Need Your Tastiest Fresh N Healthy Recipes for a Diet -Restricted

[bettyellen]

Friend who is recovering from illness.
His guidelines are:
no processed foods whatsoever, no hydrogenated fats.
only very lean meat, no cheese unless it somehow is fresh and low salt (poor baby loves cheese)
little to no added salt
lots of fresh fruit, esp pineapple, oranges, blueberries, papayas etc and veggies.
lots of low fat yogurt.
purer fats, such as olive oil and unsalted butter are okay in small amounts.
carbs are okay right now too, because he needs to keep his weight on.
Any fave recipes that fit the bill?
websites and cookbook recommendations would also be most welcome.
thanks all!
:hi:

[politicat]

1. My tips....

I'm reading this as a low fat, low processed foods, low/no salt diet?

First tip: clean out the cabinets and fridge. Get rid of everything that might be a temptation. Replace it with items that are okay. The whole family's going on the diet when they're at home. Until the person with the dietary restrictions gets used to living with them, it's not helpful to have temptation peeking out of every cupboard.

Chicken breasts, natural pork, natural trimmed sirloin and fish are going to become his friends. Be careful when buying meats at the megamart - lots of pork, chicken and now beef are adulterated with 10 to 25% saline, increasing the salt content. If he can't find natural beef, pork and chicken locally, there are mail order firms that will ship it with dry ice. Fish, so far, is safe. Tofu, if frozen, gives a lot of the mouth-feel of meat and works well when marinated in spices and tomato sauce as a sub for picadillo (taco meat).

He might want to try making yogurt cheese. It's sort of like cream cheese, in that it can be flavored and subbed in and out of things that use cheese. I find it is an acceptable substitute for sour cream, cream cheese and for ricotta and cottage cheese. Basically, one dumps a pint or so of fat-free yogurt into a tea towel, then suspends the tea towel above either a drain or in a container for 1-5 hours. The whey runs off (this can be saved or discarded) leaving a thickened, sour-creamy paste. Mixed with anything, it turns into a spread. (I mix mine either with shredded smoked salmon or with shreds of scallions and smashed garlic.) It is also really good mixed with a melange of sweet strawberries, mango and kiwi mush and spread on a (fat free) tortilla or piped onto a slice of angel food cake.

Three investments I'd make immediately: a bread maker, a oil spritzer and a blender, if he doesn't already have them. The bread maker so that he can make his own with minimal fuss and keep the salt to the bare minimum needed and control the ingredients. (Okay, a kitchen aid mixer would work here, too, but that requires a bit more attention. know-how and time. For the baking novice who needs to get up to speed ASAP, a breadmaker has a lower learning curve.) The oil spritzer so that he's not relying on PAM and the like, and the blender so that he can start the smoothie rounds. He might also want a bottle of Bragg Liquid Aminos, since that's a low salt, non-gluten alternative to soy sauce. Use sparingly.

Smoothies made with yogurt and frozen fruit are fast and easy and infinite. Many things we'd not think to put in them - like spinach and carrots - work really, really well.

I don't really have any favorite recipes since I make them up as I go along, but a few things I've come up with are subs for ranch dressing
(1/2 cup dry buttermilk powder, 1 T dried parsley, 1 t dried dill, 1 t onion powder - made from organic onion flakes in a mortar and pestle, 1 t dried minced onion, 1/2 t granulated garlic, 1/4 t ground pepper. Mix in baggie and store; add 1 T mixture to 1 c undrained, fat free yogurt and stir. Mix can also be used to flavor burgers, baked chips, potatoes, etc)

and french dressing

(1 can tomato paste, .5 c olive oil, .25 c balsamic vinegar, .25 t celery seeds, 1 T honey, water or vinegar to taste and thin to consistency)

With those two, I can do almost anything. I know I got really, really tired of vinegrettes all the time. Tzatziki sauce also serves many masters; I leave out the tahini because I don't like the flavor of it. Yogurt, mint, seeded cucumbers, onion juice, garlic, pepper, and a pinch of salt (on the cucumbers, but it can be washed off) mixed up; use it in place of mayo or sour cream.

