Kidney Recipe Blog

[Rain]

I've been toying with the idea of having a Renal Blog  that features recipes.

I've been taking some cooking courses at Le Cordon Bleu and have adapted many recipes to be renal friendly.  Would a blog on ESRD recipes be helpful?  Would anyone want to help contribute?

I would also love to get this community involved with their favourite recipes, as well.  Maybe based on topic: ie Favourite Salad dressing recipe, that way we have a collection of great food to share.

Thoughts ideas?

[cattlekid]

I would love it.  I have tried looking for recipes and everything looks so BLAND.  I would love to share recipes that folks have actually tried and liked - and that people not on the renal diet would eat LOL

[Rerun]

I think it is a good idea.  For people, like me, who don't know what to make for dinner we can go to the blog and find something that sounds good.

                       

[Meinuk]

I think that it is a GREAT idea.  I always dreamed that we'd have an IHD Community Recipie Book (starting with Zach's Chili) - I'd loive to have something like that on my cookbook shelf.

Go for it Rain, I'll be reading your blog!

[boswife]

awwwww yes, Zachs' chillie   ummmmmmmmmmm,,   and YES to the blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  a big yes for sure... 

[Rain]

I already have blog post ideas in my head.  Okay I will start something and post here.

I will need your help.  What type of recipes would you like to see?

[cattlekid]

I would like to see the following types of recipes:

breakfast/lunch ideas that are portable and ideally can be made the night before
dinner ideas that take 45 minutes or less to make

Can you tell that I am time-crunched?  I do like to cook but time is always of the essence.   

[Meinuk]

Rain,

What I think would be nice:  you cooking renal friendly recipies, taking pictures and then posting about it.

That way you are covering recipie, technique and renal friendly.  Wheteher it be a snack or a dinner or whatever, you can show the whole meal in context.

It has been my experience that people are insipred by dishes and meals.  And pictures are a fantastic way to explain a recipie.

I am a big fan of Ree Drummond http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/recipe-file/

It would be great to have a Renal Friendly version of The Pioneer Woman.  (and she makes A LOT of money too)

Another thing that I have always preached to my foodie buddies:  We need a cooking show for people with chronic disease. 

Could you imagine Julia Child the French Dialysis Chef?  Or Ina Garten does low sodium?  Certainly Paula Deen should be cutting her carbs and fat (she's a heart attack waiting to happen)

Or Alton Brown does High Protein (he certainly looks anemic now a days)

Or Mario Batali doing the Detox Diet....

My absurd fantasy food show list goes on and on...  But my favorite fantasy cartoon would be Zombie Julia Child bursting onto the set of Semi-Home Made with Sandra Lee and wiping her out with a le creuset saucier.

Now I am going back to work.

[Rain]

I got a new camera a few weeks ago and everything.

In the next month I plan on taking pictures of food I make and starting the blog, so it will be ready to go live around Christmas.

[Rain]

At the pace I"m going I'm probabily going to have it up in 2-3 weeks.  Some recipes you have to look forward to..

1.  Beef Tenderloin with Cognac Sauce   
2.  A Faijita seasoning recipe
3. Blueberry crisp for  1 desert recipe
4. Chicken or Turkey sausage patties recipe  ( no salt)
5. Faux home fries
6.  How to make homemade stocks (no salt added)
7.  Chicken slouvaki with greek salad dressing

[boswife]

Oh RAin,,, im very excited about this.  I will send you my bread recepie, and waffle recepie in time if you like.  They're yummy...

[Rain]

Does anyone have a good blog name?

Some ideas i have are:
 
"Living with less than perfect kidneys"

 

[ToddB0130]

The Healthy Kidney Kitchen

[Meinuk]

Culinary CKD

And you could also make and review some of the existing recipies on some of the big sites.

I just had some of the ambrosia from the Davita website, and it was good, but their Blueberry Muffins were the WROST.MUFFINS.I.HAVE.EVER.HAD.

Rain, I think that you could have so much fun with this.  I am VERY excited for you!

