The Joy (huh?) of Cooking

[MooseMom]

Is there anyone here on IHD, either on D or close to starting, who has always loved to cook and now feels frustrated and stymied?  I always enjoyed watching the Food Channel (not the competitions, but, rather, the daytime instructional shows) along with PBS on Saturdays which shows America's Test Kitchen, etc.  I like getting the foodie mags (RIP Gourmet!), too.  But now that I can't even breathe air without there being some renal consequence, it's just no fun anymore.  How do you IHD foodies cope?  Do you have any renally friendly gourmet fancy pants recipes that you'd be happy to serve to dinner guests?

[Rerun]

Just watch your salt.  You can't sprinkle all the salt that the shows do.  Use Mrs. Dash instead.  If something you make has lots of tomatoes, just have a small portion.  Soak you potatoes and make your own sauces that don't have all the salt.

I use to go to Dream Dinners and make my own meals and just left out the salt and went light on the cheese.

[MooseMom]

I've never understood this, but my neph keeps on at me to ADD more salt to my diet.  It's because I have trouble controlling potassium.  I'm not on D yet, and my bp is well controlled, but I have to take 8 sodium bicarbonate tablets a day because I can't stand ruining my food with so much salt.

I don't bother with potatoes.  Being from the south, I grew up on rice, so it's no great sacrifice to give up potatoes.  Although I have been known to eat the stray french fry... 

What's dream dinners?

[Rerun]

Dream Dinners or Super Suppers (there are other names).  They have like six menu items a month and you go there and they have these stations and you read the recipes and all the ingredients are there and you throw it together in zip-lock bags and take it home and freeze it and when you want to plan a nice dinner you pull it out of the freezer and the directions are right there.  There isn't one where I live now so I don't go anymore.

See if there is one near you.  www.dreamdinners.com

[Jean]

I love to cook too MM, but, yes, you are right, its tough when you look at the renal diet and its so bland. However, other than a very few recipes on DaVita, etc, they mainly look just like the way I cook now. I still like to watch all of the cooking shows as you do, most especially the one on Wed. nights, 24 hour restaurant. Hmmm, maybe it is just Scott Conant I like. I did drop the salt and a lot of times I just use lemon pepper seasoningm its great on chicken.

[Zach]

Have you tried making ice cream with whey?
Yummy!

I'll have to post it sometime soon in the Diet and Recipes section of IHD.

[glitter]

I love to cook too MM, but, yes, you are right, its tough when you look at the renal diet and its so bland. However, other than a very few recipes on DaVita, etc, they mainly look just like the way I cook now. I still like to watch all of the cooking shows as you do, most especially the one on Wed. nights, 24 hour restaurant. Hmmm, maybe it is just Scott Conant I like. I did drop the salt and a lot of times I just use lemon pepper seasoningm its great on chicken.

I have to admit I love him too!! He's    dreamy....

[MooseMom]

Have you tried making ice cream with whey?
Yummy!

I'll have to post it sometime soon in the Diet and Recipes section of IHD.

Really?  Really???!!!???  It just sounds vile.  But if you say so...

[VictoriaG]

i also love(d) cooking. but now everything is so limited with my husbands dialysis diet it's hard to be too creative. i just do lots of research and try to make everything from scratch if i can. this way i know exactly whats in our food. we all eat the same thing for dinner. and we all stick to the lower sodium diet. i do miss having pizza for dinner. and making enormous lasagnas. and my crock pot seeings how all of the recipies call for 4 cans of soup lol.

[Jean]

Yeah, using the cans of soup can really mess up a recipe in the crockpot and the casserole section. Of course, you can make your own chicken broth and beef and or vegetable broth, but the cram soups NAH!!!

[RightSide]

Just watch your salt.  You can't sprinkle all the salt that the shows do.  Use Mrs. Dash instead.

Benson's Gourmet Seasonings sells a line of salt-free seasonings that I find more interesting than Mrs. Dash.  Including a potassium-free salt substitute, Table Tasty, that I use to "salt" my food at the table.

[Restorer]

I love to cook, and I still do it a couple times a week. I just don't have the energy to do it as much as I used to. I don't restrict what I cook quite so much, but I do leave out obvious phosphorus/potassium ingredients like cheese, milk, potatoes, tomatoes, and so on. I seem to have lost my taste for (and desire to cook) meat, though.

Just watch your salt.  You can't sprinkle all the salt that the shows do.  Use Mrs. Dash instead.

Benson's Gourmet Seasonings sells a line of salt-free seasonings that I find more interesting than Mrs. Dash.  Including a potassium-free salt substitute, Table Tasty, that I use to "salt" my food at the table.

The main ingredient in Table Tasty, the part that mimics salt, is nutritional yeast, which is often used as a vegan "cheese" flavoring. I've looked into it for the same reason, and it varies a lot by variety, but nutritional yeast is apparently high in potassium and phosphorus. One nutrition label I found here lists 2 heaping tablespoons as having 320 mg of potassium and 17% DV (about 170 mg) of phosphorus. When I went looking for it at Whole Foods, the kind they had listed phosphorus in excess of 80%.

So, Table Tasty is potassium chloride free, but not free of potassium, and not low in phosphorus either.

Your best bet for replacing salt is lemon juice, and a small amount of salt. Lemon juice and salt together taste more salty than either alone.

Edit:
No I'm not sure. I took another look, and the ingredient is "Nutrtional Yeast extract." I don't know if that means they managed to extract salt-like taste without extracting potassium or phosphorus.

Still, I don't like spice/herb mixes like Mrs. Dash as a "substitute" for salt, because they aren't. No one substitutes a mix of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg for sugar. I like to choose the spices myself.