Food help!

[corilannam]

My mother is here visiting me for two weeks, after not having seen me for almost nine years. I have not previously mentioned this because it's been a source of immense stress for quite a while now, and every entry I started about it inevitably devolved into "ICANTDOTHISOMGWTFAAAAAARGH!"

She came on Saturday, and so far it's been okay (other than finding her sitting alone and silent in the dark when I came home from ndannais's graduation last night, because she couldn't figure out how to work the lights or TV. Other issues come and go, as expected.

The one practical issue I'm having is how to feed her. My usual fare is whatever I can make fit on my WW plan, but my mother has blood pressure problems and can't eat very much sodium. She went through my entire kitchen last night, pointing out what had too much sodium in it, and it turns out it was... pretty much everything. I can do low fat, low calorie, low carb, low flavor, but low sodium I'm having a problem with.

So, can anyone recommend any resources for tasty but low sodium foods/recipes? Preferably low fat and calorie as well? That has flavor, if that's not asking too much? I'm googling, but any recommendations for known successes (personal or secondhand) would be greatly appreciated.

Barring that, send valium (that one's for me).

Comments

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Do veggies have sodium in them? *is clueless*

I really like this for comforting flavors:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/lamb-chops-with-roasted-vegetables,963,RC.html

I make this with red bell peppers, onions and whole bulbs of garlic; they roast and turn sweet. You can pretty much add any kind of vegetable that roasts well.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

I think veggies are on the approved list. :-) Thanks, I'll give that one a try -- looks yummy!

[unovis-lj.livejournal.com]

You might want to post this request to food_porn. They have over 3000 members.

A simple recipe I use with a lot of flavor is roast chicken (it uses a bit of olive oil): this is for chicken pieces, with or without skin.

Combine olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, and pepper (salt is optional; you can use lemon pepper or Mrs. Dash) in a bowl and coat the chicken pieces. Bake on a foil-lined sheet or pan at 375 degrees until juices run clear when flesh is pierced with a knife. Keep basting with red wine or vinegar.

You can use the same seasoning for potato wedges, but roast potatoes are probably not on your diet.

Salmon on a bed of thinly sliced apples and onions, with or without fresh rosemary, drizzled with scotch or lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar is very good, too. It can go in a baking pan or a grill pan on the stove, lightly greased, sprayed with Pam, or with a bit of butter. I don't know how much fat is allowed on WW -- I use olive oil pretty freely.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That all sounds really good. And olive oil is definitely a good thing. :-)

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

Well, it depends how low sodium you need, I guess. My diet is kind of by-default low sodium, because I cook almost entirely from scratch, and use only a little salt in things. (If I eat my own cooking for all three meals, my daily sodium intake is somewhat under 1000mg on average.)

Ah, hm. If you both eat meat, I suggest a tasty chili -- using either chicken breast or flank/skirt steak (whichever is cheaper in your neck of the woods), plenty of onion and peppers and spices. Beans, if you want to use them (dried is lower-sodium than canned, but a lot more work -- I'd probably leave them out).

And then most of the salt will come in with the canned crushed tomatoes, and you shouldn't need much more than that, what with other spices in & whatnot.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been trying to avoid the salty canned stuff where I can, though it's hard since I'm not so much a cook from scratch kind of person. Chili sounds really good, though, and I remember my mom cooking some when I was a kid, so that just might go over well. Thanks!

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

I just take recipes and drastically cut or eliminate the salt. Tastes fine to me (of course, I'm not used to much salt in the first place). Bump up other spices and flavorings to compensate if things taste bland, and maybe lay in a shaker of "Mrs. Dash"-type salt-free flavoring. Avoid using prepared foods even as ingredients unless you scrutinize the labels first; it's appalling how much salt is put into canned tomatoes, for instance. (You can find no-salt-added tomatoes and other such things, but depending where you are, it can take some looking. And watch out for "reduced sodium" claims; on many foods, even the reduced sodium levels are often scarily high. Like, one serving of regular soup or whatever has 1500 mg of sodium, and the "reduced sodium" version has, oh, 1000. That's still a ridiculous amount.) Good luck!

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a lot of the soup I thought was pretty healthy turns out to have some pretty gruesome sodium levels. I've definitely been getting the no-salt-added canned tomatoes for spaghetti sauce and suchlike, and that seemed to go over well. I guess it's not surprising how much salt is in prepared foods in general, but I was still kind of stunned when I started paying attention to the numbers!

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I sometimes look at recipes posted to some of the cooking ljs (food_porn, cooking, etc) and add up the sodium counts from the processed foods.

It's a fun game if you try to guess based on the ingredients and then do the math...and by "fun" I mean "somewhat terrifying".

My accidentally-low-sodium diet is one that I've been eating long enough now that I actually can't eat a lot of things I used to love, because they taste too salt to me. :( It's a bit sad!

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm with the_shoshanna--stay away from prepared foods (which you should probably do anyway if you're trying to eat healthily) and you should be fine. Cooking for yourself means you get to decide what to avoid! Try doing a google search on some foods you like (or that your mother likes), find some recipes that contain that food, buy the rest of the stuff in it, and try it out. Failing that, ask her what *she* eats, and buy some of that.

I admire your fortitude, though. Two weeks is an *awfully* long time.

