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Fresh Tomato & Basil Stuffed Peppers ♥

Stuff me! That's what every vegetable is shouting right now. And I'm listening! Earlier this week, I stuffed eight-ball zucchini with rice 'n' stuff but these are a whole 'nother take, peppers with fresh tomato and other garden goodness. SAN MARZANO TOMATOES For the first time, I found fresh San Marzano tomatoes. They have the meatiness of a Roma so are good for stuffing. And taste-wise they are VERY good -- I can't put my finger on it, but they are definitely different, startlingly so at first, then you just want to gobble them up and can't really tell. KITCHEN NOTES The muddled-red peppers looked pretty but the green ones tasted better. Look for 'squatty' versus 'tall' peppers that are easier to stuff and stand upright. NEXT TIME Next time I'll use smaller peppers, like a side dish, since one big pepper isn't all that appetizing to eat whole. I'll also chop the tomatoes so they pack better into the peppers. FROM THE ARCHIVES S

Eight Ball Stuffed Zucchini ♥

What is it about late summer that all of a sudden I want to cook with vegetables again? For two, maybe three months, assembling vegetables into quick salads and side vegetables has been satisfying. But suddenly, I want more! But not more complicated! These took only 20 minutes to assemble (oh wait, am I still assembling?!) and another 20 in the oven. The eight-ball 'round' zucchini are very tasty and perfect for stuffing -- no real recipe required but I'll share what I did because it was very good. The basics would work for any stuffing. Scoop out the zucchini, steam them upside down for six or seven minutes, then stuff and toss into the oven to finish cooking and warm the contents. Yum ... a great vegetarian supper. HOMEMADE BOURSIN I intended to use Boursin, the creamy-garlicky stuff from the grocery, as a binder. But -- what ARE they thinking? -- the stuff is selling at my local supermarket for $7.69 for 4.4 ounces which is a ridiculous $28 a pound. Forget that!!! I b

Low-Carb Vegetable Recipes

If you're a low-carb dieter, you're going to love A Veggie Venture's brand-new home for low-carb vegetable recipes . It's been re-organized but you'll find all your favorite low-carb vegetable recipes from before. Plus -- especially good news for regular visitors -- it's completely up-to-date so there are dozens and dozens of new recipes easily accessible for the first time! The new page is also easy to find - see it there? right at the top of every page! Regular visitors know that there are so many vegetable recipes on A Veggie Venture, without organization, it would be hard to find 'the' recipe, you know, the quick one for supper or the perfect one for a special meal. To make all my vegetable recipes easy to find in a flash (I always imagine someone ready to leave work, planning a grocery stop and wondering what quick vegetable to make for supper), in the last while, I've also created special sections for microwave vegetable recipes

Chard & Chickpeas with Feta ♥

An unexpected benefit of tracking what vegetables are fresh in Maine is the reminder that certain inexpensive, readily available and super-healthful vegetables are woefully unpopulated in what is approaching 800 vegetable recipes, chard , say. It just goes to show that even someone who's obsessed captivated by vegetables has to pay attention too. Enter this easy-to-prepare, adaptable and tasty vegetarian supper. The greens (essentially Greek Greens ) could even be cooked a day or two in advance, making supper itself a real snap. NEXT TIME I'll add lemon zest, maybe some roasted pepper, hmm, red maybe or maybe poblano. I might also saute the stems to toss in, maybe more onion and oh, say, some leftover rotisserie chicken. This is also a great way to use up odds and ends of leftover vegetables at the end of the week, whatever's on hand. It's a great 'concept recipe'. CALORIE NOTES Again and again I'm surprised by how many calories live in those diet-tasting

Fresh Crowder Peas (NOT Black-eyed Peas) ♥

Ever wonder how to cook those crowder peas you find at the farmers market? This is a great place to start, just cook the peas in salted water, then toss in a vinaigrette. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". BACK IN 2007 When I first wrote this post, I repeated what I'd heard from the farmer at the farmers market, that crowder peas and "black-eyed peas" and "cowpeas" are all the same thing. Whoa, bad idea! Readers quickly let me know the farmer (and therefore I) was completely wrong! Let it be said: Crowder peas and black-eyed peas and cowpeas are NOT the same thing! Okay? So sorry! Back then, it took me all of 17 minutes to shell that pound of fresh crowder peas. But I fussed and fumed the entire time. "Why is this taking so long?" and "Nobody's ever going to make these, they take too long." But somehow, as the minutes passed, these old-fashioned peas got me to thinking in a way, say, gorgeous French radishes did not. Ho

It's Time to Start Slow-Roasting Tomatoes

Enter Year Three of my dedication (um, obsession?) of capturing the taste of summer for winter in the form of slow-roasted tomatoes. The secret combination of time (slow) and temperature (low) were discovered two years ago here on A Veggie Venture but are revealed to Kitchen Parade's print readers for the first time in this week's column all about how to make slow-roasted tomatoes ! SO WHAT IS KITCHEN PARADE, EXACTLY? Kitchen Parade is the food column that my Mom started writing for our family newspaper when I was a baby. Today it's published in my hometown newspapers in suburban St. Louis and features ' fresh seasonal recipes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences '. Where A Veggie Venture is 'pure food blog', full of experimentation and exploration, Kitchen Parade features recipes a modern cook can count on. All are thoroughly tested by a home cook in a home kitchen and many are family and reader favorites. All recipes feature easy-

Vegetables Are Scary!

Just a little back-to-school silliness, playing along with Freddie and his mum, who are in the middle of their very own Great Big Vegetable Challenge . Want to play along? They want your vegetable faces ! How to eat more vegetables? A Veggie Venture is the home of Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and the award-winning source of free vegetable recipes with 800 quick and easy favorite vegetable recipes, the Alphabet of Vegetables , Weight Watchers low-point recipes and microwave vegetable recipes .