Low Sodium Frugal

Lower sodium coleslaw, on our other blog

2011-03-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

Food around here has been low sodium, but not low-low-low sodium, if you know what I mean. Mr. Fixit's sodium needs are at the point where we are okay with the "Gee whiz, it's 25% lower sodium" box of broth instead of the NO SALT AT ALL version that usually costs twice as much. So apologies to those of you who are limiting sodium more than this--I know you're out there.

I just posted our coleslaw adaption on our other blog. Really, the only thing I did to lower the sodium was to substitute McCormick's No Salt Added Table Shake Seasoning for the seasoned salt in the recipe. If you're really limiting sodium, you'll have to watch whatever mayonnaise etc. you use as a base. But the good thing is that this seasoning is extremely tasty in cabbage salad. It's made coleslaw--formerly a second-rate player around here--into something people look forward to.

And if you don't want to mess with a head of cabbage, pre-mixed coleslaw shreds make the recipe a whole lot easier, and they often go on sale. (They're also good in cabbage soup.)

New book from Megaheart

2010-08-29T04:39:00.000-07:00

Donald A. Gazzaniga's newest book, Living Well Without Salt, is just about to be released.

(Yes, we're still here! Still not back to eating Croatian cabbage-roll mix or half-cupfuls of soy sauce (probably just as well), but feeling much better than two years ago.)

Link to some bread updates

2010-04-19T04:51:00.001-07:00

And I'm still reading "Please, DON'T pass the salt," always a dependable blog.

This week they've posted a new article on baking low-sodium bread (and rolls, pizza etc.). If you're sodium-counting, this is definitely one of the tough spots, but Shambo has some experienced advice to offer.

Now how are you ever supposed to keep this straight?

2009-09-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

Breaking three months' quiet here to comment on the trickiness of labels and names of things...

I have here in front of me two cans of pasta sauce. One is Hunt's Thick & Rich Premium Pasta Sauce, Four Cheese flavour. The other is Primo Thick & Zesty, Original Recipe. I'm planning on making a stovetop lasagna for tonight's dinner, and wanted whichever of the two was lower in sodium since the additional ingredients in lasagna (like cheese) usually add some as well. (Although the last stovetop lasagna I made had hardly any cheese in it at all, because we had hardly any to use--and it turned out fine. So much for the gloppy restaurant versions.)

Anyway, which of the two would you guess would be lower in sodium? I'll let you think about it.

la la la la

The answer is: Thick & Rich Four Cheese. 480 mg sodium per half cup vs. 580 mg per the Thick & Zesty Original. Wouldn't you think the "four cheeses" would automatically make that one higher in sodium? Not if you can trust the labels.

Now I know you can mix either of those with unsalted tomato sauce, or unsalted tomatoes, or tomato paste, or whatever, and do all kinds of low-sodium tricks to lower the overall sodium content. Not a problem there. My point is just that you never can tell without reading the labels.

Globe and Mail sodium series continues

2009-06-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some links from this week's paper:

Ask dietitian Leslie Beck
Friday, Jun. 19, 2009 03:45PM EDT – Salt: Hard to Shake

Ask a doctor
Friday, Jun. 19, 2009 03:46PM EDT – Salt: Hard to Shake

The taste of things to come
Monday, Jun. 22, 2009 07:12PM EDT – by Carly Weeks – Salt: Hard to Shake
As Canadians consume about 3,100 milligrams of sodium a day -- more than double the recommended intake -- food manufacturers are looking to slash the …

Salt this away
Monday, Jun. 22, 2009 12:00AM EDT – by Carolyn Bennett – Letters to the Editor

How Canada is losing the war on salt
Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2009 09:32PM EDT – by André Picard – Salt: Hard to Shake
While other countries deal with the sodium threat, Ottawa has yet to produce a plan to reduce ‘the silent invader in our food supply'…

Don't pass the salt
Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2009 07:10PM EDT – by Heather Sokoloff – Salt: Hard to Shake The Globe talks to some of the country's top food talents about their flavour-boosting tips and what home cooks can do to punch up the taste while cut…

Still married and salt-free
Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2009 12:00AM EDT – by Zelda Ruth Harris – Letters to the Editor

Reach for citrus, spices and peppers instead
Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2009 12:00AM EDT – by HEATHER SOKOLOFF – Life

GOURMET V. IODIZED TABLE SALT
Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2009 12:00AM EDT – by CARLY WEEKS – Life

The Globe and Mail sodium series

2009-06-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Globe and Mail is running a series on hidden salt and the problems of trying to cut sodium in your diet--oh, like we hadn't noticed that it's really hard? Of course it's not as simple as "Don't add salt to the vegetables." Here's their article "Salt: Hard to Shake."

Thankfully, Mr. Fixit's current diet recommendations are just to "take it easy on salt"--meaning, watch out for things like convenience foods, soy sauce, the real bad stuff. He is still trying to be careful by comparing labels, and choosing the frozen fries that are lowest in sodium (the generic ones, oddly enough), Shredded Wheat over higher-sodium cereals, and so on. But that is not nearly so hard as the 1500 mg per day he was trying to do six months ago.

Anyway, here are the Globe and Mail Sodium Diaries--someone "taking the challenge." Here's a video--yes, the first bit is a commercial for accountants. Here's a quiz to take. And here's a "salt-o-meter" you can play with.

Italpasta Diced Tomatoes, No-Salt

2009-03-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

Last week our local paper ran a recipe that included "no-salt canned diced tomatoes." I thought, yeah right--I've been looking since last September and haven't seen any around here.

On Saturday we went to the independent supermarket, and, lo and behold, there they were. Italpasta Diced Tomatoes, no-salt version, in 28-oz. cans, for 99 cents apiece.

So maybe I'll dig out that recipe out of the recycling bin after all.

Low-Sodium Cookbook, bargain priced

2009-02-19T18:08:00.001-08:00

For those of you in Canada: Hampstead House Books in Toronto, a great remaindered/overstock mail order business, is currently offering Donald A. Gazzaniga's The No-Salt Lowest-Sodium Light Meals Book for $5.99 Canadian (plus GST and shipping). You can order it online here.

Good deal!

Ouch, this one is a no-go

2009-01-25T16:59:00.000-08:00

I clicked on this recipe via a frugal-meal website.

Um, no. Check the nutrition box and then realize that the sodium count doesn't even include the dry salad dressing mix. Yikes. Heart-attack-in-a-Crockpot.

Mr. Fixit's nutritionist recently upped his sodium allowance--apparently because of some current controversy over just how much low-sodium diets do or don't help CHF.

Even with a bit more salt on the menu, though, I don't think that recipe's even a candidate for a makeover.

Oh well--there are other things to eat.

Online low-sodium recipes

2009-01-18T07:25:00.001-08:00

Reminder to self: even when all the library books have been returned, there are still lots of low-sodium recipes online. Sometimes it feels like we're always re-inventing the wheel, so it's nice to have an online "cookbook" to go and browse in.

One post, lots of ideas

2009-01-16T07:30:00.001-08:00

Please, Don't Pass the Salt is trying to use up some cottage cheese (I'm envious, the no-salt stuff we have here is the texture of cotton wads).

SPAM in the place where you live...

2009-01-14T13:04:00.001-08:00

(It's from a Weird Al song, in case you didn't know)

The DHM beat me to this Globe and Mail story about economically-stressed Canadians stocking up on canned stuff.

Yeah, Mama Squirrel is scratching her furry little head over this story too. We're kind of out of the loop on some of this stuff anyway, due both to Mr. Fixit's diet limitations and the fact that canned soup went way up in price this past year. But really--even in the tough times, there are other things to eat than That Stuff in the Can.

Sodium 101 Help Site (Canadian)

2009-01-14T12:02:00.001-08:00

Long introduction--but worth checking out.

Macaroni and cheese--legally

2008-12-01T15:12:00.001-08:00

Please, Don't Pass the Salt has posted detailed instructions for cutting the sodium in homemade macaroni and cheese.

Hey, we could do this: Maple Dijon Chicken

2008-11-30T10:46:00.001-08:00

A recipe from A Year of Crockpotting that could easily be made low-sodium (depends on your broth).

(But I forgot to get bay leaves too!)

Ruby's Lemon Delight: Sodium Count

2008-11-30T05:46:00.000-08:00

I did the math on Ruby's Lemon Delight and there seem to be two factors that would make it either a yes or a no: the graham crumbs, and how big a piece you eat.

No-salt margarine, brown and white sugar, and the lemon add up to about 1 mg sodium.

A 370 can of 2% evaporated milk contains 370 mg sodium. (That was easy.)

A 4-serving box of lemon gelatin powder contains 400 mg (at least the brand I bought).

But 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs adds up to 1600 mg sodium. (UPDATE: I forgot to say that then if you cut the dessert in 8 servings (as written), each serving has roughly 300 mg of sodium. Cut in 10, each serving would have about 237 mg sodium.)

So your choices are: go with it and have a little piece; reduce the amount of crumbs (which you could do--see below); or use another kind of crumbs. I've only made this recipe a couple of times and never tried substituting; but the Sodium Count of Common Foods lists "cookie crumbs" at almost half the sodium of graham crumbs. I assume they mean something like 'Nilla Wafer crumbs? Or Arrowroot? Or homemade low-sodium cookie crumbs? (You could try Donald Gazzaniga's Homemade Low-sodium Graham Crackers too.)

You could reduce the amount of crumbs by using only the bottom part, and skipping the part you put aside for topping. Or you could just make a thinner bottom layer of crumbs--use, say, 1 1/2 cups total crumbs rather than 2 cups, and cut the butter and brown sugar a bit. I think that would turn out about as well.

Or just have a bit, and don't make a habit of it.

(P.S. Interesting: while searching for "graham crackers"+sodium, I came across a cardiac-care website that lists graham crackers as one of the acceptable snack foods on a low-salt diet. Some things I will just never understand.)

