Party time - HOTM #13, the roundup

So here it is, the roundup for this month's HotM, or should I call it the party menu for HotM's first birthday? I'll keep it short because I want to post it in time for your Easter shopping in case you find some dishes that you want to make for your Easter meals! But first of all we, me, Joanna and Michelle want to thank all of you who have contributed to HotM during this first year, if it wasn't for you we wouldn't be celebrating today! Thanks!


Starters and finger food:


We have a wonderful Roasted Garlic Hummus to dip our vegetables in or to spread on our crackers, it is Kevin from Closet Cooking who has made it for us!



These little beautiful Spinach Party Balls With Lime are created by Lore from Natural Cuisine, they are just perfect for our party are they not?



Mansi of Fun and Food has brought the prettiest Vegetable Bread Baskets,



I added another dip: Eggplant Dip with Chikpeas and Hazelnuts.


Main course:


Sarah of What Smells So Good has made a tasty tomato soup called Blackened Tomato Soup, you start with the tomatoes in the oven which means that the soup must be a concentrate of good flavours! She also kind enough to provide us a list of its nutritious values.


Aagje, from Leafy Cooking, is bringing Chicken laarb or laarb gai (Thai or Lao salad with chicken) to the party, a recipe she has got her cousin who came come from Indonesia. Fresh and appetizing!



Next to this we have Ann's classic Cannellini Bean Salad, healthy and ever so versatile dish, check out her serving suggestions over at Redacted Recipes!



Our faithful contributors Jai and Bee from Jugalbandi has brought Thai Green Curry (Gaeng Keow Wan), I love hot food so I know what I will add to my already full plate!



The inclusion of these Deep Fried Nori Shrimps might surprise you and I did confer with Joanna before accepting them for two reasons: one is that not all of us have 'ongoing' heart problems and if you follow the directions how do deep fry over at teczcape-an escape to Food you will see that you can do it in a healthy way. The second reason is that this just sounds too good not to be on this party table!



Spring Green Rice & Herb Salad, doesn't it look good? And healthy? It's LisaRene who brought it for us! Check out her recipe over at Little Bits!



And hurry up to get some of this Thyme-Braised Lentils with Petimezi and Pan-Fried Salmon from Laurie of Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska, I'm sure it wont last long!


I brought a Cauliflower Salad with Tomatos, Basil and Capers as well.

Desserts and sweets:



This party wouldn't be a party without Joanna, she is a big part of the success of the HotM event! She has made Pistachio marzipan and gives us suggestions on how to use it over at Joanna's Food!



And then we have Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe who has managed to make us heart healthy Spring Chocolate Brownies, I love it! Thanks!

HotM #13 Party Food

This month The Heart of the Matter - eating for life turns 1 year! For one whole year we have month after month been collecting heart healthy recipes at the HotM blog and with we I mean Joanna of Joanna's Food, Michelle of The Accidental Scientist and me but above all I mean you, all of you who have been participating! Thank You! We have done finger food, desserts, soups, pasta dishes, vegetables, fish and baking just to mention a few of the themes of the roundups this past year and here at the The Heart of The Matter blog you can go through all twelve of them whenever you need a heart healthy recipe. I'm sure you will find something over there, there are about 220 recipes collected and we hope they will continue to increase month by month!
One of the aims of this event is to show that eating heart healthy doesn't mean eating boring and I think that each and every recipe that has been submitted prove this. The event is aimed at all of us, not only for those of you who because of health reasons are obliged to eat heart healthy but also for those of us who are fortunate enough not to be restricted to a special diet; we all know how fickle life is so I think that eating heart healthy should become more of a rule than a exception. Don't you? So here we are with the first HotM anniversary and with Easter approaching so what else could we choose for the theme if not Party Food? We want you to send in the recipes of the food you would choose to serve at a party for Easter, food to eat together with others, the special food you want to share with your friends and your family on special occasions and because you love and like them the food is not only special, no it's also heart healthy! So you can send in recipes of almost anything as long as it is heart healthy, i.e. low in animal fat (lean meat, no butter, low fat dairy products etc.), no trans fat/hydrogenated fat, not too salty, not too sweet. If you need to know more, Joanna's got a post with basic rules that you might find useful. Send me (luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com) your entries before midnight the 19th of March and I'll do my very best to have the roundup posted the day after, Thursday 20th of March so that you have time to browse through the recipes to see if there's something you could make for your Easter feast or some other upcoming party! Link to the event so that we can spread some heart healthy awareness and remember that this is a single entry event so please don’t use your post for other events as we want things centred on the heart healthy aspect!