salads – Page 4 – The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal

27 Live is a new restaurant, whiskey lounge, music venue hybrid in Evanston, the Chicago suburb where I live, that’s worth checking out for its food and ability to accommodate a low-salt dinner request.

I was interested in seeing what the operators of 27 Live had done with the space they have. For many years, it housed a Carmen’ pizza place in a cavernous two-story restaurant complete with big staircase and upstairs bar and party area where I spent many an end of the soccer season when I was coaching my son’s AYSO teams years ago. Carmen’s was always a family favorite, even after it downsized a few years ago, turning over part of its space to a Brazilian steakhouse I never got to try out.

Chestnut gnocchi in a brown sugar and bacon sauce was amazing at 27 Live. — Chestnut gnocchi in a brown sugar and bacon sauce was amazing at 27Live.

As always before I dine out these days, I first checked 27 Live’s menu online to see if anything seemed remotely low-sodium and low-fat so I could eat it. I saw a fish dish and a vegetarian option, both of which I thought might be able to fit my needs, so my wife and I went there for dinner to check the new place out. Continue reading “27 Live, a new Evanston spot worth checking out” →

Salads always are part of my meals these days because I can’t pick from much else and still maintain a low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar eating routine. So I’m always looking for new takes on salad.

Salads of celery root, carrots and cabbage, they look very tasty,

I came across these in the Boston Globe recently and love the simplicity of them. The recipe states: Continue reading “Simple salads of carrots, cabbage and celery root” →

Biggest Losers’ trainer Jillian Michaels has always been my favorite on that show. If I need to work out, I wouldn’t opt for Zen-man Bob or any of the other trainers who have come and gone on there, I’d pick drill sergeant Jillian to get things done as quickly as possible.

I’ve subscribed to an e-newsletter she does for years and often found useful advice there and on her website.

Salads can be minefields of salt if you're not careful. — Salads can be minefields of salt if you’re not careful.

But a recipe she sent out recently under the subject line “The easiest on-the-go lunch” shocked me. Jillian usually pushes healthy eating but this salad has enough salt to meet my daily limit, along with that of others on a salt restricted diet. Even if you’re not on a low- or no-salt diet, it has way too much salt, 1,397 mgs, more than half of the 2000 mgs recommended for the average person. Continue reading “Loser’s Jillian Michaels – Shame on you for this recipe” →

The nutrition nazi I saw to shape my new healthy eating plan post-angioplasty minced no words about it, there is no healthy way to eat out. Restaurant food has too much of everything that’s bad for me, salt, sugar and fat.

Yet I eat lunch out every day of the workweek and some weekend days as well. I need that time away from my office to break the daily routine and clear my head. So my lunches have become pretty much nothing but salads.

I normally eat at the food court in Chicago’s mammoth Merchandise Mart building, which is only a block from my office. It has an Arby’s, a McDonald’s, a Japanese fast sushi place, a Mexican place, a pizza place, a Mideastern fast food place and a place with a build-your-own salad bar. The build your own salad place has become pretty much my daily stop.

A McDonald's chicken salad — A McDonald’s chicken salad

My usual salad has field greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, red quinoa, dried cranberries, a chicken breast, celery, garbanzo beans, and beets. Several of those items may actually be on my forbidden list, dried cranberries have sugar, for example, but I’m hoping the small number each day are ok so I have some flavor. I bypass all the dressings there and bring my own individual packets of olive oil and vinegar that I bought in bulk on Amazon.

Using Lose It!, a calorie counting and nutrition app for my iPhone, I put the calorie count for that at 521 calories. I bring along a 32-ounce bottle of water from my office because I detest paying for small bottles of water. Continue reading “Why is Lunch My Toughest Meal of the Day?” →

Salad dressings are little food bombs full of bad things — sugar, salt and fat. No one on a restricted diet should be using them.

So what can you do to make a salad tastier? Try olive oil and vinegar. I grew up with that mixture on salads, thanks to my Italian roots. I didn’t try a salad dressing until I was eating in a college dorm. Continue reading “Why should you use oil and vinegar?” →

Tag: salads

27 Live, a new Evanston spot worth checking out

Simple salads of carrots, cabbage and celery root

Loser’s Jillian Michaels – Shame on you for this recipe

Why is Lunch My Toughest Meal of the Day?

Why should you use oil and vinegar?

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