From the supermarket: No-salt pita bread

2008-11-29T11:03:00.000-08:00

Store: independent supermarket
Product: Zeus Flat Greek Pita, 100% Whole Wheat, baked by Breadko National Baking Limited, Mississauga, Ontario. There's a website listed on the bag, but it just goes to an error message. There is a description on The Daily Plate, though.

Ingredient: Whole wheat flour, filtered water, yeast, canola oil, calcium propionate.
Sodium Count: 5 mg sodium per half pita.

Way to go, Breadko!

Menus for this week

2008-11-29T06:05:00.001-08:00

500 Low Sodium Recipes had to go back to the library, so this week I'm working with some other recipes. These are the plans...again, I'm planning for more than one week, just in case things change or I need some emergency meals.

Saturday: Sloppy Joes (I've been trying to adapt our house favourite), salad/vegetable. ALREADY CHANGED: we found a good deal on chicken breasts, tortillas were still 99 cents a package, so we're going with chicken fajitas instead.

Sunday: the usual Sunday meat dinner, potatoes, vegetables. Lemon Delight...I haven't figured out the sodium count on this one, but I'm hoping it's not too bad if we use no-salt margarine and go easy on the graham crumbs. Check back on that one--I'll try to come up with a count.

Monday: Cheese ravioli and spaghetti sauce, salad

Tuesday: Salmon patties (using low-sodium saltines, no salt etc.), frozen french fries, frozen corn.

Wednesday: Crockpot falafel (adapted to be lower sodium), couscous, salad and chopped vegetables, mini pitas,yogurt, clementines, figs. You may notice we're not serving the falafel IN the pitas--last time I did that nobody here seemed to be interested. So I thought I'd just serve the patties along with some mini-pitas--maybe they can make mini-falafels! (UPDATE: I couldn't find mini-pitas but we did find low-sodium whole-wheat pitas, so I'll use those.)

Thursday: "Evan's Mom's Ground Chicken Skillet" (scroll down for recipe)--made with tomato paste and milk rather than canned soup. I haven't tried this yet without salt--I might add a bit of some other kind of seasoning.

Friday: Italian Rice-cheese balls, herbed bean and pepper stir-fry, cauliflower salad, oranges or other fruit, cookies. (This was a menu I clipped a long time ago from Vegetarian Times and made a few times for semi-special occasions; most of the dishes are already quite low in sodium, and if we can find a low-sodium mozzarella that works to stuff the balls with, we're home-free. Oh--I know--we could use mini bocconcini balls! I think this recipe is an adaptation of the one I use, but there's no sodium count given. Here's another from the VT site (more recent than my clipping); sodium count is fairly high.)

Saturday #2: Sweet-potato pancakes (like latkes; homemade seasoning mix and leave out the salt), sausages (not low-sodium--small piece), sauerkraut (low-sodium kind), applesauce

Sunday #2: Honey-mustard chicken or Applesauce Chicken, noodles, peas.

Monday #2: Beef-spinach tortillas (adapted), rice, salad

Dinner menus for this week

2008-11-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

Most of this week's recipes are coming (again) from Dick Logue's 500 Low Sodium Recipes. I didn't plan the menus before we went shopping; we did it backwards this week, went shopping, picked up what we needed and what looked good, and decided what to do with it afterwards.

Sunday:
Pork chops & low-sodium sauerkraut, potatoes (either plain baked or instant mashed), butternut squash, bean salad (frozen beans, green pepper, kidney beans, homemade dressing), homemade pumpernickel bread, cookies, grapes. [Comment on the bean salad recipe: I used only half the recommended amount of Europe's Best green and yellow beans--otherwise it would have been way too much for us. I also left out the onion.]

Monday:
Frozen cheese ravioli, tomato sauce, salad, maybe garlic breadsticks. I was going to make Creamy Mushroom Sauce (p. 316) but realized I bought only enough mushrooms for the Pork Stew--so we'll try that another time on something that doesn't already have cheese in it.

Tuesday:
Baked fish, fries, peas, Pineapple Coleslaw (apple, green pepper, shredded cabbage, shredded carrot, crushed pineapple, vinegar, sugar)

Wednesday:
Chicken Chow Mein (chicken breasts, frozen vegetables, chicken broth, soy sauce substitute, cornstarch, water chestnuts (optional)); rice.

Thursday:
Hot dogs, canned baked beans, leftovers

Friday:
Pork Stew (pork, can no-salt tomatoes, onion, peppers, chicken broth, mushrooms, flour, seasonings); fusilli (spiral macaroni); Pineapple Sherbet (leftover pineapple and bananas, frozen and put through the food processor)

Saturday:
Beef Burritos (double the recipe) (ground beef, onion, green pepper, kidney beans, tortillas, sour cream cheese, seasonings); rice, salad, ice cream and bananas

From the health-food store: vegetable bouillon cubes

2008-11-22T12:40:00.000-08:00

Product: Harvest Sun Low Sodium vegetable bouillon cubes

Ingredients: (Low Sodium): Organic starch (potato, corn), yeast extract, organic non-hydrogenated palm oil, organic carrots, organic leeks, organic onions, organic lovage, organic celery leaves, organic parsley, organic garlic, organic nutmeg.

Specs: (Low-Sodium): Serving size: 1/2 cube Servings per Container: 12 Calories: 20Carbohydrates: 2.5g Fat: 0.9g Sodium: 89mg Sugars: 0g Fiber: 0.2g Protein: 0.8g

Upside: This has an even better sodium count than the Rapunzel brand that Healthy Heart Market carries. (Rapunzel has 101 mg sodium per half cube, which should make 1 cup of broth.) Also, all Harvest Sun cubes are MSG-free and gluten-free.

Downside: kind of expensive. I didn't buy any--decided to think about it first. Also the low-sodium variety comes only in vegetable flavour, not chicken or beef.

From the supermarket: Taco Rio Tortillas

2008-11-22T12:27:00.001-08:00

We found Taco Rio brand whole-wheat tortillas on sale today for 99 cents a package, and snapped up four packages.

Product: Taco Rio 100% Whole Wheat tortillas
Sodium count: 154 mg sodium per 7" tortilla (about the same as the Weight Watcher's kind we couldn't find last week)

This is one of those places where you want to watch which variety you're getting. Taco Rio also makes a low-fat white-flour version with 242 mg sodium per tortilla; that's the same sodium count as their regular white-flour tortillas.

From the supermarket: Country Harvest Plus Bread

2008-11-22T11:42:00.000-08:00

I noticed that Country Harvest 100% Whole Grain Plus bread has only 120 mg sodium per slice.

There's more information about the bread on the Country Harvest site. (Hard to find an actual nutrition box there, though.)

If you click on their products, the website says that they've also reduced the sodium in some of their other breads--might be worth looking into!

From the supermarket: No-name Crinkle Cut Fries

2008-11-22T11:36:00.001-08:00

Store: independent supermarket
Product: No-name Crinkle Cut French Fried Potatoes
Sodium count: 45 mg per 16 pieces; not quite as good as the shoestring fries we bought previously, but not bad (it kind of makes sense anyway, because the fries are bigger)

If you click on that link to TheDailyPlate.com, you'll be shown a box where you can request the names of "lower sodium alternatives." I clicked, and this is what it came up with--my laugh for the day.

"Tip: Try one of these other items from No Name instead of the Crinkle Cut French Fried Potatoes to consume less sodium.
Frozen Vegetables, Italian-Style(45mg less sodium)
Chocolate Hazelnut Spread(45mg less sodium)
Ice Pop(45mg less sodium)
Sugar Cone(45mg less sodium)"

Nutella is tasty, but I don't know if it's really a substitute for french fries!

From the supermarket: Roman Brand Frozen Pasta

2008-11-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

We were happily surprised to notice that one of our old standbys, Roman brand frozen tortellini and ravioli, are fairly low in sodium, at least the cheese-filled variety. (The meat-filled versions are slightly higher, but not too awful.) Roman Cheese Products (based in Niagara Falls) doesn't seem to have a website, but they're listed in this business directory. I've seen their products in the freezer case of many supermarkets around here.

Add a low-sodium sauce, and you have an instant meal.

Product: Roman Cheese Ravioli
Sodium content: 110 mg per 1/4 of a 454 g package

Product: Roman Cheese Tortellini with Spinach Noodles (the green ones)
Sodium content: 150 mg per 1/4 of a 454 g package

Befuddled by broths?

2008-11-16T12:30:00.001-08:00

Please, Don't Pass the Salt has a very informative post today comparing different brands of low-sodium chicken broth and also different types of dry bouillon.

Now somebody just can't count

2008-11-16T11:24:00.000-08:00

I bought some wafer cookies at Dollarama on Saturday. Not that I was expecting them to be particularly high or low in sodium, but I was a little startled when I turned the package over (out of habit) and saw the nutrition box. 0 mg sodium? My, somebody should blog about these.

So I looked at the ingredients. Ingredients include: baking soda, salt.

Now it seems to me that you can't put salt IN something and have it come out at 0 mg sodium. Very low, maybe. "Not a significant source of sodium," maybe--as some packages say. But not 0.

Somebody needs to do their math a little better. Because somebody might actually take that nutrition box seriously.

Why we skipped the tortillas

2008-11-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

I had Weight Watchers brand tortillas on the list, because they're lower in sodium than some other commercial flour tortillas.

But Food Basics just didn't have any. Weight Watchers bread, Weight Watchers buns, but no tortillas. At least, none that were close to the 150 mg sodium Weight Watchers claims.

So I'll either have to make a trip to another store on Monday, or just skip the tortillas this week and make something else.

Saturday Shopping

2008-11-15T15:07:00.000-08:00

OK, I said something about putting cookies and pizza in the cart?

That's what happened and we did go over budget. But surprisingly, not by a whole lot. There were a couple of reasons for that: we turned out not to need any cheese; we haven't made it to the health food store or the bulk food store; and there were a couple of things we just forgot to get.

But we didn't do too badly, and some of my estimates turned out to be just about right on.

