<p>I’m hoping my CC parent cafe pals can help me out here. I volunteered to deliver dinner for a dear friend this week. Her husband is home from several weeks in hopsital (mostly in ICU) for congestive heart failure. He is under strict orders to quit smoking and eat well. ANY RECIPE HINTS/LINKS ARE MUCH APPRECIATED ;)</p>
<p>Looking for a recipe that is
low sodium… they have been instructed to count/track mg carefully
low fat / heart healthy
low sugar </p>
<p>The wife is a diabetic, already eats well… she will be trying to coach a reluctant husband to better habits too. I’m thinking healthy food from friends will help reduce her workload and encourage her husband too.</p>
<p>My first thought is something not hospital food like and something warm, homey and comforting.
How about a from scratch soup that is low fat, low salt and some really, really good fresh whole grain bread to go with it?</p>
<p>I would make sure to use no salt added beans and tomatoes but this is a great, fresh tasting recipe that is healthy too. Could substitute quinoa or something similar if you wanted to add more protein. It is a main course dish, that we serve with tossed green salad. </p>
<p>Cuban black beans:</p>
<p>1 cup white (or brown) rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tsp. minced garlic (jarred chopped garlic is fine)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 (to 1) teaspoon ground cumin (we use 1 tsp at least)
chili powder (optional, we do not include)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 red, orange or yellow bell pepper, cut in 1/2 inch dice
1-2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 (14 1/2 oz) can whole plum tomatoes (in tomato juice)
or the same amount of pre-diced tomatoes in own juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (do not substitute cider or balsamic vinegar)
1 (15 to 19 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Cook rice according to package directions.</p></li>
<li><p>In large saucepan or skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add
garlic, oregano, cumin, black pepper, diced pepper and corn, stirring to
break up the frozen corn. Lower heat to medium, add tomatoes and vinegar
and cook for 10 minutes.</p></li>
<li><p>Stir in beans and cook another 7 minutes or until beans are heated
through. Serve over rice. Makes 4 servings.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Notes: You can soak beans and cook them from scratch it you wish, but sometimes there just isn’t enough time. Use organic beans (or Progresso brand) whenever possible- they retain better shape and texture.<br>
If you make a double batch, the rest can be turned into burritos
or pureed with chicken broth to make a soup. If you make a day ahead, the
vinegar taste dissipates, so you might want to add more.</p>
<p>Mark Bittman has some good recipes in his minimalist cookbook that can be tweaked to be either higher or lower fat, as you prefer, but my favorites aren’t really make ahead.</p>
<p>The black beans recipe sounds good - but you might be most successful if you can find out what sort of things he already likes & come up with ways to add flavor with herbs & by cooking methods instead of salt/fat.</p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas. The important thing (especially this week as they learn to rack things) will be ability to deliver recipe with sodium mg info. I like the idea of soup. I have a good, easy no-knead bread recipe, but it uses too much salt.</p>
<p>My D is salt sensitive and since she has been home we have started to really read labels.
Last night I made stuffed peppers. I had a pack of mixed peppers from Costco. I sauted onions, red pepper and zucchini diced small in olive oil. Added some garlic and kale. Mixed with leftover quinoa and a bit of salsa and chopped cilantro. For D I left out the shredded cheddar cheese. Baked them covered in foil for 45 minutes on 350 degrees.They were great. Many of the recipes I found on the internet included black beans and corn and canned tomatoes. I would have added black beans for protein but I didn’t have any in my cupboard.</p>
<p>I typically make a pork tenderloin (rub with pepper and a touch of olive oil) with scratch mashed potatoes as my comfort food to take to people. Substitute yougurt for sour cream and use skim milk & heart healthy spreads in the potatoes. </p>
<p>Instead of the potatoes you could serve it with dinner rolls and send along a jar of gourmet mustard (need to check sodium on that).</p>
<p>Nice black bean recipe since it served over the rice so the carbs can be adjusted to taste and needs. I can see tweaking the recipe by just dumping all of the bean ingredients together instead of waiting with some.</p>
<p>This recipe is from the New American Heart Assc. cookbook. When we started to cut back on sodium a few years ago I bought this book. This one has become one of our favorites. Actually DD just texted me asking for the recipe. I’m not sure about the sugars and this one is a bit higher in sodium than many of them, but I don’t use the olives or the table salt the recipe calls for so it’s lower in sodium than indicated below. I did include it in the recipe here also.</p>
<p>Tex-Mex Lasagna</p>
<p>1 lb. extra lean ground beef or ground sirloin (try to find 95% lean)
16 6 inch corn tortillas, halved
1 15 oz can no salt diced tomatoes
1/2 cup salsa
1 tsp salt (I delete this)
1 cup fat free or low fat ricotta cheese (since I can rarely find the brand I like, I use fat free or low fat cottage cheese–not the same, but an ok substitute and better than the nasty fake ricotta in the stores here)
1 tsp chile powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup shredded low fat monterey jack or cheddar cheese
1 15 oz can no salt added navy beans
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup sliced black olives</p>
<p>Brown ground beef. (I often throw in some garlic and onion with this) and drain well. Add tomatoes, salsa,and salt to cooked ground beef. Simmer for 5 minutes.</p>
<p>Mix ricotta and spices together in small bowl</p>
<p>Drain beans and mix with thawed corn</p>
