Food!

Living in Ghana for 3 years in the 90s gave me a taste for hot spicy food. I loved things like rice and beans with hot shitto sauce, okra and groundnut soup with snails and banku. Very rarely did I crave Western food which was a good thing as there wasn't any available.
Imagine my surprise when we came back as a preliminary visit in February to find myself eating chicken and chips! Fast food has come to Ghana and now there are chips and pizza and soon there will even be a McDonalds!
I have done a lot of cooking in the two months I have been here and still enjoy all the things I enjoyed before but am finding it difficult to invent different recipes with the limited range of ingredients. Every soup or stew starts with onion, chilli, garlic, ginger and tomatoes. Sometimes we add garden egg(a variety of augergine) or okra but there are very few other options unless you are prepared to pay an exhorbitant price for European type veg.
I am still not tempted to visit the fast food places but need inspiration to create more dishes with what is available.