What a chili! It's full of protein and colorful vegetables and beans plus warm chili spices! It deserves fame among those who follow the Weight Watchers freestyle program: every single ingredient is "free" and so this is a zero-point chili! So good! ~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~ This recipe has just been updated! It's an example of a recipe which deserves a new look, thank you Weight Watchers Freestyle. Plus it's a (slightly? I hope?) humorous look at my long-time love affair with frozen vegetables. Circa 2004: Frozen Vegetables Were a "New" Discovery It’s silly, perhaps, but only recently did I discover frozen vegetables. For too long, unless a vegetable was fresh, it wasn’t worth serving. The transformation happened over a simple supper when a friend served steamed green beans topped with a little butter alongside chicken and rice. Simultaneously sweet and salty, the beans tasted so good – when I learned they were frozen, call me hook...

A New Master Recipe The one salad dressing I make week-in and week-out, just one "recipe" but never the same twice. That's because it's a Master Recipe that invites creative adaptations to match your own family's taste and what's on hand. If you're looking for a lighter, fresher ranch-style dressing made from scratch, give this recipe a try ... Real Food, Fresh & Flexible. Year-Round Meal Prep Staple. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Weight Watchers Friendly. Low Carb. Naturally Gluten Free. Vegetarian.

On Valentine's Day, the "Veggie Evangelist" expresses her new love, a marriage of sweet potatoes and carrots, just mashed sweet potatoes with a twist, actually two twists! Real Food, Fresh & Inventive. Just Four Ingredients. Hearty & Filling. Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Great for Meal Prep. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Vegetarian & Easily Converted to Vegan. Naturally Gluten Free.

Dagwood-style sandwich fixins with a Greek twist: rotisserie chicken, a cucumber and feta spread akin to tzatziki, roasted peppers, more feta, pickled onions, fresh greens, all piled between soft rolls. Here's the recipe plus a bunch of ideas for what else to make when you've got more cucumbers than you know what to do with. Real Food, Fresh & Flexible. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Quick to the Table. Budget-Friendly. High Protein.

The Recipe: Miniature cheesecake-like tarts baked in a mini muffin pan with a "pop" of fresh blueberry right in the middle. The tart is an easy, press-in dough (and only slightly fiddly) and the filling is as easy as can be. These make a welcome colorful addition to a tray of one- and two-bite mini desserts. And besides, right? Blueberries! ~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

The Recipe: Something so simple, just slivers of red onion pickled in a refrigerator jar (no canning!) with a few herbs and a little garlic. But if you want to spice up your taco game (and so much more), start here, with quick and easy Spiced Pickled Red Onions. Now lots of times, something this good starts with butter and cream. Not pickled onions, they're basically calorie free, carb free, sugar free, vegan not to mention totally cheap. All this? And still a game changer! ~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

The Recipe: A simple, summery fruit salad arranged in a pretty and symmetrical pattern around a mound of cottage cheese. So simple and surprisingly tasty – and yes, we know, more of a suggestion than a "recipe" even if it's a great illustration of how we're using common Mexican ingredients and serving them in untraditional but Mexican-ish ways. ~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

Come along as we dive deep into Mexican food for a month-long cooking and eating adventure. We're calling it "Deep Mexico," a concentrated effort to combine three food shopping, meal planning and meal prep techniques into good eats and good fun. It's a whole new way to shop and cook. This page is a brand-new addition to my popular series, How to Save Money on Groceries . A Month-Long Experiment, A Deep Dive into Mexican and Mexican-Style Meals with a Focus on Pantry Shopping, Cooking with What We Have on Hand and Meal Prep.

The Recipe: An asparagus tart that's simple to make but impressive in appearance. Perfect for spring brunches and light suppers. ~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~ BEST RECIPES! Asparagus Custard Tart Made the List! Best Recipes of 2006 Hoot Hoot! We Have New Neighbors! A great horned owl has taken up a perch on the next block. He’s big: two feet tall and wings aspan, four feet wide. And loud: since the mating season commenced in February, neighbors have asked, "Did you hear The Owl last night? He woke me out of a dead sleep!" Two years ago, a pair of owls took up nest in a tree hollow a block the other direction. Soon there were little owls, owlets they’re called, all fluff and famish. Good neighbors, these owls, if a tad noisy. Family folk too, it’s nice to have little ones around. Welcome to the neighborhood! Finally, Spring! And Spring Asparagus! Spring arrived late this year. But it's here in full force and bloom now, that means...

The Recipe: A mustard sauce that's a tiny-bit spicy and a tiny-bit sweet and totally addictive. The investment is just a handful of pantry ingredients but the return is big, a Carolina BBQ mustard sauce that we turn to again and again. ~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~