Thank you for the follow-up, Becky. Still, I'm inspired to come up w/ a roasted chicken pasta bake since you mentioned the dish up thread. I've come up w/ a pasta & veggies bake that the family loves and I'm thinking that I can incorporate chicken (maybe chkn tenders) to move it from just a side dish to being an entree. I've been lightly steaming broccoli & carrots and mixing the veggies w/ cooked rotini. Pasta & veggies go into a glass baking dish & gets drizzled w/ olive oil & seasoned w/ grated romano, fresh garlic & liberally doused w/ that no salt seasoning (house brand stuff from Big Lots, of all places!) Pop into the oven for 30 minutes or so. Maybe I could lightly saute some breast tenders and top the pasta dish w/ the tenders & finish in the oven? I doubt I would have thought to expand on the dish w/o your having mentioned the recipe you were going to try. Ci

There are a number of low-sodium members who have a lot of great information and have freely shared it in the past - as posted above. I always suggest sticking to whole foods and skip the processed foods as the quickest way to avoided added sodium in your food. You can instantly cut sodium by using less of something. You can make a grilled cheese sandwich with half of a slice of cheese. Or better yet, find a low-sodium cheese and use grated cheese - about 1/4-1/2 ounce. You can use a stick of mozzarella string cheese (170 mg. sodium) and grate it for topping a 12-inch homemade pizza. Or, grate 1/4 of a stick of mozzarella string cheese (42.5 mg sodium), and that is enough for a grilled sandwich, or as a topping for any Mexican entrée, Italian entrée, salads, etc. A trip to your local library and you will find any number of low-sodium cookbooks if you need inspiration and some new recipes. I also like to have nutritional information for recipes printed in cookbooks, and can adjust them accordingly to lower the sodium, if necessary. I'm a big fan of Salt-Free Mrs. Dash seasoning blends and use them for all kinds of things. I make potato chips and sweet potato chips in the microwave - no added salt. I dehydrate zucchini slices with Mrs. Dash Salt-Free seasoning blends on them for a chip substitute. I also use a lot of herbs (fresh and dried) out of my garden. I use Coconut Aminos because it is soy-free and less sodium than soy sauce. In order to avoid added sodium in tomato products, I use low-sodium tomato powder (The Spice House and other sources on-line) and make tomato sauce and tomato paste, pizza sauce, pasta sauce, and can even make ketchup and bbq sauce with a few pantry ingredients. Some commercial low-sodium products just have too many questionable ingredients in them - even if they ARE low-sodium. Better off making your own! Make sure you have some Hain Sodium-free Baking Powder, and ENER-G Baking Soda (double the amount to substitute for regular baking soda) for low-sodium baking. Try making your own vegetable, beef, and chicken broth - they are far tastier than store-bought. I use homemade broth I freeze in cubes to make a quick pan sauce. Melt a couple beef or chicken cubes and bring to a simmer. Add a pat of unsalted butter and heat through. The butter will lightly thicken the broth - no additional thickener needed. Add some herbs or spices, but cracked pepper may be all it needs. For a Type II diabetic, the less high-glycemic foods, like flour, the better. Try using almond flour and coconut flour in baked goods, instead of high-glycemic wheat flour. Go wheat-free..... I try to make 3 new recipes each week, so that helps keep me interested in new dishes and new ways to make old favorites. Another thing.... it's a LOW sodium diet, not a NO sodium diet. We all require some sodium in our diet to function properly. I'd just rather have it naturally-occurring in real food (even if it's just a small amount for flavor). I'd suggest skipping the low-sodium salt products, which can cause a whole bunch of other issues. Get creative.... Can't have celery? Use celery seed for lots of celery flavor. Lemon and lime juice are your "friends", OR True Lemon and True Lime crystalized lemon and lime product which has 0-mg of sodium and lots of flavor. Make low-sodium breads and baked goods - especially those made with coconut flour and almond flour. Good luck on your search! -Grainlady

I'm more concerned about eating foods treated with Roundup/glyphosate than soy in particular. Some folks I know have a real problem with fermented foods, so there you have it, it varies with individuals. I'm not a huge fan of soy but I do eat it some. A lot of things I seem to do OK with in moderation so that is my goal. The one thing I know does a number on you is processed foods. Just poor for digestion in general, seems to me. Without my fiber and the nutrients from whole foods I just don't feel very well. The only foods that seem to really bother me are tea, (to my great sadness), alcohol (darn it) and diet soda, which is positively the worst! And lots of sugar and processed carbs. I've tried eliminating other things like soy, wheat, dairy, etc. and there haven't been many positive results. That said, I try to limit dairy because I do notice a mucus-y feeling when I eat a lot of dairy. My brother is positively allergic to vinegar and soy and gets very mucus-y when he eats any type of soy, which is why he eats salad with salt and pepper only, I think he has had too many bad commercial salad dressing incidents. But I have no problems with fermented foods, or nuts so there you have it. But if I had to get on a bangwagon or soap-box, it would be to tell people to look into the science of "Roundup Ready" food crops. Not the popular stuff that is inflammatory and superficial, the real science that looks at the chemical's impacts comprehensively, and not the science provided by Monsanto, which is using a lot of influence to quell the discussion on this topic. So my ideas about soy would start with the question--are we talking about Roundup-ready soy or organic soy, what strains, how is it grown, etc. Plants are not all exactly the same any more than people are. They vary greatly in their chemical constituencies.

Here's the recipe I've always used: CHINESE MEATBALLS 2 (20 oz.) cans water chestnuts 3 bunches green onions, chopped 5 lb. lean ground pork 1/4 cup soy sauce 6 eggs, slightly beaten 1 Tbsp. salt 2-1/2 cups fine dry breadcrumbs Cornstarch Oil for frying Drain and chop water chestnuts; chop onions (top and all). Mix both with meat. Add remaining ingredients, except for the cornstarch and oil. Mix thoroughly with your hands. Chill. Form into balls, using 1 rounded teaspoon for each. Roll lightly in cornstarch. Fry at 370 degrees F. until well browned. Refrigerate until about ready to serve. Warm before serving. Serve with Chinese meatball sauce. CHINESE MEATBALL SAUCE: 1 cup vinegar 2 cups pineapple juice 3/4 cup sugar 2 cups canned beef consomme 1 can water 2 Tblsp. soy sauce 3 Tblsp. grated fresh ginger 1/2 cup cornstarch 1 cup cold water Heat together vinegar, pineapple juice, sugar, consomme, water, soy sauce and ginger. Mix cornstarch with cold water and gradually stir into vinegar mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until clear and thickened. Serve meatballs in just enough sauce to form a slight glaze in hot chafing dish. More sauce and meatballs can be added as needed. **Note**: Five tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger may be used in place of fresh ginger.