Friday - Heart Healthy

Did not do too much real cooking Thursday or Friday, enjoyed some leftovers and eating out.

Thursday lunch out at Beau Jack's in Bloomfield. Had special #6, a nice house salad, they even provided a chilled salad fork, with balsamic dressing, always on the side and a piedmontesse beef patty surrounded by steamed broccoli florets, looked and tasted really good. Healthy too.

Dinner at home was our leftover tuna casserole from Wednesday, which as usual, tastes better the second day anyway.

On Friday Deb and I had lunch at the Village Club and heard a speaker, Dr. Pamela A. Marcovitz who is the Director of Beaumont Hospitals’ Ministrelli Women’s Heart Center in Royal Oak, Mich. She was excellent and the Club, a women's club to which Deb is a member, provided a heart-healthy lunch to accompany her talk.

First course was a cream of cauliflower soup, no cream, but chicken broth and pureed cauliflower with parsley, everyone at our table raved about how good it was. They are going to add it to the Club menu as a result - great!

The main course was a broiled, served warm, chicken breast over a bed of fresh spinach with mandarin orange slices and a light raspberry vinaigrette. This would be very simple to replicate at home and I am sure we will this spring and summer. They did serve their traditional popovers, always a hit, and everyone at our table did have one, (some two, not me though), we were all healthy -- to a point.

Dessert was raspberry sherbet. Everyone was really pleased with the talk and the food. Dr. Marcovitz cited the foods we ate as really an important part of a healthy lifestyle and particularly a heart-healthy diet.

Back at home dinner was minted baby peas, salmon stuffed with crab, from Sam's Club, $9.91 for four servings and rice. Sam's, Costco and my third favorite Trader Joe's are my main food sources, although I have a several other, primarily local grocery and produce stores, for fresh items in reasonable quantities, I mean, just how many gallons of mayo can you use from the warehouse stores?

Tonight I am making Chicken Divan from the Gourmet Cookbook. Chicken and broccoli. I'll review later.

Bon Apetit!