This cabbage dish and seed cracker snacks may not be pretty, but they’re delicious, healthy and inexpensive. Karen Schneider / For The Forecaster

Keeping up with the theme of American Heart Month, let’s whip on the oven and make two easy offerings – one is a dinner side dish and the other is for anytime-snacking.

Both these recipes may seem “weird” and they certainly aren’t pretty, but they’re both delicious and inexpensive.

Karen Schneider cooks and writes in the village of Cundy’s Harbor. You can reach her at iwrite33@comcast.net or 504-0545.

There’s a lot you can do with a nutrient-dense, low-calorie cabbage, king of the cruciferous. For this go-round, I added a leek to the pan. I found it relaxing in my fridge vegetable crisper, attempting to hide under a bunch of carrots – you know how that goes. I decided its day had come and sliced it lengthwise, then into a few big hearty chunks.

I’ve given you all a seed cracker recipe before containing oatmeal, but this one is nothing but seeds. Running a small amount of the mixed seeds in the food processor, then adding water to everything and letting the mixture sit for a few minutes is the trick here.

As I made yet another batch of these (I’m addicted), I rummaged through my extensive spice and dried herb cupboard, lamenting that there were no poppy seeds. (How could I have let that happen?) However, I came upon something better – Everything Bagel seasoning. Those little bits of dried onion and garlic nubbins are just the thing for these crackers.

You’ll want to keep an eye on both the crackers and the cabbage when they’re in the oven. For the cabbage, let’s just say there’s charred, and then there’s burned. The blackened bits will still taste really good and the texture will be tender but with plenty of crispy bits. But if you blacken the crackers, you’re going to need to start over.

Just spread that cracker “dough” as thinly as possible. To be honest, I don’t bother to make the lines for neat squares. I just randomly break up the fully cooked “sheet of seeds.” Before you turn that oven off, check the cracker bottoms, too. You want them to feel really crisp. Sometimes I break off the toasty brown edges first, then let the middle part bake longer. We don’t want blackened crackers, but we don’t want any soggy ones either.

Charred salt and vinegar cabbage

1 medium green cabbage, halved, cored and cut into chunks

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons butter

4 garlic cloves, smashed

1/3 cup vegetable or chicken broth

1/3 cup white vinegar

Flaky sea salt to finish

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Place the cabbage on a large, rimmed baking tray, distribute oil and butter, season, and roast for 15 minutes, until the cabbage is charred in spots. Turn it over, scatter the garlic cloves in the pan and roast for another 15 minutes.

Combine broth and vinegar in a measuring cup, then pour it over the cabbage in the pan and return it to the oven for a final 15-minute roasting time. (Yes, 15 minutes three times.) Finish with a sprinkling of sea salt.

Yield: 4 servings

Nothin’ but Seeds crackers

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1/3 cup whole flax seeds

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup whole chia seeds

2 tablespoons poppy seeds or 2 tablespoons Everything Bagel seasoning

1 teaspoon onion powder or garlic powder, optional

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, optional

1 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place all the seeds and seasonings in a bowl and combine well.

Scoop out a 1/2 cup of the seed mixture and process in a food processor until finely ground.

Mix the ground seed mixture into the remaining seeds and add the water. Mix until well combined, then let the mixture sit for 10 minutes or until most of the water has been absorbed.

Place a silicone mat or parchment paper on a 10-by-14-inch baking tray. Transfer the seed mixture to the tray and spread with the back of a spoon to about 1/8 inch thick, shaping it into a rectangle.

With a pizza cutter or sharp knife, score the seed mixture (to total 24 crackers, six rows by four columns). Bake for about 40 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through baking time, until the crackers are crispy and golden brown.

When done, remove from the oven and cut through the pre-cut crackers or just break them into freeform shapes. Allow to crisp up more on a cooling rack for 20-30 minutes before serving. Store any leftover crackers in a brown paper lunch bag.

Yield: 24 crackers