Heart Healthy Spicy Chicken Soup in a Crockpot

Use this chicken broth to transform
just about any crock pot soup recipe
into "heart healthy"!

Easy to make, tasty to eat, good for your heart - a Crockpot Spicy Chicken Soup!

Ingredients (with potassium/sodium/fat counts):
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth (520/280/0)
- 1.5 cups 505 Southwestern Green Chile Sauce (1520/1520/0)
- 3.5 cups [no sodium added] frozen corn (588/35/3.5)
- 1 4oz can hatch chiles (600/300/0)
- 3 garlic cloves (36/3/0)
- 1 (14-15oz) can [no sodium added] diced tomatoes (2200/40/0)
- 24 baby carrots (576/192/0.3)
- 6 scallion green onions (552/32/0.4)
- 1.5 cups water (0/0/0)
- 1 potato (515/5/0.1)
- 1 large chicken breast (440/120/5)
- 1 cup fresh cilantro (521/46/0)



Preparation:

1. Cook the chicken breast (i.e., toss it on your Foreman Grill and it will be done by the time you process the rest of the ingredients).
2. Toss the water, salsa (green chile sauce), broth, diced tomatoes, hatch chiles and frozen corn into your crock pot.
3. Dice the garlic, carrots, green onions, cilantro and potato in a food processor and add to the crock pot.
4. Shred the (cooked) chicken breast in a food processor and add to the crock pot.
5. Cook on Low for 4.5 hours and tada: Heart Healthy Spicy Chicken Soup!

Analysis - the above recipe makes 8 servings:

• Potassium: 8068mg or 1008.5mg per serving.
• Sodium: 2573mg or 321.7mg per serving.
• Fat: 9.3g or 1.2g per serving
• Total (per serving): 1008.5mg Potassium, 321.7mg Sodium, 1.2g Fat [a 3:1 health ratio]

You will find this soup to really hit a homerun with your taste buds - it is delicious! You can experiment with different salsas to alter the flavor; but I have found the 505 Southwestern Green Chile to be an excellent choice.

The World's Most Heart Healthy Banana Bread

Imagine this - a banana bread so good for you it should almost be required in your diet. It is true, here you go:

- 4 medium sized fresh/ripe Bananas
- 2 tsp ground Cinnamon
- 1 cup unsweetened Applesauce
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 cups White Flour
- 2 tsp Ener-g Baking Powder
- 2 tsp Ener-g Baking Soda

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mash bananas into a mixing bowl (I use a Cuisinart food processor to mash really good).
Add applesauce, cinnamon, backing powder, baking soda and sugar and mix well.
Add flour and mix well.
Spray bread pan with PAM and add batter.
Bake in oven for 60-70 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).
The resulting bread will be extremely moist: no need to add any spread - it is perfect as-is.

Nutrition Summary - one loaf has 12 servings:

• Potassium: 2616mg per loaf = 218mg per serving!
• Sodium: 64mg per loaf = 5.3mg per serving!
• Fat: 4.52g per loaf = 0.38g per serving!
• Total serving: 218mg potassium, 5.3mg sodium, 0.38g fat - a 41:1 heart healthy ratio!!!!

You read that right - this banana bread has a 41:1 heart health ratio with only 0.38 grams of fat per serving. As I said - this is the world's most heart healthy banana bread - so good for you it should be a required part of your diet!

Baking ... Sodium Free via Ener-g!!!

Sodium Free Baking - not possible, you say? Not so - read on and discover how!

Ever since "removing sodium" became a necessity for my heart health, I had been avoiding most forms of baking. Aside from the few low/no sodium bread recipes I had found and refined, it just did not seem possible to bake without sodium. Why? Well, most recipes call for a few teaspoons of baking soda and/or baking powder.

• 1 teaspoon of baking soda adds 1259mg of sodium to any recipe.
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder adds 480mg of sodium to any recipe.

So, a typical "12 serving" recipe that calls for 1 tsp of baking soda and powder starts with 1739mg of sodium (or 145mg per serving before you add the real ingredients) - ouch! With that baseline, it seemed impossible to make any low sodium baked goods.

Au contraire I recently learned. Let me introduce you to Ener-g No Sodium Baking Soda and Ener-g No Sodium Baking Powder. What do these Ener-g products offer? Basically an amazing transformation to the world of baking - any recipe calling for baking soda and/or powder can now start with a NO SODIUM baking agent! Seriously, you just use these Ener-g products instead of standard (high sodium) baking soda and/or powder and you have removed all sodium contributed by the baking agents in the recipe. Wow....

Is there a drawback or is this the greatest creation ever to hit baking? Well, the only drawback is cost. Typical (sodium packed, kill your heart) baking soda and powder costs about a penny per teaspoon. Ener-g baking soda and powder costs about 10 cents per teaspoon (see amazon, for example).

So, here's your decision to make, if you want to bake: (1) bake with traditional soda/powder at a penny a teaspoon and kill your heart; or (2) bake with Ener-g soda/powder at a dime a teaspoon and save your heart. I am not sure what you think, but I certainly think my heart and livelihood is worth 9 cents!

Look for sodium-free baking recipes to enter my heart healthy diet.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich the Heart Healthy Way!

You probably never thought you would see these 5 words together: Heart Healthy Grilled Cheese Sandwich!


The Ingredients:

• 2 slices of Heart Healthy Whole Wheat French Bread: 208mg potassium, 4mg sodium, 2g fat.
• 1/5 a cup of Low Fat Sharp Cheddar Cheese: 32mg potassium, 192mg sodium, 4.8g fat.
• 2 teaspoons of Garlic Powder: 66mg potassium, 4mg sodium, 0g fat.
• I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray: 0/0/0.

The Preparation (very straightforward)...

1. Spray one side of each slice of bread with the butter spray. The sprayed sides are the outside of the sandwich.
2. Sprinkle the garlic powder on the inside of once slice; sprinkle the cheese over the garlic powder; cover with the other slice.
3. Grill until cheese melted... Easiest/less messy way to grill - use a Foreman Grill. 

The result: an extremely tasty sandwich with 306mg potassium, 200mg sodium and 6.8g fat [a 1.5:1 health potassium:sodium health rating]. WOW! A grilled cheese sandwich that is GOOD FOR YOUR HEART! You read it here...

Add any hearth healthy side dish to this sandwich and you will have a 2:1 to 5:1 heart healthy meal with grilled cheese as the main course (e.g., a banana, an orange, a vegetable medley, brown rice & broccoli, etc).

Did I say wow?!?! ... WOW!