Recipes

About 3-4 months after my surgery I began Cardiac Rehab. During that time I noticed one particular routine done by a number of Rehabbers. They would regularly prick their finger and check their blood. I asked a few of them why they did this. I found out that they were also diabetic and the exercise can create fluctuations in their sugar levels. As heart survivors they had to balance exercise to strengthen their hearts to sugar levels which could put more heart stress. I asked them what diabetic type they were which I was told, Type 2. I mentioned that if they followed their ‘diets’ from their Cardiologist and dietician they diabetes should be controlled. They all told me they could not follow the plan because EVERYTHING tasted like cardboard. I found this interesting because my heart condition was significantly worse and dietary restrictions were much more than even the ‘normal’ heart survivor. Yet I was eating extremely well. What I was finding out at Rehab is that many of the heart survivors were not willing to change their eating habits and went back to their old eating ways. There were three in Rehab that had open heart surgery twice before their current one.

Since my dad use to be a chef, I learned to cook quite well. The inspiration hit me, ‘Why don’t I write a cookbook by taking many of the unhealthy recipes we were raised on, make them heart healthy but do not compromise on the flavor. So my recipes will set for my eating requirements and I will show what the Nutritional Value is for the traditional unhealthy recipe and then show you what the updated Nutritional Value is from the modified recipe. In the 4+ years not only have I maintained my weight but my partner has lost as much as 38-lbs.

From my search on the internet and cookbooks, I have not found any showing the Nutritional Value differences. So I may be unique in offering this to you. For example: if you look at oatmeal raisin cookies, store bought are at least 105 calories, 3 grams of fat and at least 10 grams of sugar. Overall not too bad. Most store bought cookies use unbleached white flour and butter or margarine and processed sugar. I changed the flour to wheat, replace eggs with egg whites, and butter or margarine with applesauce. My cookies are 83 calories, 0.7 grams of fat and 7 grams of sugar (use Stevia which requires less sugar and the applesauce).

I scratch make BBQ sauce, Enchilada sauce, Pasta sauce, Red (Chili) sauce and Tomatillo sauce. I found many alternative ingredients at stores. For example I use Vegenaise as the replacement for mayonnaise and Bragg Amino Acid as a replacement for soy sauce. The comments I have received over the years at picnics is