A quick and simple cabbage soup studded with carrots, celery and beans. Spartan and spare, a welcome reset for our bodies and tastebuds after indulging in rich, heavy food. Easy Weeknight Supper. Low Fat. Very Weight Watchers Friendly & Freestyle Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. One of my oldest and still most-favorite recipes. Oops. All December, the "five-a-day" admonition has applied to Christmas cookies, not vegetables. For awhile, I even wondered if my vegetable moxie were lost, if chocolate and pecans would forever supplant cabbage and pumpkin. I was happy to eat vegetables , if someone put them in front of me. But cook them? No way. Thankfully: the moxie has returned in force. So man-oh-man, am I ever ready to get back to healthy recipes again. (Who can relate?) With this stew (or soup? stoup?) recipe, I'm dipping a baby toe back into vegetables, just in case. It's a great basic recipe, with easy pantry ingredients, a

Who else is intrigued by buckwheat, which we often lump in with grains even though it's not a grain? And who else doesn't know what, exactly, to make with buckwheat? Put this hearty recipe on your "what to make with buckwheat" list. It's a whole-grain side dish (or maybe a salad? I keep calling it "Buckwheat Salad" in my head) or even, a vegan main dish, just a simple ingredient list of buckwheat, fresh mushrooms and carrots. Seasonal. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Curiosity guides many of my recipe choices but so do health, budget and taste. It's karma when all four collide! This fall I set off to explore whole grains (even those not technically grains), knowing that I, along with too many of us, know far too little about such an important group of foods. To narrow the field (ha! so to speak ...) I decided to stick with the healthiest whole grains and grasses – barley, brown rice, buckwheat, corn, millet, oats, quinoa