So many vegetables, so many that are unfamiliar! This is the latest in an occasional series of posts, quick, easy and practical information about out-of-the-ordinary vegetables or familiar-but-ill-defined vegetable terms. Recipe suggestions included! Today's subject? The staple vegetables of winter, the root vegetables. If you've ever wondered what "root vegetables" are or "which vegetables are root vegetables" – read on! HOW TO PRONOUNCE ROOT? Haha, this is a "you say tomato, I say tomahto" answer. I say [ROOT] – a pronunciation that rhymes with boot, toot, loot and cranky old coot and what-a-hoot this is! But others say something more akin to [RUUT] – rhyming with football and fireplace soot. The English language is so complicated! How do you pronounce the word "root"? Maybe we can discern some regional variations! MORE FOR WORD DANCERS I love this introduction to "odd roots" from Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka , a r

How to make a low-cal, low-carb, high-protein Spinach Omelet with fresh spinach or frozen spinach, either big or small, with milk or water. All the tricks and tips from this spinach-crazy veteran omelet-maker! Weight Watchers Friendly: depending on choices, PointsPlus range from 3 to 7. Gluten Free. Paleo and Whole30 substitutions included. Vegetarian. Put me on a desert island for a week or a month and the foods I'd want, for sure, would be eggs and greens. (You? What would be on your "food necessity" list? Would eggs be on the list?) For a year now, I've fixed one spinach omelet after another, some times for a solitary supper in a fast 15 minutes, more often as a healthy breakfast for two. Here are my tricks:

Today's vegetable stew, nothing but healthy fresh vegetables and big bright flavor, quick to make and just 45 calories per cup. Weight Watchers, you'll love this one, just 1 PointsPlus! Low Cal and Low Carb. Gluten Free. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ". So hello, 2015! Who else loves the "fresh start" that a new year brings?! Doesn't it just feel soooo good to let the hustle-bustle of the holidays fade into memory? January and February are such wonderful months, a time for contemplation and focus, nesting and nourishment, physically and spiritually. There's so much "light" to be discovered in the dark days of winter ... Detox. Let's talk "detoxing", yes? Books go on and on, blogs cite magical formulas. Do you have a detox method, something that works for you, after over-consumption of too-much or too-rich food? My technique is totally simple. For a meal, for a few days, for some time, I return to simple, plant-based f

Your favorite vegetable recipes of 2014 from A Veggie Venture, just one per month, all in one handy spot for easy reference. Yes, this year I'm featuring your favorite recipes , the vegetable recipes which you and I and other readers and visitors come back to again and again, all year long. It's that time of year, the week when we food bloggers look back over a year's worth of recipes and pick our favorites! I love-love-love this process! It really helps us hone our recipe collections, highlighting the best of the already very good, especially for sites like A Veggie Venture and my food column Kitchen Parade which by design, already post only really good recipes, the ones that work, the ones that are special or especially useful. (I'll update this with 2014's favorite recipes from Kitchen Parade too.) But I also love all the many sources of "best of the year" lists for movies, books, gadgets, etc. So this year, I'm collecting "best of the ye

Something special today, people! I'm proud to introduce everyone to lefse [pronounced LEFF-suh], the soft, foldable, rollable potato bread traditional at Christmas across Scandinavia, especially in Norway. Here to help is expert lefse-maker LeAnne Kruger, who's going to show us how to make lefse step-by-step in a video. LeAnne's lefse is so very tender! Here she shares her recipe, experience, tips and techniques. Oh, I do hope you love this video! So please welcome LeAnne! (Recipe and video below.) A Norwegian Bread, Traditional Especially at Christmas. A Project for the Entire Family. How to Pass On a Family Tradition. Rave Reviews.

Today's vegetable recipe: A really pretty holiday appetizer, bright-green spinach tortillas wrapped around a pear-spinach-cranberry cream cheese filling. Easy to make, very popular on a buffet table or party spread! Low carb and surprisingly low in calories. It's a tall order to fill but I keep my eyes peeled for easy appetizers that look nice and call for relatively inexpensive and accessible ingredients. Oh and I want them to be a little different but at the same time, still familiar! See what I mean about a "tall order"?! This is the first time I've made tortilla rolls but it won't be the last. These are so pretty! And easy to make! And while I needed to let pears to ripen on the counter for a couple of days (wait! apples would have worked too, without the wait!) but everything else was already on hand.

How to make scalloped potatoes with just five ingredients, thin-thin layers of potato, the bottom gets as crispy as good hashed browns and the top layer gets crispy like kettle chips! This may be a "simple" recipe for scalloped potatoes but the results are most impressive. Hello again, veggie lovers! It's November and at A Veggie Venture, that means it's time to go crazy for the real stars on the Thanksgiving table, the vegetables! I've been collecting especially-for-Thanksgiving vegetable recipes since 2006. After A Veggie Venture readers voted for their top Thanksgiving vegetables, I collected all those recipes in one convenient place, Favorite Recipes for Thanksgiving's Favorite Vegetables . In 2014, I decided to learn how to cook potatoes really, really well and oh man! these recipes are worth checking out! Today? Simple-simple scalloped potatoes, just five ingredients! And so this exploration of the lowly potato continues. By rights, 2014 will go down