I finally realized I was choosing very bland American vegetarian cookbooks and magazines almost exclusively, and for no reason whatsoever, because I really dislike that style of food (including its fake Mexican). I never choose such sources for our non-vegetarian dinners -- I always go for main courses full of fresh herbs and fascinating-to-me approaches, and am willing to take more time making a meal that turns out delicious to me. I've said before on this site how recipes that call for, say, 1/4 teaspoon of a dried herb or for watered-down garlic horrify me, though at the same time I am very turned off by a recipe that calls for unnecessary steps as if the cook did not know what they were doing.
For some reason I was only finding such sources, however, until I tacked on gourmet to a search for better ones. I found a couple by actual chefs. The first thing I made was from this cookbook whose author I recognized from her first cookbook which I had long loved:
carrot-green onion-cilantro-ground coriander patties
some browned halloumi cheese
arugula
all topped with an extremely tasty lemon dressing,
and served with a whole grain on the side.
She has gorgeous pictures on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alicehartcooks .
I'll also be trying Café Paradiso Seasons: Vegetarian Cooking Season-by-Season from Denis Cotter; you can see some of his recipes at his official site, http://www.deniscotter.com/...I also finally got a subscription to Jamie magazine -- his are definitely my #1 favorite recipes in the world, and are full of vegetables and include vegetarian...
More recently I also found some promising vegan magazines -- I'm not vegan, but I was looking for delicious vegetarian dinner recipes that did not feature cheese. The promising magazines are from the UK, whose food magazines I have for years found more balanced in their approach to food -- not preachy, but also not saying "here's a whole dinner for very few calories and very few pennies" when of course it was low in calories and didn't cost a huge amount, it had just a few leaves or something, almost no protein, no satisfying grains, etc. I was going to source them from my favorite UK magazine source, http://www.newsstand.co.uk/ , but my local Whole Foods actually had them in stock so I got my copies there. I'll be trying them asap as well...
Now I'm also hoping to find additional vegetarian daily menus I find inspiring even if I don't use them many days -- if I have an addiction, it definitely is to menus! I have collected many historical vegetarian menus...when I try them and like them, I'll share them! (In fairness to USA, I found what I tried in the UK vegetarian cookbook Meat-Free Monday Cookbook bland, though I adore that it has full menus for every week of the year and am keeping it for those, as well as probably trying more recipes...)