I'm enjoying reading this thread. We also have dinners of grill, sweet potato and veggie, which I like. Something that's fun and easy for me is to add little treat items. I got some single serve cups of guacamole from BJ's which are yummy on sweet potatoes or black beans. Sometimes I make my own pesto just out of basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and salt. That's good on everything. I like Daiya nondairy cheese melted onto things. Sometimes I do overkill and put all three treats on my dinner together, YUM!

I think it's because I'm a "one bowl" person--if I find things that sort of "glue" the dinner all together, the better it gets in my opinion, even if it's all on a plate.

: *a female Mourning Dove sitting on a

: nest on our fire escape at work
: *watching our dogs play

: We have fallen into a bit of a rut
: with food at my house. Meat cooked
: on the grill, brown rice or sweet
: potato, and vegetable for dinner.
: It's functional food, but not very
: exciting. I've been trying to
: improve meal timing on weekends.
: My husband is the one who grills
: meat, and he and I are not on the
: same page on meal timings, so
: weekend dinners are often later.
: So I've been planning weekend
: dinners that I cook, so the food
: will be ready when I need it, and
: he can eat when he is ready. That
: has led to thinking about more
: creative meals in general.

: Last weekend I made pasta with meat
: sauce, and bison chili. Last night
: I made chicken stir fry. I also
: have a meal in mind using Indian
: seasonings for tonight or tomorrow
: night. Thinking about more
: creative food has started some
: energy flowing. Yesterday I went
: to the grocery store on my lunch
: break and bought lots of veggies.
: I bought a bunch of beets and I am
: looking forward to eating the
: greens as well. I also bought 2
: artichokes that were reduced for
: quick sale. I doubt my husband
: will go for those, but I enjoy
: them. I used to buy them a lot
: when I lived in Massachusetts
: because there was a wonderful
: produce place near where I lived
: that had very reasonably priced
: fruits and veggies. I used to buy
: all sorts of produce.

: Maybe this weekend I will even open
: one of my cookbooks and find
: something new to make. I was
: thinking that I don't have the
: time or energy to do more cooking,
: but I think maybe this is one of
: those situations where making that
: first step of doing something I
: didn't feel that I have time or
: energy for may create the energy.
: We will see.
: Allison