Low Sodium: Take Seven

Welcome back to Made Up Recipes with Scout! Today's meal: Lemon parmesan chicken, fried/steamed veggies, and buttered noodles.

Lemon Parmesan Chicken ingredients:
Chicken
Almost every time I make chicken, I use boneless skinless chicken breasts, so when I put "chicken" in the ingredients list, that's probably the kind I mean.
Chopped onions
Garlic
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Pepper
Fresh thyme
Parmesan 

Place chopped onions, olive oil, and garlic in a pan. Place chicken in next, pouring lemon juice on top of each piece. Toss in pepper and chopped thyme. Cover the pan and let the chicken steam. This will allow the chicken to absorb the flavors and the onions to sautee. When chicken is thoroughly cooked, take off the lid to let the moisture out and allow the chicken to brown. When the chicken is browned to your liking, place it on (or in) a serving dish and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. You'll want to be fast with this so it will get a little gooey. You could sprinkle the parmesan on the chicken before you place it in (on) the serving dish, but that might make for particularly unpleasant cleanup.

 The next thing I made was fried/steamed veggies. I cut up bell peppers, onions, and squash, and placed them in a pan with olive oil, garlic, and pepper. I covered it and let it cook on low to help soften the squash. Then, when I got impatient, I turned up the heat so it would go faster and also brown the veggies some.

I served the meal with buttered noodles. Everything else was very flavorful and I thought a simple side would go nicely with the rest. The only sodium in the meal came from the parmesan. I used half a cup for our dinner and it was more than enough (for 3 chicken breasts), but my family usually likes extra flavor, so it worked for us. The total sodium for all of the chicken I made was 900 something, making each serving only 240 mg.
Note: If you are using a low sodium diet, remember that there is sodium in meat, as well. Check the packaging to make sure you aren't getting something that was soaked in salt.

Peace out!
Scout

Cookies!

Homemade Thin Mints

This is a low sodium recipe - a regular recipe that happens to not have lots of salt or need any adjusting to be a semi-heart healthy meal, at least concerning salt levels.

I've never been much of a cookie person. When it comes to desserts, I almost always want ice cream. Or my dad's homemade apple pie. Best. Ever.
But cookies have never really been my thing. When I'm throwing a pity party I like Oreos and peanut butter because it's such a huge indulgence. Maybe it makes me feel kind of rebellious - like i'm sticking it to "the man" (you know - the one that says I should eat healthy and not eat lots of cookies or throw pity parties. You know that's not a woman speaking). I mean, really. Do you even know how terrible Oreos and peanut butter are for you? But they are just so. darn. good.
But cookies have never been my favorite.
However, since there has always been a special place in my heart for mint anything, these cookies have definitely made it into my "Favorite Desserts" list. That list doesn't really exist yet, but...I'm a list person, so it probably will soon.
[For some reason I have this need to decide my favorite things - like it's absolutely necessary that I know my favorite (books/movies/television shows/desserts) at any given time.]

Moving on.
I found this recipe for homemade Thin Mint cookies. I made the batter and it came out perfectly. I froze it in two logs (that, to be honest, just didn't look too good). I made the first log later that day and - surprise! - I followed the recipe exactly. I didn't really like it. But I ate the cookies. I know, I'm a trooper. But they weren't great. They weren't very minty and I didn't like the dark chocolate too much.
So when I made the second cookie log yesterday, I changed it up a bit. I used milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet, and I added a teaspoon of mint extract to the chocolate.
I. Loved. Them. I can hardly stop eating them.

Make some. Right now.


Peace!
Scout

Low Sodium: Take Six

Garlic Herb Bread

Note: Cooking with no sodium is hard. Sometimes the food tastes funny or bland and I can't tell if it's the recipe that's weird, my cooking, or the fact that I'm using substitutes for things that have lots of sodium (like...salt. And baking powder and baking soda). Because things taste different,  they don't get eaten like the foods I've made before. It's very disheartening.Oh well. I still like cooking and I some low sodium things taste good. Like the following recipe!

This recipe was taken from this site. I followed the recipe, except that I added more spices than they called for. The dough came out great and I was even able to braid it like it says! I was so proud of myself. It was huge, too! It looks so small when you start out, but it gets so HUGE when it rises. I didn't like it at first - I thought the crust seemed a little bit flour-y. However, I ate more of it today and I realized that it's pretty fantastic - especially slathered in butter (but then, most things are).

