Hey V.! How have you been??? As you know, Star and I are vegetarians. I can't say that I have a particular cook book that I run to, but it really is so easy. We eat a lot of mexican meals...like black bean quesidillas, enchiladas, tacos with soy crumbles, etc. We also do a lot of pasta. I imagine you have used faux meat in your cooking already, but for suggestion, we love boca crumbles for our ground "beef", and the BEST "chicken" is from Quorn ( available in Whole Foods, and even some Publix stores). I think it really tastes like chicken, and they make a whole breast. They do have breaded varieties, but I love just the plain, non-breaded breast. You can substitute it in any chicken recipe. Something else that we all love, when we want an easy dinner, are the morning star farms "hot dogs". I saute them until they are thawed, and a little golden, then cut them up, put them back in the pan and saute vegetarian baked beans with them. It's not gourmet...but Star loves it. I just bought, but have not read, a book called Quantum Wellness by Kathy Freston. It got a lot of attention when Oprah did the 21 day vegan cleanse. I read about it in a few magazines, and thought it looked interesting. The author is Vegan, and it talks about why that is such a healthy choice, on many levels, and then she includes a bunch of recipes. The recipes look good, I will let you know how that goes. I don't want to go totally vegan, but I would like to take a step closer in that direction. Good luck!
In response to the parent who does not think that a vegan diet can offer proper nutrition...that is absolutely not true. A diet filled with whole grains, fresh produce, soy meat substitutes, tofu and rice milk is extremely healthy. Vegetarians have a 40% lower cancer rate in comparison to meat eaters, according to The Cancer Project. http://www.cancerproject.org/diet_cancer/facts/meat.php You can also go on the above site to find a link to vegan recipes.
