Today's vegetable recipe: An unusual and refreshing salad, a bright mix of chopped fruits and vegetables tossed with no more than salt and pepper and a little cinnamon. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point. Vegan. No added fat. So why is it that 'vegetables' are usually served as a side dish and 'fruit' as dessert? This salad really surprised me. Not only is it pretty -- isn't it pretty?! -- but instead of being a 'savory' salad, as expected, it's a 'sweet' salad, despite having no added sugar. The fruit alone adds so much sweetness to the crunch of the vegetables -- it made for a wonderful light dessert two nights in a row, and I can't wait to make it again. The salad's texture was best shortly after it was mixed but the flavors melded beautifully after resting a few hours that I'm happy to say that it can be made in advance a few hours or even overnight. You could use any vegetables, I suppose, but the cantaloupe and apple, the c

Today's vegetable recipe: A lesson in timing, how barely roasting fat spears of spring asparagus turns out something entirely new: crisp with good 'snap', garlicky and glorious. Vegan, low-carb and Weight Watchers 1 point. This is the time of year when a reader might complain, "Alanna, are you cooking anything except asparagus?" (Yes, it really happened, in 2007 with the oh-so-lovely Asparagus Omelet with Remoulade Sauce .) Every year, my answer is the same. Well, no. The good news for readers is that this means that I've collected dozens of asparagus recipes . But this year in particular, when I'm lucky to have asparagus five minutes from the dirt, there's just no getting enough of it. This new technique ranks right up there as a top-top favorite way to cook asparagus. It's also one of the easiest -- and quickest -- ways to roast asparagus. When it comes to roasting asparagus, it's a question of timing, timing, timing. TOTALLY ROASTED ASPARAG

Today's vegetable recipe: A Middle Eastern avocado dip, smoother than guacamole but otherwise similar. Very impressive appearance when served in the empty avocado shells - positively gorgeous, if I may say so myself! Low-carb and vegan. So May 5th passed without the hoped-for, planned-for, considerably-anticipated Cinco de Mayo party, something about a calendar mix-up and a dining room with fresh paint but so far, no floor. Oops. But I couldn't get the shouts for 'Mexican food' 'MEXICAN FOOD' ' MEXICAN FOOD ' out of my head and so, piecemeal, put together a menu's worth of dishes over the course of the week, including this gorgeous Avocado Dip. Funny thing is, this avocado dip isn't Mexican at all, but Middle Eastern! It adds tahini (the sesame paste) and is mashed to a smooth dip rather than the loose chunks of Homemade Guacamole , say. I found it quite luscious and very pretty partied up in the empty avocado shells, a snap to do. AVOCADO DIP Ha

It looks like Spanish Rice. It tastes like Spanish Rice. But really? It's made with cauliflower and tomatoes, that makes it a low-carb and high-fiber "rice" dish. Yahoo! Weight Watchers PointsPlus 2. When my friend Sally from the Iowa blog Tip of the Iceberg mailed this recipe, she wrote, "I've used this recipe for years and it truly is excellent. I hope you can share it with the world." Verdict? It is truly excellent and Here, World , it is! It looks like Spanish rice. It tastes like Spanish rice. And yet it's not made with rice, it's made with cauliflower. So it's a perfect choice for people who watch their carb intake for diets or diabetes. And good news, this doesn't taste like "diet food" – it's just plain good! And it looks so beautiful on a plate, too, adding color and texture, very pretty! PS This isn't the first time I've used cauliflower to "fool" the table. Turns out, cauliflower can taste a

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's vegetable snack: Frozen edamame, quick cooked and served still in the shell. A kid favorite! How long does it take to fill hundreds of eggs for the annual Easter Egg hunt? Hours! Nearing the end of the big job, the kids were fading and supper was still a long ways off. So I whipped out a bag of frozen edamame [pronounced ed-uh-MAH-may], still in the shell and threw them into well-salted water. Soon the kids (and a few hungry grown-ups too!) were digging into a big pile of shells. The older girls already knew the technique: dip a shell in a little salt, put it between your teeth and drrrraaag, popping the edamame beans into your mouth. Yummy! Thanks for being so willing to try something new, E, K and E (pictured) and also B, AJ and D! You all get A+! Edamame works great for grown-ups too, especially for casual outdoor gatherings. These are a real winner! EDAMAME in the SHELL Hands-on time: 2 minutes Time to table: 20 minutes Serves 6 hungry kids Well-salted water 1 pound fr