First of all ditch the COM soup...it's not so much the fat as what kind....and other stuff.
I make a "skim of mushroom soup" using olive oil instead of butter and skim milk instead of cream....and add a little low fat cream cheese for the taste.
You can make a lovely pie with a grust of ground nuts and a little sugar...overcooked rice will thicken stuff...chicken without the skin is good. Grilled beef fiet is wonderful and fairly low fat.
A good blue cheese dressing can be made without a lot of blue cheese....blue cheese has a pervasive flavor.

you can cut down on the amount opf cheese in this dressing and will still get a good blue cheese flavor.
Fran Lozano's zesty blue dressing
4 oz Maytag blue cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp grated lemon peel
juice of a lemon
1 cup sour cream Use fat free..
1 clove minced garlic.
Mash cheese with fork and mix in oil until creamy. add remaining
ingredients.

Good luck....cook well and keep that man healthy!
Linda C

I've heard of people using evaporated milk in cream sauces- which comes in low fat and fat free.

Salad dressing- are you totally opposed to non-creamy dressing? I thought I didn't like it, but I tried it again and am completely enamoured of salted fresh lemon juice with olive oil or toasted sesame oil.

magothyrivergirl, several of us here have "genetic legacies" of heart disease, high cholesterol, etc. My cholesterol is high and my family history is abysmal. I had a stress test last week.

I know RiverRat and Chase both have similar issues, so you should get some good advice.

The trick, I think, is not to "eliminate" things, but to keep levels low and manageable. Some things are for special treats only.

That saturated fat is sneaky stuff. Who knew that the trans fats in margarine were actually worse for you than butter, or that the cholesterol in shrimp is good for you, but the fat in crackers isn't?

I have tried cooking with mostly fresh ingredients and have found that a little will often do the part of a lot. I want that butter flavor in something in the pan? A bit of butter added to olive oil gives me the flavor I want. As LindaC mentioned, blue cheese is strong, it only takes a little. Many low fat substitutions work just fine for me, like low fat sour cream, buttermilk, cream cheese. I always drink skim milk and I use milk in cream soups in place of cream, I add a bit of mashed potato or even a flour slurry if I want it even thicker.

Dad would never give up beef, he was a beef farmer, so we switched to raising grass fed beef. Higher in the good Omega 3 that you find in things like salmon, and as low in saturated fat as things like venison or chicken.

I make all my own bread and have found tht I can use whole wheat or white whole wheat in many baked goods. I add ground flaxseed to nearly everything baked. Applesauce, pumpkin, prune puree can often take the place of some of the fat in baked goods too.

I've found several websites to be helpful. I like Cooking Light, Eating Well, Heart Healthy Living and Eat Healthy America.

Good luck, it's definitely a change, but it's not as bad as it seems.

And definitely ditch the canned soup, the sodium level is outrageous and the fat content is all bad...

Annie

I'll be watching this thread carefully, because I was just about to post on a similar topic. We have just learned that my cousin, who has been living with us since April, has a very high cholesterol level, and we've been given 3 months to lower it through diet; otherwise, he'll be on meds. My cousin also has diabetes. So far, we've been reading labels on the foods we use regularly, and we've decided to make a lot of changes. We don't have much red meat anyway, but we'll start using even less. We'll use ground beef that has only 7% fat or substitute ground turkey. We'll use the almost-fat-free hot dogs and stop having chicken livers, although we love them. We'll eat more poultry and fish. We're changing from regular American cheese to the SmartBeat brand, which has no cholesterol. We'll lower his consumption of ice cream (it's sugar-free but has cholesterol) and cottage cheese. We'll stop having chili, which is loaded with fat and cholesterol, and have vegetable soup instead. We'll limit the consumption of eggs. I'll use less oil in cooking (although canola oil doesn't have any cholesterol). Although our former margarine has no cholesterol and is low in trans-fats, we're switching to Promise (and may try Benecol) because they're not just neutral (no cholesterol); they supposedly block the absorption of cholesterol to some extent. We will increase consumption of veggies, though we have to be careful about fruits and starches because of the diabetes. He likes a snack of hummus and pita bread, and from the labels, it seems to be OK. I'm looking for more ways we can make changes and substitutions and emphasize the positive. It will be good for my DH and me, too!

Best wishes to your husband for a full recovery!

Sue

We eat a variety of different salad dressings - some homemade - he happens to love thick blue cheese dressing - he could eat it straight - okay a glob on a carrot stick to go with the glob on the Buffalo wing. :) Did I say he loves Blue cheese dressing?
I'll look into the evaporated milk.
I'll try Fran Lozano's blue cheese dressing - thanks Linda.

Sue, chili doesn't HAVE to be full of fat and cholesterol, a very nice passable chili can be made with just a bit of ground beef or beef cubes, or turkey or chicken, or no meat at all.

Ashley likes her chili with tomatoes, lots of beans, some corn and a little chili powder. I've been known to add brown rice too. No sour cream or shredded cheese, and homemade whole grain bread is nice to go with it.

Annie

Annie, thanks, but we were using the canned chili without beans as a lunch staple. I don't care for it myself, so I've never made it from scratch. You make it sound good, though!

