Whew! Whether it's the weather, the looming legislative special session, the flu season or family frenzy, seems like everybody we know is bushed! There's so much going on that some of us were taking advantage of the fall full moon to rake a path through the drifts of leaves late at night!

These are the days when what gets on the table barely does so. No great creative inspiration here. We're thinking inside the box, and that's where dinner is coming from, too.

Time was when a "box dinner" signified a social occasion when cooks hauled boxes or baskets packed with their best concoctions to a gathering place, perhaps to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. (Rent the movie "Oklahoma" and you'll get the drift.) Nowadays a box dinner has a little less guarantee of homemade goodness, but some things in a box or package or can form the basis for dinner that's quite acceptable, if not downright delightful.

More than one night we've gone to the cupboard to pull out a box of falafel mix. This Middle Eastern fast food made from ground garbanzo and fava beans and spices can be mixed with water and an egg white, formed into balls or patties and baked or deep-fat fried. Falafel can be made ahead and stuck in the freezer for when you have neither time nor energy to read a box. Once cooked or reheated, tuck falafel into pita with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, if you like, and drizzle with plain yogurt mixed with dill and fresh mint and voila! Box dinner!

Sometimes a pretty good idea comes off the back of the box or package. Frieda's Finest sun-dried tomatoes offered a simple main dish suggestion that has been a family no-brainer for years. Substitute a meatless version of Italian sausage and it can work for your vegetarian eaters. Serve this with a salad made by emptying a bag of mixed greens into a bowl and/or microwaving a package of frozen peas or green beans, and you've got dinner out of a box that doesn't taste like the package it came in. It's a comatose cooking classic: little thinking required for a great taste result.

Rotini and Sun-dried Tomatoes

1 16-ounce package rotini

12 to 16 ounces hot or mild Italian sausage (turkey or chicken sausage is a lower fat alternative)

1 3.5-ounce package sun-dried tomatoes

½ can black olives, drained and sliced

1 cup shredded mozzarella or farmer's cheese

1 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat water to cook rotini according to package directions. Crumble Italian sausage and brown in large skillet, drain and blot with paper towel to remove excess fat; set aside. Blanch sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water according to package directions. Drain, cut into strips. When pasta is cooked "al dente," drain. Toss pasta in large skillet with sausage over medium heat, add sun-dried tomatoes, olives and herbs. If measuring dried herbs requires more accuracy than you can muster, sprinkle mixture with Paul Prudhomme's Herbal Pizza & Pasta Magic (a nicely balanced blend of Parmesan cheese, garlic and onion powders, crushed red pepper, thyme, basil and oregano). Or use your favorite Italian seasoning mix. Lastly, sprinkle shredded cheese over pasta mixture and toss until cheese starts to melt. Serves 4-6.

Lynne Ireland lives to eat and welcomes comments and questions from others who do (or don't). Contact her at features@journalstar.com