(Sorry for the lack of photos a la Grocery Cart Challenge--it was enough just getting everything into the fridge without lining it all up for a photo shoot.)

First we stopped at Dollarama, where (among other things) we picked up a 450 g (1 lb.) bag of brown sugar, 2 packages of wafer cookies, 2 boxes of macaroni and cheese, 4 pudding mixes (I make hot drink mixes with them--not low-sodium), and a liter box of orange juice. Total: $7.

Second trip: Food Basics. The items from my list turned out as follows (some amounts rounded off):

Chicken breasts, 6.23
Ground beef, $9
2 cans no-salt ground tomatoes (they didn't have whole or diced, good thing I have a couple of backup cans) and 2 cans t. paste, $3
Ketchup, $4
Spoon-size Shredded Wheat, $4
Milk, $8
Eggs, $2
2 loaves of bread, $5
Other dairy items (sour cream, yogurt, butter, Becel no-salt margarine) $13.14
Frozen spinach $1
Fresh fruit, $11.72
Potatoes, $3
Fresh vegetables, $8.23
Carton of juice, $2.79

Total: $81.11.

Individual yogurts and juice boxes for lunches came to $8.58, and we spent $8.90 on non-food items and sales tax. (Yes, I'd prefer to put my own yogurt in small containers, but I don't have a say in that.)

What else did we buy that went over budget? A few items were things that we were suddenly out of. Some of it was good deals, some of it was What Other People Put in the Cart. We're a family, after all, and other peoples' ideas count too.

Frozen green beans, $3.19 (I really want to try that Bean Salad)
Whole chicken, $6.99 (Mr. Fixit likes to make soup)
2 pkg bagels, $2.50
2 frozen pizzas, $8
Turnovers for Sunday breakfast, $3.59
Instant coffee, $3.39
Honey, $3.39 (some of our bread recipes use honey)
Wieners, $1.69
2 more containers juice, total of $4.25
Canned tuna and salmon, total of $4.98

Extra food items: $38.81.

Cafeteria Chow

2008-11-15T05:34:00.001-08:00

I never posted about Mr. Fixit's lunchtime hospital checkup, did I?

Well, they got the times a little mixed up--when he got there, the first person he was to see was on lunch break. They told him to come back in half an hour.

So he went down to the cafeteria and asked the "cafeteria lady" what they had that he could eat. She thought for a minute and then said that their special that day was cabbage rolls, and that the sauce was a commercial high-sodium one but that they made the stuffing themselves and that it either didn't have salt in it or didn't have much, I forget which. So she took two cabbage rolls, scraped off the sauce, and served them on a bed of rice.

Some days you just grab that brass ring, right?! (If you've just popped in here, cabbage rolls are one of Mr. Fixit's favourite foods in the world. Especially served on sauerkraut, but you can't have everything.)

P.S. The checkup went well too.

Menus for this week

2008-11-13T15:39:00.000-08:00

Gayle at Grocery Cart Challenge posted her week's menus and shopping trip results (including photos), and I based this week's menus (actually enough for ten days) on some of her ideas. Instead of adapting the recipes she used, I decided to use mostly similar-sounding recipes from 500 Low Sodium Recipes. (Page numbers are from that cookbook.) A couple of the other recipes are from the Hillbilly Housewife website.

Breakfasts are pretty much what anybody wants to eat, but I often make hot cereal or have muffins on hand.

Lunches are usually leftovers, sandwiches, or something else simple.

Dinner Menus:

Saturday (Mom's evening out--need something simple to clean up): Waffles, low-sodium bacon, fruit

Sunday (our "company dinner" night): Italian-style shake-in-the-bag chicken (p. 324, double the recipe), serve with sweet potatoes and salad.

Monday: Miss Maggie's Lentil-Rice Tortillas (with the beef powder omitted), with cheese, salsa, chopped peppers, lettuce, etc.

Tuesday: Spinach lasagna, made with homemade ricotta cheese (it's easier than it sounds--just don't salt it) and Miss Maggie's Almost Instant Pizza Sauce (or a similar home-concocted version). Salad, no-salt pretzels to munch on.

Wednesday: Sesame Chicken (p. 382), Chinese vegetables (frozen), rice, Mandarin Muffins

Thursday (our "easy night" when we often have hot dogs or boxed macaroni and cheese or something else the younger kids like): Minestrone (p. 219), Homemade no-salt rolls, cheese, cold cuts, sardines, etc.; probably also some leftover lasagna

Friday: Crazy Crust Pizza (p. 343, double the recipe) ; leftovers from the last couple of nights

Saturday: Salsa Stew (p. 359), tortilla chips, sour cream

Sunday: Roast pork, potatoes, vegetables, bean salad (p. 261), homemade Pumpernickel Bread (p. 438)

Monday: Baked fish, potatoes, vegetables.

A couple of notes: I'm planning on making Don's Soy Sauce Replacement, from his International Cookbook p. 37. There is a soy sauce recipe in 500 Low Sodium Recipes, but I still don't have the low-sodium beef powder called for, so I'm going to try the other one instead. I'm also planning on making a batch of ketchup.

I haven't written in desserts--I do often have cookies or something else made by dinner time, but I don't always know ahead of time what desserts will be or if we'll just have apples or something.

Like Gayle, I base my shopping lists partly on what I already have, so if I post a grocery list here, it will be incomplete--in other words, don't take it to the store. Also, we have other people eating here besides Mr. Fixit--including a couple of lunch-takers, one who prefers purchased-on-sale frozen entrees. (So what doesn't sound low-sodium is for them.) But just to make things clear, here's more or less what we have on hand (whatever's relevant, anyway).

Canola oil, olive oil, some unsalted butter & margarine (Lactantia Unsalted)
Onions, carrots, celery
2 cans no-salt-added tomatoes
herbs & seasonings, cider vinegar, rice vinegar, sesame oil
frozen green and yellow beans, frozen Zen Vegetables
canned no-salt white beans
pasta, rice
Unsalted-top saltines, reduced-sodium Triscuits
some white bread flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour
rolled oats, 10-grain cereal, Creamy Wheat, cold cereal
yeast, baking powder, baking soda (both regular type, not low-sodium), cocoa
some eggs, egg substitute
jam, homemade pancake syrup
sugar, honey, molasses (Grandma Molasses, 10 mg sodium/tbsp.)
some cheese
bottled juice
canned tuna, salmon, sardines
dried lentils, kidney beans, chick peas
jar of salsa, mustard, relish (not low-sodium), a bit of no-salt ketchup
milk powder
sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, no-salt pretzels, raisins
canned mandarin oranges, pineapple, unsweetened applesauce
frozen pork loin, reduced-sodium bacon, Alaskan Pollock, stew beef

Based on this week's Food Basics flier and my own estimates, I made up the following shopping list. Gayle originally tried to keep her week's purchases under US$50 but has found $60 more realistic; I'm not sure we can do it this week for under $100 (Canadian) (and if anybody throws frozen pizzas or cookies into the cart, we're over the top). Here's a planned $100 worth of groceries:

Chicken breasts, 3 lb. @2.99/lb. = $9
Ground beef, 1 lb. $4? (might get away with less)

Flour tortillas, Weight Watchers brand (150 mg per tortilla, which is not much over the best that Dick Logue said he could find)
2 cans tomatoes, 2 cans tomato paste, 2 cans no-salt sauce--total $5
Ketchup (Heinz, the regular stuff) $2
Spoon Size Shredded Wheat $4
Milk, 8 L $8
Eggs, doz. $2
Bread (regular type), 2 loaves -- Total, between $3-5
Other dairy items: yogurt, sour cream, margarine, butter, cheese-- total $15
Frozen spinach $1
Fresh fruit $5
Bag potatoes $3
Other vegetables: zucchini (optional, it's getting late in the season for that), chives, mushrooms, lettuce, garlic, sweet potatoes $6
Extra carton of juice $3
Lunch items & cold cuts $10

Health food store: 2 boxes low-sodium chicken broth--I think that comes to about $6

Bulk store: flour, brown sugar, small amount wheat germ, a few spices we're getting low on, and a bag of no-salt tortilla chips -- $10.

(Gayle counts non-food items like shampoo into her budget, but I don't.)

So--check back in on Saturday, and I'll let you know how we did!

2008-11-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

World Famous Recipes hosts this week's Recipe Carnival, which includes our Lowering the Sodium, if not the fat: Perogy Casserole. (Am I the only one who's having trouble reading it, though?)

What's for supper?

2008-11-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

Leftover pork, cut up and perched in the Crockpot on top of onion, carrot and garlic slices (vegetables always go in first, and cut them thin), topped with some no-salt canned tomatoes, leftover gravy from the roast pork, and a sprinkle of pepper and paprika. Cook on High all afternoon.

Traditionally served with potatoes or something doughy. I'm thinking either some of those shoestring fries, or noodles (even lower in sodium than the fries). And frozen peas.

Dessert: a thin slice of last night's pie (contributed by our dinner company), since it won't keep any longer than that, and since it's one of Mr. Fixit's absolute favourites.

OK, I guess we won't be using this anytime soon

2008-11-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

Cleaning out the cupboards...I came across a package of Vegeta Fantastic Seasoning Mix for Stuffed Peppers and Cabbage. It makes Croatian/Schwabian-style cabbage rolls just like Mr. Fixit's grandmother used to make.

Sodium count: 1/5 of the package (approximately what one person would eat) = 1, 450 mg sodium. Ingredients: Wheat flour, salt, corn starch, dehydrated onion, dried whole egg, spices, monosodium glutamate, hydrogenated vegetable fat.

Humph. No wonder it tasted so good.

From the gourmet store: Low-sodium strained tomatoes

2008-11-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

Not the cheapest tomato product you can buy, but an interesting alternative to canned tomatoes (these come in a no-refrigeration-needed box). They're imported from Italy and distributed by a company in New Jersey.

Product: Pomi Strained Tomatoes, 750 g box. (About the same amount as a 28-oz. can.)
Sodium count: 10 mg per half cup.

