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My dad gave me a subscription to Woman’s World last year and one of the features I like about it is their menu planning calendars. They’re usually in the back after the recipes. (Though I haven’t seen one of those calendars in a while, come to think of it.)

Anyway, they seem to have theme dinner days. Like Meatless Mondays or Fish Fridays.

I know I need to eat more veggies. I’m HORRIBLE about it.

It’s not that I don’t like veggies. The ones I know how to make I like just fine.

But that’s the trouble. I don’t really know how to fix a lot of veggies, aside from eating them raw, steaming or sauteing them. And to do it the way I know how only makes for a good salad or side dish, not a main course. (Unless I want to make a whole bunch of veggie side dishes and eat them as a main course. I could always do that. Smorgasbord veggies…hmm, it’s a thought.)

And sometimes we do have salad nights. Chef salad. Pasta salad. You get the idea.

But the other day when we went to the Indian buffet I realized there are a lot of items there I like that are vegetarian. Ones I could easily eat as a main course by themselves.

“Maybe you need to make Meatless Mondays more fun. Like trying new recipes and stuff. Somehow inspire yourself by making it a game,” I thought.

It was the inkling of my idea. Which caught fire after I watched the inspiring in more ways than one Julie & Julia….ah, that totally delighted my inner chef.

If you saw it, you know the scene where she fries up slices of bread then tops them with incredible chopped veggies? That looked absolutely scrumptious! I’ve been craving it ever since.

Not that it would make an entire meal, but it got me thinking how that’d be a nice way to add in more veggies. Tasty and healthy and something different. All while experimenting too!

So, I decided last night when I made sliced tomatoes topped with mozzarella and basil leaves drizzled with a balsamic glaze (ORGASMIC!) for my salad, that I’d do like Julie did: use my blog to help me cook.

Although this idea of mine isn’t as grandiose as cooking my way through anyone’s cookbook. I just hope it’ll help make it more fun to see what recipes Wayne and I end up loving enough to make Meatless Mondays a tradition we might carry through to other nights of the week too.