Cookbook Inspiration

I've been pretty uninspired about cooking for the last several months. Being a student means my eating schedule is way out of whack and most of the time, I've been feeling too distracted and stressed to think about different cooking ingredients, tastes and all that jazz. But I got a bit of that inspiration back today while reading the Toronto Vegetarian Association's Tastes of Toronto cookbook. So now cooking is on my ever-expanding list of summer plans. yay! I originally got the cookbook as a parting gift for a cousin who was leaving town (remembering that we had gotten Sharmalade a copy when she was in the 'fax), and who had recently gone veg (as I discovered though, she's back to meat again), but realized it looked too beat up to give as a gift (it's 10 years old, and according tot he TVA staffperson I spoke to, has survived a lot of carting around). So I kept it for myself. Which is a good thing, since I've really missed The Garden of Vegan - it went mysteriously missing after I moved last October.

What I'm inspired to try out: no specific recipes, but I'd like to try to incorporate things like miso, eggplant, squashes and different grains (bulgur, couscous, quinoa etc) and noodles into my grocery store staples. I find that I'm comfortable with a pretty small repertoire of ingredients, and there are a lot of things I don't buy only because I'm not used to regularly using them in my speedy cooking routine. And I'd like to experiment with different ways of cooking with ingredients I already use (or don't use). Also, I'd like to plan my eating schedule better so that I'm less frequently in the rut of not knowing what to eat, or starving hungry and having no choice but to buy something.