What I Ate Wednesday Week 3

Breakfast
Low Sodium Waffle with butter and Apple Cinnamon Syrup from Knaebe's and Jennie-O Turkey Sausage.

The Waffle recipe is from the book 500 Low Sodium Recipes that we got for Christmas. We made them for the first time on Saturday. We may do some tweaking to the recipe, but they were pretty good.

Lunch
Homemade Lasagna and Garlic Parmesan Toast with ciabatta bread from our local grocery store.

The Lasagna recipe was from the 500 Low Sodium Recipes cookbook. I used our Marinara sauce.


Snack
I needed an afternoon snack. I found leftover Peaches and Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce from a dessert we had a couple nights ago. 

Dinner 
Italian Wedding Soup. There will be a post coming later on this recipe. It was a hit at church.

Dessert
Cheesecake Pudding and Michigan Blueberries that were in the freezer.

This edition was way more exciting than previous editions. Doing this week by week has encouraged me to become more creative.


~Stefani =)

What I Ate Wednesday

This is a popular thing to do with people who have food blogs. I thought I would give it a try. The premise is to post what you ate on Tuesday on Wednesdays. I can't guarantee that it will always be healthy.

Breakfast

I am addicted to Chocolate Chex. It is so wrong, but feels so right!

Lunch

I made grilled cheese with Tom's Market (the local grocery store) cibatta bread with cheese that is terrible for you. You know, the creamy fake stuff. No, I did not feed this to my husband.

Dinner

Spaghetti and Meatballs with Marinara and Salad with Parmesan Dressing. For the meatballs I used ground beef and ground pork. My husband enjoyed the combo. I am not a huge pork fan.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this first "What I Ate Wednesday".

~Stefani =)

Parmesan Dressing

We found this recipe on the back of Pompeian brand Roasted Garlic Infused Red Wine Vinegar. We did tweak it a little to make it low sodium (like leave out the salt it calls for). I will admit that I will sprinkle a little kosher salt on my salad when I use this dressing. Joshua, however, refrains from this temptation. Here is the recipe we use...

1 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO for Rachael Ray fans)

1/2 cup of Pompeian Roasted Garlic Infused Red Wine Vinegar

1/3 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

2 cloves of Garlic (minced or grated)

1/2 cup of White Wine (optional)

Combine all ingredients and shake well. Best to refrigerate after use. 

I recommend a higher quality extra virgin olive oil. It really does make a difference.

The EVOO and Red Wine Vinegar hating each other. 

A trick I learned from watching Rachael Ray: use a micro-plane grater to "mince" your garlic. So much easier than getting out a cutting board and chopping. 

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I used the same micro-plane grater as the garlic. 

The finished product!

This dressing is perfect for salads. It is very light and not overpowering. I have also used it as a base for a low sodium pasta salad.

~Stefani =)

Marinara Sauce

I saw this recipe on the show "Kitchen Boss". I swapped the regular tomatoes for no salt added tomatoes and added onion. The sauce tastes like you are a gourmet Italian chef and is super easy. It makes a large batch, so if you are a small family you can divided the sauce into smaller portions and freeze. When you need to use it, put the sauce in a small crock pot or covered pot on the stove and simmer. 


This recipe has about 37 mg of sodium per 1/2 Cup serving. Prego Marinara Italian Sauce in a jar has 480mg per 1/2 cup serving. Which is practically a meal's worth of sodium for a person on a low sodium diet.

2 28oz No Salt Added Crushed Tomatoes
2 14.5oz No Salt Added Diced Tomatoes
1/4 Cup of Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic (diced or crushed) (also more if you are fan of garlic)
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 Cup of Fresh Basil Leaves, torn into small pieces
4 teaspoons of sugar (1 teaspoon per can of tomatoes)
Mrs. Dash Tomato Garlic Basil to taste

I have been known to add no taste fiber powder to the sauce. (Such as Benfiber)

In a 3-4 qt. pot, heat the oil, garlic, and onion together. When garlic becomes pale gold and fragrant add the tomatoes.  Stir well to combine and bring sauce to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer sauce, 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally until sauce has thickened. Remove from heat, check for seasoning and stir in the torn basil leaves

The onions and garlic with some of the tomatoes on top.

 Once all the tomatoes are in the pot.

Adding sugar, the secret ingredient. The "Kitchen Boss" recommends a teaspoon per can of tomatoes used. The green stuff is Tomato Basil Garlic Mrs Dash.

My husband says this sauce is "gourmet" and better than anything out of a jar. 

~Stefani =)

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