Today's open-face sandwich, perfect for summer's best vegetables: Thin slices of beet, tomato and cucumber on good bread. You're gonna have to try this one to believe it, I know I did. Okay, so this is one recipe I never imagined eating, let alone sharing. (Barring the question whether a simple vegetable sandwich even qualifies as a 'recipe'?) But some times you just go with your gut. Or trust the experience of a cook whose food you have learned to love – love – over the years. Back in March, my friend Nupur Kittur who writes the food blog One Hot Stove taught a food class for a group of St. Louis food bloggers in one of the fabulous kitchens at Kitchen Conservatory , the top kitchen store and cooking school in St. Louis. "Indian Street Food" was the theme and oh my, what a feast we did eat. (Want to see more? I've posted pictures from our class on Flickr.) But it was Nupur's simple sandwich that most captured my own attention. (Or maybe it...

Today's summer side salad recipe: Just in time for the summer's first green beans, a simple salad, nothing more than beans tossed in oil infused with rosemary and garlic but somehow, somehow so much more. Fresh Vegetables, Fast & Healthy. Whole Food, Fresh & Seasonal. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Not Just Easy, Summer Easy . Budget Friendly. Little Effort, Big Taste. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly. One of My Very Favorite Very Favorite Green Beans Recipes . Happiness Quotient 100. Rave Reviews!

A healthy veggie dip, my variation of the spinach dip from Weight Watchers. Fresh and bright! Full of healthy spinach! Great for Meal Prep. Low Carb. Low Fat. No surprise, this recipe is already Weight Watchers Friendly and I've updated it to be Freestyle Friendly as well! Vegetarian. Naturally Gluten Free. On warm summer nights, I love that "gathering moment" before supper. The meat is on the grill, the salad waiting in the refrigerator. In hand is a glass of something cold and wet, occasionally what my sister Adanna calls an "adult beverage". These few minutes bridge the day's busy-ness and the evening's relaxation. So during the summer, I make one homemade veggie dip after another, some quick concoction that will last a few days, one celery stick at a time. This is my adaptation of the Feta & Spinach Dip from Weight Watchers. I've modified it some, starting with 8X the spinach and substituting first low-fat sour cream and then non-fat Gre...

Today's recipe: A new take on potato salad, laced with southwestern-style flavors such as chipotle, lime and cilantro. Dramatically lightened with my new technique for mayonnaise-based salads, the addition of buttermilk. Weight Watchers, you'll love this potato salad, it adds up to just 1 or points, down from 4 points in the inspiring recipe. Survey a potluck table and one ingredient will stand out: mayonnaise. Potato salad. Cole slaw. Broccoli salad. Pasta salad. Seven-Layer Salad. So many favorite summer salads are dressed in mayonnaise. To my taste, this makes them all taste the same: like mayonnaise. To my taste, a mayonnaise dressing is too thick, too gloppy. Plus, we all know the calorie implications of heavy mayonnaise salads. I loved the idea of a potato salad with southwestern flavors, I even thought about roasting some poblanos and roasting some corn, akin to Sweet Potato Salad with Roasted Poblano, Roasted Corn & Chipotle . (One reader made it over Memorial ...

An easy way to cook fresh greens (such as kohlrabi leaves, beet greens, chard, and other greens) and then season with Asian-style flavors. Low carb. Weight Watchers friendly with just one PointsPlus. Paleo and Whole 30 approved. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". Most important? Totally tasty and good for us, too! So maybe I should set up a challenge, "Never again throw away fresh greens". Because we all know what really happens, right? We love the fresh beets from the farmers market. We're enchanted by the perfect globes of kohlrabi in our CSA box. But the greens? The beet tops? The kohlrabi leaves? Not so much. Last week, after making a big batch of Roasted Kohlrabi , I started to throw away the kohlrabi leaves – and then stopped myself, knowing that it was wasteful, financially and nutritionally. But what to make with kohlrabi leaves? I considered the technique from Greek Greens , my favorite way to cook greens when they're fresh, to hold for a da...