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bittman has a how to cook everything vegetarian book.
i'd probably start there.

One further thought: if you've got the basics down and are looking to jazz up your vegetarian meals, it might be a good idea to start mastering a new cuisine or two. Grab an Indian cookbook, for instance, or look around for recipes on the web from different ethnic cuisines than you usually cook. That way, you'll be adding so much newness to your cooking that you won't miss what you're leaving behind!

If you're working in more veg meals for health reasons, you want to avoid the cream-cheese-egg vegetarianism and go for healthier fare. With that in mind, I like all of these:

Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites (Uses less dairy and cheese than some of the other Moosewood books).

Veganomicon (it's supposed to be the Joy of Cooking of Vegan Cookbooks. A huge variety of recipes ranging from moussaka to enchiladas to baked goods, I've liked almost everything I've made. Unlike some veg cookbooks, the recipes are relatively simple and use whole, widely available ingredients [for example, the baked goods usually call for canola and flax seeds instead of margarine or commercial egg replacer]).

Vegan with a Vengeance (a slim, easy-to-use but versatile cookbook that gives you a solid repertoire of veg meals. I highly recommend the spanokopita, which uses walnuts instead of cheese).

Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian (tasty, you might want to reduce the oil in some of the recipes).

Yellow Rose Recipes (specifically focuses on healthy vegan foods - really cute illustrations and tasty foods to boot).

You should also check out 101cookbooks and Susan V's FatFree Vegan blog.

I agree with Bittman and Moosewood, though I've heard great things about Vegan with a Vengeance, too. Bittman's seriously has everything. I use it all the time. Best of luck! Learning to cook without meat, was tough for me, but definitely worth it!

I echo what they said.

Also, remember that in some cases you can modify recipes to make them meatless. If it's not meat-based (say, a steak or a piece of chicken) you can often just make the recipe without the meat with good results.

Another tip: Mushrooms are a good meat substitute when you need a meaty texture. One of my favourite chili recipes uses a cup of sliced mushrooms, in any variety. I buy trays with multiple varieties (usually oyster, crimini and shiitake, I think)

Going vegetarian will save you money.

I'm not vegetarian anymore, but for the sake of health and variety, I try to make at least three vegetarian meals per week. My favorite vegetarian cookbook is "the Best Ever Vegetarian" (ISBN: 1405416904). It's great if you're watching what you eat because each recipe has the nutritional information per serving.

It offers some hearty winter recipes like Vegetarian Moussaka and also light summer dishes. Many recipes in this book use beans and mushrooms (but thankfully not tofu) to create satisfying meat substitution dishes like the Kidney Bean Kiev which is delicious and high in fiber, protein and vitamins. The Bean Burger recipe is also great. The Tomato Onion Bake with Eggs is also fantastic. I might have to make that tonight!

Good luck!

Vegetarian 5-ingredient Gourmet by Nava Altas is the best! And this is great if you are a novice cook. There's only 5 ingredients in every recipe and most of the ingredients will already be in your pantry. My copy has tons of bookmarked and dog-earred pages.

Crescent Dragonwagon's "Passionate Vegetarian" is loaded with a great variety of recipes (over 1,000 pages), almost all of which are easy to prepare. It's also loaded with good suggestions, including lots of advice and anecdotes about moving away from a carnivorous diet toward a healthier veggie lifestyle. The "passionate" in the title is very appropriate, and it's got a very thorough and global mix of recipes.

I also second the Moosewood recommendations, esp. Sundays at Moosewood, and the early ones written by Mollie Katzen.

I loooove Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Suppers. Great pictures, lots of interesting recipes, several have become dinner staples for us. In fact, the only complaint I have is that I used the book so much it totally fell apart. I need a new one!

Madison's books are great, and I would also recommend Didi Emmons' books very highly. Since you're on a budget, I would urge you to browse around in the veg. section of the library, and look at a few blogs. 101 Cookbooks is great, and would help you with the most confusing part of the shift: how to plan meals that used to be organized around meat. It can take a while for that shift to happen, to not feel like there's a gap on your plate. (I made this shift for other reasons 15 years ago & was surprised by the way all the factors the doctors track have improved. This year my doctor said "your blood work is perfect." )

I actually find Moosewood recipes kind of bland - same with Molly Katzen. But I LOVE Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian; it's my all time favorite cookbook. Jaffrey's really good with salt and spices: the recipes always seem to be perfectly seasoned. Some of the recipes are more complicated and involve many ingredients, but most of them are fairly simple and fit into a small budget. I definitely recommend this book.

I'm a big fan of Molly Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook - I don't find her stuff bland. I was practically raised on her stuff. The crunchy top peach pie is especially good.

I vote for Bittman, Madison and Moosewood.

Bittman is great. And Indian cookbooks by Madhur Jaffrey or Maya Kaimal have excellent vegetarian recipes.

I offer Indian Vegetarian cooking classes at
http://www.Indianculinarycenter.com

I like the Claire's Corner Copia cookbook. It's a veg restaurant in New Haven, CT, and I LOVE it there. The recipes are all really easy to put together.
My SIL uses a book called something like The Enchanted Broccoli Forest that always churns out really good food.

Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, blogger of 101Cookbooks. I would call it modern healthy vegetarian. There is information about different grains and other healthy ingredients, as well as information on how to build a healthy pantry. It inspires a lot of new ideas. Check out her website to get a feel for her style.

NOT a veg cookbook, but enough vegetarian recipes prepared in way that I hadn't ever explored to make it worth a long look: Roden, The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. Lentils, spinach, rice, garbanzos, fava, lemons, artichokes, pomegranates in so many fabulous ways. This book has brought so much diversity to my vegetarian cooking. Roden was profiled in the New Yorker a while back, also worth a read.

a year in a vegetarian kitchen, it goes by seasons, love it