Yes, I'd be concerned with cross contamination as well - just as sushipup explained so well. I use a different mill for gluten-free flours (grains/beans/seeds) to avoid cross contamination and never use gluten-containing grains in it. I was hired to make a selection of GF cookies for Christmas for a person who has celiac disease, as a surprise from her husband. I wouldn't mill flour containing gluten in the kitchen for a week prior to making the GF foods, and throughly wiped down every surface in the kitchen before making anything GF. I use stainless steel bowls, rather than plastic to make sure there's NOTHING to cross contaminate things. My mother (now deceased) had celiac disease and I did a lot of food prep. to stock her freezer for her BEFORE there were so many things so readily available. There are a number of ingredients used in gluten-free baking that you're better off having than trying to substitute. These additional ingredients help to reduce dryness, increase volume and tenderness, and enhance flavor in baked goods and other foods. I was challenged to come up with cookie recipes, for a sorghum mill outside of town, that were made with "common" ingredients. WHAT, no xanthan gum, potato starch, arrow root, guar gum....??? But I did it! Instead of potato starch or potato flour I've used dried potato flakes (used for instant mashed potatoes), BUT, I made sure I found a brand at the health food store that didn't contain a lot of questionable ingredients. FYI - Potato FLOUR has a strong potato taste and I don't use it as much as potato starch. Potato STARCH, however, is often used in GF baking, especially in combination with other flours. I consider potato STARCH a staple ingredient for GF baking. Combining gluten-free flours with NUT FLOURS will increase protein and help mask the gritty texture often associated with GF flours. Nut FLOURS are made AFTER the nut oil has been expressed from the nuts and is a fine flour. Nut MEALS are made from the ground nut (oil included) and are more gritty than nut flour. You'll find the names are often interchanged, so buyer beware.... Ground almond meal can replace dry milk powder in recipes as a dairy-free alternative. You can also make your own nut milk at home to use as a dairy-free alternative. You'll find some great information and recipes at the link below. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Ener-G Foods

Hi Scissors and everyone else too! What a crazy week. Quite a few day trips out with friends. It has been challenging because we had a few meals. I try to choose salad and soup normally. One day I was really hungry at lunch from all the running around and ordered a veggie burger. It was so good and so filling I was still full at dinner so I had a couple of small apples and yogurt. I agree that 5 pounds can be a lot to many of us. It is for me too because I am not a big woman. Once I am settled into making lifestyle changes for the better it is a slow journey for me. At least this time round I am enjoying my changes. I feel so much better taking care of myself, enjoying my meals and snacks. I learning to really love foods that are new choices for me. Low fat cottage cheese is one of them. And using more spices when I cook to change things around. What's a new habit that is making a difference for you? Daily soup is new for me. It really helps curb my appetite and gets more protein and fiber in my day. Beans, pulses, seasonal veggies, spices - so many choices, so many flavours. Did you know that having a soup, even a light soup, helps you eat less? It can also help add more nutrients to your daily food choices? I'm happy to share and hope those out there lurking will consider joining me. Let's keep with our goals. If you have a hard day, try to get a time out somewhere and give yourself a break. Slow down if you can while you eat and take the time to really taste and enjoy your meal. Life can be so fast paced that meals get rushed. Rushing through a meal people tend to eat more because it takes about 20 minutes for the food to register in our bodies. Have some "Me Time" today. Don't you deserve it? I believe so. Join me and put one foot forward. We can do this. Take things one step at a time, one step forward. Don't give up on yourself. Take all the time you need to reach your goal. I'm in this for life - are you? Cheers, Peggy