[Rain]

I took some photos this week of some food I cooked up. 

I have the day off work this Friday so I will work on the site. So hopefully inwill get it up and running with a couple posts  and a subscription option so you guys will get automatic notifications of new posts.  The site will probably be on wordpress and move to it's own domain once. I get enough traffic.

I like the healthy kidney kitchen but maybe shorten it to The Kidney Kitchen.
 

[Restorer]

As a gag on April Fool's, you should post recipes using kidneys. 

[MooseMom]

Oh Rain, this is a brilliant idea, and I love Meinuk's notion of using photos. (I also would love to see a famous chef preparing renal-friendly meals!)

I would be grateful for some renally friendly snacking ideas.  I'm on my own during the day and generally make only one main meal, that being dinner, for when my husband comes home.  I tend to sorta graze during the day.  I eat less than I used to; I think I'm just getting older and don't need the calories.  Also, I admit to feeling more fatigue, so I don't walk 3 miles a day like I used to.  I may walk only 2, probably just one mile twice a day, so again, I don't eat as much as before.  So I'd love to have some snacks I can make and put in the fridge to a quick bite during the day. 

I'd also appreciate some pasta dishes that do not substitute red peppers for tomatoes.  I tried that tactic, and I really didn't care for it as red peppers are too sweet.

I'd love to have some recipes that heavily rely on cream cheese...maybe a pasta sauce made with cream cheese...since this is not a forbidden food!

I like "Kidney Kitchen".  Can't wait to see it!  Hurry up! LOL!

[Henry P Snicklesnorter]

.

[CebuShan]

This it a great idea! I grow own herbs and make my own blends (we stopped buying salt long before I was diagnosed when we realised we were using it more to clear the steps during the winter than as a food item!) I would love to see some slow cooker recipes.

[Rain]

I love the ideas.

MooseMom how is cream cheese not restricted?  I was told to count my cream cheese in my 3oz of cheese I eat a week.  Except the dietian told me I could substitute my 3 oz of cheese for some liver pate this holiday season.. mmmm liver pate..

Does anyone use soy sauce?  I use it in marinades and only the low sodium.   

MooseMom have you tried a roasted carrot pasta sauce?  Or made your own pesto just don't include pine nuts and easy on the cheese.  Could make a big batch of pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays so it's easy access when you want it.

For pasta I do a lot of oil based or egg yolk based sauces.  I actually prefer it to veggie based sauces, since my pasta usually includes different veggies.

I've tried some recipes for the renal diet, that I got from they dietitian or found online and I have to admit there some hits and misses. 
 

 

[Meinuk]

As a gag on April Fool's, you should post recipes using kidneys. 

I LOVE THIS!  And I have a couple of giant PKD whoppers that I could donate - surely enough to feed a family of 10 .....   

[MooseMom]

MooseMom how is cream cheese not restricted?  I was told to count my cream cheese in my 3oz of cheese I eat a week.  Except the dietian told me I could substitute my 3 oz of cheese for some liver pate this holiday season.. mmmm liver pate..

Well, MY dietician is bigger than YOUR dietician, and MY dietician gave me a "high phosphorus food list" that included "cheese (but not cream cheese)."   I've always noticed that cream cheese specificially excluded from the general cheese taboo.  I've just now checked my packet of food information to make sure I didn't misremember this, but there it is..."(except cream cheese)."

Does anyone use soy sauce?  I use it in marinades and only the low sodium.   

I tend to avoid it because of the sodium content, even the low sodium version.  There are so many great marinades I can make with other ingredient that I don't feel the need to use soy sauce.  But if you have something particularly tasty, I'll certainly try it!

MooseMom have you tried a roasted carrot pasta sauce?  Or made your own pesto just don't include pine nuts and easy on the cheese.  Could make a big batch of pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays so it's easy access when you want it.