Our box doesn't look just like that photo, but close enough. More info.

Now wouldn't this be a good idea?

2008-11-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking this one over for quite awhile.

Mr. Fixit has another hospital checkup tomorrow. At noon (dumb time, they don't give you any choice about these things). Figure this out--at a hospital that prides itself on its cardiac care, there's no really suitable place where he can get a quick lunch either before or afterwards. There's a Big Chain Coffee and Donut Shop in the lobby. There's a cafeteria in the basement where he could probably manage to find a salad along with the other typical cafeteria stuff they sell, but that's not much lunch either. One night while Mr. Fixit was in the hospital two months ago, we came and had dinner in the cafeteria, and there wasn't much there that he could legally eat.

And consider this: you're in the hospital. Typically, you're stuck in your room or on your floor for several days, say after you've had a heart attack or surgery or some other treatment. Finally they let you take the elevator down to the first floor for a change. And what's there? Mmm, donuts.

Am I the only one who's ever smacked my head over this?

If the hospital really wanted to be innovative, they should start a healthy, low-sodium snack bar. Sell sandwiches made on low-sodium bread. Low-sodium soups. Healthy baking. Fair-trade coffee for those who can have it, and herbal teas and carrot juice for everybody else. (Yes, I know the Big Chain also sells herbal teas. Don't be nitpicky.)

Would anybody buy it, or would they all walk past it to the Big Chain? I don't know.

But wouldn't it be worth a shot to find out?

P.S. Oh, you know what else they could sell? Either there or in the gift shop...cookbooks for different medical needs. Or have a resource library in the waiting rooms. Low-sodium, gluten-free, diabetic, low-fat, whatever. Somebody you love is sick and is going to come home needing special food...you're wandering around the hospital anyway. I am frugal about books, but I would have happily shucked out twenty bucks for a low-salt cookbook if they'd had one there handy to buy.

From the supermarket: Low-salt shoestring fries

2008-11-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

Product: No-name Shoestring French-fried Potatoes
Sodium count: reasonable (I'll type it in when I pull the package out again); something like 32 mg per 30 fries.

These aren't labelled as low-sodium, but they're the only ones we found at the supermarket that had a reasonable sodium count. Don't bake them too long, they're skinny and can get overdone quickly.

From the bulk store: Unsalted pretzels

2008-11-02T07:14:00.001-08:00

Store: Bulk Barn
Item: Unsalted pretzels (traditional loopy shape)
Sodium count: 140 mg per 100 g serving
Ingredients: Unbleached enriched wheat flour, malt, soybean oil, yeast.

These are the only unsalted pretzels I've found so far in our area, and I've looked in several places including health food stores. The Bulk Barn has yellow arrows pointing to all the unsalted nuts and similar bulk snacks--I appreciate that. (They also have unsalted roasted corn kernels--you know, the big ones you just about break your teeth on?)

Chocolate Cake in a Mug

2008-10-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

The link to this chocolate microwave cake-in-a-mug has been passed around some of the blogs that I read, and today I finally looked at the actual recipe. (Another post about it, this one with photos.)

No salt, no baking powder, no baking soda. How does it rise? Dunno. But that would make it...well, if not exactly "healthy," at least pretty much low sodium. I'm intrigued. (Recipezaar has a version of it here with a nutrition box, but that version includes 1/8 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. baking powder so it's not totally accurate. There's also a "diabetic low-sodium" version.)

On my way to check it out.

RESULTS: I just followed the recipe (used Canadian all-purpose flour) and had no trouble or strange textures; my mug was big enough that the batter didn't do anything ugly over the side, either. I think the people who leave the most negative comments about recipes (and there are plenty on that second link) are usually the ones who didn't follow the directions. Verdict: three snack-sized servings, pretty tasty, and it came out of the mug nicely after a few minutes' cooling. It reminds me of the cake part of that dessert where you end up with chocolate cake-and-sauce. (But that one has baking powder in it.)

Low-Sodium Pineapple Chicken (my adaptation)

2008-10-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

I adapted this a bit from the Polynesian Chicken recipe in Dick Logue's 500 Low Sodium Recipes.

Pineapple Chicken

1 lb. boneless chicken thighs, thawed (or mostly thawed)
1 8-oz can pineapple chunks in juice, drained (reserve the juice) (all I had was a 16-oz can of pineapple rings, so I drained them and saved half the juice)
1 red pepper, cut up (I used a red and a yellow pepper, and also (later) added some frozen Oriental-style vegetables; the original recipe called for chopped onion, but I left it out)
The reserved pineapple juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup liquid honey
Pinch of powdered ginger (my addition; fresh ginger might have been good too)
Cornstarch if needed

The recipe said to grease/spray a 9 x 13 inch pan, to arrange the chicken thighs in the pan, cover them with the pineapple and chopped peppers, and then to combine the pineapple juice, vinegar and honey and pour over everything; then to bake it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until done.

Well, one of the small failings with this cookbook is that I'm never sure when to cook something covered and when not. I started everything in a Pyrex pan with some foil over the top, but I wasn't happy with it, especially when I added in a few frozen vegetables and everything suddenly kind of piled up. I decided to dump the whole thing into a larger, lidded casserole and cook it for awhile like that.

When it was pretty much done, I gave it a taste and thought the sauce wasn't bad, for not having any soy sauce in it; but it kind of needed something to perk it up--so I sprinkled a little powdered ginger into it. I also noticed that there was getting to be quite a lot of liquid--I think that does happen when you cook with a lid on vs. an open pan. So I mixed 1 tbsp. cornstarch with a little cold water and added that in too. I cooked the whole thing a little while longer--without a lid-- and served it with basmati rice. Total cooking time was longer than the recommended 45 minutes, but that would all depend on how much chicken you have, how frosty it was to start with, and so on. I think cooking with a lid on can also lengthen cooking time. I'd allow an hour, especially with a lid.

I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. We don't often have chicken thighs, but I think they're often tastier than breast meat--they're good in a sauce like this. The vinegar didn't overpower the sauce, either, which I have seen happen sometimes with other recipes.

Lowering the Sodium, if not the fat: Perogy Casserole

2008-10-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

This was a favourite before we started having to lower the sodium in recipes, and I’ve been thinking for awhile about ways to do that, especially since I noticed that instant mashed potatoes can be prepared to be low in sodium. So this post is about the process of playing with ingredients—and doing the math.

The recipe for Lazy Perogy Casserole or Perogy Lasagna has been posted all over the Internet. Basically you have three layers of cooked lasagna noodles. Between one layer you put a mixture of cottage cheese, egg and onion salt (see substitutions below). Between the other you put mashed potatoes—homemade or instant--mixed with cheddar cheese, salt, pepper and more onion salt. Over the top you pour chopped onions cooked soft in a generous amount of butter or margarine (obviously this is not a low-fat recipe either), and “serve with sour cream and cheddar cheese.” (The Recipezaar version says it makes 8 servings with 706 mg per serving; cut into 6 servings would put it up over 940 mg per serving.)

(Note on the amount of margarine: the original recipe calls for cooking the onion in a whole cupful of margarine, but I've never used that much--half a cup seems to be enough. I will admit that the top layer of noodles can get a bit tough with the smaller amount of fat--so make sure they're covered with a lid or with foil, and try not to overcook them.)

When I looked at the sodium content of the ingredients, the really high sodium culprits were the cheddar cheese and the cottage cheese. Since cottage cheese has traditionally been a “diet food,” it isn’t one of the first things you think of as being high in sodium, but it often is. We had two different brands in the fridge, and the lower-sodium of the two (Nordica 2%) has 410 mg sodium per half cup. The recipe calls for two cups of cottage cheese, which is going to add a honkin’ 1,640 mg sodium to the recipe. So one problem right there. (See the comment about using no-salt cottage cheese--that would definitely help! On the other hand, Please Don't Pass the Salt doesn't care for no-salt cottage cheese but has a couple of alternatives.)

The choice of cheddar or another cheese to mix with the potatoes is the other problem. You could just omit it entirely. Or you could add just a little. We had some mild Cheddar in the fridge that contains 210 mg sodium per ounce (or per 30 g). One ounce is not a very big piece; the recipe calls for a whole cup of shredded cheese, which is obviously going to be too much; but one ounce is a bit skimpy.

Homemade mashed potatoes, mashed with water and without any milk or margarine, would lower the sodium content a bit too; but I used instant mashed potato flakes, prepared without salt and using no-salt margarine and 1% milk.

And obviously you are going to substitute onion powder for onion salt.

I added up the sodium content of the basic ingredients, using one ounce of Cheddar:

Onions: about 2 mg per onion
Pepper, onion powder: about 1 mg total
No-salt margarine: 0 mg
Egg replacer, 1 tsp. (we're out of eggs): 15 mg. 1 med egg is 55 mg sod, 1 large is 63. (So in this case being out of something was a good thing!)
Nordica 2% Cottage Cheese, 2 cups: 1,640 mg
Mild cheddar, 1 oz.: 210 mg (this is somewhat higher than the 176 mg listed in the Sodium Content of Common Foods--so maybe the cheese you get would be lower than ours)
Idahoan instant potato flakes: 75 mg
1% milk (used in potatoes): 60 mg
Lasagna noodles: 0 mg

Total sodium in the recipe: about 2000 mg.
Guessing about 6 servings, that would be 333 mg sodium per serving.

Not horrendous, but it's still higher than a typical entree in the low-sodium cookbooks.

So here's where you can start to play with the numbers. Would you rather have less of that sodium-loaded cottage cheese, or skip the cheddar? There really aren't any other places to cut back.

I decided to cut the cottage cheese in half and use two ounces of cheddar--losing a total 820 mg sodium but adding 210 mg per recipe makes 1390 total mg, divided by six servings comes out to 231.6 mg sodium per serving, with the ingredients we used. (Your mileage may vary.)

