Early this year my wife and I took a long-talked-about dream vacation to Hawaii, spending a week in Honolulu and another week on the island of Kauai. It seems a million years ago now with a pandemic sweeping the globe.
But I hope that reading about wonderful places to eat in Hawaii will brighten some people’s days and turn their thoughts to happier times.
I’ve already written that there’s a lot of junk food in Hawaii, especially in the heavy tourist areas like Honolulu. But there also are some wonderful restaurants featuring fresh seafood.
My Hula Grill dinner.
One we enjoyed was the Hula Grill Waikiki. It’s in a hotel, but much better than the average hotel restaurant. It offers a wide range of seafood option, including nightly specials, and fish you don’t see on the mainland like opah and monchong.
And both mahi mahi and ahi are on the menu, fresher there than you’ll taste on the mainland as well. Pictured here is my dinner, which as I recall was a nightly special, I think of ahi.
A lot of people have been posting on social media about helping their local restaurants by ordering take-out and delivery meals. Some of the delivery services are even offering lower or no fees for a few weeks to encourage it.
Now, a large group of national restaurants wants to take the idea across the country with what they’re calling The Great American Takeout on Tuesday, March 24. And yes, of course, there’s a hashtag #thegreatamericantakeout
Many. many people are out of work right now and likely can’t afford such luxuries, but if you can afford it, ordering from your favorite restaurant with a takeout meal Tuesday is a great way to show support.
My wife recently put together a winter vacation for us that had been a dream of mine for about 40 years — going to Hawaii. I’d been there, alone, in the early 1980s and loved it, vowing at the time to go back someday with someone I would want to share it with.
That’s exactly what I did with my wife in January. But there’s been a major change for me since 1981, my heart issues. And that complicated our eating while there for almost two weeks.
Fast food in Hawaii is inevitably salty and fatty. SPAM on rice anyone? It’s a popular sushi option there as is breaded fish of all kinds, tacos or all kinds and poke, which is highly salted fish. So we had to work hard to find healthy alternatives.
I had expected more fresh fish and fruit, which I remembered from my last visit. We had to search that out, most often in more expensive restaurants. We found some great meals, but had to pay $100 a couple and up for them (and we don’t drink alcohol very much so that was usually without drinks).
I’ll be blogging about our meals the next few days, come read about them. Here’s a tease, a beet salad and sashimi plate I had at Duke’s at the Marriott resort on Kauai.
It didn’t occur to me at the time that the Kroger reduced-sodium olives I bought would still have more salt than a Lindsay low-sodium olive I usually purchase at another store. But when I got home, I compared the labels and found there was indeed a major difference in sodium content.
Here’s the side-by-side comparison:
The Lindsay olives on the left have 40 mgs of salt in five olives while the Kroger olives on the right have 70 mgs.. And for some reason, the lower-salt olives have more calories! Always read food labels, you never know what you’ll find.
A daily lunch salad has become a mainstay of my low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar diet since my first stent was put in back in 2012 (a second followed in 2017). I’m always looking for items to add to my salad for some variety.
Black olives are a childhood favorite that I always include. But canned olives can be high in sodium, as can so many other possible additives for my salad such as artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, palm hearts and roasted peppers. Thankfully low-sodium olives are available. I’ve written about using low-sodium olives before.
The Kroger reduced-salt olives and a low-sodium olive from Lindsay.
Only a few stores in my area normally carry them, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a reduced-sodium Kroger store brand canned olive at my local Food 4 Less.
Food 4 Less is a Kroger semi-warehouse concept store the mega-chain operates in the Chicago area.
The six-ounce Kroger cans were on special at two for $3, a good price.
Is it worth monitoring the salt in your olives, some might ask? I say emphatically yes, the salt content might not seem high in olives alone, but salt is in every packaged product and can quickly add up in a salad without you even suspecting.
Healthy Heart Market is a good place to seek out low- and no-salt products that you can’t find locally. The drawback is usually high shipping costs because many food items weigh a lot, especially if you stock up.