-J

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

It's a very long time. *twitch*

I did buy all the things she eats, I was just hoping to provide a little variety, and hoping to find some things she and I would both eat so we could have dinner together. I've had two successful dinners so far, and she has a couple things she wants to cook, but most of my other ideas were getting shot down and two weeks really is a long time. *g*

[noelql.livejournal.com]

OMG!!

We didn't realize that this was actually happening.

**HUGS**

We will have a large drink ready and waiting for you when you reach Chicago. Yikes.

**HUGS**

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kept meaning to mention it, but I think I was in denial until I actually picked her up at the train station. *g*

*HUGS BACK*

Definitely looking forward to that drink!

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

Almost any fresh veggies. Most groceries have a low-salt shelf for folks with sodium-related bp problems, and if they don't have sodium-substitute seasoning you can find that at a health-food store.

One friend of mine swears by using a can of low-sodium chicken broth diluted with the same amount of water to cook rice in. Steam the fresh veggies and toss -- if you're meat-eaters you can steam some chicken or fish and have that with it. Carrots steam well.

Pretty much any veg can be microwave-steamed by using a covered dish and a couple tablespoons of water, just be sure to nuke 'em in short bursts and stir so they cook evenly... and you can throw the water into the rice to conserve the vitamins. A squeeze of lemon juice adds flavor to veggies, and as others have said, Mrs Dash is good, too. A baked or mashed potato is filling and low-sodium--she can use unsalted butter (not low-fat but you're not talking long-term diet, here.) Go for herbs--dill and parsley add vitamins and flavor with nothing much in the way of fat.

Plain old celery actually has something in it that helps regulate blood pressure. I'd heard this, passed it on to a client with serious bp/kidney problems, and he told me his internist had confirmed it. And it's crunchy and has lots of flavor.

You have my sympathy! Two weeks is a long time to cater to someone else's dietary requirements, especially as it sounds like she gave you no warning.

Good luck!

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I've used the chicken-broth-in-rice trick before, but I'd forgotten about it. Definitely trying that again.

And yeah, two weeks is a while to go without getting boring. I did know that she was watching her sodium, I just didn't know quite how extreme it was until she got here and started talking numbers....

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

Um.. I don't mean to pick on your mother, but since she's the one with dietary strictures, how about she makes you a grocery list and you just buy her the food to cook for herself? I'm vegetarian, so I know what a nuisance it can be, which is why I will sometimes nip off to a grocery store and pick up meatless provisions if I'm visiting omnivores. Unless your mom's an invalid or otherwise impaired, her nutrition is her responsibility.

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

She does have some mobility problems, so I don't expect her to go shopping on her own, but alas, the grocery list she gave me doesn't give me a huge amount to work with. Believe it or not, there are only so many entrees that can be made with tomatoes, egg whites, oatmeal, and Wasa crackers....

I may drag her to Trader Joe's tonight, though, and tell her to find at least a week's worth of dinner possibilities. *g*

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

Your mom's got the glass-is-almost-empty menu. My sister had a kidney infection when we were kids, and my mother flipped out trying to figure out what to feed her until the doctor told her to just cut out snacks and condiments and processed foods. You can't completely avoid sodium, but your heart can't beat without iit, either. Everybody needs some!

Doesn't your mom like veggies? Avocados! Garlic! Onions! Tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans (toast a few almonds in a T of butter, drizzle on the beans, yum!) zucchini, summer squash, asparagus, peas, beets, parsnips, corn, yams, potatoes, peppers, turnips, spinach - pretty much any veg frozen without added salt - all sorts of salad with a little balsamic vinegar, mushrooms, celery, bok choy, chicken, fish, apples, pears, strawberries or any other fruit frozen w/out additives.. Unsalted popcorn!

here are a couple of medically-oriented sites on low-sodium food:

http://www.nwkidney.org/images/website/docs/nutrition/lowsodium.htm
http://www.chfpatients.com/rec/recipes.htm
http://www.ndif.org/na9.html

That last one has specific sodium content for common foods -- 25mg for a carrot or a whole ear of corn vs. 225-400 for a slice of bologna, or 0 for balsamic vinegar vs 500-2000 for soy sauce!

Boy, will I be paying attention when I fix dinner tonight...

[kris4n6.livejournal.com]

I don't have any recipe ideas really (basically nearly everything I cook, I toss a crapload of garlic salt in it. Garlic salt makes *everything* good!), but *hugs*. I remember you mentioning this a couple weeks back, hope everything goes well and you don't need a straitjacket at the end of the visit!

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Yes, garlic salt rocks! So far, I'm still in a zen place. But it's early yet. *g*

[semielliptical]

Some Trader Joe's brand food are low-sodium. They have salsa chips and soy chips (almost like corn chips) that have a reasonable sodium level per serving. And some of their salsas and maybe pasta sauces - you have to check the labels.

Baked goods are often high in sodium but it varies - I've seen different brands of tortilas that ranged from around 100mg (not bad) to 400mg (way too high) per tortilla.

It sounds like you're probably not interested in baking - if you are, there is a low-sodium baking powder, Featherweight. But it is *not* equivalent to regular baking powder, I use about twice as much Featherweight, and/or add a small amount (1/4 tsp) of regular for a boost.

There are low-sodium canned beans, I use Eden organic. You could make your own hummus or bean dip to use with chips by blending with garlic, lemon juice, tahini (for hummus), maybe some roasted red peppers.

Or marinate chicken with lime/lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil.

Good luck with this!

[marzilla.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot! I appreciate all the suggestions!