Originally Posted by
Abra
I'd start with Mexican and Italian.
Make some brown rice, toss in drained tomatoes, corn, tomato sauce, and black beans. Add some spices. Spanish rice, voila! Add it to burritos, as a side for bean-cheese-spinach quesadillas, or add more stuff to it and eat it on its own.
Pizza is surprisingly easy to make 'from scratch.' I use two cheap boxes of jiffy crust mix per pizza--it takes about 8 minutes to make the dough (and five of those minutes are letting it rise). From there, you can put on whatever toppings you like on. Spaghetti's good for beginners, too (try adding fried butternut squash, or frying halved grape tomatoes with Italian parsely!).
Then there's the glory of bean-and-oat burgers. I posted a recipe on here somewhere, I know it... It's basically 2 cans of black beans, 2 cups of oats, some cilantro, and whatever spices (cumin, cayenne, chili powder) or wet agents (an egg, or some mayo, or some unsweetened yogurt, or chipotle sauce) you like.