I love roasted carrots, but I've not made a sauce with them.  Look, I am not a natural cook.  I can follow a recipe, but I have never had the time to play around with recipes and really teach myself to "cook".  I found out how bad my kidneys were just when I entered the time in my life where I had more time to cultivate this art, but I lost my desire and interest when I found out that there is nothing safe to eat anymore.  ha.  Food just annoys me now; I see it as the enemy, as a necessary evil.  My love for food has diminished, and I would like to get it back.  But since I am not a natural cook, it is hard for me to play around with safe recipes, so if you can do that for me, I'd love you forever!  So, if you can share a recipe for roasted carrot sauce, I'd give it a go, but I suspect it might be a bit sweet for my taste.  I am not devoted to pasta sauce per se, so I would be happy with idea for olive oil and herb based sauces (which, I realize, aren't really "sauces".)  I've never made my own pesto, so again, if you could tell me how to make it w/out pinenuts and cheese, that would be great.  BTW, I have an great blender, but I don't have a food processor and don't particularly want to spend the money for one.  It's just me and my husband, so I don't need to make great batches of anything and don't want to add to my kitchen stuff with a processor.  Do you use one a lot?  Maybe I should bite the bullet and get one.  But it just seems like one more thing to keep clean and to faff about with.

For pasta I do a lot of oil based or egg yolk based sauces.  I actually prefer it to veggie based sauces, since my pasta usually includes different veggies.

 

Yeah, like this.  I'd like something simple because when it comes to my "I've lived in Chicago all my life, and my pasta needs a tomato based sauce" husband, he's not gonna be down with this.  But he's happy with sauce from a jar , so he can have that and I'll make one of your sauces for myself.  I've never done an egg yolk based sauce...I'd try that!

I've tried some recipes for the renal diet, that I got from they dietitian or found online and I have to admit there some hits and misses.

I'll eat just about anything that I know won't hurt me.   If I know it is "safe" and that I don't have to worry about it, then I'm happy.  But I have to consider my husband who seemingly eats only beige food, preferably from a box.  I know that I shouldn't force my diet onto him, but he is not too good at returning the favor (he has that emotional attachment to food that most men have), and I really don't want to have to make two meals, one for renally challenged me and another for him, because this disease has robbed me of the energy to do that.  By the end of the day, right around the time for making dinner, I'm usually completely enervated, so preparing evening meals is a problem for me, but I do it because my disease isn't supposed to affect anyone else because that would make me a selfish b*tch, right?   (little bit of a rant there)

[Restorer]

MooseMom how is cream cheese not restricted?  I was told to count my cream cheese in my 3oz of cheese I eat a week.  Except the dietian told me I could substitute my 3 oz of cheese for some liver pate this holiday season.. mmmm liver pate..

Cream cheese has 29.7 mg of phosphorus per oz. Cheddar, for example, has 143 mg per oz. Parmesan has 194 mg per oz. If you're only restricting cheese because of the phosphorus, cream cheese is a good substitute that you can have more of. If you're watching it because of something else (calories?), then you'll have to weigh that against other cheeses.

[Rain]

Yes I find I use my food processor a lot, more in the winter then the summer.  I use it about 1-2 times a week.  I make coleslaws, pie crusts, doughts, sauces, bread crumbs.. you name it with my food processor.  But getting the right food processor does make a difference.  I had a black & decker one of years and hated it.  Then last year I got myself a kitchenaid and love it. It`s a lot more expensive but for the amount I use it it`s  well work it.

Well the website is up

you can visit it at

http://thehealthykidneykitchen.wordpress.com/

Please subscribe, that will be how I know how many people are reading it.   I only have 2 posts up I will add more as time permits.

[CebuShan]

Moose Mom: like you, it is just my husband & I. I didn't want a huge food processor but I found a very cool item from Tupperware. I don't remember the exact name but it is a little chopper. You put your ingredients in, pull the cord a few times and it is done. I was surprised at how well it works. I use it for all kinds of things from herbs to onions. It is the perfect size for us to throw the ingredients in for egg or tuna salad, pull the cord and there is enough for a couple of sandwiches. I love mine and am thinking of getting a second one.