Reddit reviews The New Moosewood Cookbook (Mollie Katzen's Classic Cooking)

Any of the Moosewood Cookbooks are awesome picks. They were all copies that were originally hand written/drawn and look awesome inside, and from what I remember the recipes were all vegetarian.

Mollie Katzen's The New Moosewood Cookbook. Great little pictures of ingredients/recipes.

The Joy of Cooking. It's got a great baseline of knowledge and can provide a good context when you start cooking.

The Mennonite cookbook More with Less. This one will broaden your horizons and you'll find yourself cooking outside of your typical cuisines.

You could go with the Moosewood Cookbook (which is mostly veg). here's the wiki page on it.

Other than that, he needs to learn technique, like shinerhead said. A pan seared chicken breast served over a salad doesn't sound hard, but making it taste good does. he'll have to learn about nutrition too. Maybe you could get him Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking too. Along with Alton Brown, it's gotten me the most interested in food.

Check out your library or more nefarious channels to get a copy of Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook. Not all is vegan, but vegetarian.
Her recipes are fantastic and stress fresh ingredients.

Moosewood Cookbook

I highly recommend the Moosewood Cookbook. There are a lot of very easy, very delicious recipes in there, all of which are vegetarian.

No, the original Mollie Katzen one.

Well, it's not really a cookbook per se, but it's definitely for food geeks:
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee.

Otherwise, how about the New Moosewood Cookbook. I found a copy of it used and it's pretty easy, affordable, tested, with delicious recipes.

Don't force yourself into any diet. Start just being healthy, exercising, meditating, etc. and slowly eat less meat. Don't go cold turkey (unintentional pun ^_^ ) and be open to trying different fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, etc. Eat organic, when affordable, and get a good cookbook for food ideas.
The more your body purifies itself, the less you'll have these cravings and eventually (probably sooner than later) you'll get to a point where you have no desire for meat.
The vegan or vegetarian lifestyles can be healthy...if they are done right. The problem is people like to take shortcuts and you just can not afford to do that with your health. I've seen "vegetarians" survive on grilled cheese sandwiches, fried in butter. What sense does that make? First of all, no nutrition and it is fattening. Secondly - rennet aka cow stomach mucosa is used in the cheese making process.
It's too hard to draw lines. Look for good, whole supplements (highly recommend this, takes care of all bases)....but you're right: they should never replace food, they should just complement it.

This book is awesome --> http://www.amazon.com/Moosewood-Cookbook-Katzens-Classic-Cooking/dp/1580081304/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398378500&sr=8-2&keywords=moosewood+cookbook