Aspergrass!

Oh My Goodness! I discovered something wonderful today. Something totally new for me...and ya'll have to admit I'm down with my vegetables! Peel cucumbers? Never! Peel anything? Not if I can help it! Not even my beets! Eat my kiwis complete with skin - of course! And let me digress a minute to tell those of you who've never tried this to do so immediately! Besides ramping up the fiber and nutrients in that green little gem, it's just plain ole' fun to gross your friends out! And I promise you it's not itchy/fuzzy/tickly/insert any other kiwi-centric word here! You don't even need to cut it. Grab out of the fridge and start eating. You'll be left with one cute little nub at the end. That's getting your monies worth!

And do you know how much time I've saved by ignoring that whole 'cilantro LEAVES' or 'parley LEAVES'. What an annoying chore...pulling little wet leaves off of little wet stalks. I have better things to do with my time. Almost 90% of the time, I just chop the whole bunch, stems and all. Again - more fiber and more usable herb. The stalks do have taste also! This works anytime you're cooking something, in salsa...usually anytime you're not interested in making a Food Network worthy presentation out of your meal.

So back to asparagus. I love it! I'll buy the big bags at Costco and grill some up. I'll do that again maybe two nights later...but then I don't want asparagus anymore and the rest goes bad in the bag and I throw it away. I hardly ever throw food away, so I was feeling guilty about this. I wanted to eat some at lunch, but I hate re-heated asparagus with a passion. And I usually don't have time to cook some up for lunch. So today I was making one of my infamous car lunches (throwing chicken, nuts, and veggies in a bowl that would sit on my center console in my car as I picked up high schoolers and ran errands). I had to move the asparagus to get to those tasty little grape tomatoes and I thought - well, why not try?! So I grabbed a stalk and put it in my mouth! That's it! Raw! How much simpler could that be? It tasted like asparagus (surprise!) but cleaner...greener! So good. If you gnosh on cold sugar snap peas, you'd definitely like this. If you are lucky enough to have baby asparagus, or stalks that aren't too big, you can eat the whole thing. I had one bigger stalk, and if I was cooking it I would have snapped off the end. Since I was in my car with nothing better to do, I decided to give it a whirl. I bit the end off after only one yank and started chewing. And chewing. And chewing. And chewing. It was like I'd imagine chewing cud would be. I couldn't swallow it. Had to spit it out. So, unless you want a good jaw workout, just go ahead and snap those ends. Compost them if you can!

I was so surprised that I had never considered this revolutionary and delicious way of eating asparagus. And then I thought...well, if I had never thought of it, maybe some of you had never thought of it either. So I am sharing! 'Cause I'm nice like that!