Ranch Meatloaf

I'm always looking for different versions of classic recipes.  This is one I made up myself by combining elements of other meatloaf recipes that I liked.  I love Ranch dressing, and I believe that it makes almost everything (savory) taste better.  This recipe uses Ranch seasoning, and you can serve Ranch dressing instead of ketchup with this version.

I'm including recipes for both the meatloaf and dressing.  I think you'll be surprised at how tasty the low fat version of Ranch dressing is.  It's certainly not the same as regular Ranch dressing, but you can have a fat free dressing that is much better for you than 9 grams (yikes) of fat per serving.

RANCH MEATLOAF
Ingredients:
1 pound ground meat
1/4 cup chopped onions
1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1-1/2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Ranch Blend*
1/2 cup bread crumbs, oats, or Matzo Meal.  (I prefer Matzo Meal)
1-1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup salt free ketchup
1/4 cup water (if necessary)

Preparation:

In large bowl, combine ingredients and mix well. 

Place in baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

RANCH DRESSING
Ingredients:
1 cup low fat mayonnaise / low fat yogurt (I prefer to use fat free yogurt)
1/4 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Ranch Blend*
1 tablespoon vinegar

Preparation:
In a small bowl, combine mayo/ yogurt, milk, and seasoning.  Then add vinegar and mix well.  Store in a covered container in refrigerator.

*Please email me at: auntiejeans@yahoo.com if you would like to order some Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Ranch Seasoning.

Pepper-Lime Chicken

Yes, it's another chicken recipe.  As you know, I love chicken so there are bound to be lots of chicken recipes to come.

This recipe is super easy to make; all you need to do is prepare a lime dressing, pour it over some chicken, and pop it in the oven.  What could be easier?  I suppose ordering a pizza for delivery, but that is much too unhealthy for me to eat.  I'll stick with chicken, thanks.

You can serve the chicken with rice or pasta with some of the cooked dressing.  Add a green salad and/or some fruit for a complete meal.

PEPPER-LIME CHICKEN

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon crushed basil
1 teaspoon Auntie Jean's Lemon Pepper Low Sodium Blend*
1/8 teaspoon salt**

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix lime juice, garlic, basil, lemon pepper, and salt in small bowl.  Add oil and mix well.  Pour 2 tablespoons into baking dish.  Place chicken in dish and coat both sides with dressing.  Pour rest of dressing over chicken. 

Cover and bake for 45 minutes.

*Email me at: auntiejeans@yahoo.com if you would like to purchase some Low Sodium Lemon Pepper Blend

**1/8 teaspoon of salt will add approximately 75mg of sodium per serving.  You may use sea salt which is more flavorful than regular salt.  You may also use salt substitute or add no salt at all.

Low Sodium Spaghetti and Meatballs

One of the easiest meals to make is spaghetti and meatballs.  Trying to adhere to a low sodium diet causes this meal to be slightly more difficult, but still totally worth the effort (in my opinion).

After I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, I was told to reduce my sodium intake to less than 2,000 mg per day.  That seems like a lot until you start reading labels and websites with nutrition information.  You could easily consume 1,800 mg in one meal if you're not careful. 

Jarred spaghetti sauce often has high sodium content (over 400 mg per 1/2 cup).  Pasta normally has little or no sodium, so no problem there.  Then you have to be careful how you prepare the meatballs.  The recipe that I use calls for Italian bread crumbs; again over 400 mg sodium per 1/2 cup.  I substitute Matzo Meal with Italian seasonings for the Italian bread crumbs.

The spaghetti sauce can be prepared ahead of time... the night before or earlier.  Sauce freezes well, so you can prepare a batch and pour it into a Ziploc bag and freeze it.  Thaw it the night before, and you can simply heat it like you would the jarred sauce.

Here are the recipes:

SPAGHETTI SAUCE

Ingredients:
1 can (6 oz) low sodium tomato paste
1 can (14 oz) low sodium diced tomatoes, drained
2 cans (8 oz) low sodium tomato sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 packet of low sodium beef bouillon/ broth
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon thyme

Preparation:
Combine all ingredients in large pot and bring to boil.


ITALIAN MEATBALLS

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef (or meat of your choice)
1 egg
1/2 cup Matzo Meal (or corn meal)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon thyme

Preparation:
Combine Matzo Meal and spices in small bowl.  In large bowl, combine meat, egg, and Matzo Meal mixture.  Roll meat into balls and set aside. 

