A hearty Cajun-style skillet filled with shrimp, sausage and brown rice cooked in beer, packed with flavor and texture and dinner goodness that'll have you lickin' your chops and thinking about seconds. But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Hurricane Rice with Shrimp & Sausage at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables where recipes range from seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special. © Copyright Kitchen Parade VV 2005 & 2020 (repub) & 2023 (retire) & KP 2023

My cupcake adaptation of a Cook's Illustrated recipe for carrot cake, it has a light cupcake crumb and is lightly spiced with carrot-cake flavors. I especially like the cream cheese frosting! Great carrot cake flavor with perfect cupcake texture! The big surprise? The carrots are grated in a food processor and the cupcake batter is mixed in the food processor too! But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Carrot Cake at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables where recipes range from seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special. © Copyright Kitchen Parade VV 2008, 2018 & 2020 (repub) ...

It's a big day for vegetable lovers who follow Weight Watchers! On Sunday, I flipped the switch, converting A Veggie Venture's most popular Weight Watchers page to the current point system, the myWW rainbow of green, blue and purple points.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who gather today around Thanksgiving tables near and far! When you have a minute, I have a little story to share ...

Quinoa is the unsung hero of meal prep — quick, endlessly adaptable and delightfully nutty. Here I'll show you how to cook up a perfect potful every time . You just might wonder how you've lived without this pantry essential! But the recipe has moved to a new location, please just click the photo or this link How to Cook Quinoa for Meal Prep at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables where recipes range from seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special. © Copyright Kitchen Parade 2018, 2025 (retired) & 2025 (KP)

Fresh salmon and a vegetable hash with summer squash, bell pepper and corn roasted together in a sheet pan, served with an avocado-buttermilk sauce with hints of guacamole. But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Sheetpan Salmon with Garden Hash & Creamy Avocado Sauce at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables where recipes range from seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special. © Copyright Kitchen Parade VV 2015 & 2023 (retired) & KP 2023

Wow. An easy, cheap, make-ahead and portable salad? A healthy, low-carb, low-calorie and vegan salad? All that and only 15 calories per serving? Like I said, W-O-W. You'll love these barely pickled vegetables , just prep a few hours ahead quick-quick to make the most of winter vegetables with color and crunch, including grocery-store Roma tomatoes, bell peppers and more. Who needs summer veggies, anyway? But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Winter Tomato Salad (Lightly Pickled Vegetables) at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables where recipes range from seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple ...

For cookie bakers, No-Roll Christmas Sugar Cookies aren't to be missed, they're the best chewy and butter sugar cookies you might have ever tasted but without all the fuss and muss of rolling and decorating. I'm making them for my cookie swap next week, the - get this! - 19th annual. For home cooks, savory and sweet both, the Food52 Cookbook isn't to be missed either, it's one of two favorite new cookbooks in 2011. It's a collection of "best of the best" recipes from home cooks -- I think it's fabulous and am giving away a copy! Head on over to Kitchen Parade, No-Roll Christmas Sugar Cookies (or click the photo) for the cookie recipe and cookbook giveaway. It's easy to enter to win -- US and Canadian residents for this giveaway, please, through December 14th. MORE GIVEAWAYS? I've started posting giveaways (mine and other food bloggers') on a special bulletin board on Pinterest . Follow me there for the latest! And it's Christm...

Hello Vegetable Lovers! Anyone gearing up for Christmas baking will definitely want to check out Holiday Baking Tips from a Certifiable Cookie-Baking Fiend . That "fiend" would be me: during December, your 'veggie evangelist' is turning into a part-time 'cookie evangelist'. Plus I'm giving away a copy of Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies , the award-winning cookie cookbook by Alice Medrich. Contest open through December 8, 2011 to readers from across the world - hello, Canadian readers! : - ) To enter, click the photo >>>>>>> Happy Baking!

Life is fragile, life is precious, life is precarious. We all know this, we all experience it, we all, too often, live this. And yet, and yet. Some times life's fragility strikes close to home -- even when it really isn't. For me, the life lesson hit twice this week, first when my friend Janet buried her granddaughter in a casket just twenty-four -- aiii, twenty-four -- inches long. And then again, with the sudden and unexpected death of a young husband and father, "Mikey" as wife and food blogger Jennifer Perillo of In Jennie's Kitchen called him. Those of you who follow food bloggers will see lots of peanut butter pies appearing today. That's because Jennie invited us to make pies in her husband's memory. You see, she'd been meaning to make him his favorite pie, "Tomorrow", she'd think, "Or on the weekend." But she never got to it and suddenly, it was too late. And so today I invite you too to make a peanut butter pie,...

My mother's recipe for a traditional American-style homemade potato salad – it's the one I make again and again without needing a "recipe". And while not "diet food," Mom's recipe calls for cooked eggs and cottage cheese so the potato salad is loaded with protein too . Fresh herbs really brighten the flavors! I make other potato salads on occasion but this is the one I come back to over and over, the one I make almost without thinking. But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Old-Fashioned Potato Salad at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables where recipes range from seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, sal...

