vegetarian dinner ideas

Polenta & Vegetable Bake

Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium eggplant, diced (or Portabella Mushroom)
• 1 small zucchini, finely diced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 Crushed Red Pepper
• 1/2 Vegetable Stock
• 10 ounces baby spinach
• 1 1/2 cups prepared marinara sauce, preferably lower-sodium
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 14 ounces prepared polenta, sliced lengthwise into 6 thin slices
• 1 1/2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella, divided

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 450 degree F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add eggplant, zucchini, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and just beginning to brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Add water and spinach; cover and cook until wilted, stirring once, about 3 minutes. Stir marinara sauce into the vegetables and heat through, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in basil.
3. Place polenta slices in a single layer in the prepared baking dish, trimming to fit if necessary. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup cheese, top with the eggplant mixture and sprinkle with the remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake until bubbling and the cheese has just melted, 12 to 15 minutes. Let stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition
Per serving: 215 calories; 8 g fat ( 3 g sat , 4 g mono ); 14 mg cholesterol; 27 g carbohydrates; 9 g protein; 6 g fiber; 667 mg sodium; 187 mg potassium.

I love sweet red Yams!! Low calorie, low on sugar, VERY HIGH in vitamins! Bake in the oven or in the microwave (fork it after you wash it, and wrap it in wet paper towel, nuke on high for 3 min per side or until desired doneness) serve with a tbs real butter ( or if you don't do dairy, you can use margarine)

I like to eat mine with a nice salad or sometimes I'll get the Morning star brand Italian chick'n patties (fake meat). they're pretty tasty, i guess.

Check out 101cookbooks.com, it's a natural foods/vegetarian site with all sorts of vegetarian recipes (with beautiful pictures). I have found some absolutely amazing recipes there.

Another good website is epicurious.com, huge collection of recipes from everywhere. You can search by all sorts of paramters, including vegetarian.

Also, check out foodgawker.com and search by vegetarian. There are some amazing links to recipes all over the web. I am in love with this site.

My best advice is to spend some time online browsing recipes, bookmark them and come back to the ones you want to make.

Hola! Always great to see another vegetarian on MFP.

As stigmas are corrected and more and our society learns more about the atrocious "farming" practices in the U.S., vegetarianism is a hugely growing practice. Your options are practically endless. Remember that you can make just about any recipe you find with meat by using meat substitutes. I'm particularly fond of Quorn products which are mushroom-based, but there are quite a few out there and more all the time.

Are you familiar with Field Roast? If not, check them out, they have a LOT of delicious options: http://www.fieldroast.com/ Their website has many recipe ideas.

And here's a great recipe idea using Field Roast, tofu and sweet potatoes: http://the-dairy-free-diva-recipe-exchange.yumsugar.com/Field-Roast-Sweet-Potato-Breakfast-Casserole-15420050

Anything with quinoa is great as a source of protein and iron.

Some of my favorite sites are:

Allrecipes' vegetarian section: http://allrecipes.com//Recipes/everyday-cooking/vegetarian/Main.aspx

Vegetarian Times recipe section: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/

Food.com's vegetarian section (huuuuge!): http://www.food.com/recipes/vegetarian

VegKitchen: http://www.vegkitchen.com/

You can hit "random" or "Surprise me" on some sites, or try the recipe of the day/week on others to change it up.

www.vegetariantimes.com is an excellent site. I have lots of vegetarian recipe books. I buy most of mine at Barnes and noble. :bigsmile:

I see now that someone had beat me to it. lol, and has some sites I haven't played on. Coolness!