Friday, February 15, 2013

Diet Changes

I think the hardest part of this roller coaster ride is that they don't allow certain foods to be eaten while riding. No tomatoes and potatoes are the hardest. Nuts are also hard; Lot needs more protein and can have protein bars, but most of them have nuts, so I get to eat the ones that I bought for him.

Spaghetti is our go-to meal on what-are-we-going-to-have-for-dinner-it's-5 nights. It is quick, easy, and more importantly, the kids inhale it AND ask for seconds. We have been wondering if we should research white sauce recipes to find a suitable substitute when we asked our dietician about it. She gave us a recipe for roasted red pepper tomato sauce. We can use it as a spaghetti sauce, marinara sauce, pizza sauce, and/or tomato sauce.


Since I am bound to lose the recipe at some point, I am going to document it here and because there has been at least one request for the recipe and I feel that your life will  not be complete without this awesome recipe:) If Lot is ever allowed to eat unrestricted amounts of tomatoes again, we will still use this sauce; it is THAT good.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Serves 4, serving size 1/4 cup

Ingredients
1/2 cup roasted red peppers (bottled, canned, or make your own)
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup tomato sauce, no salt added
2 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp red pepper chili flakes, optional

Directions
1. Drain red peppers and measure 1/2 cup.
2. Place peppers and garlic in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.
3. Add the tomato sauce, olive oil, seasoning, and flakes. Process until well blended.
4. Enjoy on pizza, pasta, soup, or chicken.

**May be refrigerated 2-3 days or frozen until ready to use**

Nutrition Facts
Calories: 75     Protein: 0.6g    Carbs: 3g     Fat: 7g     Sodium: 82mg     Potassium: 148mg     Phosphorus: 18mg     Calcium: 17mg

Just for kicks, here is a chart for you to compare the potassium and sodium in red sauces. I am not sure what brand of sauces these all are, but I think they are a general guideline.



Sauce
Serving Size
Potassium mg
Sodium mg
Roasted Red Pepper
¼ cup
148
82
Tomato
¼ cup
226
369
Spaghetti
¼ cup
262
347
Marinara
¼ cup
265
393
Pizza
¼ cup
240
340


***My Notes***

*Could use more veggies, diced carrots, squash, zucchini.

*We used Western Family diced tomatoes, no salt added. The sodium difference is fairly big. For a 1/4 cup of regular tomato sauce, the sodium content is 12% or 280 milligrams. The sodium in the no salt added diced tomatoes is 1% or 20 milligrams for 1/2 cup. I don't think WINCO, our main grocery store, carries the no salt added tomato sauce. I will have to check, but for now, we still an almost full case of the diced tomatoes from a case lot sale. We also like the chunkiness that the diced tomatos have.

*To save time, we did use the bottled roasted red peppers, but did also buy a bag full of red peppers so that I can roast them tomorrow and freeze them for when we need them. I also have plans to can some, but I need quart jars, instructions on how to can, and the time and energy to do it. I also plan to plant some red peppers in our garden this year. Send lots of garden love our way as I have never been successful at growing peppers.

*Lot made the sauce, so I am 100% positive that he added way more than the 1/2 tsp of garlic. We LOVE garlic in our house.

*The sauce was a little spicy for me, but the kids loved it, so we will leave the red pepper flakes as is.


If you would like to know how to roast your own peppers, you can Google it. I had too. There are a few different ways to do it and you can decide which is best for you. I do want to try roasting them on the grill, though. We also found info on how to roast them using the oven broiler, the burners on a gas oven, and over an open fire.

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