLT with it- it has that smoky bacon taste. Or make a sandwich on crusty bread with cooked yam, sheep cheese and watercress.
Make a taco salad and use beans.
Make a blackened mushroom torta.
Make soup- split pea, potato, miso
For dinner we like
egg sandwiches
lasagna
enchilada pie
shepards pie
vegetarian pot pie (you get the drift- i like pie)
pasta with white or red sauce
pasta with a thai peanut sauce
spanikopita
falafel
PIZZA
bread salad with kalamata olives, feta cheese, thin purple onions and a vanilla balsamic dressing
veggie corn dogs and chips
CHILLI (i love adding corn)
When we are eating something really good we'll look at each other and say "what can you eat if you can't eat meat?" (we hear it all the time)
just remember it's EASY-
ps- meat still tastes damn good and you'll NEVER find a substitute for bacon, steak or bbq chicken.