One last - zucchini, sliced and tossed in garlic, herbs and a bit of olive oil, then grilled until caramelized is pretty much heaven.

[bettyellen]

5. wow, thank you for taking the time.....

i'll pass this info along!

[politicat]

7. No prob

I type fast and will probably recycle the thoughts eventually. (I have this weird concept for a lunch shop that would go over great here in Boulder, but have not done anything with it; perhaps it's a better cookbook than shop.)

[Warpy]

2. The Ornish and Pritikin cookbooks will both fill the need here

and they're both available in paperback. Google "cardiac cooking" or "cardiac recipes" and you'll get loads of recipes. Lots of people are on that diet. I've used the Pritikin recipes in the past when I was doing the flying kitchen bit and people needed cardiac diet food, and found the recipes to be quite nice.

Two things carry flavor in food, fat and wine. If there is no history of problem drinking, you can flavor a lot of otherwise very bland fare with a little wine and a few herbs and really spice it up. Many things that taste like cardboard without salt can be spiced up with a few drops of lemon juice and a little cracked pepper.

[bettyellen]

6. wine and spices are fine, great idea!

i'll check out the sites, too!

[tishaLA]

3. Here you go

From a Heart Failure Site. It's primarily low-sodium, but just work around it.

I have a low sodium diet and I follow most of the criteria you have up there. It's really pretty easy to do and what you need to do is make sure you use "high flavor" and fresh ingredients in your cooking. I have a cookbook called A New Way to Cook that isn't necessarily low-sodium, but you can make the recipes low sodium. It is high on fresh ingredients and on reducing fats/using good fats in food.

[bettyellen]

4. thanks!

I'm putting together some things to send my pal.......
and this will help!

[murphymom]

8. Cheese is a tough one

I've tried no-salt cheddar before and it was about as palatable as eating erasers. When I lived in California I was able to find a no-salt Safeway brand swiss cheese that was actually pretty good - didn't taste that much different than regular.

I was googling around the other day looking for vegetable recipes and found a site from a CSA farm in Watsonville, CA that had an excellent collection -

http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/index.html

We got a CSA share this year from a local farm where we are and I've had to figure out what to do with items that I didn't know how to cook - fennel, for one, and a romanesco cauliflower (which looked like a mutant green Klingon vegetable from outer space, but tasted delicious).

[fortyfeetunder]

9. He can make some smoothies!

take 1 cup fresh fruit, 1 cup yogurt, and 1 TBSP nonfat dry milk...4-5 ice cubes, and put in a blender...yummy!

[bettyellen]

10. that sounds better than the ensure he's been guzzling.....

thank you!

[Warpy]

11. That sounds like my diet

only you'd have to throw "vegetarian" into the mix, as well.

Pritikin and Ornish both have cookbooks out. You'll find others under "cardiac cooking" on Amazon or in a bricks and mortar store. Searching using that term will also get you loads of recipes on the net.

Low salt isn't that tough once you get used to the idea. If there's no problem with alcohol, you can cook with wine and herbs. Fat and wine both carry flavor in foods. Seasoning food that tastes like cardboard with a few drops of lemon juice and fresh cracked pepper will really pick up the flavor.

Cheese is more problematic. There are vegetarian cheeses out there, and they're adequate substitutes once one hasn't had the real thing for 6 months or so, but you'll have to read the labels carefully for fat and sodium content. Otherwise, it's farmer cheese or cottage cheese. A cheesy flavor can be added to things like spaghetti sauce with nutritional yeast (NOT brewer's yeast, which is bitter as hell). It's also pretty good on air popped popcorn.

As for maintaining weight, there's nothing better than the "loaded" smoothies, with low fat milk, fruit, yogurt, protein powder, and more fruit. People can suck those down between meals and they'll really help to boost calories.