Dropped during the Pandemic —Trader Joe’s salt-free marinara sauce: worth a try

Note: This product has been dropped by Trader Joe’s during the Pandemic. This post was written long before Covid hit us. #ShameonTraderJoes

I wrote last year about finding a low-salt pre-made tomato sauce for the days when I don’t have any of my home-made version frozen and ready to use or don’t have the time to make some from scratch. I’ve bought Muir Glen and also found some house brand salt-free sauce at my local Jewel. Recently, though, I saw another choice at Trader Joe’s, its private label marinara sauce with no salt added.

Trader Joe's organic low-salt marinara sauce was a bit peppery for my taste but will do in a pinch. — Trader Joe’s organic low-salt marinara sauce was a bit peppery for my taste but will do in a pinch.

The taste was a bit peppery to me when I first tried it. Like many ingredient offerings that go low-salt, the makers here may have thought pepper was a good substitute. I generally just want to taste the tomatoes though. The pepper taste was still there after cooking. If you’re a pepper fan, you should enjoy it. For me it was just ok. Continue reading “Dropped during the Pandemic —Trader Joe’s salt-free marinara sauce: worth a try” →

August 1, 2014 11

Recipe: Low-salt, low-fat baked mostaccioli

I wrote recently about my low-salt, low-fat baked mossaccioli. Here’s a step-by-step guide to making it.

Start with wheat pasta and low-fat ricotta cheese, about 13 ounces of each (these once came in 16-ounce packages but food makers have cut package sizes rather than raise prices in recent tough economic times).

Combine the ricotta with egg white or egg white substitutes equal to one egg to thin it a bit, making it easier to spread. Continue reading “Recipe: Low-salt, low-fat baked mostaccioli” →

October 22, 2013 9

Low-salt, low-fat baked mostaccioli: gotta love it

Most of the Italian-American classics I grew up with, lasagna, manicotti, stuffed shells, are off-limits to me now because of the fat in the cheese used, not to mention the high salt content of most cheese as well. I also can only eat whole wheat pasta now to get away from simple carbs that could impact my pre-diabetic sugar levels.

I have found whole wheat pastas I enjoy and I have begun finding low-fat and even no-fat Italian cheese. The cheeses still contains high salt levels, though, so I use them sparingly and as a treat.

One recent treat I made was whole wheat mostaccioli baked with low-fat ricotta cheese covered with my low-salt homemade tomato sauce (we call it gravy in my family).

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

Continue reading →

October 21, 2013 0

Tomatoes and cucumbers — two fun summer salads

Farmers markets are a great place to find the freshest vegetables and fruits to eat on your restricted diet. I recently got some amazing bargains at the local Evanston Farmers Market, quite by accident, as I was there at the end of the day and found farmers discounting produce rather than packing it up to take home. I bought three immense cucumbers for $1. And I bought some amazing tomatoes for $1.50 a pound.

I had so many of each, I needed to do something so they wouldn’t go bad before I could eat them. The answer was to make a cucumber salad and a tomato salad.

My dinner one night, two great summer salads.

The tomato salad is the simplest, just cut them up in wedges, add olive oil and oregano and basil. Mix it well to get oil and spices on all the tomatoes and enjoy. I used five tomatoes and had it for a week. Continue reading “Tomatoes and cucumbers — two fun summer salads” →

August 21, 2013 9

Breakfast Fruit: a great road alternative

My recent trip to Italy included some amazing meals, made all the better because they were shared with family. And both hotels we stayed in offered breakfast buffets. Buffets hold a certain magic for me, having grown up with very little. An all-you-eat buffet seems the opposite of a childhood spent on the edge of poverty. But these days I cannot partake of all the wonders a buffet offers and breakfast buffets are no different.

Our hotel buffets had the usual bacon, omelets and other items I can no longer eat. But thankfully, they also featured a variety of fruits which is where I spent my time at them.

Fruit and tomatoes for breakfast, bellisima

Another fun option at one was steamed tomatoes. I love tomatoes and the ones we had in Italy seemed all the better for being from my ancestral home. So I regularly had three or four for breakfast while we were staying in southern Italy. Continue reading “Breakfast Fruit: a great road alternative” →

June 26, 2013 0

Can You Find Pre-made Low-Salt Tomato Sauce?

Tomato sauce (or gravy as my Italian-American family called it) is one of the few sauces I can still eat since my angioplasty and being put on a no-salt, no-sugar, no-fat diet.

But making sauce from canned tomatoes can create a product with way too much salt, depending on the tomato brand and variety you buy.

Always check for salt in any canned tomato product you buy.

But who has hours to spend making tomato sauce more than on a rare occasion? So I’ve also been searching for prepared tomato sauce with little or no salt. Standard brands in mainstream supermarkets have tons of salt in them. But I found this Muir Glen product that fits my needs in a pinch.

You can see on its nutrition label that it has only 10 mgs per serving or 70 mgs for the entire can. The can is enough for a meal for two, or two servings, in my estimation, not the seven servings the can indicates. But even then, half a can and 35 mgs or salt is several hundred mgs less than any mainstream brand. The sauce itself was a bit watery for my taste, but it worked well to use it for baking chicken in tomato sauce and giving some flavor to otherwise dry chicken breasts.
John

March 14, 2013 5

Tag: tomatoes