Gently place meatballs into boiling spaghetti sauce and reduce to low. 

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil 1 pound of spaghetti.  Pour meatballs and sauce over spaghetti and top with grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

Chicken Marsala

One day, I was going through cookbooks and my collection of recipes searching for some recipes that I had never tried and I could make low sodium.  Chicken Marsala caught my eye because it wasn't already loaded with sodium or fat.  If you haven't already guessed by now, chicken is my favorite meat (besides ham which I don't eat very often because it's so high in fat and sodium).  I decided to investigate further. 

I am not a talented cook by any stretch of the imagination. Even though I have watched many episodes of The French Chef with my best friend, Diane as a child, I still have no idea of how to do many things in the kitchen. I will try to do almost anything as long as I have the tools and some instructions. I had always thought that Chicken Marsala was a fancy dish, and therefore difficult to make. How wrong I was! It is actually very easy to make and doesn't take too long either.

I am not a wine drinker and cannot taste the difference in wines. This recipe calls for Marsala wine; I usually use sherry in its place. You may also use chicken broth if you would like to keep the recipe alcohol free.

CHICKEN MARSALA 

Ingredients

3 skinless chicken breasts

¼ cup flour

¼ teaspoon marjoram

1 cup sliced mushrooms

2 tablespoons sliced green onion

3 tablespoons margarine/ butter

¼ cup low sodium chicken broth

¼ cup Marsala wine

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Place chicken breasts in plastic zip bag and pound to about ¼” thick.  In shallow dish, stir flour, marjoram, and pepper.  Flour chicken and set aside.  In large skillet over medium heat, cook mushrooms, green onion, and butter until tender and remove from skillet. 

In skillet over medium-high heat, brown chicken in butter. 

Return mushrooms and onions.  Add broth and wine and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Garlic Beef Enchiladas

Mexican food is so yummy.  Much of it can be high in fat and salt, but the recipes are fairly simple to alter so that they are healthy... or at least what I call healthy.  (For you grammarians, I do know that I actually should be writing that foods are healthful and people are healthy, but since no one uses the term healthful anymore, I'm going with the flow.)

Whenever I read a recipe, I look for a way to reduce the fat and sodium.  Sometimes the first time I make a new recipe, the results are not tasty.  The second time around, I make some adjustments and hopefully it tastes good.  By the third try, if it's still bad, I just move on to another recipe.  Three strikes and you're out.

Luckily, with Garlic Beef Enchiladas they turned out well the first time.  Next I can try making them with different kinds of meat.  Ground turkey or ground chicken sound like good ideas to me.  Let me know how they turn out if you try them. 

This isn't the easiest recipe to make, but it's not the most difficult either.  I'd say it's medium on the difficulty scale because you're cooking the beef and the sauce components simultaneously.  To make it easier, prepare one at a time.  It will just add about 15 minutes to overall preparation time.

GARLIC BEEF ENCHILADAS
Ingredients:
Filling:
1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon sage
1 can (14 ounces) low sodium diced tomatoes
Sauce:*
4 - 6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon butter or oil
1/2 cup flour
1 can (14 ounces) low sodium beef broth
1 can (15 ounces) low sodium tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon sage
10 7-inch low sodium corn tortillas
2 cups low-fat shredded Colby-Jack cheese

Preparation:
In a skillet, heat meat and onion and drain fat.  Add flour and seasonings and mix well.  Stir in tomatoes and bring to boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile in sauce pan, saute garlic in butter/oil until tender.  Stir in flour.  Add broth and bring to boil.  Cook and stir 2 minutes. 

Stir in tomato sauce and seasonings; heat through. 

Pour 1-1/2 cups sauce into 13 x 9" baking dish.  Spread 1/4 cup meat mixture in each tortilla and top with 1 tablespoon cheese. 

Roll tightly and place in dish.  To make tortillas more pliable, spray lightly with cooking spray and microwave for 20 - 30 seconds before filling. 

Repeat until all tortillas are filled.  Pour remaining sauce over rolled tortillas.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

*Note: if your sauce tastes too bland (or not salty enough) add a tablespoon of vinegar.  That will add a little "bite" to the sauce.  You may also use vinegar powder.

