Three Delicious Vegetarian Main Courses

By Owen Jones

Here are three delicious vegetarian main courses:

No. 1: Portabello Mushroom Lasagne

6 Servings

1 pound ground soya 4 vegetarian sausages (mild or hot) 1 medium onion garlic salt to taste pepper to taste 6 large Portabello mushrooms 1 substantial container ricotta cheese 1 egg Plenty of grated mozarella cheese Canned spaghetti sauce (or make your own)

How to Prepare:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees Remove soya sausage meat from skins. Brown soya sausage and minced soya beef with onions, adding garlic salt and pepper to taste. Wash mushrooms and scrape out the black gills.

Beat egg into ricotta cheese. Spread a small quantity of spaghetti sauce in a large baking dish or shallow roasting pan to avoid sticking.

Generously fill each mushroom cap with ricotta mixture and position in the baking dish or roasting pan ricotta side up. Top every cap with a handful of the grated mozarella. Then top each cap with a liberal amount of the soya meat/onion mixture. Top each cap with another handful of mozarella.

Pour spaghetti sauce on top of every cap and in the bottom of the pan. Top with the remaining mozarella cheese.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool for about 10

No. 2

Baked Tomatoes With Proven?ale Stuffing

4 Servings

4 md tomatoes - unpeeled, cored, pulp removed 1 T olive oil 3/4 c onions, chopped 2 cloves garlic, ground 1/2 T fresh parsley, chopped 2 t fresh basil, chopped 1 1/2 t fresh thyme, chopped 1/2 t salt 1/4 t black pepper 3/4 c bread crumbs 1/4 c plus 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Bring the oven to 375F. Core tomatoes and scoop the insides out to leave whole skins.

Heat skillet with oil to medium heat and saute onion and garlic for around 3 minutes. Stir in tomato cores, herbs and seasonings. Saute for around 4 minutes or until the liquid disappears.

Remove from heat and stir in breadcrumbs and a cup measure of the Parmesan cheese. Reserve the rest of the cheese for later.

Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture and sprinkle uniformly with the remaining measure of Parmesan cheese.

Bake for about 15 minutes.

No. 3

Franconia Root Vegetables

6 Servings

6 lb potatoes, peeled 1 1/2 lb small carrots, trimmed and scraped (or substantial carrots, cut carefully in ovals) 1 lb small turnips, peeled, sprout end (or large turnips, trimmed 12 small white onions a little margarine 1 t dried thyme leaves, crumbled Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 1/4 c parsley, chopped 1 large marrow, cored

Drop potatoes into a saucepan of cold, salted water. Over high heat, bring water to a boil, lower heat to medium |and cook potatoes for 12 minutes. Drain, let cool for a few minutes, pat dry, and cut into quarters (or halve horizontally and trim each half into ovals).

Meanwhile, drop carrots, turnips, and onions into boiling salted water to cover. Lower heat to medium, cover, and boil until barely tender (10 to 15 minutes, depending on size). Drain, immediately cool under running water, and set vegetables aside.

About one hour before marrow will be served, position potato quarters in margarine (at least 1/2 cup) and turn them to coat. (If you are allowed you can use a little unsalted butter).

Place in oven (wherever there's room, including the bottom shelf) but roast for 45 minutes, turning each 10 minutes or so to brown all sides evenly. Add carrots, turnips, and onions. Sprinkle with thyme, salt, and pepper.

Continue roasting and turning often until vegetables are tender and evenly browned (about 15 minutes or slightly longer). Using tongs (or a slotted spoon) and draining off excess fat, remove to serving dish and sprinkle with parsley.

About the Author:

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on a number of subjects, but is at present involved with Recipes to Lower Your High Blood Pressure. If you want to know more, go to our web site at Gourmet Recipes and Good Health.

Being A Vegetarian - Pros And Cons

By Owen Jones

If you are thinking about becoming a vegetarian, then you have to be asking yourself about the pros and cons of doing so. There are different methods of looking at this. On the macro or global scale, you as an individual, by giving up eating meat, will personally save the lives and distress of all the animals that you would have eaten, if you had not given up.

On the other hand, a few hundred animals during quite a number of years will not make much difference to the animal population. What is more, with the Chinese and Indian populations becoming richer, it is almost certain that they will be eating more and more meat in the near future. You will be doing your piece though.

However, on the micro, or personal level, becoming a vegetarian will change your life. Those who have faith in detox diets say that lots of the toxins that they say mount up in our bodies come from the hormones, pesticides and antibiotics that are in meat but ought not to be.

Meat, eggs and dairy products are a Westerners foremost sources of cholesterol and fat and cholesterol and fat are blamed for being the main contributor to the West's principal killer - heart disease.

It is a fact that there are other reasons for heart disease, yet it has been worked out that vegetarians have about a quarter of their meat-eating compatriots' chances of having a heart attack. This seems significant, but the difference between vegans and meat-eaters is even more stark at one tenth the chance.

So, it seems to count what kind of vegetarian you become, because lots of vegetarians still eat fish, eggs and cheese and drink milk. However, by giving up meat alone, you will miss out on lots of the chemicals that farmers pump into their meat and poultry.

For example, preservatives are thought to become linked to some cancers; growth hormones given to animals affect our own hormones and many crowd merely cannot digest milk, which causes the production of mucous and can give rise to digestive worries

On the negative side, you will need to learn a whole new system of supplying your body with the nutrients and vitamins that it requires. Meat is a concentrated kind of food and just eating a regular western meat and two vegetables sort of meal without the meat will soon become boring and land you in very hot water.

Malnutrition is the risk that novice vegetarians have to become suspicious of. Obviously, it is not so difficult to be hold of information to help you become your vegetarian diet right as it used to get yet there is a vast choice of foodstuffs available to the modern vegetarian, but they are not all cheap, so cutting out meat will not likely save you any money.

At the end of the day, becoming a vegetarian is a highly personal affair. It is between you and your conscience, and doing the correct thing will make your life more of a problem, as does attempting any lifestyle change, but you will find it simpler as you get into the swing of things.

About the Author:

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on a number of subjects, but is at present involved with Recipes to Lower Your High Blood Pressure. If you want to know more, go to our web site at Gourmet Recipes and Good Health.