A Heart Healthy Recipe

Who knew?!? The ICU waiting room is equipped with WIFI.

My dad went in for bypass surgery about an hour ago. He was in good spirits, joking around, and even mooned me purposefully from his hospital gown. He learned that from my grandpa apparently. Dear Lord!

My mom and sis are both waiting on me to type up a recipe for them, so since it is a heart healthy one, I will just post it here...typing it up will help ease my nerves and pass the time until the first update from the surgeon.

I got it from a good friend years ago when she hosted a cooking class at her home. Oh the things we did before we had kids!

Green Bean and Feta Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed (about 4 handfuls)
  
• 1 small purple onion, finely chopped
  
• 1 (6-ounce) package crumbled feta cheese
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Preparation:

1) Roast walnuts 5-10 minutes on 350 degrees. Set aside until just before serving.
2) Combine dressing ingredients (olive oil through pepper).
3) Add onion and cheese to dressing.
4) Arrange green beans in a steamer basket over boiling water. Cover and steam 15 minutes or until crisp-tender. Immediately plunge into cold water to stop the cooking process; drain and pat dry.
5) Add the green beans to the dressing mixture
5) Chill green bean/dressing mixture in fridge for about one hour.
6) Top with roasted walnuts before serving.

It is a super tasty chilled summer salad...one that I plan on bringing over to my dad's once he is home!

My mom tried it on Easter with asparagus and it was super tasty as well...although from the top of my memory I had left out several ingredients! Oops...here it is in its totality, Mom!

If the butter doesn't kill you, surely the salt won't either.

Roasted pumpkin seeds. We love them around here.

If your jack-o-lanterns look anything like ours do, they are moldy and ready to be tossed...and a recipe using their seeds is more than a week late. Or 51 weeks early. Depending on if you are a glass half empty or glass half full type.

Lily pretty much made ours this year. I did control the butter, but she had full reign over the salt shaker...and I'll tell you that girl comes by her love of salt naturally. Lily has a weird relationship with the salt shaker though. Especially the metal topped ones found at most restaurants. Let's just say that her tongue is strangely attracted to those metal tops. Disgusting, I know. And if you dine in the area, my condolences go out to you. Please know that we are working on this habit, but it has been going on a long time and has been hard to break.

Now that I've got Chicago lyrics from 1984 running through my head, here is our little recipe.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Take the seeds from two pumpkins and wash all the guts off of them.

Lay them on paper towels to dry overnight.

Transfer the seeds to a cookie sheet.

Melt a half stick of butter (the real stuff) and pour it over the seeds.

Stir them well to make sure the seeds are coated well.

Salt them and salt them well. Remember the symbol for sodium in the period table of elements is NA...so all that news about too much salt? Not applicable.

Bake them at 325 degrees for 15-20 minutes...stirring often.

And for you visual learners out there:

Every year my mother-in-law asks if we're supposed to eat the whole seed or just the kernel within. Every year I tell her to eat the whole thing...because that's what I've been doing since I was a kid. All of a sudden this year though I started to doubt myself and think that we may have been eating them wrong all along.

Anyone know?

And in case you have no idea what lyrics I was referring to, here is a little "Hard Habit to Break" for ya.


By posting this I am solidifying so many stereotypes that my husband has of me. Oh well. I'd rather be forever stuck in the 80s than not know the lyrics from one 80s song. He seriously doesn't know any 80s music. Isn't that one of the seven deadly sins?

It tastes so good you'll forget it made you cry

I am so enjoying the crazy Texas weather. It got down into the 30s earlier this week and the heater got its inaugural run for fall. Does anyone else enjoy the smell of the heater when it turns on for the first time each year? Something about the smell of burning dust on the coils just warms my soul. This may be admitting too much weirdness, but I also enjoy the smell of filling up the tank and a freshly lit match. Not to be enjoyed simultaneously obviously. Another scent I love, a little less peculiar perhaps, is the smell of freshly carved pumpkin.

I pretty much like to smell everything and it occasionally gets me in trouble. Once when Jerry and I were still dating, he accompanied me on a quick run to the drugstore. I was there to pick out some new shampoo and he was just learning my habit of having to smell everything. He was making fun of me as I picked up several different bottles and gave them a little squeeze to get a good whiff. When I squeezed one bottle though, it gave a bit more quickly in my hands and I ended up with shampoo completely up my nose. He smirked and asked me if I had gotten a good enough smell of that one.

Anyway, Halloween is forcasted to be in the 80s here, so I wanted to jump into some cold weather cooking while it lasts. When BooMama mentioned doing a Souptacular / Crockpotalooza today, the first recipe I thought of was for Crockpot French Onion Soup. Onions do not happen to fall in the category of things I enjoy smelling, so I can guarantee you this is the only recipe I make that calls for 3 large onions...thinly sliced, no less. Expect to shed a few tears, ladies.

Crockpot French Onion Soup
(prep time 15 min; cook time 7-9 hours; 8 servings)

Ingredients:
· 3 large onions, thinly sliced
· 1 Tbsp. butter, melted
· 1 Tbsp. olive oil
· 1 tsp. sugar
· 3 Tablespoons flour
· 1/4 tsp. pepper
· 4 (14 oz) cans ready to serve beef broth
· Shredded Mozzarella cheese
· French bread, sliced

Directions:

In 3-4 quart crockpot, combine onions, melted butter, olive oil, and sugar. Cover crockpot and cook onions on high heat for 30-40 minutes or until onions begin to brown around the edges. Stir thoroughly. Sprinkle flour and pepper over the onions; mix well. Let cook for 15 minutes longer on high. Then add beef broth and stir again. Cover crockpot and cook on LOW for 7-9 hours until onions are tender.

Finishing touch:
Top sliced bread with shredded cheese. Place in broiler until cheese melts and bread is browned. Float a piece of toasted cheese bread in each serving.

This is one of my favorite recipes because it truly only dirties your crockpot. It is the only one I've found that doesn't require you to saute the onions in butter first.

Oh and the original recipe mentions that you need to peel the onions. I thought that was a given, but just in case I don't know my audience...please PEEL the onions, folks.

Head back over to BooMama's for other great recipes.