Greek Lemon Rice Soup

Often times, while I'm dining at a restaurant, I will find a dish that I love.  When I return home, I search online or through my cookbooks to see if I have a recipe for that very dish.  I think that I was in my thirties before I tried Lemon Rice Soup.  I never thought that lemon in soup sounded good to me.  I still don't remember what inspired me to try it, but I did and LOVED it.  Once I had returned home, I discovered a recipe online that looked easy to make and I could adjust to my dietary needs.  I made it and thought that it tasted almost as good as the restaurant soup.  It could never be the same without the salt and fat that surely must have been in their soup.

My theory on food is that you need to try every dish at least on 3 separate occasions (made by 3 different cooks) to say that you don't like it.  That is what I tell my nephews and niece when they refuse to try some new food. I also tell them that they should try it because it might be their favorite food of all time, but they'll never know because they wouldn't try it.

The lemon rice soup is easy to make and doesn't take too long either.  It was fairly simple to reduce the sodium, and it's naturally low fat.  I should make it more often.  Perhaps I will add that to the list of my new year's resolutions.

I like to add cooked, diced chicken breast for a heartier soup.  You can save leftovers in the refrigerator and reheat; be sure not to boil the soup.  It does not freeze well.

GREEK LEMON RICE SOUP

Ingredients:
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 to 1-1/2 cups brown minute rice*
2 eggs
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar or 1 packet Equal
Dash of white pepper
Cooked, diced chicken breast, if desired

Preparation:
In 2 quart saucepan, bring broth to a boil. Reduce heat, add rice, cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 10 minutes.  In small bowl, beat eggs and lemon juice.  Stirring constantly, add 1 cup hot soup a little at time.  Stir mixture into soup and heat through.  Do not boil!  If you like, add cooked, diced chicken breast.  Add sugar and pepper.  Serves 4.

*Note: 1 cup rice makes thinner soup, 1-1/2 cups makes thicker soup.

Three Bean Salad

I know that it's not summer, far from it, but I enjoy summer salads year round.  I like to eat them with a sandwich for lunch; that way I get my third vegetable serving of the day (which I shamefully admit doesn't happen too often).  Potato salad, pasta salad, and coleslaw are a few of my other year-round lunch favorites.  I'll share some of those recipes with you later :-)

If you take all the shortcuts for this recipe, it should take you less than 10 minutes to prepare.  The hard part is waiting for the salad to chill for at least 4 hours before eating it.  I believe that it's well worth the wait.  This is one of the staples at my family's gatherings.  We almost always have a dish of it at every occasion, even Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  Enjoy!

THREE BEAN SALAD

Ingredients:
1 can (16 oz) low sodium garbanzos, rinsed & drained
1 can (16 oz) low sodium kidney beans, rinsed & drained
1 cup cut green beans (I use the frozen kind)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper (I use the frozen kind)
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 clove garlic, minced (I use the kind in the jar)

Preparation:
In a large bowl, combine beans, onions, and green peppers. 

In a small bowl, whisk vinegar, sugar, celery salt, mustard, and garlic.  Then add oil and whisk together.  Pour over bean mixture and toss to coat. 

Cover and chill in refrigerator for 4 to 24 hours.

Easy Italian Chicken and Vegetables

Everyone has those days where we don't feel like cooking.  This recipe is for one of those days.  I normally use this recipe when I don't feel like cooking, but it tastes like you put much more effort into it.  I like this recipe because it is versatile and very easy to adjust to your own or your family's taste.  My favorite combination is chicken, potatoes, onions and green beans. 

You start with any meat that you like: chicken breast, pork chops, turkey breasts, meat balls, small steaks, fish (I don't eat fish, so I have no idea which kind).  Then you add your favorite vegetables.  Using frozen, pre chopped vegetables is the easiest, of course.  Pour Italian dressing over the top and bake.  You might also like to try different dressings like vinaigrettes.  If you like, add some more seasonings.  Serve the dish with a green salad or some fruit for a complete dinner.

EASY ITALIAN CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
2 cups frozen vegetables
1/2 cup Italian Dressing made with Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Italian Dressing Blend*
4 potatoes, peeled and diced

*If you would like to order some Auntie Jean's Low Sodium Italian Dressing Blend, email me at: auntiejeans@yahoo.com
Preparation:
Microwave potatoes for 7 to 10 minutes to precook them since they don't cook as quickly as the rest of the vegetables.  Place chicken in large baking dish. 

Pour potatoes over chicken then add the frozen vegetables.  Pour dressing over the top and bake at 350 degrees for one hour. 

Enjoy!