What do you put on your pasta?

[Sluff]

I make my own cheese sauces. I use less cheese than normal, and thicken with more flour than normal. I don't use milk when I make the sauce; I use either a small amount of half & half OR heavy cream, and dilute with water.

As for tomato sauces, I don't avoid them altogether If I eat them I will eat one serving a day, max. I never completely exclude anything from my diet except for artificial sweeteners, beer, potassium/sodium nitrates and nitrites (well I at least try to, once in a while I'll break), grapefruit, and starfruit.

Grapefruit and Starfruit is not compatible with certain meds like cyclosporine.

[mymoonring]

What I put on my pasta? I love pasta and if I am gonna have it i usualy make my sause with meatballs in it yummmm and I do what alot of you do after the meatballs are realy cooked and yummie I take a few and roll it around mt noodles and enjoy every bight YUmmmmmm 

[jbeany]

Grapefruit and Starfruit is not compatible with certain meds like cyclosporine.

Starfruit contains a neurotoxin that can kill people without enough kidney function to remove it from the body.

I have to quit reading this post - I crave spaghetti and meatballs everytime I read it.

[YouDontKnowCecil]

I make my own cheese sauces. I use less cheese than normal, and thicken with more flour than normal. I don't use milk when I make the sauce; I use either a small amount of half & half OR heavy cream, and dilute with water.

As for tomato sauces, I don't avoid them altogether If I eat them I will eat one serving a day, max. I never completely exclude anything from my diet except for artificial sweeteners, beer, potassium/sodium nitrates and nitrites (well I at least try to, once in a while I'll break), grapefruit, and starfruit.

Grapefruit and Starfruit is not compatible with certain meds like cyclosporine.

Well that's not why I don't take those fruits. Grapefruit has at least two substances that complicate drug metabolism; and if my memory serves right, they are naringin and bergamottin. These two substances (could be others, can remember for sure) are potent CYP3A4 inhibitors. CYP3A4 is a metabolic enzyme, part of the Cytochrome P450 family of enzymes, that is responsible for metabolizing a large number of drugs and other xenobiotics. When CYP3A4 is inhibited, drugs that are metabolized by this enzyme can build up in the blood stream to toxic levels. This is why when your bottle's labels say "DO NOT TAKE GRAPEFRUIT" it is pertinent you do not take any grapefruit or grapefruit products. Just to be safe I avoid grapefruit altogether. Cyclosporine is metabolized primarily by CYP3A4, hence if you take that drug you shouldn't take any grapefruit products.

Starfruit contains a water-soluble neurotoxin (I don't know the name of it); people with healthy kidneys can void it without harm but in people with impaired kidney function, it can be deadly. The toxin if ingested, cannot be removed effectively from the bloodstream via peritoneal dialysis. Only hemodialysis can effectively remove it; however it really isn't a good idea to take starfruit if your kidneys don't work well in the first place.

[George Jung]

Something else that is really good is a roasted red pepper coulis.  It is really simple to make too!

1 can/jar roasted red peppers - or you can roast some yourself if you're into that.  Want to know how? 
Drain and puree in blender.

You can serve this coulis simply by seasoning it or add any number of fresh herbs to it, garlic, or really any other flavoring you like.  It's really good with a pasta and vegetable dish, artichokes, asparagus, and such.

I like to heat it with the pasta so if you do that too make sure your pasta is al dente, but it can be cooked separately and tossed in pasta to finish.  There are very few hard rules when it comes to preparing food.

So just puree the red peppers - add any desired flavorings, herbs/spices (be sure to season accordingly) - med heat until hot.  If you add veggies be sure to par cook them first and then start with a sautee adding the coulis last.

[donnia]

I put a little butter and Tony Chacherey (SP??) cajun seasoning... its a little spicy but good!

[tweetykiss]

I made a lemon pasta last week for my husband and the recipe is right here...

http://www.davita.com/recipes/rice_pasta_bread/?id=169

Now I have no clue how that recipe will affect your phosphorous and pots since my husband is alright with those levels.

Then yesterday I made pasta avocado and here is how

3 avocados
1 cup heavy cream (don't know about your pots and phosphorous)
fresh sliced mushrooms
5 cloves garlic
3/4 cup parmasean cheese
1/4 cup lemon juice
olive oil

fry the chopped garlic and mushrooms in olive oil
peel the avocados, remove the pits, and put them in the blender or food processor along with lemon juice and parmasean cheese and puree it
meantime pour the cream in the garlic and mushroom mix but don't let it boil and then put the avocado mix in the pan and heat it.
pour the mixture in the pasta

My husband loves it....

I also plan to make a mushroom sauce and one can also just use olive oil in the pasta.....

[goofynina]

Tweetykiss, you do know that the avocado's are extremely high in potassium dont you?  That is bad for anyone on dialysis or battling kidney disease. 

[st789]

What about left over from last night Vegetarian Pasta from CheeseCake Factory?

How about added Spam Ham?

[tweetykiss]

Tweetykiss, you do know that the avocado's are extremely high in potassium dont you?  That is bad for anyone on dialysis or battling kidney disease. 

