gasrocks said:Healthy eating. Read labels. That for sure includes spice mixes/blends. I do not buy any mix that contains salt, sugar, dyes, preservatives. Adobo is a great example. Wonderful blend from SW Mexico. Great as a meat rub and many other uses. I found 15 merchants selling an Adobo mix. All 15 of them had salt in them. 6 even had salt as the first ingredient. 60% salt in one mix. I found one blend (the one I use of course) that has salt listed last (Him. Pink salt, a good one.) Teeny Tiny Spice Company of Vermont. Gene

I like Adobo. I use it on Baked whole chicken, on my Thanksgiving Turkey and some other meats. I don't have any of this very often enough for the added salt to be any problem.

You are correct about Penzey's However, I forgot to add black pepper as one the ingredients I will not allow in blends. Hate black pepper. Always have. I have none in my house and do not like to see it in mixes. Instead I have a grinder full of Grains of Paradise. Everything black pepper wanted to be and more. Use it instead of black pepper. Great stuff. Make sure you add some Key Lime Juice to your Adobo. Helps bring out the flavors. Gene

Good tips gene!

Thanks. Teeny Tiny is worth a mention. They make some great blends. Their Adobo has low salt but still some black pepper. Reason I make my own mixes. My Adobo mix: Mild Red Hatch Chili powder, Grains of Paradise (ground,) Cumin, Jordanian Za'atar, roasted garlic. Gene

I use a lot of fresh garlic. Planted some this fall.

Karen

Sorry, off subject a bit. Reminds me of the only blind date I ever had. Woman who planned out week ahead of time what she'd eat and drink. What do you do on a date with someone who does not drink or eat? Anyways, she reeked. Her apartment reeked. She was into fresh garlic and was up to 1 pound a day. I concluded it was also some kinda self protection. Whew. Gene

I thought my grandma was bad with the fresh garlic but the house never reeked, only her to a certain point. We finally told her to back off it because it was coming out her pores. She wasn't happy but she did it.

Probably a good thing to do if it was around Halloween.............no ghosts, etc. were gonna bother her!

She believes garlic is a cure all for all ills pretty much.

gasrocks said:No one is going to bite on (my mention of) Jicama? Gene

My older daughter told me about Jicama and gave me a recipe for a lovely fresh Jicama salad. Since each person has foods they like or don't like, I will not provide her recipe but suggest that you do a Google search for Jicama salad and find one that appeals to you. The fresh salad can be kept in the frig for about 3 days so it's easy to prepare one day and eat for 3 days. A good side dish. Bright and colorful.

If I were to involve myself in the discussion of what you should eat...first I would need to know what you used to eat. That would be a starting point. I read that you have not have pizza for 3 years but what else did you used to eat on a regular basis?

My DD cooks supper for the two of us from scratch every night...except when she begs off if she is too tired and then I step in to make an old favorite (but updated to a more healthy version). DD has lots of good ideas of what is healthy and so far I have not died or felt hungry. And yes, I have even lost some weight.

Forgot to add one thing.

I learned several years ago to use lemon juice in place of salt. Example: If you are boiling water for pasta, add lemon juice instead of salt.

Oh, now, that is interesting.

greene said:Forgot to add one thing.

I learned several years ago to use lemon juice in place of salt. Example: If you are boiling water for pasta, add lemon juice instead of salt.

I just don't put the salt in the water when I am boiling pasta. I never miss it.

plantmanager said:I'm afraid I have hundreds of jars, but I consistently use maybe 10. The others are used infrequently.

Same here. I have my favorite spices that are used frequently and my favorite blends like dill and garlic together, garlic and pepper, etc.. But I need those others, too. I keep them in a drawer with little wood slats that keep them upright at a slant. They are in Alpha Order. But I really should just keep them in "most used" order.

I'm off solid food for a while. Broke 2 more teeth. Just had a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup. I can swallow that. Boy, label says one can equals 2.5 servings. Does anyone really just have part of a can at once? 1 serving equals 37% of daily salt intake. So one can is.....lots of salt. Boy. We have already mentioned how important it is to read labels. Pay big attention to the serving size. Allows then to skew the numbers. In the recent news has been Nutella arguing with FDA over serving size. They want the serving size reduced so the numbers look better. Just looked at a can of chicken broth. 1 can = 2 servings. 1 serving = 41% !! I'm buying very few processed foods anymore. Gene

gasrocks said:I'm off solid food for a while. Broke 2 more teeth. Just had a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup. I can swallow that. Boy, label says one can equals 2.5 servings. Does anyone really just have part of a can at once? 1 serving equals 37% of daily salt intake. So one can is.....lots of salt. Boy. We have already mentioned how important it is to read labels. Pay big attention to the serving size. Allows then to skew the numbers. In the recent news has been Nutella arguing with FDA over serving size. They want the serving size reduced so the numbers look better. Just looked at a can of chicken broth. 1 can = 2 servings. 1 serving = 41% !! I'm buying very few processed foods anymore. Gene

So sorry about your broken teeth.

Really is a sorry thing when having such problems and one can't chew.

Yup, I wonder why they make the serving sizes so odd. Like you say, who ever has half a can of soup? And everything these days has too much salt!!

Gene ...

I think the serving sizes on the cans are artificial. I do look at salt and sugar content. That matters. I also look at calories.

I don't know who decides what a "serving size" is, but I think what they are marking is pretty unrealistic.

I had to re-learn my conversion tables, too. For example it's four tablespoons = 1/4 cup for rice. Somehow, I had it down to two tablespoons in my head.

Here's a pretty good conversion chart for that kind of thing.

http://ahealthykitchen.com/tip...

Sorry about your teeth.

Gene, I'm sorry about your teeth. I hope you can have them fixed.

Yes, the sodium in canned soup is obscene. I only buy low sodium ones. They're out there if you look for them. Today I bought a reduced sodium tomato soup for a recipe. I rarely buy canned or dry soup, though.

Karen

I wish they had a Penzey's in my area. I know I can order online, but I went to the Houston store once, and it's so cool to go look at!

Penzey's is fun to shop at the store. Everything smells so good, and they almost always have some freebies, and great recipes, too.