Sorry for the lack of pictures. That's what happens when you have a lack of (digital, less expensive than film) camera. 

Love,
Scout

Low Sodium: Take Three, Four, Five...

Oh, guys. I have been cooking a LOT. I like it :) Mostly. I've made dinners, breads, cookies, and there's so much more I can't wait to try!

Dijon chicken (based on this recipe).

Ingredients:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
dijon mustard
lemon juice
salt
honey

The recipe I based mine off of didn't give specifics, so I made mine up:
6 Tbs. lemon juice
3 tsp. dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. salt (we used salt substitute - sodium free!)
[I think] 3 Tbs. honey

Basically, you mix together the ingredients and marinate your chicken and...it's delicious. The recipe says to grill it, but I baked mine for 30 minutes at 350. I served mine with mashed potatoes and green beans.
Sodium count: only whatever is in the mustard.


White Chili (based on this recipe). 

I followed the recipe pretty closely (at least for me). Instead of canned beans, we used fresh beans, which is something I'm new at, so they weren't cooked fully. I used chicken broth from when I cooked the chicken. Also, instead of green chile peppers, I used pepperjack cheese and shredded it into the chili before adding the beans. Oh. I also added sour cream to the mix because I thought it was too spicy.
Maybe I didn't follow the recipe very closely...
This recipe was okay. Ours had too much chicken, not enough broth, and the beans weren't cooked all the way, so it definitely could have been better. I think a lot of it would have been different if we had used canned beans - it would have added to and thickened the broth. The seasoning was great, though, and the cornucopia of leftovers made great....

Made-up Burritos! 

Ingredients:
Leftover chili (see above)
Black beans
Corn
Curry powder
Rice
Sour cream
Tortilla shells

To make the chili leftovers into something my family would eat, I added (thoroughly cooked) black beans, corn, and curry powder (to touch up the taste since adding more starchy types). Then we ate it in tortilla shells with rice, sour cream, salsa, and other taco type toppings. I didn't really want to make this (I wanted minestrone or baked oatmeal but my mom told me to use the leftovers), but I actually really liked it a lot. Sodium count: from chili, sour cream, and tortilla shells. 


That's all for now. More later, concerning herb bread and girl scout cookies.

Love,
Scout

P.S. Sodium count for the chili the way I made it was about 1400 ish (I forget now) for the whole pot. It came from the cheese and sour cream. I shaved a lot off on the sodium count by using no-sodium bouillon and non-canned beans.

Low Sodium: Information

I found this article type deal online. It gives a lot of information about sodium and no/low sodium diets. It lists foods that should be avoided, foods that are generally okay for low sodium diets, and miscellaneous tips and facts. For instance: Did you know, "Food products that are ‘reduced fat’, ‘fat-free’, or labeled as ‘good for your heart’ are often higher in sodium and calories." 
There's also a nifty comparison chart between regular foods and their low sodium or unsalted counterparts.

Anyway, I think this little informational packet thing is super awesome. It has a lot of basic and very helpful information to get you started and even lists some websites to get more information from.

Love,
Scout

Low Sodium: Take One

Garlic and Herb Bread.

Yesterday (or maybe two days ago) I made low sodium garlic and herb bread from this site. It was interesting. The recipe says to use a bread machine, which we don't have, so I just mixed the ingredients in a bowl, minus the water and yeast. When I mixed everything else, I put the yeast in lukewarm water to make sure it was active. What I learned: yeast is super creepy. I don't like moving food. When I took a spoon of it out of the jar, it starting grabbing for the sides. Not cool. Anyway, I let the yeast sit in the water for a couple minutes then stirred it in to the rest of the mix. Then I set it on the pan to let it rise. That took a while. It was insanely sticky.

Then I baked it.

Then we ate it.

It baked great and the texture was fantastic, but overall I'd only say it was okay. It was sweet, which I wasn't expecting. I wanted it to have something spicy, like a pepper of some sort, that way there would be the delightful mix of sweet and spicey. I'm sure it was okay, but it's hard to judge because I was expecting something so different.

Love,
Scout