Elisa, My DH has health problems and we actually have a slightly lower target than your brother's. It seems insurmountable at first, especially when it can't be eased into. If you've got a low-salt diet order, and judging by the ICD implantation, kidney issues, etc., I can guess what you're dealing with, you need to get it in place ASAP. Or your brother will be right back where he started from. The need for rapid change is one of the biggest challenges because it takes awhile for a lowered-salt diet to taste good again. It will get better as you will adjust, but most people eat four or five times that amount, daily. So even thogh 1500 mg/d doesn't sound much less than official ideal for non-impaired people, it's a huge functional and taste change for most people. I know, because we've BTDT. OK, here's some quick tips: almost all prepared food will put you in trouble, unless you only eat once per day. And if he's got diabetes that won't work. By prepared food I mean almost all restaurant food, especially fast food. Almost all canned and frozen prepared stuff, including most stuff marketed as "healthy" prepared food. (There are exceptions, you'll have to read label after label to find the keepers.) Often the lowered sodium product isn't either truly low (300 mg, or less, per portion) or they make it up by loading it with carbs. Here are a couple of good things that are mainstays in our house for fast eats: some of the Imagine Organic aseptic packaged LOWER IN SODIUM soups (corn or sweet potato=140 mg/cup). Other lower in sodium aseptic packaged soups may or may not work for you. (We like some tomato, some roasted pepper, etc. you have to read the labels.) Muir Glen makes a good line of no salt added canned tomato products which are great, esp. the fire roasted ones. Most commercial low or no salt bread sucks, to put it plainly. This is where making your own really is better. But salt has a functional role in bread-making, in addition to its taste role, so you will need to expect to have some trouble adapting "regular" recipes simply by leaving out the salt. Try some of the specifically low-sodium bread recipes for starters. Also if you buy unsliced bread, you can slice it thinner than normal and work the total sodium down that way, at least a bit. No-salt cheese is mostly bad; swiss is naturally low (60-80mg/oz) so it's a my go-to cheese. I do use (sparingly) higher sodium cheeses (e.g. Piave cheddar which can be as high as 500+ mg/oz when all I want is to grate some up as a topping. Then the portion is so small it's OK, and the sharp, rich taste really makes a difference.) You can make good grilled cheese sandwiches with Swiss cheese, too. Use a sharper mustard, for extra taste. For cottage cheese get some no-salt added tubs and cut it 50% with the higher salted product. That produces an acceptable level. Watch frozen veg. products, even some of the un-sauced ones often have baking soda (aka SODIUM bicarbonate) added to preserve the green color, which turns a nearly sodium-free item into something you have to "count". If you need to eat out, go to a restaurant and ask for plain grilled chicken, never seasoned and grilled on a scraped grill. Ask if the veg. were precooked, if so ask that they be rinsed in a hot water and then briefly re-nuked. Most pasta is out because it often has been parboiled in salted water. (You don't need to add salt to pasta if you cook it at home. Never mind what the cook books say.) For nation-wide family restuarant chains when ttraveling, we've had good luck with Ruby Tuesdays. They are usually quite accommodating, and the big salad bar is good, too. There are many, if not most, recipes that you will read in cooking mags and books that will have a sodium content that's way out of your range. But you can always bring that salt way down by not adding it, or adding a lot less. You will have some big recipe failures this way but you will learn what works for you. Your brother's Dr. probably told him this: DO NO USE LITE-SALT or SALT SUBSTITUTES. These usually contain potassium "salts" instead of sodium and they will mess things up on the other end (as well as possibly interfere with some of his meds - ACE/ARBS, diuretics, etc.) These products are meant for people who are just "cutting down" salt, not for people at risk of CHF. It's no picnic dealing with a low-salt, most likely very low-fat, diabetic diet (And maybe also low Vitamin K, as well?). It takes a huge , constant vigilance to put it in place successfully. Your brother will need a lot of help, especially if these are sudden changes, in order for it to not become overwhelming. As JohnLiu says most things that are "too salty" can be made at home. But it's a completely different culinary regimen, because even many certifiably homemade dishes contain ingredients that are very salty to begin with. And it takes a lot more time and effort. Can you give me some idea what you're trying to accomplish, right now? What sorts of meals are you trying to prepare? I may be able to make some specific suggestions. In the meantime, you can't go wrong with broiled chicken or fish, steamed veg, small baked sweet potato and salad for dinner. For lunch a truly lower-salt soup (or big salad), and an egg or tuna or chicken salad sandwich, and fruit for dessert. And maybe regular oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. This would leave you some pretty useful lee-way to add some other tasty, higher-salt add-ons: cheese, lightly salted pop-corn, regular (not homemade low salt for the time being) whole-wheat bread, etc. Possibly some diabetic-OK cookies or icecream; prepared chocolate soy-pudding is a nice snacky-thing, but I'm not sure if it fits with diabetic diets. I remember standing in my supermarket when this was a new thing for me and feeling that nothing I could make would be safe for my husband. I actually cried right in the aisle, I was so upset. We ate pretty simple, even primitive, meals for awhile early on - and I've thrown out a lot of tried-but-turned-out-to-be ghastly recipes. But it does get easier when you learn how to cheat out the excess salt and still go for the familiar flavors. While the prospect of learning a whole new taste-profile can be interesting, in the abstract, familiar tastes and dishes are very comforting and even necessary, IMO for healing. You just need to keep tweaking it until you've got it right. It does get better. L

By no means am I claiming to be an expert on this subject, but we had a cancer scare 3 years ago with our cocker which prompted me to do the research that led me to cook for him, which I've been doing ever since. So I will share what I do. I usually cook a batch of stuff on Sunday afternoons, I alternate a beef or a chicken batch so that I can have both on hand, (he likes variety). I'll usually brown and then braise the meat, then add veggies which may include any combination of carrots, brocolli, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts and legumes. I sometimes buy a large bag of mixed vegetables, (no onion of course) and add that for convenience. Before I add the veggies I remove the meat and cut it up into small bites, this is easy at this point because it is very tender, certain cuts of beef take longer to get to this point. When the whole thing cools off I separate it into small disposable containers, (which I don't actually dispose of) and put in the freezer so that I can easily reach in for a meal and pop it in the microwave on defrost. In addition to these meals he gets chicken liver with brown rice every Friday night as he tends to run anemic. As you can imagine he LOVES this. I'll make a 1 cup batch of brown rice then put it in a gallon size ziploc bag, then flatten it out and use a ruler to make approx 3x3" perforations, the freeze it. When I want to add some brown rice to his dinner I can just take it out and break off a square. He is 14 and doing just great, still chases squirrels and jumps up onto his ottoman with no trouble. He never has accidents in the house and never exhibits any adverse reactions to this diet in the form of diarrhea or irregularity. Unfortunately being a cocker he has had his share of ear problems over the years and is now deaf. His ears have been the biggest challenge by far. I also try to add a capsule of Thorne immugen to his food a few times a week in order to support his immune system, and I give him no-sodium tuna from time to time so he gets his omega 3, 6 & 9. He gets Nature's Variety Raw Instinct or Nature's variety freeze-dried chicken and turkey medallions for breakfast which also provides the omegas. The medallions are VERY expensive though, so he doesn't get it every day. I am fully aware that I spend more time and money on my dog's diet than many are willing to commit to, but I have no children so I don't mind and the results are worth it to me. Just thought I'd share so that you may pick up an idea or 2. Good Luck and happy cooking. Here is a link that might be useful: Nature's variety chicken+turkey diet