<p>In a 9 x 13 baking pan, sprayed with cooking spray, arrange 8 tortilla halves. Spoon 1/2 of the ground beef mixture over this layer. Sprinkle 1/2 of the shredded cheese over this. Arrange 8 tortilla halves over this. Spoon and spread ricotta cheese for the next layer. Top ricotta with corn and beans. Arrange 8 tortilla halves on top of this layer. Spread remaining beef mixture and shredded cheese for third layer. Top with 8 remaining tortilla halves. Sprinkle olives on top. Cover and back for 30 minutes at 375. (I like to uncover the casserole for the last 10 minutes so that the top layer of tortillas becomes crunchy.)</p>
<p>Serves 8
Calories 273
Carbs 30g
Fiber 5 g
Sugars 4 g
Cholesterol 30 mg
Protein 24 g
Sodium 423 mg
Dietary Exchange
2 starches
2.5 lean meats</p>
<p>If you eliminate the added salt and olives it reduces the sodium by about 290 mg. I do this, and we don’t really miss it. I also add 1 tsp chile powder and 1 tsp cumin to the ground beef for a little extra spice. </p>
<p>H and I feel like we’re being “bad” when we eat this, but it’s actually pretty good for us. H is not a left-over eater, but he will eat this microwaved for lunch.</p>
<p>I make a sort of “stew” using black-eyed peas cooked from scratch. It has cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle pepper, oregano, bay leaves, tomato, onion, garlic, green and or red peppers, usually ham (You could leave that out or substitute something like a small pork roast, which can be shredded after cooking), rich chicken stock (Home made and reduced, so sodium is controlled and flavor is good) and chopped kale. It can be cooked in a slow cooker, BTW. I pre-soak the peas, brown the meat and set aside, saute the chopped vegetables in olive oil in the same pan (except the tomato, which is added at the end), deglaze the pan with some of the stock, then add everything but the tomato and kale to the slow cooker, and cook for several hours on high. Add boiling water or stock if you need to. When the peas are done, take the meat out and shred it. Add the chopped kale–a lot of it-- and cook until done as much as you like. Put the meat back in. Then add some crushed tomato to taste and correct the other seasonings. It should be flavorful and soupy and have some heat. Diabetic-friendly, high fiber, heart healthy, and you can control the sodium completely.</p>
<p>If you are cooking for a diabetic, please remember that potatoes, corn, and almost all breads–including most whole wheat breads–are high carb. Also realize that all legumes and beans are not equal when it comes to carbs, and most can only be eaten in limited quantity by people controlling diabetes with low carb. Quite possible no more than 1/3 cup cooked beans per meal. There are low-carb pitas (Josephs brand) and tortillas (various brands) available, but they won’t be made with corn. When it comes to diabetics, you need to throw out the nutrition establishment mantra about “healthy whole grains” being the basis of the diet.</p>
<p>a second on the AHA cookbook. Try roasted root vegetables. Easy, tasty, naturally sweet with no need to add sugar, could add sea salt/cracked black pepper within mg allowed but not necessary for good flavor. I will typically do beets, turnip, celery, carrots roasted in 425 for about 45 min. Use a little olive oil too. Easy to google specific recipes. Has your friend been instructed to weigh himself daily and watch fluid intake as well? Good Luck to him and his wife – one giant benefit for him is that she is already eating healthy.</p>
<p>Again, for the diabetic, easy on the beets and carrots. Turnip or rutabaga is better. Green vegetables–except peas–and peppers in all colors are better yet. Cauliflower is good. Eggplant is good.</p>
<p>Great hints, thanks! The good thing is that I know the diabetic friend is already very good at portion adjustment for carbs etc, especially if I have a copy of the recipe and nutritional breakdown available to her. This week the big focus from doctors is sodium, and I’m finding that some of my recipes and cookbooks don’t give that detail. The web is a wonderful thing ;)</p>
<p>Fresh lemon juice squeezed over cooked fish or meat is a great way to trick the taste buds into thinking the food is saltier than it actually is.</p>
<p>Portion adjustment is all very well and good, but it doesn’t help much is the result is that one can eat one tablespoonful of the dish. Of course, if your friend is an insulin user, it’s somewhat different.</p>
<p>And plenty of diabetics follow the ADA’s bogus advice regarding acceptable BG levels and diet, and as a result eat what they think is “healthy” and end up with progressing disease. But that’s a rant for another thread.</p>
<p>“Portion adjustment is all very well and good, but it doesn’t help much is the result is that one can eat one tablespoonful of the dish” - I should have mentioned that I use recipes from diabetic cookbook or magazine (which goes home as part of her Christmas gift). So there is nothing outlandish on the menu. I checked the present closet and see that I have one ready for this year, and yay it does have sodium data.</p>
<p>Still deciding whether to ask more about patient preferences. I’m sure my friend has favorites covered… looking to add some variety and new choices, to give her a day or two off of cooking.</p>
<p>I would ask–there’s no accounting for people’s taste. Some people hate butternut squash, or fish, or whatever. No sense knocking yourself out for something they won’t even eat.</p>
<p>I’m not sure the AHA dietary guidelines are much more reliable than the ADA stuff. There’s very little evidence that a low fat diet reduces coronary artery disease. But, that’s neither here nor there when it comes to helping the neighbor with some cooking!</p>
<p>I was off from work this afternoon and had time to shop and bake tortilla pie from the diabetic one-dish cookbook. (Half for them, half for us - solidarity). It was 227 mg sodium /serving, the lowest I could find. Some of the recipes were 990 mg… and one with ham was 1600 mg. I’ll deliver it later this week and ask for more input. </p>
<p>The husband recovering from heart issues works nights and mostly likes fast food burgers and junk food. It’s possible that he won’t like anything I send. Hopefully I can at least keep his caretakers nourished.</p>
Of course, if your friend is an insulin user, it’s somewhat different.</p>