Today's summery recipe: On-hand vegetables stuffed into summer squash, topped with a little cheese, then devoured for breakfast or a side dish or a vegetarian main dish. There's a quick trick to zucchini boats: a few minutes in the microwave! So maybe it's just me but isn't there a dirty little secret about zucchini boats? The stuffings are nearly always delicious (cheese, anyone?) but the boats themselves, the zucchini (or in this case that zucchini summer-squash cousin called the "yellow squash" or the "crookneck squash") is either undercooked and tasteless or overcooked and watery, in either case unappetizing. So here – with just one quick and easy step – the zucchini boats become more than mere vessels , they actually taste good! The trick? So easy, you'll be whacking yourself on the forehead, "I shoulda thoughta that." HERE'S ALL IT TAKES Before stuffing, just cook the zucchini in the microwave for a few minutes. The adde

How to cut corn kernels off an ear of corn using just a knife and a bowl. How to 'milk' an ear of corn to capture the sweet corn liquid. It's easy! FRESH CORN So many recipes call for "fresh corn kernels" but give no hint, not one, about how to easily cut the corn off those unwieldy cobs. (Hmm. Language question: why is it called an 'ear' of corn? Corn, are you listening? I digress.) Just take a knife and hack away? Sure, that works. But here's the elegant way to cut corn off the ears, capturing all the kernels in a bowl and catching all the 'corn milk' too. WHAT YOU'LL NEED Some corn A bowl A sharp knife That's all!

I'm going out on a limb here, just sayin' that wow, quick 'n' easy 'n' simple is the best choice for summer's prettiest zucchini, a "summer" squash. This is one of those recipes that surprises you, the sheer simplicity, the sheer goodness. Real Food, Fresh & Fast. Not just easy, Summer Easy . Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Scales from Small Plates to Large Platters. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly.

Every year, I seem to fall in love with a new vegetable. One year beets, another year corn. Then one year something hit me about green beans – and I haven't looked back since, collecting one new green bean recipe after another. And I'm not alone! Year after year, two of A Veggie Venture's top recipes feature green beans. You definitely don't want to miss Thanksgiving's World's Best Green Bean Casserole and summer's "Best Ever" New Potatoes & Green Beans ! So here are my favorite recipes. Perhaps this is your year to fall in love with green beans too? I'm here to help, proud to present my best and favorite bean recipes, all in one place ... A Dozen+ of My Best Green Bean Recipes, Everyday to Special, Sides to Salads, Soups to Suppers. Recipes Include Nutrition Information & Weight Watchers Points. Many Vegetarian, Vegan & Naturally Gluten Free Recipes.

My mother's recipe for a traditional American-style homemade potato salad – it's the one potato salad I make again and again without needing a "recipe". And while not "diet food," the recipe calls for cooked eggs and cottage cheese so the potato salad contains a good measure of protein too. Fresh herbs really brighten the flavors! I make other potato salads on occasion but this is the one I come back to again and again, the one I make almost without thinking. WAY BACK IN 2006 A few weeks back, Michelle from the food blog "Je Mange la Ville" shared her Secrets to Amazing Potato Salad (scroll down, they're near the end). It got me to wondering why I'd yet to post my mother's potato salad "recipe" here on A Veggie Venture, despite making a big batch several times a summer. So. Without further ado, here are my Mom's tricks for a classic potato salad and now, as mothers pass important things to daughters, my own "reci

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