Today's vegetable snack: Fresh kale rubbed with a little oil and mustard (or a vinegar, anything with a little acid) and then baked until crispy and salty. Weight Watchers 1 point. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". ~recipe updated & republished for a little weekend cooking inspiration 2015~ ~ more recently updated recipes ~ A couple of St. Louis restaurants are famous for their flash-fried spinach. People like the spinach so much, I get tempted again and again. But to my taste, it's just a greasy pile of greens, especially because it cools down so fast, becoming a cold greasy pile of greens. Ewwwwwwww. I figured that the food-blog famous kale chips would be the same. But not! They taste fresh and alive and I just love the crispy-salty texture. I have the idea that they'd make a quick pre-supper snack, a way to stave off hunger with something hot and nutritious while cooking the meal. There's a Woody Allen line about the difference betweeen Epis

A quick 'n' easy cauliflower soup, spicy with spices, not spicy with heat. Very Weight Watchers Friendly: Zero Freestyle points! Low Carb. Naturally Gluten Free. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". Skip Straight to the Recipe Can't say I know, exactly, what gruel is, but I suspect it might look a lot like a pot of Spicy Cauliflower Soup, smudgy and watery, muddy-yellow and dirty-brown. But please don't judge this soup by its appearance. What it lacks in aesthetics, it compensates in flavor. The spices are "Indian-style" – coriander, cumin and turmeric, plus a little chili powder for a small measure of heat. That's right, this soup is spicy – but not spicy-hot, just spicy. I found it a spare and satisfying antidote to a weekend of too-rich food and too-little exercise. My soup bowl remained monastic and rustic, just the soup itself and a gorgeous loaf of rye bread from St. Louis' bakery The Daily Bread. But the inspiring recipe calle

Today's one-pot dinner recipe: A magical pairing of sweet potatoes and butternut squash, healthy bright orange vegetables married with a medley of Moroccan spices, cooked in a tagine cooking dish (or a shallow casserole dish) and served tableside. Beautiful color to banish cold-weather blues! Works as a side dish or a vegetarian supper. Fresh & Seasonal, a Mid-Winter Classic. Great for Meal Prep. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly.

People ask all the time, What's the best way to cut up Brussels sprouts? Is there an easy way? A quicker way? My answer, sorry, is that it depends. That's why I'm sharing four ways to cut Brussels sprouts. One method works best for cooking Brussels sprouts whole; another way works best for roasting and sautéeing; another for cooking quickly and lightly; still another for quick-cooking just the leaves. Step by step photo illustrations of each technique. QUICK LINKS Skip Straight to the Right Technique Buying, Washing & Trimming Brussels Sprouts #1 Best for Cooking Brussels Sprouts Whole #2 Best for Roasting or Sautéing #3 Best for Cooking Quickly & Lightly #4 Best for Cooking Just the Leaves Some times, you look at a vegetable and wonder how in heavens to cut it up for cooking. Take Brussels sprouts. The baby cabbages may look like green golf balls but take a closer look, they're really tightly bound leaves surrounding a dense core. (While we're

How to make bouillon concentrate from scratch using fresh vegetables, a few herbs, lots of salt and a food processor. No cooking required! The concentrate keeps in the freezer to scoop out a teaspoon or two at a time over the next few months. Then just add water for a fresh, lively stock that makes a huge difference. And if you have foodie friends? Homemade Vegetable Boullion Concentrate makes a great savory food gift. Fresh & Seasonal. Kitchen DIY. A Staple for a Homemade Pantry. Great for Meal Prep. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly.

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

Last month, twas my honor to witness something magical, a grandmother passing a family tradition along to two of her granddaughters. I took a few pictures so that readers might tag along too. Here's how to make homemade Swedish potato sausage, the classic Swedish dish, with step-by-step photos and tips. It happened like a scene right out of Carl Larsson , the renowned Swedish painter who captured home and family scenes in the Swedish countryside in the last 1800s and early 1900s. There we were on an unseasonably warm afternoon on the last day of November, the grandmother all organized and prepared, the kids smart from school, me bearing a camera and a tin of allspice -- all gathered in the kitchen to make one of the family's traditional Swedish recipes, an important dish for the feast on Christmas Eve. The dish? Homemade potato sausage, 'potatis korv' en svenska. Here's how it's made, with love. TESTIMONIALS "We had a ball this afternoon grinding everything