To sum it up, here's the revised recipe:

Cook 15 lasagna noodles in a potful of boiling water.
Prepare 2 cupfuls of mashed potatoes (you can use the same pot.)
Grate or chop 2 ounces Cheddar cheese and mix with the mashed potatoes; add some pepper and 1/4 tsp. onion powder.
Mix 1 cup cottage cheese with 1 egg or equivalent replacer, and another 1/4 tsp. onion powder.
Melt 1/2 cup no-salt margarine in a small skillet or pot; add 1 small onion, chopped small; cook until onion is soft.

Grease or spray a 9 x 13 inch pan; if you have one with a lid, use that; otherwise you'll have to cover the pan with foil.
Line the bottom of the pan with 1/3 of the noodles.
Cover with cottage cheese mixture.
Cover with second layer of noodles.
Cover with mashed potato mixture.
Cover with third layer of noodles.
Cover with hot cooked onions and margarine.

Cover the pan and bake for 30 minutes or until it seems done. Let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

Serve with a salad, something colourful preferred.

P.S. Opinion after we ate it? Pretty good...one of our offspring ran for the salt shaker, but otherwise it seemed about as good as it ever did. I think it might be brightened up by adding some fresh parsley somewhere along the line, maybe just as a garnish. A little extra pepper would be good if you like that.

Honey-Mustard Chicken

2008-10-22T13:30:00.001-07:00

This is an old family favourite from the Harrowsmith Cookbook that didn't really need much adapting to be low-sodium, since it never had any salt in it to start with. I have made this in the oven and in the Crockpot; it turns out a little differently each way, and it would turn out differently depending on what kind of chicken parts you used.

Since most of the ingredients are low-sodium or sodium-free, I decided to go with the regular hot-dog mustard that we have in the fridge (Carriage Trade brand); I used 2 tbsp. to 1 lb. of chicken, which at 45 mg sodium per teaspoon added 270 mg sodium to the entire recipe; divided by 4 average servings, that's 67.5 mg per serving. Add that to whatever chicken you've used; chicken breast meat is supposed to be 58 mg per 3 ounces, comes out to about 310 mg per pound (did I get that right?), divided by 4 servings is 77 mg per serving; total 144.5 mg sodium.

And if you have a lower-sodium kind of mustard, you can do even better.

Here's the recipe:

Mix: 2 tbsp. prepared mustard, 1/2 cup no-salt margarine, and 1/2 cup liquid honey. (Measure the margarine first and then the honey in the same cup--it comes out easily.) Spread over chicken in a greased pan or casserole. Add some pepper too if you want.

Bake (I prefer with a lid on) for an hour or until the chicken is done. It gets a bit browner than you'd expect, because of the honey. Make sure it doesn't dry out, especially if you use chicken breasts. In the Crockpot you can cook it all day on Low, or half the day on High.

If you do this in the Crockpot, you may decide you want the sauce thickened at the end (you can do that with cornstarch mixed with a little water); or you can do as I did yesterday and throw in half a cup of raw white rice about two hours before supper. I did add some extra water just in case; and I think maybe two hours was a titch too long because the rice was a little softer than I would have liked (but still edible). Probably brown rice would have been a sturdier choice, but I had to go out for awhile and wanted to make sure it was going to be done when I got back.

If you don't add rice to the pan, you can serve this with potatoes or noodles.

Another fall dessert: Cranapple Crisp

2008-10-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

Can't you tell we like cranberries around here?

Anyway, this is another use-it-up recipe. Amounts are approximate.

Cranapple Crisp

In a greased 8-inch square pan or whatever kind of baking dish suits you, combine the following: 1 cup fresh cranberries, a few Craisins, about half a cup dried apples, and about half a cup of unsweetened applesauce (maybe it was more like a cup). I could have used chopped apples or pears, but I had the applesauce handy and thought it would work well to soften the dried fruit.

Topping: combine 1 cup rolled oats (I used the 5-minute kind), 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar (or less), a pinch of ginger; combine this with half a cup of vegetable oil (or unsalted margarine or butter). To lower the fat, use less oil and mix with some of the applesauce--this works really well. Spread over fruit. Bake at 350 degrees until cranberries and dried fruit are soft. Serve with milk, yogurt or whatever else you like.

Baby, baby

2008-10-21T08:15:00.001-07:00

Is it just coincidence that two of the bloggers linked from here have pictures of their brand-new babies as the latest post?

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Festival of Frugality: Free Extra Money edition

2008-10-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

Our Cran-Raspberry Upside-Down Cake is included in this week's Festival of Frugality at Mighty Bargain Hunter. (Frugal because it made use of leftovers and used otherwise simple ingredients.) Lots of frugal posts, not as many food-related ones (if that's what you're looking for), although there is a post from Project Organic Eating about making organic food affordable, and one from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds about planning your meals around supermarket sales. (Not as easy when you're limited to low-sodium ingredients, but a lot of the basics do still go on sale...you can look for deals on meat, bananas, Triscuits...) And check this one out: a Canadian post about saving money on spices.

If you're curious, you might also want to read about Canada’s cheapest man. (Warning--some language in the video.)

Cran-Raspberry Upside-Down Cake

2008-10-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

This is a post-Thanksgiving creation.

I had a combination of the following, which would be hard to duplicate exactly but which could be varied quite a bit: about half a cup of canned (whole-berry) cranberry sauce, about half a small jar of homemade raspberry jam, and a cupful of fresh raspberries which needed to be eaten up quickly. I combined them in the bottom of a greased 8-inch square pan (gently messing them together) and also added a few Craisins just for a bit more fruit. I might also have added chopped apples or pears.

I started the oven preheating to 350 degrees, and put the pan full of fruit mixture into the oven to warm while I mixed the other ingredients. Some upside-down cake recipes have you put the batter on cold fruit, but I think they bake better if the batter goes on top of something that's already heated. (The same way dumplings work better on hot stew.)

I wanted the simplest, lowest-sodium muffin recipe I could find that would work as a cake, and settled on Apple Pie Muffins from 500 Low Sodium Recipes. I left out some of the spices and also reduced the amount of baking powder, from 1 tbsp. low-sodium baking powder to 2 tsp. regular (because I don't have any low-sodium). This is what I came up with:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. regular baking powder (or 1 tbsp. low-sodium)
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup skim milk (I used 1%)
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately and combine. Scrape over the heated fruit mixture, and bake the whole thing at 350 degrees for about half an hour or until the cake tests done and is just slightly browned. Serve warm, or cold for breakfast.

Bread Machine Recipes

2008-10-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Some I've tried and like from Dick Logue's 500 Low Sodium Recipes:

Best-Ever White Bread (page 432)
100% Whole Wheat (page 436)
Honey Wheat Bread (page 436)
Multigrain Bread (page 437; I used Bob's Red Mill 10-grain cereal instead of the 7-grain cereal called for) (this one got a "pretty good flavour" reaction from my family)

I've noticed that the bread machine recipes in 500 Low Sodium Recipes tend to have fewer ingredients and be somewhat simpler than those in Donald Gazzaniga's books--although I like those too. They may not be as scientific, since they're lacking the vital gluten, vinegar and other dough-conditioning additions; but they are still pretty tasty--I mean, as far as you're going to get with no-salt bread.

;-)

Best I Could Find: Pasta Sauce

2008-10-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

Store: Valu-mart
Product: President's Choice Blue Menu Low Fat Pasta Sauce, Tomato and Basil
Sodium Count: 270 mg per half cup.

I didn't buy any, though...it was the lowest-sodium that they had, but compared to the same amount of canned no-salt-added tomato sauce which has 10 mg sodium and which can easily be perked up with some spices--I decided to stick with the plain tomato sauce.

(Comparison, if you don't think comparing plain tomato sauce to real pasta sauce is fair: Amy's Kitchen - Organic - Low Sodium - Marinara Pasta Sauce has 100 mg sodium in about half a cup.)

Best I Could Find: Salsa

2008-10-18T13:49:00.001-07:00

"Best I Could Find" is just a way for me to keep track of the sodium counts of things we've bought.

Store: Valu-Mart
Product: President's Choice Medium Salsa
Sodium: 125 mg / 2 tbsp.

Healthy Heart Market sells several kinds of salsa, including Diana's Three-Bean with 45 mg sodium per 2 tbsp. and Enrico's Chunky with 60; so I know there are lower-sodium brands out there. But this was the lowest I could find at the supermarket.

Things I don't understand (and ketchup recipe link)

2008-10-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

Why our local supermarket carries regular Heinz ketchup and Heinz organic ketchup, but not Heinz no-salt ketchup. It's not even on the HeinzItUp website, although if you Google it, it comes up on Amazon.

But, according to one commenter on Recipezaar, it's "nasty sweet" anyway. And the health-food store kind I bought is a bit too heavy on the cloves.

So I'm going to try this recipe which is NOT no-salt but, according to the same commenter, works out well if you cut the salt in half.

If you try it before I get there, want to leave your opinions?

Things that annoy me: Low everything else

2008-10-18T11:22:00.001-07:00

I find it annoying to read the labels on "healthier" versions of grocery products and see that they're low-fat, low-cholesterol, low everything else--but not low-sodium enough to fit a 1500-mg diet plan.

Heart-healthy, maybe, but not heart-healing.

That includes products marked with the Heart-and-Stroke symbol. (They say they're working on that one. I don't understand that chart, though--the amounts of sodium are given, but not the portion size that's being referred to--are they talking about one serving according to Canada's Food Guide?)

Things that annoy me: soda crackers

2008-10-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Having to make a choice between unsalted tops (white) and whole-wheat soda crackers.

Wouldn't you think it might occur to them that the same people who want lower salt might also want whole-wheat?

How Low Can You Go?

2008-10-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

Mr. Fixit, the reason for this blog, had a cardiac checkup today.

Things are mostly good, but the doctor would like him to try for closer to 1500 mg of sodium per day rather than 2000.

I'm not surprised--that seems to be a more common recommendation than 2000.

But it does make counting sodium even more important--and slightly trickier.

