Fresh Blueberries

My great-niece picked fresh blueberries at Messenger Century Farm in Chagrin Falls/Auburn, Ohio, and baked muffins from scratch and a blueberry cobbler.

Tips for Cooking when Solo!

We become solo for many reasons in our life. Some prefer to be single, some get divorced or need to separate, others are widow(er)ed. I am searching for helpful tips and secrets from cooking for a family to cooking for one lonely person -- me! Going from cooking for two or three, to cooking for one, is a challenge. If you have been following this blog since 2008, you will notice posts about the meals I lovingly cooked for my Mom and my husband.

Operating on autopilot, as happens in some circumstances, I found myself making the same amount of oatmeal as I did for my husband, Jules, and found that when I do this by mistake, it is best to put half of it in the refrigerator for the following day or day after. Cooked oatmeal does well in the refrigerator and it is fun not to have to cook it the next day. I have never been successful with making it in the microwave and I prefer traditional oatmeal to instant. Being on a restricted sodium diet many "instant" type foods have more sodium.

I spend much time in nature and see that even the geese have mates that they follow around in the pond. I find it is easier to eat in another room than where I ate with family. I rarely eat on the kitchen or dining room table these days. I eat in the living room using a coffee table and look out the window at nature. When weather permits, I plan on eating out on the deck or take my lunch to a park. One day, I will be used to the empty seats at the dinner table, but not yet.

Rather than spending the early "solo" days with a group when one is not up to it, invite a few people that are close to you to dinner at your house. I invited my sister and her husband for Thanksgiving dinner. I decided to try new recipes and this kept my mind totally occupied. I knew if I had any problems or if my eyes teared-up, my sister and her husband would understand as they were sharing the losses. I am blessed to have one very special local sister.

Here are my first suggestions from "solos":

Invest in some smaller pots and pans or plan on washing your small ones over and over again. Using the large pots tends to make some of us sad as we remember the family that once was.

When making homemade soups, freeze portions in freezer bags. Once the soup has cooled, put it into freezer bags and leave it flat on a cookie sheet to freeze. Once frozen the bag can be stored upright or continue to keep it flat. This is very useful if one is on a restricted diet, such as low sodium as canned and store prepared soups are too high in sodium. It is also more economical.

Once frozen, they can be stacked vertically as in the door of a freezer or kept flat.

Buy foods you like and may have refrained from buying or eatting in the past. Try new spices, recipes, attend cooking classes, try new grocery stores as walking down the isles of the favorite foods of the loved one can be difficult.

Find a group of like-minded individuals and go out to lunch, thus one is not always eating alone and has an event to look forward to.

** The photo at the top of this column is a cucumber sandwich on blueberry/cranberry bread. The recipe for one large sandwich included 1/3 cup thinly sliced cucumber, 1/4 cup diced carrots, a cut up small compari tomato (or a few cherry tomatoes), 3 Tablespoons yogurt, and some sliced almonds (optional). Half a sandwich is pictured with the remaining cucumber filling which would make another generous half sandwich.**

Please forward any suggestions to rosaraskin@gmail.com or post in the comments. Thanks to everyone for reading this post.

Eggless Recipes

Our nephew was allergic to eggs so my sister learned to substitute water for the eggs in a baking mix! Although my late husband could tolerate eggs baked in something, eating an omlette often caused him to break out in hives. I left eggs out of most recipes, no eggs in Challah or any home baked products. I tried egg substitutes but realized plain water worked too!

To make something rise in baking, one gently stirs in vinegar (a weak acid) at the end of a recipe containing a base like baking soda.

More specifically, Vinegar + Baking Soda = (Sodium ion + acetate ion) + CO2 gas + water

I remember from Chemistry class, Acid + Base = Salt + Water (plus CO2 gas in the case of baking soda).

Rosie's Favorite Lower Sodium Food List

Happy & Healthy 2023! 

My New Year's resolution is to start a personal list of my favorite low sodium, prepared foods, on my preciouscooking.blogspot.com blog, as sometimes I am too tired to cook food from scratch. Note the serving size when checking the sodium on the label. I like to check the number of servings in the product.

I don't like to bake bread in the hot summer and have had problems finding a low sodium bread that I liked. The brands that I like include some loaves of ,"Daves" and "Ezekial" In Dave's the thin-sliced, organic, sweetner is organic fruit juices, Powerseed at 1 lb 4.5 oz has 90 mg of sodium per slice compared to other brands that very from 150-250 mg sodium per slice. The Ezekial bread that I lean to at the moment is their sprouted grain bread at 75 mg sodium per thin slice.

Dave's Bread

Sodium 90 mg/slice

fat 1.5 gram

protein 3 grams per slice

Ezekiel 4:9 Fourless Sprouted Grain Bread

Sodium 75 mg/slice

fat 0.5 gram

protein 5 grams per slice

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I found the pasta sauce by browsing the pasta section at my local Marc's. 

*** Francesco Rinaldi Original Recipe No Salt Added Homemade pasta sauce recipe. (green label) by LiDestri foods, Fairport, NY ***

 Per 1/2 cup: 

Sodium - 40mg 

Calories  - 60 per serving

Fat - 1g

Potassium - 490mg

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Kuner's No Salt Added Chili Beans: Original in Chili Sauce

KunersFoods.com

Sodium 10 mg per 1/2 cup serving,  15 ounce can 3 1/2 servings, total sodium in can 35 mg

Potassium 390 mg per serving

Protein 7 g per serving 

Fat 1 mg per serving

Other Kuner's No Salt Added beans about 5 mg per 1/2 cup serving

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V8, Low Sodium Original

Sodium 98mg per serving which is a small 5 fluid ounces can

Fat 0 g

Protein 1 g

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Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce

Sodium 10 mg per 1/4 cup, 6 servings per 14 ounce can = 60 mg per can

Fat 0g

Protein 0g

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Bumble Bee SNACK ON THE RUN Tuna Salad Kit with crackers. 3.5 ounces

Sodium Tuna portion 220 mg, Crackers 130 mg -- total snack 350 mg

Calories total 300

Fat total 22g

Protein 7g

SNACK ON THE RUN also includes snacks with lower fat tuna and chicken salad options

I love the little spoon that comes with the can and the tightly wrapped crackers in the box! I tried all the tuna and chicken flavors and love them all for a snack to take to the park, eat at home, or for a quick lunch!

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The lower salt cheeses that I have found are Swiss, fresh mozarella, some goat cheeses. If eating the cheese with bread, two slices of bread can be 500 mg of sodium. I search for low sodium breads but to date the only one I like is Dave's. In the winter I bake my own!

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TV DINNERS

The lowest sodium TV dinner that I have found is Healthy Choice Margherita Balsamic Chicken at 360 mg sodium.

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