veggin' out

Last summer, I decided it would be a good idea to start cutting meat out of my diet for health/moral reasons (health reasons, mainly, because... I did love me some cow). I successfully went full veggie for a solid 3 months until I made my yearly east coast trip. I wasn't going to force my family to cook meatless meals just for me so I decided to give vegetarianism a break for a while. It was actually fairly difficult to get back into meat-eating, I hadn't craved it for months and I didn't like the taste as I used to. Now we're in April of 2013 and I'm ready to give vegetarianism another shot.

As a new vegetarian, I find that the biggest challenge is finding/creating dishes that actually taste good and are interesting to the palate. In this respect, I am greatly appreciative of the internet and all its bounty of tasty recipes. My newest favorite blog is Tasty Yummies. Beth, the blogger, describes herself as a "conscientious omnivore" which means she sometimes eats meat. This makes her blog the perfect transition guide for newbie vegetarians because you can find recipes there for your cheat days if you're not totally convinced yet. In terms of the blog itself, I love the way it's organized by season on the home page and how easy her recipes are (read: I'm incredibly lazy when it comes to making food for myself and I was able to cook up a few things from here in the last couple of days)!

This one's my favorite so far:

^{photo: tasty-yummies}

Warm Lentil Salad - This was also last night's dinner. I think I may have lentil fever... I'm going to make some lentil soup tonight from all the leftover ingredients.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for veggie blogs! I'd love to expand my cookbook database.