recipes – The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal

Product review: Sans Sucre sugar-free mousse and brownies

Baking is not usually my thing, I find it a bit too scientific a process as compared to cooking which allows for more freedom to depart from recipes and become artistic. So most of the recipes you’ll find on this blog are for cooking main courses and side dishes rather than desserts.

That said, I love to eat baked goods such as cakes and doughnuts, items I really should try to avoid on my heart-healthy diet because of sugar and fat they contain.

So when I was approached by a public relations person for a brand called Sans Sucre which makes sugar-free and gluten-free baking mixes, I was intrigued enough by the prospect of guilt-free items that I asked for samples to try to make. (The brand name means without sugar in French, by the way.)

I’ve since tried the sugar-free, low-fat Chocolate Mousse Mix and the sugar-free chocolate fudge brownie mix. Of the two, I enjoyed the mousse more and found it relatively simple to make, even for a baking-challenged cook like me. Continue reading “Product review: Sans Sucre sugar-free mousse and brownies”

Easter no-salt, no-sugar dinner recipes abound here for you

With Easter less than a week away, we’ve been getting a lot fo visitors to a post we did back in 2014, Low-salt Easter dinner: how to enjoy the holiday meal.

One of our many no salt, no sugar recipes. We cut the salt and sugar to a minimum, along with the fat.

That meal included low-salt turkey, green beans in a balsamic/olive oil glaze and asparagus roasted with low-salt panko breadcrumbs and low-fat cheese.

But we also have other Easter suggestions, such as A no-salt Easter side dish — asparagus with balsamic tomatoes. Continue reading “Easter no-salt, no-sugar dinner recipes abound here for you”

Mustard-crusted salmon, a quick, tasty dinner option

Salmon really has become like steak once was for me, a satisfying, relatively quick main course that I now have at least once and often twice a week. My recipe page has a variety of ways to prepare it, many involving salt-free Mrs. Dash and other brands of marinades as well.

But as I was getting ready to make dinner recently, I recalled an old favorite I hadn’t made in years, mustard-crusted salmon. Mustard is a condiment I can eat without worries since it usually does not include salt, saturated fat or sugar. I grew up in New York eating, more often than not, a spicier brown mustard, the Gulden’s brand to be specific.

So I still look for brown mustard today and used it in this recipe from Rachel Raye instead of Dijon mustard. Another substitution I made was using a slat-free spice mixture from a local spice story instead of herbes de Provence which I did not have handy. I also served it with asparagus instead of rice.

Cooking it was easy in the oven and it came out flaky and moister than when I’ve done it on the stove top in a frying pan.

Here are the details from Rachel’s site, she is the queen of quick meals, nice to see such a healthy one:

Ingredients
1 1/3 pounds center-cut salmon fillet
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or 1-1/2 tablespoons dried dill
1 1/2 tablespoons herbes de Provence
1/4 cup Dijon mustard

Baking it:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Rub the salmon with the olive oil. Place on a foil- or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover with the dill and herbes de Provence. Spread the mustard over the top, using a table knife or rubber spatula to cover completely.

Bake the salmon until no longer translucent, about 15 minutes.

New American Diabetes Association book provides hundreds of meal possibilities

Cookbooks tend to become shelf clutter because most make it difficult to plan a week’s or even a full day’s worth of meals. One of the reasons I like the new American Diabetes Association cookbook, called Complete Month of Meals Collection is because of how it’s put together — recipe cards are held in a spiral binder and stacked for each meal of the day.

So you can flip through breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes and plan your day, or week if you want, making shopping easier and cutting down on food waste in the process.

The recipe cards are easy to understand, clearly listing ingredients on the front side and nutrition info for each dish on the back.

While the recipes are formulated with diabetics in mind, I found they generally did pretty well on holding down salt content too. Continue reading “New American Diabetes Association book provides hundreds of meal possibilities”

Big Game low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar menu options

Holidays and special events like the upcoming Super Bowl LII (or the big game as most marketers’ now call it because they can’t use the term Super Bowl) often are the most difficult times to stay on your preferred eating plan, be it low-salt, low-fat and/or low-sugar. I’ve written a lot about this over the years here, trying to create alternatives you can enjoy.

