Just been discharged from hospital after 4 weeks for congestive heart failure (rather serious case of it), so need to make some serious adjustments to my diet among other lifestyle changes. Stopping smoking and drinking is going fine and was for a few weeks before being admitted so not worried about that.

Anyone got any good recipe ideas (I'll eat just about any type of food) or decent cookbook recommendations?

Thanks.

Cook most stuff from scratch and you can be completely in charge

I picked up 2 Slimming World recipe books.

They're called:
Family Feasts On A Budget
Fakeaways

Not bothered with being on a SW plan, just use the books for the healthy recipes.

Congratulations on being discharged! Best of luck with your recovery.

I suggest that you get into making curries. With lots of flavour from the spices you won't care as much about the lack of salt, and you don't need to use ghee like they do in restaurants over here - I never use it and they're still lovely. Lots of vegetables with a bit of meat for depth.

Fish is a good option. Grill a piece of fish, drizzle with lemon juice and serve with a Turkish salad - they tend to be lemony too, which makes them zingy without needing salt. You could try other Turkish foods too, like flatbreads with antep ezmesi (a sort of spicy salsa), with marinated grilled fish or chicken, etc. In fact if you take a tour through a few Mediterranean cookbooks you'll find loads of low-fat ideas which need little or no salt.

I'd look into Mexican too. You can make your own salsa easily, without using any salt, and make quesadillas, tacos, fajitas, etc.

Basically, anything that involves lots of spice (not necessarily hot spices), herbs and citrus to make your food interesting without salt and fat. Worth noting too that your tastebuds will adjust after a while and you'll stop noticing the lack of salt, so persevere if it's difficult at first, cos it gets easier.

I'm sorry, I completely neglected to answer your actual question.

Here's a good all-purpose curry recipe that requires no salt and has very little fat.

Here's an antep ezmesi recipe (it uses a small amount of salt, which you can omit). Seriously, I know it's "just salsa" but it's fantastic. Serve with flatbread alongside Turkish fish kebabs.

You can easily Google the Mexican stuff, but I'll give you my wife's salsa and quesadilla recipes if they're of interest (she does the Mexican cooking in our house).

The chicken tikka masala in Fakeaway is so yummy. I'm a big fan of the SW spiced chicken too.

Thanks for that! Good to be at home although I do rattle with all the new medication!

Well, you have managed to mention 2 of my favourite cuisines that I've been cooking full fat versions of for years so low fat versions certainly welcome! I've ordered a low fat Indian book from Amazon that apparently helps with the onion browning technique sans oil which I suppose if the most tricky bit so hopefully that works out well.

The Mexican side of things should be relatively easy as I already make my own tortillas anyway so will just omit the salt although not sure how to handle the oil/lard I've always used.

Middle Eastern should be relatively easy to do I suppose as low fat yoghurt for marinades etc and lots of use of the grill. Got decent Asian/Eastern shops in the area that I love too so about time I started experimenting with the more unusual veg/fruit.

Will have to have a look at Fakeaways. Sounds interesting!

I think that unless you've been advised otherwise (by someone who knows what they're talking about) you should be OK to sauté onions in a little oil. You only need a tiny bit if you sweat them gently, and if you choose something like olive oil I think you'd be fine. Here's a breakdown from the British Heart Foundation which you might find helpful.

We sauté everything in olive oil and it doesn't affect the taste at all.

By the way, pootling around on the BHF site I discovered that they have their own recipe collection. (They also seem to be OK with sautéing in small amount of oil).

Also, and with apologies for monopolising your thread, I'd suggest that you may be able to eat "bad" foods if you eat them sparingly. For example, on the recent "three ingredients" thread I suggested a sort of amatriciana.

You may balk at stuffing your face full of pancetta, and you'd probably be right; but for two people I will typically use half of one of these packets for two people. So even though pancetta is full of fat and salt, you're using so little that you're only eating 6.4g saturated fat and 1g salt. But it makes a huge difference to the flavour of the meal.

