I’ve written before about how much I enjoy ahi tuna, something I can eat on my low-fat diet than I truly enjoy. Normally I make it with a salt-free teriyaki marinade or a lemon garlic no-salt marinade. But I recently noticed a recipe on a bag of frozen ahi I bought at Costco and decided to modify it to fit a low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar diet.
Marinated ahi tuna with peppers and onions and broccoli.
My wife and I recently tried a new restaurant in our suburb of Evanston that has been getting a lot of positive buzz because its owner is a well-known local restaurateur. My top-line review is Boltwood is good, with touches of great but with some work to be done. I, as always, would like to see more low-salt and low-fat options, plus more creative flavoring in what is available.
But I did have some wonderful surprises there, especially when I allowed myself to splurge on a side dish I knew would be salty by its very nature (it includes anchovies).
We started with a beet and grapefruit salad that sounded like an interesting combination but basically tasted like beet salad with the grapefruit pickled as well. It also has nuts in it, which is a turn-off for me but not for most people so ignore my personal taste on that. Continue reading “Boltwood: a new restaurant with some interesting offerings”→
I normally do most of the cooking in our house but recently my wife surprised me with a wonderful cookout meal one Saturday.
She made zucchini and corn on one of our Weber grills, basting the zucchini with a truffle olive oil we bought in Italy last summer.Our tilapia, zucchini and corn dinner.
I’ve been eating a lot more fish since my angioplasty in 2012. Salmon is my favorite and, so far, still considered healthy, although some disparage farm-raised salmon, which most salmon sold in the U.S. is.
Another meaty, fleshy fish that can remind me of my steak-eating days is swordfish. Trader Joe’s sells it frozen for $8.99 a pound, so about $4.50 a portion if you eat half a pound at a sitting as I do.Trader Joe’s sells swordfish in its frozen fish section for $8.99 a pound.
Happy Fourth of July, the most traditional of America’s cookout day’s. While you may not be able to have the traditional burgers and hot dogs because of their high fat and sodium content (for the dogs anyway), you can find tasty cookout alternatives.
I recently had my first summer cookout for friends in the two years since my angioplasty. It has taken me that long to develop a new menu I feel comfortable serving people without feeling I’m depriving them of tasty cookout treats.Fourth of July party ideas, all low-fat, low-salt and low-sugar.
Many fish are considered healthy these days but everyone has their own favorites and types they won’t eat. I recently wrote about how I’m enjoying walleye these days but my wife didn’t like the flavor.
So one recent Friday, I did a fish mix and match dinner, making walleye for me and tilapia for her.My mix and match fish dinner cooking away, walleye in the white pan, tilapia in the black with peppers and onions in the third.
Walleye is not a fish I heard much about growing up next to the Atlantic Ocean in New York. But since I’ve lived in the Midwest, it’s a fish name that pops up frequently, especially in my college days in Wisconsin, since it’s a fresh water rather than a salt water specie.
I’d never had occasion to try it until recently, but loved it at a restaurant in the Wisconsin resort town of Lake Geneva. So when I saw it for sale at Costco recently I bought some for home.My walleye with peppers and onions.
I made it with a light breading of panko breadcrumbs after washing it in egg whites so the crumbs would stick. I then applied a Mr. Spice salt-free honey mustard sauce to add some flavor as it was finishing cooking. Continue reading “Walleye: a tasty fish alternative”→
The Noyes Street cafe sits tucked next to the El tracks in a part of Evanston that I think of as student-y, dating back to my own student days there. So it’s always surprises me how sophisticated the menu can be. I also was pleasantly surprised on a recent visit about how easily they were able to accommodate my low-salt/no-salt requests. Noyes Street Cafe trout, a great low-salt special.
I asked about a butterflied trout special. The menu described it as seasoned, and that usually means lots of salt. The waiter said he would check and returned quickly to tell me they could make it without the salt in the seasoning, so I said let’s try it. I also opted for carrots and roasted potatoes as side, passing on the likely high fat mashed potato options; I also asked for a salad with oil and vinegar. As it turned out, the waiter brought the salad with a vinaigrette dressing but I had my oil and vinegar packets with me, so compensated with those. Continue reading “Noyes Street Cafe: a neighborhood gem”→
Casual dining places like Ruby Tuesday’s, Houlihan’s, Applebee’s, TGIFriday, Chili’s, etc. all have a way of blending together in my mind. And they also all spell foods I can’t eat on a low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar diet (Ruby Tuesday’s salad bar is a wonderful exception). So my wife and I walked into a Houlihan’s in Naperville, a Far west Chicago suburb, for lunch with some trepidation recently. I thought perhaps I could order a stripped-down salad and use my own oil and vinegar as dressing.
But not only was I surprised by the pleasant new decor, I also was able to get a meal to my low-salt specifications with only some modifying of a menu item.
I ordered a five-ounce piece of salmon that normally is cooked basted in a butter sauce; I ordered it without the butter. And instead of mashed potatoes as a side, I asked for two vegetable portions (the meal normally comes with one veggie and the potatoes) and received asparagus and green beans. I asked both be made without butter or salt and that’s how they came out.
The asparagus were grilled as was the salmon and both had a wonderful charcoally flavor to them as a result. A small cup of tartar sauce was served on the side, a bit odd for salmon which doesn’t need something like sauce to taste delicious. I think chefs can’t bear to send out a dish without at least one sauce.My wonderful lunch at Houlihan’s, salmon without butter or salt, asparagus and beans, also plain. And, for some unknown reason, tartar sauce which I didn’t eat.
Asian food has generally been off my menu since my angioplasty; most common Asian dishes have too much salt for me these days. So I wasn’t sure what to expect when dining at Chicago’s Embeya, a place that describes itself as “progressive Asian.”
