All this talk about veggies is fascinating to me! brenda, I loved reading your blog posts, and I think it's fantastic that you've found out what works for you and makes you happy.
When I went fully vegetarian in 2007, I started to get more serious about eating vegetables, but it wasn't until I moved in with Mark that I gave much thought to cooking or to trying new and different veggies. Our most recent discovery is leafy greens, which I always thought I didn't like, until we started sauteing them with garlic or putting them in enchiladas or stewing them with sweet potatoes. Yum! Turns out I just don't like them boiled or bland.
brenda's revelation about starting with veggies when planning a meal struck a chord with me. I hadn't put it into words, but that's how we do it too, and it's been really rewarding (and tasty!). A couple of vegetarian cookbooks that we use a lot are Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and The Passionate Vegetarian by the delightfully named Crescent Dragonwagon.
Hmm, I think we just might have to take a trip to the farmer's market this morning...