3 teaspoons Vegetable Oil

1 pat unsalted butter

4 (or more!) Cloves Garlic

1 green onion (scallion)

Crush garlic, then chop garlic fine
Chop Onion finely also

Heat veggie oil, then when hot add pat of butter.

Once butter melts add garlic and onion.
Cook until you can smell the cooked garlic.
(DO NOT cook until garlic is brown!! You just want to release the flavor. )

Add 1 cup yogurt

Cook, stirring often until yogurt separates into curds.
Put mix in an old yogurt or sour cream container and cover top with cotton cloth (put rubber band around the top to hold it in place).

Place upside down in colander to drain for 10-15 minutes.

When well drained it will look similar to cottage cheese.
Add 2-3 teaspoons fresh yogurt and mix until fairly smooth.

Let stand for 30 minutes for flavor to develop.

NOTES:

I use this on baked or mashed potatoes instead of butter.
It has very little salt, but has bacteria in it that will help your digestion.
BTW, It’s also YUMMY!!!

Chop onion and garlic into small pieces.

Grate ginger or cut into thin slivers longways, and then cut slivers into very small pieces.

Mix onion, garlic, ginger, Fish Sauce, and Hot Sauce well in a bowl.

Put oils in pan with a small piece of onion and bring up to heat.

When your little fragment of onion starts bubbling (i.e. it’s starting to cook) your oil is hot enough. Add your veggie mix to hot oil.

Fry, stirring continuously to keep stuff from sticking, until onions start to turn clear and get soft.

Add rice, continually stirring and mixing until all veggies and oils are worked throughout the rice.

Enjoy!!

Note: This is often eaten with a couple of fried eggs on top.

This makes about 24 rolls..
4 tsp. granulated sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup room temp. buttermilk
3 tsp. melted no salt butter
1 tsp salt (this is the only salt and is spread over 24 rolls)
1 egg
3 1/2 all purpose white flower
1/2 cup mashed sweet potatoes (drained of all liquid first)

Combine yeast with 1 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 cup warm water and let set for 5 minutes to get the yeast kicking.
Mix remaining sugar butter, salt egg and buttermilk to to yeast mixture.
Stir in flour 1/2 cup at a time and then mix in sweet potatoes.
Turn out on a floured board (if it is too liquid add a little flour at a time to get it to the proper stiffness) and knead.
You should only add enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the board.
This will be a soft dough so don’t overwork it.
When the dough becomes soft, but springy to the touch, roll it into a ball and put it into a buttered bowl and roll it around until coated with butter. Cover and let rise for about 1 hour (or until it had doubled in size.)

Punch dough down and pull into pieces about the size of a golf ball and shape into balls (about 24 of them) and put on a buttered cookie sheet (or pizza pan) and allow to rise until about double in size again.
Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until they sound hollow when tapped with a spoon. They will be a pretty brown color.

I like to make a glaze of butter and brown sugar to put on then right before baking.
This makes them “sticky” when they first come out of the oven, although much of the stickiness goes away after it cools leaving a sweet crust..
1 egg

Brown ground beef and drain off excess fat.Return to heat and add chili powder, curry powder, garlic and onion.
Mix well and cook together (stirring often) until onions start to turn clear.
Add remainder of ingredients, and cook until thickened.

Notes: I have had this several times with no additional swelling of my feet.
Most of the salt comes from the Salsa, so if this is too much salt for you make your own Salsa.
Of course if you use canned corn or beans this will also add salt to the recipe.

Combine all ingredients in pan and simmer down to 1 1/2 cups.

Notes:

This is another thin BBQ sauce to be used for cooking and as a condiment.

3/4 lb. chicken livers and /or gizzards
1/4 lb ground sausage
2 lbs ground beef
2 cups frozen veggies (I use the oriental mix)
1 large onion, chopped fine
4 stalks celery, chopped fine
1 bell pepper, chopped fine
1 bunch green onions w/ tops chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons sage
2 tablespoons parsley
4 tablespoons Olive Oil
2 cups rice
4 cups water

Boil Livers / gizzards in the 4 cups of water for 20 minutes. Then chop them fine or grind them up. Save the water.

Combine sausage and ground beef, brown it , drain all grease off during cooking , then rinse in hot running water to remove any remaining excess grease.

Saute all ingredients (except rice)in large pan.
Cook, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes.

Add the 4 cups of water you boiled the liver / gizzards in and 2 cups of rice.
Bring to boil, then turn down heat and simmer, covered, about 25 minutes more or until rice is tender.

Seasoning may be adjusted for taste, and if you like yous really spicy you can add Red Pepper while sauteing.

Enjoy!

Total Time: 40 minutes

Yield: Makes about 2 1/4 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 cup prepared yellow mustard
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup  brown sugar
• 3/4 cup  vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preparation:

Here’s the recipe I used:

2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons Soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry mustard
1/2 tablespoon mild chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

In a medium saucepan, combine the vinegar with the water, vegetable oil, Soy sauce, dry mustard, mild chili powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper and boil over high heat until reduced to 1 1/4 cups. Remove the warm vinegar sauce from the heat, and allow to cool.

This makes a thin BBQ sauce that I bottled, as the recipe makes more than I needed.

I heated one lb. of  pulled chicken, poured in just enough sauce to moisten it thoroughly, and cooked it for about 5 minutes, adding sauce as needed.

The resulting chicken was very tangy due to the vinegar, and somewhat spicy at first,with a heat that would sneak upon you as you ate.

Notes:

I had no problems digesting it, and have had no increase in edema afterwards. The only salt is from the soy sauce and the chili powder.

Mike

After being discharged I went back to my hometown and my doctor scheduled an appointment with a Cardiologist to have the stress test done, but before my appointment rolled around I started having angina. I was hospitalized and my cardiologist performed an Angioplasty, as well as placing a stent in my right coronary artery, which was 85% blocked.

In May I was having angina again and was hospitalized a third time. My Cardiologist performed another Angioplasty, and found out my stent had become 70% clogged by scar tissue. He cleaned it out, and the next day I was discharged.

About a week and a half  later I started vomiting late one night, and continued to do so for 18 hours. I ended up in the hospital again for about 4 days, and found out I have Familial Hyperlipidemia. I was told to cut pork and all fatty/greasy foods from my diet.

Then, last week my feet started swelling and got so big I couldn’t even put on my (lace up) boots. I had Peripheral Pitting Edema. My doctor told me it was my heart acting up again, and I was given diuretics and told to cut my salt intake.Now, my salt intake wasn’t as much as most peoples to begin with, as I almost never added salt to my food at the table. However I did eat a lot of canned and processed foods.

I have since started draining the liquids from my canned veggies and rinsing them off before cooking. I have also started making some of my own condiments, such as  BBQ sauce from scratch with no salt.

My primary sources for protein are chicken (boiled, drained and stripped/pulled), beef (fat trimmed before cooking and grease drained while cooking), and beans. These will be the basis for many of my recipes.

This blog is to document my recipes and any reactions I may have to them so that others who suffer from the same medical problems as I can benefit from my experiences.

Mike