Soup!

I love soup.  Before the CHF diagnosis,  I loved  a can of soup for lunch.  Notice that I said a can of soup.  The fact that they say that a can contains two servings is almost insulting.  Face it,  if you love soup,  a can is only one serving.  Most soups are way beyond too much sodium for those of us who are trying to stay below 1200-1500 mg of sodium a day.   I've been making my own soups, which I will post later and they have been pretty good.  But for lunch, sometimes you just want the convenience of a can of soup. 

Publix to the Rescue once again!   In their organic section, they have a variety of no salt added soups from Health Valley.   They also have some 40% less sodium soups, but even those have too much for me.  But the no salt added ones are great.

I have tried the Vegetable, Minestrone, Tomato, Potato Leek, and Chicken Noodle.  All were good but I can see if you aren't used to eating no salt, they would be bland.  I still miss that salty taste at times, but it's getting easier.  Anyway, back to the soups.  They were all good and I enjoyed having soup again. They range in 100-140 mg of sodium a can which is good.   Of course they list 2 servings a can, but each serving is a reasonable 50 -70 mg per serving.

I'm not sure if they are available everywhere, but you can use the store locator on their website to see if a store near you offers them.  I tried my sister's zip code in Pennsylvania as she also has CHF and found a Giant and a Wegman's store near her that carry the Health Valley soups.  They also sell them online at the Health Valley website but they are very pricey there due to shipping.   I have found them on Amazon also and if you have Prime,  you can have them shipped free and that makes them a little more reasonable.

Another thing to keep an eye out for is Campbell's ready to serve low sodium soup.  My wonderful eagle eye husband found this in the regular soup section at Publix.  They also have a chicken broth and cream of mushroom variety.   The Chicken Noodle has 140 mg sodium per serving and for a change,  one serving is one container.  This was also good if you are used to no salt in your food.  I added a little of Benson's Table Tasty one time and some Mrs Dash another time and both made it taste even better.    The Cream of Mushroom has just 45 mg sodium for the whole can.  Hopefully these will start showing up in every store soon along with the other Campbell's products.

Mrs Dash Chili

I love the new Mrs Dash seasoning packets.  This week we had Chili using it.  The mix itself has no sodium in it but when you add the other ingredients, it comes out to about 135 mg of sodium per 1 cup serving. 

It calls for 1 packet Mrs Dash Chili Seasoning Mix
1 lb ground beef or turkey
2 8 ounce tomato sauce or 14.5 ounce whole tomatoes  *
1 15 ounce can kidney beans, undrained **
Brown beef or turkey, drain fat. 
Stir in seasoning mix, tomato sauce or whole tomatoes, and beans.
Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. 

*I used no salt added tomato sauce
**I used low sodium pinto beans

We also like a little bit of a tang in our chili so I added a little bit of my homemade barbecue sauce that I had left over.   My whole family liked it, which is no small feat.  I doubled the recipe and it was gone within 2 days. 

Just a word about finding these mixes.  They are new so the stores are slowly getting them in.  I have found the chili seasoning at Publix and Winn Dixie.  If you can't find them in your area,  the Healthy Heart Market sells them and right now they have a $5 off your first order promotion.    I'm still trying to find a few of the mixes locally and if they don't get them soon,  I'll be ordering them online. 

Baking Thoughts and a Good Source for Products

Before my CHF diagnosis,  there were a lot of things I didn't realize about sodium but I've had a crash course in all things sodium since.   For instance,  I thought that if I eliminated the salt called for in a cake recipe, I'd eliminate all the sodium.  But that's not true.  Most baking recipes call for either baking powder or baking soda and both of those contain sodium. 

In each teaspoon of baking soda, there is 1259 mg of sodium.  Baking powder isn't quite as bad with 488 mg of sodium in each teaspoon.  So the majority of the sodium in a baking recipe is from the leavening agent rather than the salt itself.  But can you bake without using the high sodium baking soda and baking powder? 

