Ely - Saving dinner the vegetarian way: healthy menus, recipes, and shopping lists to keep everyone happy at the table

Although there were countless vegetarian cookbooks available, the young woman instead opted for convenience and ate countless peanut butter sandwiches (natural peanut butter on whole-grain bread, mind you) and drank many a Dos Equis beer (no comment) with her paramour into the wee hours of the night. It was when she put on a hefty fifteen pounds that she decided being a vegetarian wasnt for her. Fast forward to the twenty-first century. While I havent become a full-fledged vegetarian twenty-plus years later, I do understand that the weight gain I experienced back then had to do with the robust nightly peanut butter sandwiches (yes, plural) and beers (also plural). And though my eating persuasion has stayed a more omnivorous course up to this point, I do recognize the value of eating vegetarian. Vegetarianism used to be a 1970s tofu-Birkenstock-hippie experience that one eventually outgrew, as maturity and a more conventional life came into being.

At least, that was the old way of looking at things. But things have changed enormously in the last thirty-plus years. With as many as twenty-five million Americans calling themselves vegetarians, vegetarianism has gone mainstream, big time. The number of people becoming and staying vegetarian continues to grow, for a variety of reasons. From health concerns over Mad Cow disease, to ethical concerns about the way stock animals are raised, to the antibiotics, growth hormones, and the other stuff that goes into producing meat all have contributed to a changed mind-set about going veggie. No longer is vegetarianism associated with a quirky group of fringe folk.

Todays vegetarians are the more ordinary people you meet every day, from all walks of life, choosing to live meatless: the family down the street, your doctor, the gal checking your groceries at the supermarket, and your babysitter, perhaps. Regardless of ones affiliation with or without meat, the interest in vegetarian cooking, even part-time vegetarianism, and the demand from my readers are what propelled this book into being. Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way is for all who are curious about how to cook veggie, who are trying to figure out ways to bring a family members newfound vegetarianism to the dinner table, and who want a less meat-centered way of eating. Vegetarianism, no matter how you define itlacto (milk products allowed), ovo (eggs a-ok), lacto-ovo (yes to both), vegan (ix-nay on all animal products and for some this also means honey from bees)offers an amazing array of delicious foods from every cultural and ethnic persuasion. And, as great fortune would have it, many of these fine dishes are quick and easy to prepare and do not require a trip to an obscure ethnic market or a day off from life to cook supper. This is easy, doable food for your busy family, done in the Saving Dinner tradition of offering you a balanced six-day weekly menu with different recipes, the itemized shopping list, and suggested side dishes.

Seeing families get back to the family dinner table has long been a passion of mine, and for many families, going vegetarian is a viable option, either part- or full-time. Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way will certainly give you the tools to do it, plus keep your dinnertime engaging and its participants happy when the meal comes around, and thats what this book is truly all about.