My mother's recipe for a traditional American-style homemade potato salad – it's the one I make again and again without needing a "recipe". And while not "diet food," Mom's recipe calls for cooked eggs and cottage cheese so the potato salad is loaded with protein too . Fresh herbs really brighten the flavors! I make other potato salads on occasion but this is the one I come back to over and over, the one I make almost without thinking. But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Old-Fashioned Potato Salad at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables where recipes range from seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, sal...

Finally, a summer-y way to cook sweet potatoes. You're going to love these, I think! Do you think of sweet potatoes as a summer vegetable? Me either. Growing season aside, sweet potatoes always seem just a little heavy for summer, don't they? But they're so good for us, so easy to find, so many people like them – I'm thrilled to have a good way to cook sweet potatoes in the summer – easy, quick, fresh and light. So good! Just cut sweet potatoes in half and rub the cut sides in a little oil and butter and snips of fresh rosemary, then toss them in the oven. I love how the flat sides get slightly crispy and caramelized, how leaving the jackets on during baking keeps the sweet potatoes moist and ever so sweet. You could serve them hot, I suppose, but it's summer. Just let them rest at room temperature and serve later – drizzled with a squeeze of lime juice. Heaven! How heavenly? Well I'm adding it to this small collection of My Favorite Sweet Potato Recipes . ...

Potato salad made not with potatoes, but with cauliflower so a great choice for low-carb for dieters and diabetics -- and anyone who just loves cauliflower! Weight Watchers? You are going to love this salad! When my friend Lyn from the poignant and inspiring weight loss blog "Escape from Obesity" posted a recipe for Low Carb "Potato" Salad last year, a light went on. Wow -- cauliflower just might be a dieter's best friend. Cauliflower has virtually no calories; it's easily available year-round; pound for pound, it's an inexpensive vegetable. But most of all, cooked cauliflower creates a creamy mouthfeel that's akin to both potatoes and rice, so can either substitute for potatoes or rice or supplement potatoes or rice for a lower-calorie, lower-carb dish. Without realizing, I've collected several of these "potato" and "rice" dishes that aren't made with either potato or rice but instead with cauliflower. There's th...

Today's new smoothie recipes, both starting with beets. The first is an unusual smoothie, just two-ingredients long, with cheek-pink color that would make a peacock blush. The second pairs mango with beets, with no added sugar, just plant-based sweetness. But stick with me here, okay? Give me 30 seconds to make the case for making a smoothie with beets. We know that beets have a natural sweetness – hence the garden beet's cousin, the sugar beet, accounts for a third of the world's sugar production. (Source: Wikipedia .) The first recipe starts with pickled beets – that means that there's sweetness but a welcome note of sharpness, too. This means that taste-wise, a beet smoothie isn't as outlandish as its admittedly outlandish pink color! Tastes differ but I gotta tell you, I love beet smoothies. I didn't set out to create a beet smoothie recipe but one day I was out of fruit and wanted a morning smoothie – the Quick Pickled Beets in the refrigerator ca...

We all know we should eat more vegetables. But how, how do we do that, really ? What real-life tips and ideas work? How can we build our lives around the healthiest of all foods, vegetables? Most Saturdays, the 'veggie evangelist' shares a practical tip or idea from her own experience, from her readers' experience, from other bloggers. Today's image, of course, comes from the new logo unveiled by the USDA this week. It's the new "plate logo" that divides a plate in half for vegetables and fruit, the other half into protein and grains, with a glass for dairy. Check the new website, ChooseMyPlate.gov and click the five areas, see the easy lists of what fits into each one. So what's today's tip?

Hello, vegetable lover! Here you'll find everything good cooks and curious eaters want to know about the Mexican root vegetable called "jicama" that's usually eaten raw. If you've ever wondered what jicama is, exactly, or even how to spell or pronounce the word jicama, you're in exactly the right place. If you've ever wondered what jicama looks like, whether it's good for you, or how to eat jicama, you'll find your answer (and more) right here. Dive in, everybody, because jicama is a delicious, healthy vegetable to add to your diet. Recipe ideas included, especially from readers! So many vegetables, so many that are unfamiliar! This is the first of an occasional series of posts I'm calling "Vegetables 101" filled with quick, easy and practical information about out-of-the-ordinary vegetables. First up? What Is Jicama?

A fresh take on coleslaw, substituting wet and crunchy jicama for cabbage. It's a really summery coleslaw, light and bright tasting. Delicious! Low Carb. Very Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly. ~updated~ ~ more recently updated recipes ~ WAY BACK IN 2006: When a guy – a GUY! – writes, "I just adore this recipe", it's gotta be good. And let me tell you, Matt Bites is right. I adore this recipe too. (And have you seen his food blog? I adore IT, too!) It's simple. Wet and sweet with jicama. Bright and fresh-tasting. A tad unusual. Low in calories. Low in carbs. It is a perfect make-ahead salad for outdoor picnics. It has no mayonnaise and pairs beautifully with other picnic food like fried chicken, sandwiches, etc. UPDATE: I'm always pleased – so pleased! – when I remake a recipe and find it just as refreshing as its memory. Such was the case with this jicama slaw. It's completely a col...