For a double-dose of good luck in the new year, try a hearty soup version of Hoppin' John, the traditional food of "good fortune" in the American South. It's packed with lucky black-eyed peas and for extra measure, lucky collard greens too. Low carb and Weight Watchers friendly! Now's The Time to Shop for Collard Greens! Check your grocery store this week: it'll be selling big bunches of collard greens, it's a promise. That's because greens, especially collard greens, are traditional for New Years' – who wouldn't mind a little more "green" in the prosperity department?! Hoppin' John is a traditional beans 'n' rice dish, so that makes this Hoppin' John in a soup bowl, with collard greens for good measure. Soup for the Break Between Christmas and New Year's Hoppin' John Soup is a great soup for that long pause between Christmas and New Years, the one where we catch our breath and remember what the heavens mus

Finally! It's a veggie evangelist's dream come true, sweet potatoes named a food trend for 2011. In honor, I hereby present my best and favorite sweet potato recipes. Finally, there's a food trend for vegetable lovers. And it's a vegetable that's found in every grocery store in the world (I'm betting) not an obscure plant grown every third year on a certain hillside in the far reaches of Outer Mongolia reachable only to people who trek in on yaks. And it's affordable not the price of an orthodontist visit. And yahoo, get this -- it's healthy! And maybe famous! Will 2011 be remembered as the Year of the Sweet Potato? On Monday, Food News Journal (a great source of well-organized and timely food tidbits from both mainstream media and food blogs, best way to follow is via a free e-mail subscription) linked to Food Trend Predictions for 2011 from Tanya Steel at Epicurious. And right there, at #8, were "sweet potatoes". Yes, imagine sweet pota

Today's holiday respite: A simple but elegant dandelion salad, a concept, not a prescription. The gift of a salad, let it soothe the stress of the season. Shopping before the holidays, it's good to avoid the seasonal gift-buying trap. You know the one, it goes one for them, one for me . But a salad is a gift you can give yourself or gift wrap for those we love – this year, let's give salads with abandon! But let's save the staid old every-day salads for another time, those are the socks and the screwdriver sets of gifts, appreciated but fast forgotten. Instead, let's imagine simple but splendid salads, perfectly dressed greens and a sprinkle of festive salad savories, as bright and enticing as the beribboned boxes beneath the tree. No shaking the salads! It worked for me, a gift not soon forgotten. It was November not December and we were shopping for a birthday not Christmas. But there we were on a Friday night, hungry for supper but foraging the aisles of

A heathy green bean "concept" salad for holiday buffets, potlucks and special meals, a pretty red and green salad that looks as festive as it is healthy. How healthy? Well, Weight Watchers, a full serving is just half a point using the old WW point system, the new Weight Watchers PointsPlus value is 1. (More on PointsPlus at the bottom of this page.) It's low carb, it's high in fiber – and naturally, it tastes great. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". Around here, cookbooks spill off shelves, stack up on the floor, rest on the coffee table waiting for a look-see. Long-ago favorites take up shelf space in a guest room. The sentimental favorites are the church-style cookbooks of my grandmother's and mother's generation. I shake my head when paging through the so-called "salad" section. You know what's coming, right? All the recipes call for a box of Jello. A third call for cream cheese, a third for mayonnaise and the remaining third g