We'll manage.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-10-12T05:25:00.000-07:00

The kids pulled out last year's Thanksgiving Day "thankful jar," and I was surprised to see how many of the slips of paper mentioned food. "Subs from [a favourite local shop]." "Snacks with my wife." "Pumpkin bread." "Banana Koogler." (That's frozen bananas run through the food processor--makes an easy no-sugar dessert.) "Trips to the farm stand."

Well, some of those slips won't be repeated this year...the sub shop hasn't had much business from us this fall. And there's much to be thankful for besides food. But the food is important too!

What are we doing for Thanksgiving food this year?

I made a loaf of low-sodium Stuffing Bread, and used it to make a combination of Dick Logue's stuffing recipe and our own version (to be honest, Betty Crocker's). We never stuff anything with bread stuffing; we just heat it all day in the Crockpot, and serve it with whatever meat we have. I would have taken Mr. Logue's suggestion to moisten the stuffing only with chicken broth (no butter or margarine), but since we are also serving some vegetarians I had to leave that out (and didn't have vegetable broth), and weighing the extra fat against using plain water (and no salt), I decided to opt for unsalted butter (and some water just in case). I added some dried apples as well.

We're also trying a newer version of cranberry sauce this year--I posted about it on our other blog. Mr. Fixit has always preferred canned sauce, though, so we will have both.

So: barbecued chicken breasts, stuffing, and cranberry sauce (both kinds). Some other family members are taking care of the vegetables, potatoes, and dessert, and we'll just have to take our low-sodium chances on that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sad state of the sodium-challenged

2008-10-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

(I just saw that phrase "sodium-challenged" today and thought it was funny. I also like the shorthand "Lo-Na" for low-sodium, although I wouldn't try to be that cute here.)

I have seen some very sad comments online about trying to reduce sodium.

One came up on this otherwise helpful Chowhound page: "Cooking for my mom can be a challenge, but I draw the line at salt-free bread."

The other one I can't find online now, but it was something like, "I've been on a low-sodium diet for a month now. Trust me, there is no such thing as tasty."

Well, as far as salt-free bread goes, I guess it's a matter of taste and of trying to fit in slices of commercial bread (or homemade regular bread) that contain a high level of sodium. Making no-salt bread in the breadmaker is quite easy (getting it sliced nicely is another issue, but I can't slice regular bread very well either).

But that other comment...just makes me kind of sad and shows why a lot of people refuse to stay on the diet even though it's supposed to make them feel better and not retain fluid. Of course it's a drag not getting to eat out and having to think so hard about whatever you buy and eat. But you're not the only person in the world who has to think like that--diabetics do it, celiacs do it, people with nut allergies do it, vegans do it, people eating Kosher do it, anybody seriously trying to lose weight has to do it. There's even a whole community out there of people who don't eat sugar in any form.

Reading cookbooks, or blogs, that synch with whatever food restrictions you have helps you feel you're among friends.

Looking through the grocery ads doesn't, though--it's frustrating seeing all those holiday food ads full of stuff you can't eat.

As somebody on Chowhound said, though--look on it as an opportunity. Creativity is key. Find what works for you, and eat what makes you feel healthy and happy. Hospital-style plates piled with unseasoned squash and a tiny piece of turkey are not what you are aiming for, and it's a shame that people who are already sick and depressed should be subjected to that version of "low sodium." (Note: I don't mean that everyone who needs to restrict his/her sodium is necessarily sick and/or depressed; I was thinking more of hospital patients, and Mr. Fixit did indeed have such a dinner while he was in the hospital.)

There is "tasty" out there.

You just have to find it.

Making a good thing healthier?

2008-10-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite slow-cooker recipe sites, A Year of Crockpotting, posted this Pumpkin Pie Dip recipe (to make in a mini crockpot).

The ingredients are simple but not low-sodium: 1 cup canned pumpkin pie mix, 4 oz cream cheese, 1/4 cup sour cream, chopped walnuts (optional).

1 cup E.D. Smith pumpkin pie filling = 780 mg sodium
4 oz. Philadelphia Light Cream Cheese = 600 mg sodium
2 oz. light sour cream = 40 mg sodium
Total sodium in recipe without walnuts or other foods eaten as dip: 1420 mg sodium

How much of the recipe do you think you might eat? Maybe a quarter? So I'm guesstimating 355 mg sodium per serving in the dip, plus what you dip.

Could we improve it?

Plain canned pumpkin has 10 mg sodium per cup. The label on E.D. Smith pumpkin pie filling says it contains "PUMPKINS, SUGAR, VEGETABLE OIL, SALT, SPICES (CONTAINS WHEAT FLOUR), COLOUR ." (Year of Crockpotting uses Libby's which is, I assume, gluten-free.) So we would want to add some sweetener, spices, and maybe some oil (although it sounds like you're adding fat already with the sour cream and cream cheese).

Spices don't add much sodium. Sugar, the same.

How about using up some of that Fromage Frais? 55 mg sodium per 100 g; 100 g is about 3 1/2 ounces. So maybe 65 mg sodium if we put in 4 ounces.

Then let loose on the sour cream?

I think I might try my altered version tonight, just for fun. If it's really bad, I'll let you know.

UPDATE:

This is what I came up with. My 7-year-old says it's good, and I think so too.

1 cup canned pumpkin (pure pumpkin, not pie filling) PLUS 1 tbsp. oil (probably optional); about 1 tsp. pie spice (something I had rather vaguely labelled from the bulk store--I think it might have been sold as apple pie spice rather than pumpkin pie spice); 6 tbsp. raw sugar because I had some to use up, but I think the same amount of brown sugar would be fine too. I mixed these ingredients with the pumpkin and then used it in the same way as pie filling.

1/2 cup no-salt fromage frais (quark): this no-salt cream cheese wasn't a big hit here, it seemed to have a bit of a pasty taste that didn't appeal to our cream cheese lovers. (It reminded me a lot of homemade yogurt cheese, so if you have some of that you might want to try it.) However: it worked fine in the dip.

1/4 cup light sour cream (or regular sour cream, or whatever works for you)

Mix as directed in the original recipe and heat for an hour in the mini-crock.

Crayons and I ate some with graham crackers because that's about all we have around today for dipping (groceries tomorrow). But check A Year of Crockpotting for more imaginative dips: apple slices, pretzels (regular or gluten-free), ginger snaps...

Cream of Tartar is GOOD? (Apple Butter Pie)

2008-10-10T05:34:00.001-07:00

I posted this recipe a year ago on our family blog...it's a pie I make maybe once a year as a special treat (it's quite sweet). I looked up "cream of tartar" on a list of the sodium content of foods...and happily, it's more than okay--it has a sodium content of between 0 and 2 mg per teaspoon.

If you don't have apple butter (which is thicker and sweeter than applesauce--it's like cider cooked down to a spreadable consistency), you can use homemade pumpkin butter for a different taste.

(Update: I thought I should add a note about the sodium content of the apple butter itself. We usually buy Wellesley brand, which has 40 mg of sodium per tablespoon; there are eight tablespoons in the pie. If you cut the pie into eight pieces, each piece will have that same 40 additional mg sodium from the apple butter. Not a freebie for sodium counters, but not horrendous either; using the apple butter in pie spreads it out a bit.)

Lotvarrick Pie (Apple Butter Pie), from Food That Really Schmecks by Edna Staebler

Pastry for a 9-inch pie (pat-in pastry works fine; use a low-sodium recipe if necessary)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple butter
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp. butter, melted (I used margarine; this year we would be using no-salt)
1 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. baking soda (that's the sodium culprit here, it adds about 300 mg sodium to the pie--divide that by the number of servings)
2 cups milk
1/4 tsp. nutmeg for sprinkling

Mix the sugar, flour, soda and cream of tartar; blend in the melted butter, add the beaten eggs, apple butter, then the milk. Pour carefully into the pie shell and sprinkle with the nutmeg. Bake 10 minutes at 425 degress, then about 40 minutes at 350 degrees or until the custard is set (test with a paring knife). Although it's pretty when it comes out all puffed up, the pie is actually better if it's allowed to chill for awhile or even if you can make it the day before--like some pumpkin pies, it seems to slice better once it's had time to set.

Now a couple of warnings, from my own experience. First of all, this amount of filling will fill a good-sized deep-dish shell. If you have a small 9-inch pie pan, you might consider making two crusts and dividing the filling to avoid overflow. Another good idea is to put the whole thing on a cookie sheet before filling, just in case.

Also, if the filling does swish around the crust too much, you might end up with a bit of too-dark pie around the edges. Just slice off any black edge, and savour the rest--maybe with a small blob of whipped cream (or low-sodium whipped topping?) on top.

From the supermarket: sauerkraut

2008-10-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

I linked to this before, but thought it deserved its own post.

Sauerkraut should be a no-brainer. Obviously too high in sodium. No-name (store-brand) wine sauerkraut has 260 mg of sodium per two tablespoons.

However, we found Polka brand sauerkraut, a Polish import, on the shelf of a local independent supermarket, and it has 90 mg sodium per half cup, if we can trust their nutrition labelling. Half a cup is eight tablespoons (although measuring a tablespoon of sauerkraut is extremely messy), so a quarter of that would be what, about 22 mg? Quite an improvement.

I would think you could find this brand at any Polish or European deli, if not at a supermarket.

Prost.

P.S. Heart Wise Foods carries B&G brand reduced-sodium sauerkraut, which registers at 135 mg sodium per 2 tbsp. If Polka brand is as low as it claims to be, I think we've found something that beats B&G.

Carnival of the Recipes: Warm and Fuzzy (if not low sodium)

2008-10-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

So what happened to the Carnival of the Recipes?

There are some changes. The owner, Shawn, is moving on:

I will host the Carnival next week at Everything and Nothing as a farewell to being the Carnival organizer. Bill Austin, who runs several recipe sites, is taking over the reins at the Carnival of the Recipes (after months and months of begging on my part). I know he will do a great job, and I will continue to participate (and be around if he needs me).