I went on a health kick a couple of years ago, and have succeeded in keeping the weight off. I'm convinced that the key is in not living like a monk and denying yourself everything that tastes nice - that ends up in bingeing on an 18" pizza washed down with a pint of chips. Allow yourself the occasional small treat in return for generally being virtuous, and you'll enjoy it more because you've earned it.

Finally, portion control is important however healthily you eat, but fortunately it's something else that you get used to over time after your stomach gets over the initial shock.

we need a small amount of fat to be healthy, our brains need fat, so I agree on the tip about using a little olive oil to start off the dishes.

http://235472-how-the-sugar-industry...appening-again

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/2...appening-again

Recent studies seem to indicate that carbs & sugar are more to blame for heart disease. Also, not everyone is salt sensitive, so only those who are salt sensitive will benefit from a low salt diet. I know when I first got diagnosed with high blood pressure I went to extreme measures to eliminate salt, cooking everything from scratch & making salt free chutney. It did not help me. So I wouldn't automatically assume a low fat & no salt diet will help you.

Water or "dry fry" works just as well. I don't notice the difference.

Fats are in nuts. Vegans have plenty of nut milk.

Nuts are great. I think they are a very healthy snack. I do not think the Op said they were going vegan.

It does depend on how many nuts you eat - it is easy to eat too many.

I don't have cows milk but never had nut milk in my life

The doctors at hospital said I need a low fat/salt diet which is why I'm following this route. Unfortunately for me my diagnosis was rather serious (10% LVF function).


lol, too right. Veganism isn't something I'm looking at following. Like meat far too much!! Always like nuts however.

I only like the "Rude Health" almond milk. The others have tasted awful. I can't make almond milk as cheaply as "Rude Health".

I understand wanting to follow drs orders, but sometimes I find them to be behind on the latest studies, so I prefer to be my pwn advocate. Plus many of them did not study nutrition & only spout off the "in" thing.

Can I make a suggestion. You've had lots of ideas from the other posters, and some great recipes, but it depends on the tablets you have to take, as they could react against some foods. It depends on what type of food you got in the hospital, and if it felt ok to eat it, then you could go from there, leaving out salt and fats. Or what you could do is to test each food item and see how the tablet reacts, then make a note if it's an ok food item, and keep doing that for each food items you taste or eat. It will take time to do that, but you'll get to know what foods are good for you, and easier to deal with after that. If you keep on using olive oil, you'll get a reaction. Dry frying or using water would be a safer option. .

Hub bought a load of almond milk which he said he'd use for his cereals, but he forgot and used all the semi milk I use for my tea. I had to use the almond milk in my tea, and after a few drinks of tea I started retching like mad and had to chuck the lot out. You could taste the fat in the Almond Milk which was disgusting. I have to take 3 tablets a day and one is very strong, and that could have affected the taste, whereas hub doesn't take tablets and he can drink the stuff.

I'd say doctors use the rule of thumb of safety, as they know patients will carry on doing their own thing, so warning them at the outset is a good idea. Trouble with latest studies, is that what's "in" for one patient might not be "in" for another.

Take Diabetes for instance, it's been said that it was ok to have sugar and eat a normal diet like non-Diabetics do, but that's taking a huge risk as not all Diabetics are the same. A long standing Diabetic who has been taking care for years, won't suddenly start having sugar, no matter who says they could. It's irresponsible to even suggest such a thing for instance, from a nutritionist or the latest study, who doesn't know how a body will react, and the massive damage that could be done.
If a doctor gives a heart patient advice it should be taken.

Browse Amazon for Slimming World curry books.
A friend of mine was recommended them after a heart attack and they are excellent.
It's cooking from scratch, very healthy and very flavoursome.
https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/%.../9780091909260

I do see what you are getting at and obviously I'm very much at the stage of wanting to everything 'right' although what's right for one isn't the same for all. Had the same advice from the community cardiac nursing team who will be monitoring things so will see how it all goes I suppose.


I've done the dry frying method before when cooking Ethiopean/Eritrean food but not the water method so will look into that.

The different types of food and meds is an interesting one. I know I can't have cranberry or grapefruit because of my Warfarin prescription but can't remember the last time I had grapefruit and Cranberry is generally only for Christmas so can't see that being a problem.