royhuggins, eliciel, jonatthebar and I have decided to start getting together regularly to cook for ourselves! Woohoo! That means constraints, though...lots of 'em. Add my reluctance to eat meat to the mix, and it really gets challenging.

I'm having fun coming up with ideas, though. Here are some of the main dishes that I think we can try (subject to approval, of course):

• Black bean soup
• Broiled polenta sticks with squash and roasted mushrooms
• Spaghetti with asparagus (we can skip the shallots and make it with gluten-free pasta)
• Wild mushroom risotto (again, minus the shallots)
• Butternut squash stew (we'd skip the jalapeno and cumin and use a dash of cayenne instead, and serve over rice or quinoa)
• Quinoa with chickpeas or sauteed chickpeas (and some kind of veggie side)
• Linguine with artichokes and green beans (again with the gluten-free pasta)
• Fried rice with cilantro and peas (and without the shallots. Or any kind of fried rice, actually, but cilantro was something I hadn't thought of)

And then we can always do something like this, with some spices or something. I really want to do tamale pie, but I'm having trouble finding a nightshade-free recipe. Same goes for most zucchini/cheese combos -- they usually seem to involve tomatoes or onions. If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em.

I think we're going to be just fine, though, Electra. Just don't develop an intolerance for, like, rice or olive oil, because damn.