In most recipes you can drop the salt without any problems.  You don't really taste the salt in cakes and cookies anyway.  Bread making is another thing, but that's for another day.  But in your desserts and most baking other than yeast baking, salt isn't necessary and there are ways around the baking soda and baking powder.

Some Thoughts on Water

One of the things that my cardiologist told me when I left the hospital is to limit my fluids to 2 liters or less a day.    I get most of my fluids from drinking water.  You would think that drinking water would be safe from sodium but that's not the case in some cases. 

We have well water and right out of the tap, it tastes very metallic.  So, we got a water softener for the whole house and the water tastes great.  But, to make that water taste great,  the softener filters the water through salt.  I started to do some research and found some surprises. 

I learned that the amount of sodium in the water is proportional to the initial hardness of the water.    According to the WQA (Water Quality Association), for every grain of hardness there will be 30mg of sodium in a gallon after it has been softened.  The average hardness of well water is about 15 grains.  In an 8oz glass of 15 grain softened water there is 28.12 mg of sodium.

Low Salt Lunch Choices

I try to eat very low sodium lunches so that I can eat dinner with the family and still stay under 1000 mg of sodium a day.  One of my favorite lunches features Gorton's Grilled Tilapia.  They come two squares to a package and are seasoned and they are easily heated in the microwave.    Each square is 140 mg of sodium. 

I have found some frozen steamable rice dishes.  I have found them at Walmart and Publix and Winn Dixie.  There are several types.  One is Minute Steamers with Brown Rice, Barley, Quinoa and Wild Rice.  There is 0 sodium in this and the mixture of grains is very tasty. 

There are also frozen steamable rice mixes is from Birds Eye.  I have tried two of these.  One has brown and wild rice with carrots, corn and peas.  Another has brown and wild rice with broccoli and carrots.  These have 20-25 mg sodium per cup.  They are also good.  I usually add a little Smart Balance low sodium spread and Mrs Dash to them to make them yummy. 

I also sometimes include the Birds Eye frozen steamable vegetables with the rice and fish.  These are very low sodium and I can add the low sodium Smart Balance and Mrs Dash to them as well.  Smart Balance Low Sodium spread has a buttery flavor and is only 30 mg sodium per tablespoon. 

These are healthy choices for a low sodium lunch or dinner.  

Bread and Sandwiches

I've found some good low salt alternatives to regular bread that I wanted to share here.     Most bread has quite a bit of sodium in it.   I make my own rolls and bread and I'm going to try to experiment with my recipe and see how it comes out without salt but I haven't done that yet.  But, I have made a couple of finds in the grocery store.

Food for Life Baking Company makes a ZERO sodium bread and it tastes pretty good.  It's a sprouted grain bread and so it's not soft and white like most bread, but it makes a good sandwich and tastes pretty good.  

I found this bread in the freezer section of Publix supermarket.  They have a store finder on their website in case you don't live near a Publix.    There is low sodium and there is no sodium and I love it that I can have a sandwich and the bread doesn't add any sodium to it.

Barbecue Sauce

I love grilled food and I love barbecue sauce.  Every bottled kind I've found has a lot of sodium in it.  So, I started looking for a suitable homemade sauce that wouldn't take all day to make and that would taste good.  I tried 3 different sauces before finding one that I really liked that wasn't very hard to make. 

The first sauce I tried was way too sweet.  The second one tasted too vinegary and the third one was just right.  (Sounds like Goldilocks).  I'm not saying that I won't try other recipes in the future if I find one that looks good,  but this one is my favorite for now.

BBQ Sauce
1 cup no salt added ketchup
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp yellow mustard
1 tbsp low sodium Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp liquid smoke 

Stir all ingredients together in a saucepan on medium high heat.  When the mixture begins to boil, reduce heat and simmer on medium low for about 20 minutes to thicken.  4 servings and so each serving is approximately 1/4 cup.