Weight Watchers Fresh Vegetable Soup ♥

Today's new Weight Watchers recipe: The latest vegetable soup recipe, one point for PointsPlus people, a half point for those still counting points with the old point system. Best made a day ahead of time, perfect for those of us who cook a big pot of soup for eating during the week.

"You sure made the produce department happy." So assessed the checkout person at the grocery store the day after New Years while ringing up one vegetable after another. I couldn't help but grin, because yes, I'm on a first-name basis with all the produce people. Sure enough, there were no fewer than a dozen different vegetables, enough unusual vegetables to send the typical checkout person scurrying for the break room.

Like millions of others, after the holidays, I was ready to lighten up, ready for the end of rich food, ready to quit the fixation on eating. And like so many who follow Weight Watchers, I wanted nothing more than the cleansing of one of the famous vegetable soups from Weight Watchers, this time using a new recipe that seemed especially targeted to fresh vegetables.

Chop, chop, cook, cook. The aroma in the kitchen was intoxicating.

The first taste, however, was disappointing. The soup was blah – nothing that a few drops of Tabasco or a splash of yogurt couldn't fix but nonetheless, disappointing. I shrugged and went on. A day or so later, I cleaned out the fridge and decided to warm up a bowl of the leftover soup. This time? Fabulous! Light and fresh, the vegetables still intact (not mushy at all) but much more flavorful.

Now this IS a mild soup, know that, you might still want to apply a little Tabasco or my own favorite, a squirt of ketchup. But it's good and a nice change from the original Weight Watchers Zero-Point Garden Vegetable Soup recipe. Score -- another winner!

PLEASE KNOW A Veggie Venture is not affiliated with Weight Watchers International, please see more information. As always, I recommend visiting your local office, especially to learn the in's and out's of the new PointsPlus method of counting points.

QUICK NOTE For those who don't follow Weight Watchers, you might wonder if this soup is 'any good'. It is! All the Weight Watchers soups are good. But for slightly more substance, you might want to try my long-time favorite recipe from Kitchen Parade, Low-Fat Vegetable Soup or my new favorite and master recipe, Master Recipe: How to Make Homemade Vegetable Soup, never the same twice.
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Sweet Potato Soup with Quinoa & Coconut Milk ♥

A hearty vegan soup, one to warm a body from the inside out. It's slightly sweet from the orange tubers we call sweet potatoes, slightly nutty from the grain-like seed called quinoa, slightly spicy from cayenne and chili powder, slightly cool from the coconut milk stirred in near the end. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

Sweet potato soups can be, well, a little 'sweet potato-y', too heavy, too starchy, too dense.

So I loved the idea of a recipe for sweet potato soup lightened with the healthy and protein-dense quinoa [pronounced KEEN-wah]. I feared the color and little doubt, the color is akin to what Nana, my grandmother on my mother's side, used to call the 'dog's breakfast'. But thanks to the cayenne and chili powder, the soup has a welcome kick that's smoothed and cooled by the coconut milk.

This soup, it's a winner.

REVIEWS
"Just made this tonight, and it's really good!" ~ Anonymous
"We all (including the kids, 8 and 4) loved the balance of spicy with sweet coconut." ~ MamaGames
"I used Kabocha squash (big harvest, froze a lot) with good results." ~ Anonymous

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Healthy Habits & Win a Kitchen Scale

Happy New Year, vegetable lovers!

This year, oops, that would be last year, I turned New Years resolutions into 'healthy habits' adopted way last summer. One is a concept salad, my Quick 'n' Easy Raw Salad. (We just love these concept 'recipes', right? If you like the idea too, grab it and make it your own way!)

But first, what is your healthy habit? Or what healthy habit would you like to adopt in 2011? I'm giving away a kitchen scale, register to win at Kitchen Parade, my food column and home to seasonal, easy and healthy recipes made from real food without processed ingredients, where all new recipes include Weight Watchers old points and PointsPlus points, calorie counts and nutrition data.

Register to Win a Kitchen Scale!

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Hoppin' John Soup ♥

Today's hearty soup recipe: For a double-dose of good luck in the new year, try a soup version of Hoppin' John, the traditional food of 'good fortune' in the American South. It's packed with lucky black-eyed peas and for extra measure, lucky collard greens too. Low carb. A very hearty-tasting Weight Watchers 1 point (Old Points) and 3 points (PointsPlus).

Check your grocery store this week: it'll be selling big bunches of collard greens, it's a promise. That's because greens, especially collard greens, are traditional for New Years' – who wouldn't mind a little more 'green' prosperity? Hoppin' John is a traditional beans 'n' rice dish, so that makes this Hoppin' John in a soup bowl, with collard greens for good measure.

It's a great soup for that long pause between Christmas and New Years, the one where we catch our breath and remember what the heavens must call 'relaxation'. But to be official, serve Hoppin' John on New Years, just to get things off to a good start. It can't hurt and it sure will taste good.