And there is a carnival posted for this week:

This week, we're diving into the warm-and-fuzzy food. (Not to worry. The food is warm, not fuzzy - but it just makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.) The Carnival of the Recipes: Warm-and-Fuzzy Edition is ready for your perusal.

If you want to participate in Shawn's final carnival, send in your favorite recipe by 12 p.m. CST Saturday to be included.

Visit our Carnival of the Recipes page on Blog Carnival to review all past Carnival of the Recipes. (The Blog Carnival page is down now. We're working on getting it back up. In the meantime, please email recipes.)

From the supermarket: Fromage Frais

2008-10-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

Which means fresh cheese, but if you're looking on food sites, you'll find more under "fromage frais." It's kind of like quark.

Our supermarket sells Liberté brand "fromage frais" and one of the varieties is no-salt. That means 55 mg sodium per 100 g serving.

The Liberté website sounds a little awkward because it's translated from French, but this is what it says:

"Fresh Cheese: This family of products has long been a part of culinary tradition in Europe and Quebec. Cooks know its tasty and health conscious people have long known about its virtues.....Easy to spread, creamy and delicious, it easily blends with other ingredients. It will give very good results both in cooking and in fresh preparations."

I did read one bad review of no-salt fromage frais (another brand), but we'll give this one a shot. I just picked up a container today so we can't give an opinion yet.

P.S. Fromage Frais isn't exactly frugal--just something I wanted to try.

From the supermarket: Melba Toast

2008-10-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

There aren't that many low-sodium mainstream crackers. Triscuit 61% Less Sodium has 45 mg sodium per 4 crackers--not bad at all.

But Grissol No Salt Melba Toast has...0 mg sodium per cracker. That's not an O, it's a zero.

Works for me.

From the health food store: Pacific Foods broth

2008-10-07T09:50:00.001-07:00

The only truly low-sodium broth I've seen so far in local stores is Pacific Foods Organic Chicken Broth, Low Sodium. At $3.99 for 946 ml, it doesn't seem like too bad a deal.

It's not pure chicken broth: there are things in it like "organic chicken flavour" and "natural chicken flavour." But it has only 45 mg sodium per 1 cup / 250 mL, and 0.1 g fat. And you can store it in the fridge for about a week after opening.

From the supermarket: Salerno Light Mozzarella

2008-10-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

Have a look at the Salerno products page. See the categories in the sidebar?

Click on the Semi-Soft Cheeses Group. See the four kinds of mozzarella listed there? Which one would you think is the lowest in sodium? Click on your choice to see the nutrition stats.

The one that comes up the lowest is Low Fat Mozzarella Style Cheese, at 40 mg sodium per 30 g serving of cheese. I'm not sure what "Mozzarella Style" means.

Our supermarket doesn't carry that particular cheese, but it does have another Salerno product that isn't on the website: Light Mozzarella, with 55 mg sodium per 38 g serving. (I don't know why the odd serving size either.) About the same as the Low Fat variety. The package says, "60% less fat than our partially skimmed mozzarella cheese." It's also much lower in sodium: the Part Skim type has 260 mg sodium per 30 g serving--even higher than Deluxe and Special Deluxe.

It's enough to make your head spin.

All I know is, the Light Mozzarella is fine for eating and seems to have a fairly acceptable sodium count. But watch it on top of things like lasagna--in my only experience cooking it, it quickly got tough.

Applesauce Chicken

2008-10-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

Good recipes come from everywhere. I found this Applesauce Chicken recipe at A Year of Crockpotting, and the Crockpot Lady adapted it from this recipe. Just to give credit.

As I wrote in the comments there, Mr. Fixit's reaction was "are you sure this one isn't salted?"

And as I noted--I did have to thicken it a bit. That's pretty common--slow cookers tend to make things wetter instead of drying them out, and I don't like runny sauces.

Sodium hides here: chili powder

2008-10-06T10:36:00.001-07:00

Who would think, huh? That wasn't in the hospital diet sheets...

Our store-brand chili powder has 10 mg of sodium per quarter-teaspoon. So say I put a tablespoonful of chili powder in a batch of chili; that's three teaspoons; that works out to 120 mg of sodium per batch, in addition to whatever other ingredients go into the pot. If I get six servings out of the chili (to make the math easy), that would be 20 mg of sodium per serving just from the chili powder.

500 Low Sodium Recipes, by Dick Logue, offers a homemade no-salt version of chili powder that comes out to 1 mg sodium per teaspoon. The recipe is also on his website. (It's very similar to this recipe that's been posted on several sites--the proportions are slightly different.) So if I use the same amount of spice, that would be only 3 mg added to the whole batch, or .5 mg per serving.

Maybe it doesn't sound like a lot, 19.5 extra mg of sodium per bowl. I guess it just depends on how picky you want to be--and what else you want to put in the bowl.

Things I find annoying

2008-10-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

Something I find annoying: two-minute videos or equivalent magazine/online articles about "cutting the salt," that come down to "sprinkle herbs on things."

You tell that to someone who's just been told that pepperoni pizza, Chinese takeout, subs and burgers are all off the dinner plate until further notice, and you just may get a fistful of parsley shoved up your nose.

Not that you can't make pizza, Chinese food, subs, and burgers. From scratch. With homemade soy sauce substitute, homebaked no-salt rolls, the lowest-sodium cheese you can find, no-salt tomato sauce, no-salt ketchup...

And they're good, and cheaper, and better for you. Natch. Which is a lot of what this blog's about.

But it's the principle of the thing.

Adapting recipes: another set of menu plans

2008-10-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

These are the meals we had planned to eat this week...some of them got changed a bit, we never did make curry, and the turkey chili got changed to regular-style chili. But I'll post them here anyway.

Saturday: Roast beef. Baked potatoes. Broccoli. Homemade applesauce, no-salt gravy, no-salt ketchup, the smallest bit of horseradish. Fresh hot flax-seed rolls ("Flaxseed Buns, Rolls and Bread" from The No Salt, Lowest Sodium Baking Book). Cantaloupe and raspberries.

Sunday: Pizza night with extended family. We are taking homemade low-sodium pizza and salad.

Monday: Leftover meat, Vegetable and Rice Pilaf
I would make this with low-sodium chicken broth (see below) except that the box has only four cups and I don't want everything this week to taste like chicken broth anyway. So probably just with water; leave out the salt; but add some no-salt lemon-herb seasoning. We'll see how it goes.

Tuesday: Fish skewers (bought at the supermarket); sweet potatoes, couscous with peas

Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken and Brown Rice Casserole, from A Year of Crockpotting
Again the low-sodium chicken broth.

Thursday: White Turkey Chili, no-salt tortilla chips, raw veggies
This would be out of our reach except that I found a very low-sodium boxed chicken broth; also I would use the dried chickpeas again (unless I get to the bulk store to buy some large white beans) and leave out the salt.

Friday: Sweet Potato Curry with Spinach and Chickpeas, rice
Lower the sodium by using dried rather than canned chickpeas, and no-salt-added canned tomatoes, or fresh or home-frozen tomatoes. (We still have a few fresh tomatoes ripening on the plants, if the frost doesn't get them first.)

Saturday: Apricot Pineapple Meatballs; I haven't decided what to serve these with yet
The sodium in the sauce is already pretty low; in the meatballs themselves I use no-salt breadcrumbs and leave out the extra salt.

Breakfast: Juice, cereal, no-salt toast, fruit, etc.
Lunches: Homemade soup, tuna sandwiches, reduced-sodium mozzarella cheese, salad, etc.
Fruit available for desserts and snacks: Bananas, apples, pears, canned pineapple, dried apricots.
Other snacks: Ryvita, yogurt, no-salt cashews, popcorn, etc.

Hey, we all should do this well

2008-10-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

The strangest thing I've read recently is that the current (American) sodium recommendation I've read for HEALTHY adults is 2300 mg a day. (That's about the equivalent of one teaspoon of salt per day.)

It's a joke, right?

If we all took this seriously, fast-food restaurants and much of our packaged food as we know it would vanish. I would hope that anyone attempting this has someone at home to cook for them. Because otherwise it just ain't gonna happen.

A basic hamburger at You-Know-Where has 510 mg of sodium. A regular one, no cheese or fancy stuff. Small fries, 170 mg. 1 ketchup packet, 70 mg. Child-size root beer, 25.

A Teen Burger at The Place with the Big Bear has 1290 mg of sodium. Small fries, 460 mg. Kid-size root beer, 45.

You see where I'm going with this, don't you?

Time magazine says,

Why is this significant? Public-health experts estimate that Americans consume, on average, about 3,500 mg of sodium--equal to about 9 grams of salt--each day. Current guidelines recommend consuming no more than 2,300 mg of sodium--about 6 grams of salt--daily. It's not that we're that heavy-handed with the saltshaker. Most of our dietary sodium is added during food processing. To get down to 1,200 mg, you'd have to forgo most prepared foods, take-out deliveries and restaurant meals.

Uh--to get to down to 1,200 mg? MOST prepared foods?

Well, yes. To get down to 2000 mg, you have to do those things. To get down to 1200, you have to seriously limit your portion control as well, and you had better not be thinking about eating commercial bread or much in the way of cheese.

Donald Gazzaniga wrote (and ate from) menus for 500 mg of sodium per day. It got him off the heart transplant list. Like those people who feed their families for $50 a week, it can be done.

But most of us just aren't going to do it.

From the supermarket: potato flakes

2008-10-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Instant mashed potatoes: one item I would have expected to be way too high in sodium, but it's not, at least not Idahoan brand; most of the sodium is added with the salt that you're supposed to add in yourself. (Read the label.)

So just don't add the salt. (And use unsalted butter or margarine, and low-fat milk.)

And don't sneer at the "fake food"--when there are so few packages you can grab off the shelf at Giant Tiger, you take what you can get.

From the supermarket: sunflower seeds

2008-10-05T17:39:00.001-07:00

Stock & Barrel Sunflower Kernels, not salted
These come in a clear plastic tub and are sold with the raisins, banana chips etc. in one of our local supermarkets. Sodium, according to the label: 0 mg.

