Cookbook Review: CIG to Low-Sodium Meals

Whether you're watching sodium because you're trying to improve your eating habits, or you have a health condition that requires you to reduce your sodium intake, you'll learn a lot from The Complete Idiot's Guide (CIG) to Low Sodium Meals. It's a fact that most Americans consume much more sodium than is recommended, and we an all benefit from learning to cook with less added salt.

If you think that cooking with less salt is a sentence to a flavorless diet, this book will be a very pleasant eye-opening surprise for you. You'll learn many techniques to use fresh herbs to create delicious, flavorful meals, in addition to finding out how to curb your cravings for sodium filled foods. You'll be surprised to learn how easy low sodium cooking is, and be pleased to find out for yourself how great low sodium diet food can taste.

Low Sodium Lessons:

CIG to Low Sodium Meals is full of interesting and useful facts related to dietary salt. Some of the most important lessons from this book include:

• Lite Salt has 50% less sodium than regular salt because it is a 50/50 blend of sodium chloride and potassium chloride.
• Salt Substitute contains no sodium, but is made from 100 percent potassium chloride.
• Some herbs and spices contain trace amounts of sodium.
• Baking soda and baking powder are high in sodium.
• Many canned foods are available in no-salt added varieties, making them better choices for low sodium recipes.

Alternatives to Salt Seasonings:

To reduce sodium consumption, try seasoning with these alternatives:

• Garlic
• Herbs
• Honey
• Extracts
• Lemon juice
• Molasses
• Onions
• Spices
• Vinegar
• Many other alternatives

A Sampling of the Best Recipes:

You'll find a wide variety of low sodium recipes in this book, including appetizers, beverages, breakfast dishes, meats, side dishes, salads, desserts, and homemade seasoning blends perfect for low sodium cooking.

Some of my favorite recipes from The Complete Idiot's Guide (CIG) to Low Sodium Meals are:

• Flaming Watermelon Salsa Recipe - a tasty fruit salsa that combines watermelon, jalapeno peppers, onions, balsamic vinegar, and garlic.
• Lemon Lover's Poppy Seed Dip - a delicious chilled dip made from sour cream, honey, lemon juice and zest, and poppy seeds that is a perfect dip for fresh fruit.
• Overnight Spiced Pumpkin Butter Recipe - a rich and delicious spread that combines canned pumpkin, sugar, ad pumpkin pie spice.
• Summer Garden Cream of Tomato Soup - there's no reason to settle for high sodium canned tomato soup when you can make this delicious soup from fresh tomatoes, onions, olive oil, evaporated milk, and fresh herbs and spices.

If these sound good to you, you'll be really pleased with the wide variety of great recipes in The Complete Idiot's Guide (CIG) to Low Sodium Meals. Not only will you get great recipe ideas from the book, you'll learn many tricks for converting your existing recipes to low sodium foods that everyone in your family will enjoy!