REVIEWS
"I made this on New Years and it was wonderful! It was even better the next day!" ~ Walter
"It was delicious, even forgetting to add the vinegar at the end." ~ Dave

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My Favorite Sweet Potato Recipes Hint: They're Not Just for Fries Anymore!

Finally! It's a veggie evangelist's dream come true, sweet potatoes named a food trend for 2011. In honor, I hereby present my best and favorite sweet potato recipes.

Finally, there's a food trend for vegetable lovers. And it's a vegetable that's found in every grocery store in the world (I'm betting) not an obscure plant grown every third year on a certain hillside in the far reaches of Outer Mongolia reachable only to people who trek in on yaks. And it's affordable not the price of an orthodontist visit. And yahoo, get this -- it's healthy! And maybe famous! Will 2011 be remembered as the Year of the Sweet Potato?

On Monday, Food News Journal (a great source of well-organized and timely food tidbits from both mainstream media and food blogs, best way to follow is via a free e-mail subscription) linked to Food Trend Predictions for 2011 from Tanya Steel at Epicurious. And right there, at #8, were "sweet potatoes". Yes, imagine sweet potatoes going all trendy! The New York Times thinks sweet potatoes are hot too, see Sweet Potatoes Step Out from Under the Marshmallows.

That's the good news. The bad news is that much of the trend is headed toward sweet potato fries -- and you know what I think about sweet potato fries, see Frozen Sweet Potato Fries: Are They Worth the Price, the Calories?.

So I've got a new campaign slogan, whaddaya think? Sweet Potatoes: They're Not Just for Fries Anymore. Here are my favorite sweet potato recipes, hold the fries, please.
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This Year, Let's Give Salads with Abandon: A Simple Dandelion Salad ♥

Today's holiday respite: A simple but elegant dandelion salad. But this is a concept, not a prescription. The gift of a salad, let it soothe the stress of the season.

Shopping before the holidays, it's good to avoid the seasonal one for them, one for me gift-buying trap. But a salad is a gift you can give yourself or gift wrap for those we love -- this year, let's give salads with abandon!

But let's save the staid old every-day salads for another time, those are the socks and the screwdriver sets of gifts, appreciated but fast forgotten. Instead, let's imagine simple but splendid salads, perfectly dressed greens and a sprinkle of festive salad savories, as bright and enticing as the beribboned boxes beneath the tree. No shaking the salads!

It worked for me, a gift not soon forgotten. It was November not December, and we were shopping for a birthday not Christmas. But there we were on a Friday night, hungry for supper but foraging the aisles of the Target store, on the hunt for an Ugly Doll and a Zu Zu Pet to fill a birthday wish list. Don't know what these hot kids' toys are? Don't worry, it doesn't matter, we were shopping for gifts, just like so many of us are now in these weeks before Christmas.

Home finally, and famished, we devoured the stew from the stove. Then I made the salads, slowing down the meal, sipping a glass of wine as I worked, taking the time to gently dress the dandelion greens and to arrange the apple slices, creating plates of beauty. Suddenly the busy-ness business vanished. What a gift.

May I suggest the gift of a salad? You're so welcome. I just knew you'd love it.
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Healthy Red & Green Green-Bean Salad ♥

A heathy 'concept' salad for holiday buffets, potlucks and special meals, a red and green salad that looks as festive as it is healthy. How healthy? Well, Weight Watchers, a full serving is just half a point using the old WW point system, the new Weight Watchers PointsPlus value is 1. (More on PointsPlus, below.) It's low carb, it's high in fiber – and naturally, it tastes great. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

Around here, cookbooks spill off shelves, stack up on the floor, rest on the coffee table waiting for a look-see. Long-ago favorites take up shelf space in a guest room. The sentimental favorites are the church-style cookbooks of my grandmother's and mother's generation. I shake my head when paging through the so-called "salad" section. You know what's coming, right? All the recipes call for a box of Jello. A third call for cream cheese, a third for mayonnaise and the remaining third get topped with Cool Whip or Dream Whip. (Hey! What happened to Dream Whip? I suppose it was too much work, you had to, you know, actually 'whip' it, just like real cream.) And don't even mention the prevalence of cans of pineapple tidbits and maraschino cherries ...

For Christmas, I wanted to create:

A red and green salad, festive in appearance and able to compete with the prettiest Christmas cookie platter
Made ahead and served cold (though I love this warm, too), perfect for holiday buffets and casual Christmas potlucks
Most of all, a healthy salad, a guilt-free addition to holiday tables.

But my red and green salad is just a start, once you start to consider the possibilities for healthy green bean salads. I haven't made these, but the concept just might spur your own imagination.

Stir in or top with toasted walnuts or pecans.
Skip the tomatoes, stir in chunks of good feta and bacon.
Substitute slivers of roasted or sautéed red pepper for the tomatoes.
Stir in bits of goat cheese, drizzle with a cranberry vinaigrette (a little cranberry sauce, mustard, good vinegar, a little olive oil).
Toss with lime juice, lime zest and dried cranberries or sour cherries.
Toss with lemon juice, lemon zest and Parmesan shavings.
I could go on, but how would you make a healthy green bean salad?
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