But the Market has a $10 flat-rate shipping deal available through Jan. 31 if you spend $75 or more. “No coupon required – simply select shipping method ‘Flat Rate Ship on $75+ Order’ during check out,” according to an email it sent out touting the offer.
No-salt pickles, impossible for me to find locally.
I’ve ordered a variety of items from there over the year. My favorite would have to be the no-salt pickles because those are impossible to find in any stores near me.
Act fast if you want to take advantage of this shipping offer.
You’ll likely hear about a million diet plans as 2020 begins, its national weight-loss time after all. Diet plans come and go more frequently than new car models these days.
But as with cars, it’s a buyer beware situation with diet plans.
Before you try any, do some serious research on its impact on your body and your health. As it happens, U.S. News does that every year, ranking popular diet plans.
The Mediterranean Diet has topped the list again this year. If you’re not sure what that is, click here to see what U.S. News says about it.
Basically, it means don’t eat like any ugly American. Cut out fatty meats, eat more fruits and vegetables and make olive oil your lifetime friend.
Th DASH Diet, which is basically a type of Mediterranean diet, came in second.
How did some of the big, commercial diet companies do? Weight Watchers (WW now) came in fourth, Jenny Craig came in 12th, and Nutrisystem came in 20th.
Good eating in 2020, avoid salt, fat and sugar and it all will be very simple for you.
The start of any year is notorious for people resolving to lose some weight. Indeed, all the major weight-loss programs already are running ads to attract new clients this time of year.
Like millions of others, I’m resolving to drop some pounds this year too. But I don’t use any commercial diet plans. Rather, I merely need to return to what I was eating after having my first angioplasty in 2012.
Following that surgery, I dropped 25 pounds by cutting out everything I enjoyed — red meat, candy, cookies, doughnuts, cake, rich, creamy ethnic foods (think most things from Europe), high-salt ethnic foods (think anything from Asia).
Sadly, after three years of that, I began slipping back, mainly with M&Ms and cream-filled doughnuts, until, in 2017, I was forced to have a second angioplasty to open yet another blocked artery.
That second surgery really had me questioning whether changing my diet had any impact on my artery-health, since it seemed like the answer was a resounding no.
So for the past two years, I’ve been eating much more junk food than before and have gained back that 25 pounds I lost. That officially makes me a fat old man these days and I don’t like that image. So I’m starting all over again.
Here’s today’s lunch salad which I made at home. Restaurant salads are normally load with salt, fat and sugar, avoid them or strip them down to their basics if you must eat one.
I try to add as much as possible to the basic spring greens lettuce mix to give the salad some texture. Here’s a look at ingredients before I built the salad. The only thing missing in this photo is the turkey I put on. That’s leftover from our low-salt Christmas turkey.
The feta cheese is fat-free and the olives (in that black liquid) are low-salt. The beets are sold at Costco, they’re sealed and shelf-stable, not the jarred ones that are loaded with salt.
The mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers and even the lettuce mix were on sale at a local supermarket. Eating healthy is expensive, so always shop the sales each week to find deals.
I topped all this with olive oil (a so-called good fat) and balsamic vinegar.
Healthyheartmarket.com is a good online source for all things low- and no-salt. The one caveat is that shipping is usually expensive, especially for heavy liquid items. So I always look locally first for items I see here before buying online.
Recently though, I saw a special for an item I haven’t seen locally. The Market has an offer for $20 off cases of Francesco Rinaldi No Salt Added Pasta Sauce. That means 12 jars for $39.88
Baked mostaccoli, or do you call them ziti?
I make my own pasta sauce (and in my Italian-American family, we called it gravy). I use low-salt, imported Italian tomatoes. If you’re not accustomed to making your own, this Rinaldi brand could be a good alternative.
Trader Joe’s also sells its own brand of low-salt marinara sauce, another alternative if you have a TJs nearby. Hunt’s also has a pre-made low-salt sauce, although many main-stream supermarkets do not carry it or only carry small cans of it.
Opt for a whole wheat pasta, add gravy and you have a great crowd-pleasing meal for the holidays.
