Sometimes just thinking about what to prepare for a meal, or even a snack, can be overwhelming. But before ordering out (again), why not choose to simplify your menu?
Start Simple: Eleven Everyday Ingredients for Countless Weeknight Meals, by Lukas Volger, is a source of inspiration for ways to use winter squash, tofu, hearty greens, beans (canned or dried), sweet potatoes, eggs, mushrooms, tortillas, cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli, and summer squash. Recipes include butternut squash frittata, baked squash risotto, ginger-scallion stuffed tofu, white bean and carrot burgers, and winter white bean salad with grapefruit.
I always try to have on hand sweet potatoes and eggs. Volger gave me two new ideas on ways to enjoy both.
I didn’t necessarily follow his recipe for Cold Sweet Potatoes with Spiced Seeds and Yogurt, but he did inspire me to reimagine it. His recipe calls for cooking, then chilling, cubed sweet potato and serving it over yogurt, adding a spiced seed mixture. Instead, for an at-work lunch at the library, I topped a reheated, roasted sweet potato with Greek yogurt and walnuts.
He also offers simple ideas to dress up hard-boiled eggs. I chose to enjoy his recipe for seed-slicked eggs by simply rubbing the halved eggs with bagel seasoning. Other toppings he suggests for hard-boiled eggs include olive oil with salt and pepper, soy sauce and ginger, and a tahini-yogurt sauce.
Start Simple: Eleven Everyday Ingredients for Countless Weeknight Meals is available for request here or by calling Whitehall Public Library at 412-882-6622.