Thanks for telling me this Goofynina......Now when the dietician sent us a chart of what is high in K and sodium, it didn't say anything about avocados......they didn't list everything and just yesterday when his GP called and I even brought this up he said his K levels are fine and I notice on his lab it is 4.0 whatever that means........I will watch now since I have to make sure it does not go up...thank you very much for the heads up.......

[bdpoe]

What I put on my pasta is good quality margarine (not spread) and or Olive oil, black pepper, oregano,
and some regular parmasian cheese, though not as much as I'd like. Also Parsley when available and sometimes
a litlle garlic. Granulated or chopped in oil.

Baby mixed green beans and carrots, brocolli florets, red bell peppers and onions are sometimes combined
after being stir fried.

Just how bad is using about 3 teaspoons of parmesian cheese? Aside from that I avoid the Alfredo and
tomato sauces.
...bd

[tweetykiss]

Our Davita dietician said he can have no salt tomato sauce so I make the spaghetti with the sauce and on the sauce, I put the basil and oregano and mushrooms (she said he can have mushrooms) and let the sauce cook for hours on end to taste authentic.  I also make the meatballs and he eats a lot of it.  My husband now eats like a horse.

[isurvived]

Yes, he can have mushrooms as long as they are not canned. If I might make some suggestions: My wife used to make noodles with many different cream cheese mixtures made by Kraft. It has a lot less phosphorus. Also, what about Carbonara, if you use low salt bacon? You could also cut back on the bacon when you use it. When I was on dialysis, the nutrionist suggested a book for me because she knew that I tried to follow the diet they wanted me on, but I loved food. I am going to suggest it to you, too. It is called Food Values of Portions Commonly Used by Jean Pennington and Juidth Spungen Douglass. It takes some looking to figure out how to use it, but it gives values of everything from calories to salt, to potassium, to phosphorus. Sometimes, I would fudge a little bit after dialysis on Monday or Wednesday, but because I had that extra day after Friday dialysis, I would be extremely good with my eating then. Also, I forgot to mention, has anybody tried the Mrs. Dash's ten minute marinades? They are pretty good. The Mesquite is good on pork, and they have ones that are good on chicken, etc. Check them out if you get a chance. No salt.

[kidney4traci]

I would love to chat with a nutritionist here - the renal "diet" to me can be too limiting.  Depending on the pt's labs, I stretch my diet and check my labs every month.  I eat avacado's at least once a week with no effect on my potassium.  They told me in the beginning no way.  So I didn't eat them for about two years.  Then I started changing my diet to healthier foods and added them.  Avacados are like a perfect food, and I love them!!  I do not eat milk products, unless it's cream cheese or at a restaurant and I am spurging.  Don't even like regular cow's milk anymore (tastes sour to me now.)  I do eat whole grain bread, white bread is soo bad.  I eat dried fruits too, and nuts.  Tomatoes too.  They are all so good for you, but have to watch my phos. as it will climb on these foods.  As long as I take binders, it is ok.  I really would like to find an organic or herbal way to bind the phos. as the renal pills are cancer forming.  That is my new goal. 

[isurvived]

Well, good luck on your new goal, then.

[pelagia]

I would love to chat with a nutritionist here - the renal "diet" to me can be too limiting.  Depending on the pt's labs, I stretch my diet and check my labs every month.  I eat avacado's at least once a week with no effect on my potassium.  They told me in the beginning no way.  So I didn't eat them for about two years.  Then I started changing my diet to healthier foods and added them.  Avacados are like a perfect food, and I love them!!  I do not eat milk products, unless it's cream cheese or at a restaurant and I am spurging.  Don't even like regular cow's milk anymore (tastes sour to me now.)  I do eat whole grain bread, white bread is soo bad.  I eat dried fruits too, and nuts.  Tomatoes too.  They are all so good for you, but have to watch my phos. as it will climb on these foods.  As long as I take binders, it is ok.  I really would like to find an organic or herbal way to bind the phos. as the renal pills are cancer forming.  That is my new goal. 

I also wonder about the tradeoffs made to one's health with the dialysis diet.  So much that we learn is good for our health seems to be off limits. 

Please let me know where I can read more about the side effects of the phosphorus binders.

My husband is on dialysis and really misses a tomato based pasta sauce.  Reading through this thread got me thinking about a cooking show I watched the other day.  The chef made a "light sauce" using a variety of ingredients and finally some of the cooking water from the pasta pot. The starch in the water helps to lightly thicken the sauce.  Her recipe was not tomato based, but it reminded me that my mother adds "pasta water" to one of her tomato-based sauces.  I think I'm going to try making a sauce something like this:

onions, garlic, diced tomatoes (drained, no salt added), sauteed in olive oil
add some "pasta water" (a little at a time, watching the consistency in order to get a light sauce with a little body and lots of flavor)
add chopped fresh basil or other herbs of choice

other additions to try:
red or white wine (dry), the alcohol will cook off leaving flavor!
red pepper flakes
sliced red and green pepper
artichoke hearts would be great too but I have no idea what their K, P and Na content is as it is not in my nutrition program (does anyone know?)

 

[twirl]

anything Pizza Hut will deliver

[glitter]

the 'pasta water' helps your sauce stick to the noodles also