Winter's not Always so Bad

In life we all have season's and right now, I'm in winter.  Things are a lot slower and not as green and sunny.  Some days I just want to hibernate.  What I have found though, is that some of my best cooking ideas and tastiest dishes have been during this time.  I've had to stretch my mind and creativity to come up with dishes with the few items I have in the pantry and fridge.  Last night, I was really beginning to panic because I didn't have any veggies.  After searching I found a bag of frozen green beans (not the biggest fan of frozen veggies but it's what I had), a turnip, and potato, which were uncooked from Thanksgiving.  I made a classic string beans and potatoes (with turnips) and made a sweet potato crunch (with ginger) from an extra unused sweet potato.  With both dishes, I played with flavors to make them as tasty as possible.  Yes things are tight, and today I don't know what I am going to cook, but one thing is for sure; I know I will be cooking something, and I know that something is going to be great!  ("Singing":  Just keep cooking, just keep cooking, just keep cooking, cooking, cooking, all you have to do is cook, cook, cook!)

Recipe sketch for String Beans, Potatoes, and Turnips
1 bag of string beans
1 potato sliced into small pieces
1 turnip sliced into small pieces
1 small onion chopped
1 small bell pepper chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
1 stalk green onion chopped
1 veggie bouillon cube
Unsalted Cajun seasoning or cook's choice

• Saute' or seal onion, bell pepper, garlic, green onion in olive oil.
• Add about a half cup of water, veggie bouillon, salt and pepper to taste.
• Add sliced potatoes and turnips and keep on medium heat covered for about 8 mins
• When potatoes and turnips are beginning to turn translucent add frozen string beans and a bit more salt and pepper. (I also added unsalted Cajun seasoning to kick it up a bit)
• Let simmer covered for another 10 minutes.  Be careful not to let the string beans cook too long or they will loose their color.  
• Enjoy!

P.S. my youngest cleaned her plate.  Well she left the potatoes and turnips and ate the green beans.
P.P.S  I tried making seitan from scratch.  Will have to revisit that later. :-)
Also, here is the sweet potato crunch recipe.  http://www.southernvegchronicles.com/2010/01/sweert.html (didn't have some of the ingredients so I added ginger for flavor)