My low-fat, low-salt manicotti, One of these has 128 calories, 1.8 grams of fat and 70 mgs of sodium. I eat five at a time

My first post about Super Bowl eating dates back to 2013, shortly after I started the blog, and it looked at items I bought, like no-salt potato chips and low-fat cookies.

But in subsequent years, I started making my own treats, like my home-made, no-salt, no-fat potato chips.

I also suggested a great entrée like swordfish steaks. That will dazzle and surprise your guests for sure.

As always though, my go-to Super Bowl entrée is whole wheat stuffed manicotti, using fat-free ricotta and fat-free mozzarella. I was just speaking with a group fo heart patients about eating when one mentioned to me how the thinking about fat being evil is being turned upside down these days. Continue reading “Big Game low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar menu options”

First Look: Innit recipe app has lots of easy-to-follow instructions

The creators of the new Innit recipe and cooking app recently asked me to review it. I’m getting some thank-you items in return (a shopping bag, T-shirt and spatula so far, just thought you should know. That’s not enough to really change what I’m about to say one way or another). The app is free, you can download it by clicking here.

My first impression is Innit is suited to people who don’t like to cook or who have never cooked. Its step-by-step videos, some as basic as how to boil water, can take the novice past any jitters about cooking so they can prepare their own meals rather than relying on take-out every night.

The app even provides a shopping list for each dish and can talk to smart appliances (I don’t have a smart oven, so I can’t test that out).

The app also tells you how long it will take to prepare your meal, giving you an end-time. I’m sure type A people will strive to beat that to show just how good they are.

I was able to find 10 possible recipes. The app’s website says you can personalize recipes to take into account allergies, etc. I haven’t found how to do that yet. I’d like to customize the recipes available to take out fat, salt and sugar, my three evil foods.

One salmon teriyaki recipe,for example, has 3,560 mgs of salt, two days supply for me. I’d substitute Mrs. Dash salt-free teriyaki sauce to cut that considerably. I’ll let you know in a subsequent post if I can find a way to do that.

To find nutritional info for each recipe,you tap on the calorie count to reach the nutrition info screen. Continue reading “First Look: Innit recipe app has lots of easy-to-follow instructions”

Top 10 No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar recipes for 2017

It’s top 10 year-in-review list time again and we’ll join the trend by writing about our Top 10 Most Viewed No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Recipes for 2017. Our No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Recipe Page, featuring scores of recipes we’ve found and/or tried ourselves, was far and away the most viewed thing on our site in 2017, drawing 14,101 views.

Baked mostaccioli, gotta love it, and it’s low salt and low fat.

But I wanted to drill down a little deeper to see which recipes on the page visitors were clicking on most. The results :

Clean Eating Crock Pot Chicken: tried it, loved it. Unfortunately the source blog for this disappeared, so you’ll have to wing it from the pictures I posted.
Low-sodium Thanksgiving stuffing: here’s how to make it. The secret’s in the bread you start with; you can find sodium-free bread!
Simple can be delicious, try this no-salt chicken recipe. It’s called Sheet Pan Chicken with Roasted Baby Potatoes.
5 low-sodium meals to consider. This links to five recipes on Cafemom.com and thankfully those are still there for you to try.
A Chinese food recipe that actually works as low-sodium? This is a broccoli beef stir-fry recipe form the American Heart Association.
How to make a low-fat, low-salt turkey meatloaf. I love this recipe and make it at least once a month.
Chicken parmigiana for everyone: here’s a low-salt recipe. The secret, again is in the bread, or breadcrumbs in this case. Go with panko, they are generally much lower in salt than other breadcrumbs.
Ahi tuna on the grill, with a lime twist. How can you not love Ahi tuna?
Low-fat mashed potatoes — here’s how. This time, the secret is in the milk and fat used.
Low-salt, low-fat baked mostaccioli. A holiday favorite for me, it’s a splurge but still a lot lower in fat and salt if you use this recipe.

Happy New Year, and check our recipe page for lots more you can cook up in 2018!!!