The same company also sells unsalted peanuts and "soy nuts" (roasted soy beans).

Why Low Sodium Frugal?

2008-10-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Because there isn't anything else out there exactly like this.

Because I've felt inspired by the Gluten Free Frugal blog.

Because my husband (called Mr. Fixit because of his awesome abilities with soldering irons, wrenches and hard drives) has Congestive Heart Failure and needs to follow a sodium-restricted diet.

Because we are a one-income family, and need to watch our grocery outlay more than ever now that we can't go stocking up on tomato soup and wieners and day-old bread. Well, we can, but only the kids (three of them) and I can eat them. And we probably shouldn't be anyway; I mean, fresh homemade food with less salt is better for everybody.

And I don't like cooking more than one meal unless I have to. Besides, Mr. Fixit doesn't think it's fun watching everybody else eat what he can't.

So I'm working on getting our grocery spending under better control. At the minute, we're still going a little overboard trying out some different meat-centered recipes and finding things that taste good. Lentils, at this point, just aren't cutting it; we're doing meatballs and beef stews and chicken curries and things like that to emphasize that there is good-tasting low-sodium food out there. (With the slight side issue that Mr. Fixit's digestion has been thrown off-kilter as well; things like onions and curry are bothering him more than they used to; so I'm walking on a slightly sticky spiderweb between "flat," "tasty," and "gut-wrenching.")

Cookbooks from the library are helping. There are some good websites and online low-sodium marketplaces. There are a few nice surprises from the local supermarket (we picked up a low-sodium sauerkraut without even trying--actually it was already in the fridge).

And as we go on...I think we will find a way back into our usual frugal groove.

Just without the salt.

Thoughts from a month ago

2008-10-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

(Reposted from our family blog)

With the breadmaker going, the homeschool books waiting and Ponytails on her way out the door, I still have a couple of minutes to make some observations.

The past week has been very educational, especially about SODIUM and particularly about the cramp that any special diet puts in your style these days. Even if you don't eat out much.

However: I think we're very lucky. Blessed. Whatever.

A great deal of what I learned earlier this year about gluten-free diets, particular ingredients and brands (such as the Bob's Red Mill line of grains), reading labels on EVERYTHING, using the breadmaker, using the most current library cookbooks available, and people "not getting it" applies right back to Mr. Fixit's current low sodium needs. Almost eerily, in fact.

Low-sodium cooking is a lot easier in some ways (than gluten-free). There's no issue of cross-contamination. Yeast baking is actually pretty easy if you follow the recipes. I haven't yet been able to locate low-sodium baking powder and baking soda (yes, they do exist) locally, but I know they're available online and I'm still looking.

But the problems of not being able to use many prepared foods, and of not being able to find anything decent to eat at a restaurant beyond plain meat and baked potato (and the places we go tend to be slice-of-pizza, not meat-and-potato)--those are things common to GF diets, low-sodium, and, I assume, other diets that haven't even crept into our radar like diabetic needs. There's more emotional stuff than you'd think tied into a bottle of ketchup. Or, in our case, being able to throw chicken or sausage into the crockpot on top of some sauerkraut. These transitions are never easy.

[Additional observation: one of the other difficulties that is closer to a diabetic diet than to GF is the issue of portion control; with GF you are "only" trying to avoid gluten, but otherwise you can eat as much of everything as you like; when you are limited to 2000 mg of sodium a day (or less, for some people), you can only eat a certain amount of even low-sodium food without going over the limit.)

But having already had what seems like a prep-course in doing things differently, even though it ended up seeming an unnecessary effort then--I can only figure that it came along at the right time.

(I did buy a bottle of no-sugar no-salt ketchup yesterday. Mr. Fixit says it's acceptable.)

Random Observations

2008-10-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

Some random observations:

Most of the supermarket products labelled "reduced sodium" aren't really reduced that much. They may be healthier for most people, but they're still too high in sodium for even Mr. Fixit's (fairly generous) 2000 mg limit.

However, there are some good things that are easy to find. Most major producers of canned tomato products make no-salt-added varieties; and most tomato paste is already no-salt-added, even if it doesn't trumpet it on the can. So tomato paste rules.

No-salt margarine is easy to find. Low-sodium cheese--practically impossible. I made some of Miss Maggie's Curds and Whey (otherwise known as Ricotta) for a chard lasagna, though, and left it unsalted (it was part of the chard stuffing). (With a LITTLE part-skim mozzarella mixed in, the lasagna wasn't bad at all).

Not all health-food-store breakfast cereals are low sodium, but some supermarket cereals are.

Pasta is usually 0 mg sodium, or very low.

No set of menus or recipes, no matter how good, is going to meet every taste. I just about sent just-home-from-the-hospital-Mr. Fixit's digestion into overdrive with an otherwise tasty chicken recipe that included onions and about a whole head of garlic. My long experience as wife had sent red flags up, but I ignored it in favour of the cookbook author's low-salt wisdom. Should have known better.

Besides, menu writers can never account for the leftover corn on the cob, or the fact that nobody ate as many meatballs as you expected them to, or the unusually hot weather in September when you don't want to turn the oven on. (Oven-roasted potatoes with olive oil and oregano suddenly become stove-top potatoes.) Low-sodium, gluten-free or whatever may initially seem like another planet, but dealing with individual tastes and using up leftovers are still just common sense.

Finally, most people either won't take you seriously (they'll invite you out for wings or a sub), treat you like your insane wife is feeding you carrot sticks and grapefruit (they'll invite you out for wings or a sub), or reassure you that you won't have to be on this diet long (they'll invite you....)

Chocolate Pudding (Non-dairy)

2008-10-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it seems the whole food world is salt. A half-cup serving of commercial instant chocolate pudding mix contains 310 mg of sodium.

I have a non-dairy "chocolate dessert" recipe from Food That Really Schmecks. We've made it many times but never particularly considered the sodium content. The ingredients, as written, are 1 heaping tbsp. cocoa, 3 heaping tbsp. flour (this is an old recipe!), 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups water, 1 tsp. vanilla, and some butter to stir in at the end (I figured 2 tbsp.).

This recipe doesn't make very large servings (I'd say it serves 3-4), but counting it as a 4-serving dessert, one serving as written would have 295.9 mg sodium. About the same as the commercial milk-based pudding, although at least it's free of all the other additives.

If you use 1/4 tsp. salt, it brings it down to 149.1 mg.

If you cut it to 1/8 tsp. salt, it brings it down to 75.609 mg.

And if you leave the salt out altogether, you end up with 2.175 mg per serving. Obviously, almost all the sodium in this recipe comes directly from the salt. The question is just how far back to cut it! I think I might try it with just a pinch of salt.

Oh, you wanted the recipe?

It's a little inexact, but goes better with experience.

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, flour and cocoa, and salt if using. Mix with a little cold water to form a paste; then add in about 2 cups boiling water (less if you had to use more cold water). Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly or at least frequently. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter or margarine. Chill before serving.

Dinner Menus this week

2008-10-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

Most of this week's dinners are coming from 500 Low Sodium Recipes: Lose the Salt, Not the Flavor, by Dick Logue. His website is here.

I'm also planning on trying out some of his bread machine recipes. (Pumpernickel is in the machine as we speak, and the stew is also in the Crockpot.)

Saturday: Chicken Soup and Chicken Sandwiches (family recipe)

Sunday: Cider Stew (crockpot)

Monday: Baked salmon, potatoes, vegetables

Tuesday: Crockpot Chicken Curry

Wednesday: Pork Chop Bake OR Fish Skewers

Thursday: Kraft Dinner & Hot Dogs (younger children), Leftovers

Friday: Chicken Shepherd’s Pie OR Turkey Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Saturday: Southwestern Bean Soup

Sunday: Thanksgiving with extended family (taking meat, stuffing, maybe pie)

Thanksgiving Monday: Pork Subs (no-salt buns), sauerkraut (low-sodium brand), salad, special dessert

An earlier set of menus

2008-10-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

I have one thing to say when it comes to low sodium recipes and especially baking: Donald A. Gazzaniga. Here's his website. The recipe on the website for German Potato Salad sounded like we were on the right track for things that Mr. Fixit not only should but would eat, and anybody who bothers to think up a low-sodium recipe for Beef Goulash with Noodles has got to be on our page.

So most of the recipes I'm leaning on for this week's menus are from Mr. Gazzaniga's No Salt, Lowest Sodium Cookbook. I like the Baking Book too, even though I still can't find any of that low-sodium baking powder and baking soda in amounts smaller than a caseful. We may have to order it online, although Mr. Fixit says that he doesn't really care if I use low-sodium baking powder or not because he tends to avoid eating a lot of sweets and breads anyway.

(Here's the index to the Baking Book.)

Dinner menus

Friday: Tortillas with ground chicken, salt-free canned pinto beans and a little cheese

Saturday: Going out for Swiss Chalet (they have a heart-healthy menu)

Sunday: Beef Goulash, noodles, vegetables

Monday: Reheated low-sodium pizza that I made this week, along with homemade soup

Tuesday: Stuffed peppers in the crockpot, salad and bread

Wednesday: Greek lentil croquettes and Vegetable Couscous, both from the Low-Sodium book (I have my doubts about whether the Squirrelings will eat these, so we may end up cooking a box of macaroni and cheese along with it)

Thursday: Baked spicy chicken legs, potatoes, squash

Friday: Baked fish, potatoes, vegetables

Saturday: Chili, rolls, salad with "Ranch Style Dressing"

Sunday: Chicken baked in lemon sauce, rice, vegetables.

Oh, there ARE some low-sodium blogs out there

2008-10-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

I was having trouble finding any!

"Please, Don't Pass the Salt" includes this post about the Low-Sodium Pantry.

How about this? CookingforCompliments.com . They have a free e-newsletter.

And there's Megaheart.com--not a blog, but a good website.