Happy New Year, vegetable lovers! This year, oops, that would be last year , I turned New Years resolutions into 'healthy habits' adopted way last summer. One is a concept salad, my Quick 'n' Easy Raw Salad . (We just love these concept 'recipes', right? If you like the idea too, grab it and make it your own way!) But first, what is your healthy habit? Or what healthy habit would you like to adopt in 2011? I'm giving away a kitchen scale , register to win at Kitchen Parade, my food column and home to seasonal, easy and healthy recipes made from real food without processed ingredients, where all new recipes include Weight Watchers old points and PointsPlus points, calorie counts and nutrition data. Register to Win a Kitchen Scale !

Sunday is the last day to enter to win a kitchen scale! This week, I dusted off the tips and techniques I used in 2002 to lose 30 pounds using Weight Watchers, see How to Lose Weight with Weight Watchers . I invited readers to share their best tips too and boy, have they, all to win one of my favorite Weight Watchers tools, a kitchen scale . If you don't have a kitchen scale, head on over to the contest to enter to win, it's easy and there are five ways to enter! WEIGHT WATCHERS RESOURCES ~ Weight Watchers recipes ~ (sorted by Weight Watchers points) ~ Low-Carb Recipes ~ Low-Calorie Recipes ~ from Kitchen Parade, my food column ~ Weight Watchers Recipes ~ (zero-point, one-point and two-point vegetable recipes, including the famous Weight Watchers Zero-Point Soup Recipes) ~ Low-Carb Vegetable Recipes ~ from A Veggie Venture, my food blog about vegetables © Copyright Kitchen Parade 2010

Who says bread pudding is always sweet and always for dessert? Not me! Instead, this is a savory bread pudding, absolutely delicious, a layer of hearty greens sandwiched between layers of good whole-grain bread studded with cubes of butternut squash and cheddar cheese. This rustic bread pudding (vegetarian casserole?) can be made ahead, much like a breakfast strata. Whole Food, Fresh & Seasonal, Holiday Special & Worthy of an Occasion. Budget Friendly. Vegetarian. Rave Reviews. One of My Very Favorite Vegetarian Casseroles. But this recipe has moved to a new location, please see Savory Bread Pudding with Butternut Squash, Chard & Cheddar at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting worl...

Please forgive, no recipe today. Instead a special give-away, just for the readers of A Veggie Venture and Kitchen Parade. For just seven days, between now and April 27, 2009, BlogHer and HP are sponsoring a contest where an HP printer will be given away, ONLY to the readers of Kitchen Parade and A Veggie Venture. (Okay, well, anyone can enter the contest but I'm only telling my own readers about it.) This means that the odds of winning are very very high! All it takes is leaving a comment! But you must do it on this page! ~ Win an HP Photosmart Printer ~ Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables . Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes . © Copyright 2009

So easy, guys! Just toss together a few common pantry ingredients and you've got a creamy-spicy cocktail sauce for shrimp, veggies and more and maybe just maybe, an instant party. Better still? Make it to taste, make only as much as you need! But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Five-Minute Shrimp Cocktail Sauce at Kitchen Parade, my food column. "Dear Heinz Ketchup, Please, will you make my life easier? You see, I take a lot of guff for your regular appearance on my table. You’re the stuff of my childhood and I really don’t want to give you up. Eggs, macaroni and cheese, hashed browns and of course burgers and ‘ dogs, they’re just not the same without your cute little red squiggle. And I might get away with it, truly, if you were just a retro indulgence. But please, I can’t defend the fact that your third ingredient is high fructose corn syrup. You make this public, why not make it go away?!! And oh yes, I’m well aware that not everyone...

Today, a guest post from an A Veggie Venture reader who's just finished Michael Pollan's book 'In Defense of Food'. His essay is a lesson in the loss of connection to real food (in just one generation!) and ideas on what it takes to return. I'd love to know your thoughts and invite you to join the conversation. ~AK The butcher’s rack in my kitchen shelves my cookbooks. To use a poor albeit irresistible metaphor, it groans from the weight of undigested manuals on the art and craft of cooking. Of late, the central theme of the books has been shifting from cookbooks about food preparation to books about food itself . To this reader and (I can’t help myself) consumer of such books, the sources, chemical composition, care, preservation and delivery of food have become as important as the preparation and presentation of the final product. [ Note to Vegetarians ~AK] Mine is a farm background. Much of my childhood food came from within a radius of a hundred yard...

Especially for the readers of A Veggie Venture, the good folks at O Olive Oil are offering three great ways to experience hand-crafted citrus-crushed olive oils and premium barrel-aged wine vinegars. These are truly gorgeous olive oils and vinegars. During taste tests last summer, my nephew -- a teenager! -- declared, "We could drink this!" He was right -- and food professionals and others agree -- which makes me extra-pleased to offer three great ways for readers to experience such immensely satisfying olive oils and wine vinegars. Why am I doing this? It's my small way during the season of Thanksgiving (don't miss this year's Thanksgiving vegetable recipes !) to thank readers, for trusting in me, for encouraging me, for sending favorite recipes, for inviting me into their kitchens. Plus, it's no secret that I believe that learning how to make homemade salad dressing is a healthful and frugal habit for families and individuals both. If good olive oils...