Vegetarian Dinner Date

You're going to need a few good vegetarian dishes in your arsenal, because not all women you meet are going to eat meat. This recipe has done well for me in these situations.

Today's recipe will require just a bit more planning on your part, as it requires a grocery trip and an overnight marinade. Today's recipe is Vegetarian Moussaka.

Grocery list: (aprox $20)
1 eggplant
2 potatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
16oz Feta Cheese
4oz Parmesan cheese
2 bottles of greek salad dressing, your choice.
pint of milk
bag of salad mix
pita bread

From your pantry:
Olive oil
1 egg
1 onion
garlic powder
flour
butter
salt and pepper

Prep part 1: (10 mins)
Thinly slice the eggplant and marinate it in 1 bottle of the greek dressing overnight.

Prep part 2, the next day: (20 mins)
Thinly slice the potatoes. Brown in a frying pan with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Set aside.
Dice the onions.
Fry the onions in a tablespoon of butter, add a teaspoon of garlic powder, and a 1/4 cup of the marinade that the eggplant has been resting in. When the onions brown, pour in your can of of tomatoes. Add a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. If you've got some oregano, a couple of dashes is a nice touch. Now, if for some reason she's NOT a vegetarian, a half pound of ground beef goes very nicely in this mixture. Just brown it with the onions at the start of this segment.

Put a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in the bottom of a casserole dish, and use a paper towel to coat the dish evenly.

Now, in your casserole dish, layer eggplant, then some of the onion & tomato mixture, then feta, then potatoes, then feta, and repeat until you're out of ingredients. Sort of like a lasagna, with eggplant for the noodles. You want your top layer to be eggplant.

Bake covered (aluminum foil will work if your dish doesn't have a cover) for a half hour at 350 degrees.

While that's baking, combine 2 tablespoons of butter, a cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of flour, and a tablespoon of garlic powder. Whisk or stir briskly over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Now beat in one egg, stirring until it's one consistency.

Pour this sauce over your casserole, and top with the Parmesan cheese. Continue baking for another 30 minutes. Remove the cover, or foil, 15 minutes before finish.

Serve just like a lasagna, with a small salad on the side, and a piece of pita bread, cut into 4 wedges. The extra bottle of dressing is for your salad.

This meal takes over an hour with prep time, but it's delicious and sure to impress the non-meat eater you want to meet your meat. It's not hard, despite the many steps, and is pretty much impossible to screw up.

I suppose if you're having a vegetarian over, you might also want to have some marijuana and a dessert ready. Check your local laws to see if that's acceptable or not. This is a pretty heavy meal, so strawberries and whipped cream might be the ideal dessert. It's an awfully sensual one as well.

Drink suggestion: Red wine. After dinner shots of Ouzo.