They're new to me anyway.

Dr. Praeger's sweet potato pancakes. I buy them frozen at a natural food store. Mostly they're sweet potato and egg white. 80 calories per pattie, 2 grams of good fat and vitamins the like of which you only get in orange veggies. They taste good plain. Quite different from sweet potato when browned up. It does take about sixteen minutes to broil them. Praeger is a cardiologist turned health food seller.

Kale - I've been eating it as greens for a few years. Today for the first time I blended three kale leaves with soymilk and frozen banana to make a shake. It was quite tasty with the usual dose of saccharin that I put into smoothees. Doesn't taste anything like kale but then this is raw. A week ago I blended up the kale stems with water to make a bright green base for soup. Neither of these experiments killed me or created any noticeable digestive problems. Kale was a favorite of the ancient Greeks, practically the only vegetable they ate. It's know to be one of the most nutritious foods. Broccoli is descended from kale. No such thing as wild broccoli.

The sweet potato pancakes sound good! I'll have to look for them.

I've never had kale, which is probably unusual for a Southerner Mom used to cook it all the time, but I never tried it. I finally bought some, but haven't fixed it yet.

I've had spinach/fruit smoothies which were good

Get rid or the stems unless you want to blend them. They're hard to digest unless they're cooked for hours. Simmer the leaf part of the kale for about fifteen minutes. A little butter salt and pepper on them is great. They're chewy and a little juicy that way.

Mostly in the grocery stores all you're going to find are the frilly kale that is somewhat wilted in comparison to "lacinato kale". The lacinato has rubbery, tougher leaves. I prefer it. I think the frilly stuff is some kind of hybrid. Still good but not the best. The only places I find lacinato is natural food stores and farmer's markets.

The pancakes sound good wonder if Whole Foods has them.

I need to find a way to like Kale. I've made it before and always end up hatting it. I'll have to try this. Me and veggies aren't the best of friends.

Have you ever tried microwaved broccoli with fresh shredded cheddar? That's real good, but the cheddar of course is very fatty and high calorie. I find that cheddar is best at room temperature. Melt it and it loses almost all it's flavor. My favorite brand is Cabot.

I've finally made friends with Broccolli. If you put just a wee bit of water in the bottom of a bowl and squeeze lemon on it it then nuke it... It really cuts back on that bitter cabbage like taste. I also sprinkle on some citrus herb blend I got at the spice store. I have tried it with cheese too... which is fairly good, but I like to use my cheese in other ways since I don't get a lot of it per day because of the saturated fats.

-muse

Mmmmmm. I don't eat broccoli but I love cheese When I lived on the east coast, I loved the Cabot's Vermont Seriously Sharp cheddar. It's sooooo cheddary. We don't get Cabot's out here, only Tillamook. Tillamook is fine, but I wish that they too would make a Stupendously Sharp cheddar.

Haha, I have two health related questions that this thread randomly brought up...

First off, I read today on MSN that broccoli's nutrients really absorb way more when combined with a small portion of fat. Is this true? I never add fat to my vegetables, so this threw me for a total loop.
Secondly - I've never tried Kale. I'm a little bit afraid to. What is the best way to prepare it, or the most common? I'm a huge veggie fan - I just always steered clear of "uncommon" greens.

Some other foods I'm new to -

Wasabi peas. These are dried peas, nearly rock hard unfortunately, spiced with a ground rice and wasabi paste that dries onto each pea. Wasabi tastes like horseradish. 1/3 cup has 120 calories 10 of them fat. Much better than regular potato chips and as a bonus it's a legume. Most experts say Americans are seriously lacking in legumes. I can get them in local supermarkets. I buy them mixed with rice crackers at the natural food store. Rice crackers alone are very light, very hard, but not that great. With wasabi peas they're great.

I buy pasta faggioli from a pasta shop run by a little old man. Pasta faggioli is beans (that's legumes again) pasta and tomatoes according to this fella. (It's made differently in a lot of places. read: not healthy) If you find a guy that makes it the way my guy does, it's a very healthy meal. The beans have lots of fiber both soluble an insoluble. The pasta... isn't so good for you and contributes to metabolic syndrome. The tomatoes are great. A side benefit is that this guy sells dried peas. They're roasted but much softer than the wasabi peas which are brittle. Mixed with the wasabi peas they taste great and I'm sure are a healthy low fat treat. Alone they're like chewing flavorless mud or something. Oddly, it's not that bad.

I hate canned soups. I started buying frozen Tabatchnick soup which is kosher. I'm not Jewish, but I think kosher is really the origin of the whole natural, whole food movement. Jews still eat what God instructed them to thousands of years ago when they eat kosher. None of the modern industrial tricks are allowed. Their frozen pea soup microwaves in a few minutes and it tastes really wholesome. You'll feel like you do after you've had a warm bowl of oatmeal with raisins. Mom and love is involved. The canned stuff sours my innards. When I eat campbells I feel like I'm serving time. Again it's an easy way to get the legumes you're supposed to eat. Instructions are poor so take out the plastic packet. With a serated knife saw a huge x from corner to corner in the frozen soup. Lay it across a bowl scratched side down. It'll fall into the bowl as it melts in the microwave. Stir and eat.

Val - I think that's true with a lot of vitamins they need fat in order to be absorbed properly, but I'm not sure which ones... so it doesn't surprise me hearing that. I don't add fat to my broccoli but I always end up eatting it with salmon or chicken so i figure that's my fat right there!

Wash the kale. I like to tear off bits of the leaves. A little water in a covered dish brought to a boil. Toss in the kale. Cover. Simmer for fifteen minutes. Drain, melted butter or earth balance margarine which has no trans fats and tastes like butter, a little salt. Eat. Also good with spicy sausage.

Lacinato Kale - http://www.peak.org/~s2sfarm/pics/Kale.jpg

This is a real good dish -
http://www.italianfoodforever.com/iff/news.asp?id=717

Picture of the above dish
http://www.italianfoodforever.com/im...balloverde.jpg

if the links are removed go to italianfoodforever and look for a kale casserole
Even my girlfriend likes this and she doesn't like kale because it tastes bitter to her. It's so nice the way it browns up.

Gogonzola and mascarpone cheese.

Mascarpone is sold in tubs. Gorgonzola is sold in wedges. It has green flecks. They're supposed to be there. Compare gorgonzolas and buy the one with the least salt. Some of it is awfully salty.

Mix them together in a microwaveable dish and then melt them and pour over french fries instead of ketchup. Or pour over pasta or broccoli. It's fantastic if you like a flavor similar to bleu cheese. It's got a lot of calories from saturated fat.

Without the Mascarpone the gorgonzola tends to form a sticky, unsightly blob. The melted mix results in a sauce.

Vitamins A, D, E and K are all fat-soluble vitamins, broccoli contains quite a bit of vitamin A.

I use kale, mustard, turnip, and collard greens in a lot of recipes that call for spinach. I figure I get enough spinach anyway so I often sub these veggies I don’t like as much for spinach in soups and Indian dishes that I make. If you chop them really finely (I use my food processor) you can hardly tell they’re in there, the other flavors overpower.