Today's classic vegetable recipe: Harvard Beets, perhaps the most traditional beet recipe out there, one with a long, storied lore. Harvard Beets are simple and delicious, just cooked beets warmed through in an orange sauce. Harvard Beets are one of the many great dishes you can make if you meal prep beets. Seasonal. Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Freestyle Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. For ages now, I've been meaning to make Harvard Beets. When A Veggie Venture first launched in April 2005 and I was hungry for vegetable recipe ideas, my Auntie Meryl suggested them. And back in June, a commenter on Swedish Beets reminded me. Thank you both! Harvard Beets are delicious! Harvard Beets are a simple, classic treatment for already-cooked beets, apparently first published in the Fannie Farmer cookbook. That said, I haven't yet tried her classic treatment, which calls for using the water in which the beets a

[The following is cross-posted at BlogHer .] On Saturday, I packed a goodie bag for Charlie, my favorite three-year-old. His eyes lit up with surprise, first spying Grover, Big Bird and the Cookie Monster on the very cool tote bag from Stemilt (which has a licensing agreement with Sesame Street's ' Healthy Habits for Life ' program), then the just-polished Granny Smith apple, and finally the new story and activity book from Munch Crunch Bunch . [Want one? A special offer follows ... read on.] After supper, we cuddled up to read. "I like broccoli," Charlie crowed when he recognized the green stalks among several pages of cartooned vegetables. One by one, we named all the healthful vegetables and fruits . "I like apricots," he announced, which led to a conversation about about what grows on trees, what grows in the ground, what grows on bushes. (And where milk comes from, "the store", he insisted. We'll work on that one.) "D

Simple vegetables for a weeknight supper: can there ever be enough of them? I think not! One of my first 3x5 recipe cards (remember those?!), penned at age 10, is titled, "Cooked Cauliflower". Even then, I wanted to learn how to cook vegetables! NEXT TIME ... I'll steam or boil the cauliflower, then toss it in the sauce. I have a hard time pan-cooking cauliflower and broccoli to a good eating texture, especially since the bulky florets must be kept in a single layer. This makes it hard to cook enough for leftovers, let alone a whole head of cauliflower. FROM THE ARCHIVES ... The Recipe Box has lots of other ideas for cooking cauliflower but my favorites in winter are roasted tomato with cauliflower and white on white puree . BRAISED CAULIFLOWER with ASIAN FLAVORS Hands-on time: 10 minutes plus occasional stirring til done Time to table: 30 minutes Serves 4 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or any oil, really) 1 pound fresh cauliflower (about half a large cauliflower), cored and

So when you write about vegetables and really want to make truffles, the selected sweetness for November's Sugar High Friday food blogging event (hosted by Johanna of the The Passionate Cook ), what do you do? Get creative, that's what! Enter pumpkin truffles! For anyone who craves a rush of buttery chocolate sweetness after a meal, these are a great choice. Each truffle counts as 1 Weight Watchers point and since they're small with fiber, can be considered 'low carb' with 10 NetCarbs. And with lots of chocolate richness, it's easy to nibble on just one, making it last. Much to my surprise, I found that eaten slowly, 'just one' was entirely satisfying. WEIGHT WATCHERS TRUFFLES This is a mean joke, right? It's no joke but it is a (big) lesson in (small) portion size. If we ate pieces of cake this small, they'd maybe rack up just one point too. I've been avoiding my favorite St. Louis chocolatier, Bissinger's , maybe one-a-day, you know, l

[Looking for the World's Best Green Bean Casserole that everyone's raving about? And the collection of Thanksgiving vegetables? It's not too late for nearly all the great Thanksgiving vegetable recipes .] Happy Thanksgiving! We're all busy as bees in the kitchen right now but tomorrow ... there'll be leftovers! Here's my favorite way to use up leftover Thanksgiving turkey. It's this week's Kitchen Parade column, a turkey and wild rice casserole topped with almonds. If you're feeling festive, throw in a few dried cranberries. Not in the mood for a casserole? How about turkey soup ?! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Welcome to new e-mail subscribers to A Veggie Venture! ♥ What's this Kitchen Parade, you ask? It's the published newspaper column that my Mom started when I was a baby and that I've been writing since 2002. ♥ Kitchen Parade is known for great recipes for all courses , with lots of Quick Suppers , family favorites and kitchen tips plus

[Are you looking for the World's Best Green Casserole and A Veggie Venture's collection of Thankgiving vegetables? They are right here !] Shared delight in food, in words: it binds the foodies in the online world like sausage in stuffing, those of us who write and those of us who read. As a special Thanksgiving treat, please welcome Kate Bowers, whose acquaintance I've made over, no kidding, butternut squash ... HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL ... Buying acorn squash is a bit of a mystery to me. I take it on faith that inside is sweet, orange flesh. If not, well, I can throw enough butter, sugar, and oven time at the thing to render it edible. This is a vegetable able to withstand almost any neglect perpetrated by cooks suffering from too many holiday distractions. It's an ideal vegetable at this time of year. On a recent shopping trip, I got myself a lovely "golden" acorn squash; its brilliant orange exterior drew me in. I'd never seen one befo

Two Weight Watchers smoothie recipes, one pumpkin, the other mocha. A great way to drink a day's quota of milk. Many thanks to my sister Adanna for sharing this five-minute meal-in-a-glass. It's delicious, it's filling, it's satisfying. It does use a Weight Watchers smoothie packet but anyone can walk into a Weight Watchers office to purchase a box ($7.50 for a box of six). Adanna uses the French vanilla, I had creamy chocolate on hand so went with that. It's on hand because the Weight Watchers Mocha Smoothie is my 'summer breakfast'. In the winter, some times, I'll even stir a little of the chocolate mix into the morning oatmeal, a change from the usual ' winter breakfast '. The Weight Watchers pumpkin smoothie is worth trying. I love it!