"Think of brown rice as the emperor with his clothes on." ~ Keep reading this week's Kitchen Parade column . Today's column shares a long-time favorite recipe with my local St. Louis readers, the recipe for brown rice that's cooked in the oven. (And yes, observant readers, that's wild rice tucked into the brown rice. It's my favorite new variation.) SO WHAT IS KITCHEN PARADE, EXACTLY? Kitchen Parade is the food column that my Mom started writing for our family newspaper when I was a baby. Today it's published in my hometown newspapers in suburban St. Louis and features ' fresh seasonal recipes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences '. Want to know more? Explore KitchenParade.com , including Kitchen Parade's Recipe Box ! WHY DOESN'T THIS POST ACCEPT COMMENTS? Because I hope that you'll click through to the actual column and comment there! E-MAIL & RSS SUBSCRIBERS You may subscribe to Kitchen Parade dir

Today's favorite bean soup recipe: Easy homemade 15-bean soup with a bag of Hurst's HamBeens (skip the seasoning packet!), leftover ham, tomatoes, onion. Low carb. Weight Watchers 2 points. ~recipe updated & republished 2014~ ~ more recently updated recipes ~ Please say I'm not the last cook on earth to know about the 15-bean soup recipe straight from the bag of beans. If so, oops, so sorry! But if Hurst's HamBeens are a new 'convenience product' for readers too, you'll be thanking me! My friend Mary passed on Hurst's 15-bean soup recipe tip while feeding ideas about how to use up pounds of leftover smoked ham. (Literally, pounds. At Christmas somehow the butcher sent me home with a 14-pound ham instead of the 7-pound ham ordered.) [ Note to Vegetarians ] Along with a great recipe, the bean package includes northern, pinto, large lima, blackeye, garbanzo, baby lima, green split pea, kidney, cranberry, small white, pink, small red, yellow split

Today's vegetable recipe: In one skillet, fresh broccoli braised in broth and soy sauce; garlic (and ginger and almonds) sautéed in sesame oil. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point. After nearly three years of obessing over discovering new vegetable recipes, it's not easy to find new ways to cook broccoli, especially because for every day recipes (and especially for everyday January recipes), I'm picky: ingredients must come from the pantry or the friDge, calories must be reasonable, prep must be minimal. This broccoli recipe fits the bill! The recipe comes from an Atkins diet cookbook which I picked up awhile back to cook from for my dad when he visits so, as written, it's more generous with fat and nuts than suits my Weight Watchers sensibility. Luckily, it adapts beautifully for both diet regimes. I used half the oil (just a tablespoon) and next time will entirely skip the almonds for they really got lost amid the garlic and broccoli. That makes this low-carb and low-

When I was still on the hunt for my go-to chili recipe, I tried some doozies. Read all about it in a 2002 Kitchen Parade column (published today online for the first time) with my favorite recipe for chili, Chocolate Chili . SO WHAT IS KITCHEN PARADE, EXACTLY? Kitchen Parade is the food column that my Mom started writing for our family newspaper when I was a baby. Today it's published in my hometown newspapers in suburban St. Louis and features ' fresh seasonal recipes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences '. Want to know more? Explore KitchenParade.com , including Kitchen Parade's Recipe Box ! WHY DOESN'T THIS POST ACCEPT COMMENTS? Because I hope that you'll click through to the actual column and comment there! E-MAIL & RSS SUBSCRIBERS You may subscribe to Kitchen Parade directly, then you'll receive the complete column and recipe directly in your In Box or RSS reader. Just sign up for Kitchen Parade via e-mail or Kitchen Par

How many calories, carbs, Weight Watchers points, fiber and fat grams are in common vegetables? Here's a one-stop nutrition information source, perfect for vegetable lovers and health-conscious cooks. I hope that readers find it a useful reference! ~ Alanna Artichokes Asparagus Arugula Avocado Beets Bell Peppers Bok Choy Broccoli Broccoli Raab Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Celeriac Chard Chayote Corn Cucumber Daikon Edamame Eggplant Endive Fennel Garbanzo Beans Green Beans Hearts of Palm Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) Jicama Kale Kohlrabi Leeks Lettuce Lima Beans Mushrooms Okra Onion Parsnips Peas Potatoes Pumpkin Radicchio Radishes Rhubarb Rutabagas Spinach Summer Squash Sweet Potatoes Tomatillo Tomatoes Turnips Winter Squash ~ the vegetable nutrition information here was calculated using Accuchef , which relies on the same USDA database used by all similar nutrition anal

How to cook fresh collard greens in that inimitable southern fashion, just chopped collards, plenty of garlic, a touch of sugar and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, all slow-cooked on the stove until soft and almost buttery. These are the greens to cook to bring good fortune in the New Year but such a knock-out recipe, you just might find yourself hankering for a potful all year round ... and tempted to down the whole pot yourself. Fresh & Seasonal, a Traditional Food at New Year's But Also a Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Great for Meal Prep. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free.

Happy New Year to All! No recipe today, just a quick story and a product tip for ready-to-eat sugar snap peas. My grandmother stood only 4'11" tall. Her body was small but came with a full-size sweet tooth so weight management was always a problem. As a child, I loved to sneak into her kitchen while the grown-ups visited in the living room. Right at the front of the top drawer next to the fridge, I knew, would be a bag of chips, usually chocolate but sometimes butterscotch, the bag torn open at the corner just enough to fit a couple of fingers. Me, I keep bags of chips safely out of the way in sealed bags inside tins stored at the back of the pantry. But this week, there in the door of my frig (fridge? keep reading) is a bag of sugar snap peas, prewashed and prestrung and full of crunch and freshness opened just enough to grab one or two. The sugar snap peas are a perfect snack after waaay too much holiday food -- and a sweet reminder of my grandmother. Many thanks to my dear