Today's soup recipe: Simple soup made from leftover lettuce that's no longer fresh enough for a salad (or even lettuce that's been dressed for salad the night before and is too soggy to enjoy as a salad again) and new potatoes. Surprisingly tasty! Weight Watchers 2 or 3 points. "Supper contrived from air" is what comes to mind with this soup recipe. Seriously, I used nothing more than less-than-perfect romaine and bok choy and some completely wilted radish leaves. And still? Delicious – a great recipe to have in your back pocket when looking for ways to use up leftover lettuce, especially lettuce too sad for a salad. This soup really hit the right note on a wet, chilly spring day. NUTRITION NOTE The recipe yields four cups of soup, for which I'd normally allow just a tablespoon of fat. But I was intrigued by the inspiring recipe's technique of stirring in a last tablespoon of butter at the end, flavoring the water-based broth. Next time, I'd skip th

Today's recipe at KitchenParade.com: My recipe for sauerkraut salad , a great summer salad, perfect for potlucks and barbecues and good old-fashioned summer eating. It's a 'fresh classic', lighter and more healthful. This week's column introduces us to a convenience food that's too-often overlooked: sauerkraut. What is sauerkraut? Nothing more than cabbage (so it's chopped) that's been fermented (so it's already got flavor) with virtually no calories (so it's healthful). NEVER MISS A KITCHEN PARADE RECIPE! Who's been missing Kitchen Parade recipes? You know, like that recipe for Lime Chicken so perfect for a weeknight supper? Or light, bright and quick Lemon Asparagus Pasta that so celebrates the best spring asparagus? Or the recipe for strawberry rhubarb cobbler that has people moaning? If you were accustomed to learning about new Kitchen Parade recipes via announcements here on A Veggie Venture, well, those announcements are a thi

Today's recipe: An easy summer cocktail, Pimm's liqueur with ginger ale and slices of cucumber, orange and lemon. Yes, there's a recipe here, a traditional summer drink from England. But mostly, this is about mothers and daughters and how friendships can cross generations. I'm in a story-telling mood: many will not be interested, please feel free to scroll down to the recipe! The story starts in the early 1950s when five girls left home from across Canada to attend the University of Manitoba's college of Home Economics. They were Margie and Shirley (my mother) and Willie and Betty and Meryl -- all those -y names, any surprise Meryl was some times called Merlie? Two were roommates but since the girls were in different graduating classes, they met but really didn't know one another. Fast forward five years. All the girls -- women, now, of course, new grads and young professionals -- took jobs as county extension agents in rural northern Minnesota , each one 20

Today's easy egg supper or breakfast recipe: An egg cooked in a 'nest' of fresh spinach, onion and a touch of cream. Weight Watchers Friendly, WW 5 PointsPlus. Low Cal. Low Carb. Gluten Free. Paleo. Vegetarian. ~first published 2008~ ~recipe & photo updated & republished 2014~ ~ more recently updated recipes ~ (2008) Dads and breakfasts: in my family, the combination is a "recipe" for great memories. When my sister started kindergarten, our mother went back to work and our dad went back to the kitchen. Dad cooked breakfast every single day – and without resorting to boxes of cornflakes or quick slices of toast. Instead, he had a Breakfast Plan, a two-week menu written on yellow lined paper taped to the inside of a cupboard. Oatmeal. Fried eggs. Every other Friday, hamburger patties with tomato soup. (Yes ...) My favorite day was the first Thursday when Dad made " Kellogg Eggs ", a slice of bread with a circle cut from the center, then fried

Today's vegetarian recipe: A one-pot pasta recipe. Cook the greens first, then cook the pasta in the same water. Toss with olives and feta. Devour! Weight Watchers 6 points. Two problems with pasta recipes. 1) They take too long to get to the table. Pasta is supposed to be fast , right? -- zip, zip, done. But it takes forever to bring the water to a boil. SOLUTION: Use an electric kettle to boil the water. At the same time, heat up the cooking pot with just an inch or so of water. Together, this makes a big improvement, time-wise. If the idea appeals, I have a small electric kettle from Presto but there's an electric kettle style for every taste for anyone who's interested. 2) They take too many pots, some times three. THIS RECIPE's SOLUTION: Cook the greens and the pasta separately but in the same water then toss in the remaining ingredients. Aha - a one-pot pasta recipe. I loved the simplicity of this pasta recipe, one developed for the April 2008 issue of Bon Ap

Today's recipe at KitchenParade.com: My recipe for strawberry rhubarb cobbler , one of spring's classic dessert recipes, topped with a buttery cornmeal crumb. Thank goodness for rhubarb recipes . Otherwise A Veggie Venture might become altogether too healthful , bereft of sweets and desserts. Once the rhubarb is ready for harvesting and starts to show up in the grocery stores, who can resist a thick slice of rhubarb pie , the perfect balance of rhubarb-sour and sugar-sweet? But for simplicity, an easy cobbler recipe is the ticket, whether a 'plain' rhubarb cobbler or today's recipe, rhubarb and strawberry cobbler . BUSTED Many thanks to Maggie, a reader who makes her home in New York City on the top floor apartment of a building originally constructed in 1839 as a one-family house. Maggie's apartment runs due north to due south so the northern windows get no direct sun and southern windows and skylights get so much sun that anything short of a cactus would

Pantry with a Purpose: How to grow a few favorite fresh herbs at home, the pots, the soil, the planting. Everything you need to know about growing fresh herbs. It's a great way to save money and inspire summer meals. ~first posted 2008, updated 2012 & 2015~ ~ more recently updated recipes ~ Food prices are skyrocketing with no end in sight. This is the second post tackling the idea of saving money on groceries by – stay with me a minute, it's not entirely intuitive – by cooking more . The idea, you see, is to stop paying crazy-high prices for store-bought by making our own or in this case, growing our own. Now I know that fresh herbs are a luxury in many households, it's dried or nothing or maybe even nothing. But cooking at home is as much about eating better as eating less expensively . Fresh herbs add life to salads, vegetables, salad dressings, meat dishes, even desserts and drinks. In my grocery, small, plastic packets of fresh herbs are now $3 for a sma