As a vegetarian who regularly dines out in non-vegetarian restaurants, I've mastered the art of creatively composing meals from non-traditional areas of the menu. By that I mean rather than going the appetizer-entree route - which is often difficult, as many restaurants offer limited or no vegetarian entree selections - I stray to the outer corners of the menu to find the building blocks of my meal.

Take a recent excursion to Mario Batali's Otto, for example. Otto is a fantastic casual pizzeria-enoteca in Manhattan's West Village; it's often packed with diners seeking the trademark pizza, delightful pastas, and sumptuous gelato (sometimes purported to be the best in the city). The menu offers several vegetarian selections, including a large list of salads, pastas, and veggie-topped pizzas. But rather than make my selection from those offerings, I stuck entirely to the realm of vegetable antipasto, ordering a melange of three veggies (vin cotto-glazed Brussels sprouts, broccoli with pecorino, and roasted mushrooms). For much less than the cost of a salad and pasta or pizza, I enjoyed a large and quite filling amount of food and got to taste several different dishes in small-bite format. It was a spectacular and memorable meal.

While Otto, or really any Italian or tapas restaurant, is particularly well suited to this dining strategy, it can work in almost any restaurant. Consider ordering two or three vegetable sides as your meal, or order two salads as an appetizer or entree. Don't feel you necessarily have to follow the "traditional" meal progression, something that's often difficult and confining for a vegetarian. If you look, can find delicious and often low-cost vegetarian gems hiding on the outskirts of the menu.