Pastiera di Grano

I fell in love with the traditional rice/custard pie produced for Easter in many Italian households.  Particularly filled with candied fruit peel.  This is served room temperature.  Or it can be served cold the next day, but if you heat it the next day in the oven you will find the ricotta and marscapone blend that goes in here (along with eggs) makes the custard like consistency come forward.  And I find the orange and lemon peel stands out more as well.
The one I made I used wheat berries instead of rice--it has a chewier texture that I love.  You can also use spelt berries.

Not the prettiest lattice, mine sunk during baking.  All the same it tasted great!

This can be made 3-5 days ahead.  It keeps incredibly well and the flavors develop more!
I used orange flower water in the dough and the filling--it added a great underlying orange character to the taste.  It can be found at Middle Eastern grocery stores, and sometimes Whole Foods carries it.
I made my own candied citrus peels because I don't like the mass produced corn syrup laden peels.  But whatever makes it work for you-- the rest can come together quick once the grain is cooked.

Chock full of citrus peel and wheat berries

Guiness Three Bean Chili

A healthy, hearty meal in itself--perfect when winter just keeps hanging on!  How about serving this up St. Patrick's Day?  It goes great with traditional toppings like sour cream (or greek yogurt) and sliced scallions or leeks.  Use this recipe as a guideline but it can easily accommodate almost any veggie variations you want to add.  I included acorn squash in this because I had it here and need to use it. 
Really want a meat based chili--add some browned meat or use veggie/soy crumbles.  Serve over pasta for chili-mac...

Tuscan Maki

 Inspired by sushi and a story I read about Giro, sushi master in NYC.  I had nothing on hand to try to do any sort of sushi or maki in the true sense.  But I started to think about what I did have that visually might have familiarity with a maki roll.
I was wondering what I had on hand to roll anything with, I had roasted seaweed but small squares, more or less these are sold as a snack and wouldn't do at all for how I needed to use them.
I abandoned the thought of a traditional route and decided I could use pasta to roll up my maki.  I chose to use some swiss chard I had already blanched and in the freezer, you could use spinach easily.  I incorporated the pureed swiss chard into the dough to give the green color of seaweed.
Then I set about coming up with a filling that could be used to replace the sticky rice.  I had half a block of tempeh in the refrigerator and decided to use it.  Crumbling it and cooking it in liquid and allowing that to sit made it sticky enough to use here.
For o top of the tempeh and inside the roll I used some roasted peppers cut very thin and some eggplant I pan fried to get a bit crunchy, giving a texture difference I think was necessary.
In the end I did top it with a bit of a very simple red sauce--just sauteed onion with garlic in some olive oil, seasoned with salt and added tomato puree I had canned the summer before.
I sprinkled some black coarse salt and some merlot salt on top of the "maki" slices to mimic fish roe.

So this may be more steps than you want, but the idea is a fun starting point.  Buy pasta sheets, use a quick cooking rice, roasted peppers and assorted items from the salad bar at any good grocery store.  Making it simple so you can get on with it!