Diabetic/Heart Healthy low sodium recipes

[MJ]

My DH has to be on a strict Diabetic and Heart Healthy diet. It has to be no trans fats, low sodium, no sugar, very little saturated fat and Cally and I are on Weight Watchers.

Does any one have any recipes that can help me? I am a good cook but am having trouble coming up with new recipes that fit all this criteria.

I need to learn to use spices to "spice" things up with out salt. In the winter, he loves to eat the Campbells chunky soups but they are sooooo high in sodium. They have about 1200 mg sodium per serving with makes each can about 2400 mg and he eats the whole can. He can only have appx. 3000 mg in a whole day.

HELP!!!!

MJ

[TandB]

Have you tried any of the Diabetic cookbooks that they have out? That should help you out a lot.

Here are some links to get you started.

www.diabetic-lifestyle.com/cookingtips.htm
This one had some good tips on lowering the sodium while still having taste. Talked about how to use herbs and such. Has a bunch of other tips for cooking as well.

www.fabulousfoods.com/shop/prods/bookstore/index.html
Here is one that looks like it would work well. They do give a warning on the home page about the use of sugar. They do use sugar in the reciepes, but do say it isn't for ALL diabetics. If you scroll down the page a little, on the right side there is a link for Special Diets for cutting fat. There is even a link for message boards.

www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_5/tklcc.html
Spanish Rich WW=2pts. This board is a little hard to read, but I bet you can find a whole bunch of receipes that will work, or come close with some modification.

[TandB]

www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_5/tklcc.html

Here is another WW=5pts.

[DorothyB]

Check out www.healthyexchanges.com Her cookbooks are available in many libraries and the recipes are easy to make. All of her recipes include diabetic exchanges. There is a link that will let you open "doors" to get free recipes - keep clicking in the doors to see more recipes. They also have a bulletin board which has some recipes posted.

I have her "Cooking Healthy Across America" cookbook which includes recipes for healthier versions of "normal" foods - for instance, a pumpkin pie that does NOT have sweetened condensed milk, but has non-fat dry milk and can be made with Splenda. I've made it with Splenda and with sugar and couldn't tell the difference.

[MJ]

Thanks so much everyone. I will start looking at these links. I have been cooking with no sugar for 5 years but the nutritionist says I now have to count carbs - 15 servings of carbs a day and 15-17 carbs counts as a serving. This is new to me so I just need as much help as I can get so I don't get stuck with the same 5 or so things.

MJ

[Chrisnstar]

I'm sure you are learning to read labels. I also have to watch sodium in my diet. I've learned what brands of things work for me and what don't. For example, "Classico" brand pasta sauce has only 320 mg of sodium per serving. RAgu has 500 to 800 depending on the variety!

Frozen veggies have almost no sodium, canned have a lot, etc.

Good luck!

chris

[MJ]

Yes I do read labels but had gotten quite lacks in the last few years since DH wouldn't stick to the sodium part of the diet. He definitely got a wake up call this time and is listening to me and reading the labels himself also.

I never thought about how much sodium is in the bags of stirfry because it is a good thing to eat on Weight Watchers. It has lots of veggies, lean meat, etc so I just went with it for Cally and I but that is something that DH can't have at all (which is probably just as good because he really didn't like them much). So now, we will eat the bags I already have for lunch when DH isn't home.

Thanks.

MJ

[ride4fun]

Cinnamon, nutmet and vanilla are sweet spices. during the weekday I try to have 2 low-carb meals and 1 free meal, on the weekends I relax and just don't go wild with carbs. So I make a 'pancake' with a couple of eggs (can toss one yolk if chol is concern) and cottage cheese (about 1/2 cup I guess) , a splash of splenda and I add lots of cinnamon after I've poured the pancake into a pan --2 eggs fills a large frying pan and I just cut it when it sets up and is ready to flip. Then I use sugar-free maple syrup and low-fat cream cheese heated together for the spread. Usually I have an onion and cheese omelet(probably doesn't make grade for heart healthy) for breakfast but I do this 'pancake' when I want something that tastes sweet. If I ever add salt it makes it taste too salty so this may be a good low-sodium one -- I don't think there's more than a trace of salt from the cottage cheese but somehow these ingredients must magnify salt taste.

[Mary Ann]

Also, a lot of research lately points to cinnamon being very good for stabilizing blood sugar. I often take a glob of plain yogurt in a bowl and chop up an apple with it, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and add a touch of vanilla. Stir that up and shovel it in! Mmmm!