Today's quick 'n' easy 'n' pretty appetizer! Just thin slices of radish atop a creamy spread like Boursin and a salty cracker like a Melba Toast. Weight Watchers Friendly. Low Cal. Low Carb. Vegetarian. Ah, the glory that is summer! For the next few months, we live and eat so richly. There are so many fresh food choices, whether we shop at supermarkets or farmers markets or pull fresh-grown vegetables from our own gardens. It's easy to over-indulge! Luckily it's healthy vegetables and not chocolate cake! For the next while, I'd like to ask a favor: watch for good radishes, perfectly crisp and crunchy – and then buy a few and taste them, really taste them, experiencing the rush of that wet crunch. Because if ever there's a time to fall in love with radishes, it's now, fresh from the ground. Did you know? I didn't until this year, when our garden began to pitch out radishes like crazy, pretty pure white ones this year, hotter than blazes, f...

Today's muffin recipe: The iconic Morning Glory Muffin, still studded with raisins and apple and grated carrot but better suited to today's food sensibility, with upgrades like butter, whole wheat flour and honey and a secret ingredient. Today' conversation: Things you might want to know about other morning glory muffins, the calories, the Weight Watchers point, how long they take to make, etc. So here's all you really need to know about this recipe for Morning Glory Muffins. It's the same classic recipe, just better, way better. For flavor, it calls for butter instead of oil but just half the amount of fat. The flour is half whole wheat. The sweetness comes from some sugar but also from warm spices and honey and – the real secret ingredient – apple butter. So if you crave a classic moist, barely sweet muffin, studded with carrot and apple and raisins and nuts, this is your recipe, just like I've made it mine. But three things you might want to know abou...

Who's up for a challenge, won't you join me?! For the first time, I tried making the classic French macarons (which are totally not the coconut "macaroons" of my childhood) and filled them with a gorgeous buttercream frosting, one with the real taste and texture of sweet potato! If you're up for a macaron challenge, read on, it just might be fun! Procrastination comes all-too easily to an "I can do everything , really I can!" individual like me. So I'm squeaking in j-u-s-t b-a-r-e-l-y with my entry in the First Annual Macaron Challenge from Sucré, the New Orleans sweet shop. (If you're inclined, click through and vote for A Veggie Venture's contribution, there's no need to register and I'd much appreciate it! Voting ends May 31, 2014.) You see, Sucré challenged thirteen fabulous food bloggers to come up with our own sweet takes on the French macaron, one of Sucré's own specialties. So here I am, this morning, this very morni...

Today's Recipe: A gorgeous, simple warm carrot soup, with just enough fresh ginger, cardamom and coconut milk. Weight Watchers Friendly, just WW 3 PointsPlus. Low Cal. Gluten Free. Dairy Free. Paleo. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". Today's Conversation: Paleo vs real food, what do we think? So here's my take. Paleo didn't "invent" or even "discover" a new way of healthy eating. Instead, those who cook "paleo" extend the definition of whole food – real food – to a new extreme. So those of us who have been cooking with and eating whole food / real food for years, even our whole lives, some times feel puzzled about all the attention paleo gets. Honestly? It sounds like a lot of hype. One example. When I call for "beef" in a recipe, I assume that cooks will make their own choices about its source: that is, that we all will choose organic, local, grass-fed, pasture-raised – or not – according to our own food sens...

With step-by-step photos and A Veggie Venture's first video! How to "cut" asparagus to remove the woody ends, the woody stems. That's "cut" in quotes because the trick is to put the knife aside and instead, just snap the spears, one by one. Get into the rhythm. Bend, bend, snap! Bend, Bend, Snap! And as a special treat? A Veggie Venture's very first video! I'd love to know what you think! Simple Technique for Trimming Asparagus.

How to steam fresh broccoli in a collapsible steamer basket, producing perfectly cooked broccoli, the creamy stalks, the chewy stems, the tender florets. There are three tricks, they're all detailed here! Steamed broccoli, what could be simpler, right? Well that's the thing about simple stuff, the tricks are in the details. So now there are step-by-step photos with all my broccoli-steaming insider tips, including my Top Three Tricks to perfectly steamed broccoli. Trick #1: Trim Aggressively! Trick #2: Layer the Broccoli Trick #3: Finish Off Heat WHAT YOU'LL NEED A cutting board A sharp knife A vegetable peeler A collapsible steaming basket That's all!

Today's slow cooker recipe: Simple, tasty cooked carrots, either baby carrots (I know, I know, read on!) or real carrots (better still!). Just dump 'em in with a few pantry ingredients and let the slow cooker go to town. The kitchen will smell so good! Kids and grownups like these approachable carrots and they add great color to a buffet or dinner plate. Inexpensive. Weight Watchers Friendly. Low Cal. Gluten Free. Primal. Vegetarian. Okay so no April Fool's joke here but for the first time ever, I'm gonna say, "Okay, okay. Go ahead, use baby carrots." Surprised? Because we remember the outright lies fiction about so-called "baby" carrots, right? I first started spreading the word way back in 2005 on Day Twelve of A Veggie Venture. The truth is, baby carrots aren't the young, tender carrots they're marketed to be. The fact is, baby carrots are giant carrots shaved down to bite-size carrot bullets. Snopes even claims that carrots destined...