Sue

I used to make my own bread - stopped bout 10 years ago - I should dig out my Bread machine. We have a locally owned bakery in our local market - it is just too easy -
Funny (not) years ago we used to use the fake margarine in the tub, because it was supposed to be better for you - I don't think it is even sold anymore it was so bad for you - My father who is 86 had high cholesterol before anyone knew what it was, so I grew up being aware. I got a lecture from my adult son that we ate much healthier when he was living at home - he is right.
They were promoting grass fed ground beef at a new Whole Foods that just opened, I didn't know what that meant, as I am not a big beef eater, but it sounds like I should look into it. We had always eaten the ground turkey instead of ground beef , but got away from that in recent years. I used to buy egg beaters by the case. I have been digging thru my old recipes - lots of notes
how to make it healthier -
Thankfully, we are big veggie eaters and I will be able to make these changes 100% again without too much effort. It was second nature for 20 years and I got out of the habit. This is a big wake up call.

I work in a cardiology area in a level 1 trauma center, lots of people come through here with heart issues! I am not a heart patient, but I love Eating Well's recipes. They have good flavor. And this is from someone who thinks cream is its own food group!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

magothyrivergirl, be careful with ground turkey too, be sure to read those labels. Ground turkey has become so popular that they often grind the dark meat and the skin right into the ground turkey, which bumps that fat content up to equivalent or even higher than ground beef.

Even Consumer's Reports has weighed in on the grass fed beef issue, saying:

"This grass fed beef could have benefits. The limited research completed to date suggests that steak and hamburger from grass-fed cattle may contain less total fat per serving, according to a review by the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. Grass-fed steak can also have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which may help reduce heart-disease risk. Grass-fed ground beef usually has more conjugated linoleic acid, which might improve the immune system and help fight cancer, atherosclerosis, and type 2 diabetes, lab and animal studies show. And raising cattle on well-managed pastures can lessen erosion and boost soil fertility, the scientists' group found."

this information even comes from the USDA and Clemson University:

Score Ten for Grass-Fed Beef

Grass-fed beef is better for human health than grain-fed beef in ten different ways, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. Compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was:

Lower in total fat
Higher in beta-carotene
Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
Higher in total omega-3s
A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter
Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)
Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease

If you can find it and you can afford it, give it a try. It does have a "beefier" flavor and it isn't always as tender because you don't have the fat marbling to make it tender. I butcher at 16-18 months, pretty much baby beef, to keep mine tender and it get dry aged for a minimum of 10 days which also helps.

Sue, I didn't realize you meant canned chili, LOL, I'd definitely give THAT up. I can make a "quick and dirty" batch of low fat chili in less than 15 minutes and freeze any extra for Ashley's lunches, it's almost as convenient as canned if you can get your family to eat it.

Annie

There is also fat free plain yogurt. The "Greek style" varieties have a nice flavor. You can put the yogurt into some cheese cloth or plain paper towels and suspend it over a bowl to drain off the liquid to make "yogurt cheese" that is nice and thick and a good substitute for sour cream.

We started using low sodium broth when cooking rice and potatoes, which adds flavor without the oils. A good, homemade vegetable broth has many uses, but even store bought helps.

There is also fat free half and half.

My DH comes from a family with heart issues on both sides and it must have been at least 20 years ago that we decided we didn't want him dying at the same premature age as the other males in his family.

By eliminating a lot of saturated fats and salt in our diets, we were able to bring his cholesterol levels into the correct ranges. I admit that it took nearly two years of forward progress at each blood test until we got there.

Though neither of us was grossly overweight, we recently added portion control to the equation and lost quite a bit of weight to bring us into the healthy weight range for our sizes.

If I had one piece of advice from that process, it would be NOT to look for substitutions. When I tried to make prior family favorite recipes substituting olive oil for butter or skim milk for cream, they were never as good as the original. Instead, I plunged into different cuisines and methods of preparation for the same main ingredients.

I recently posted about having the opportunity to buy whole lobsters at a great price but I was picturing them drenched with melted butter or lobster Newburg or some other dish that wouldn't fit our diets. With the help of the CF, I ended up making a lobster, avocado and orange salad that was delicious and we enjoyed as much as the way we would have eaten them in the past.

DH often packed a classic tuna salad sandwich for lunch so instead of trying to lighten the tuna salad, I would make this tuna and bean salad with an oil and vinegar dressing. He ended up liking it more than the sandwich.

Instead of modifying the recipes for dishes you make now, why not start by looking through the Cookalong and other threads and pull out dishes that fit the Heart Healthy parameters? For example, sally2's apple and carrot confetti on the Carrot Cookalong thread is a teriffic side dish for fish instead of something like coleslaw with a mayonnaise dressing.

Since you enjoy cooking, it will probably not be as daunting a task as it seems at the moment. Pick your battles and don't "waste" fat-laden cheese in a cheese sauce to top broccoli spears. Instead, use it for topping croutons in French onion soup, where it is an integral part of the dish and top the broccoli with minced garlic and shallots sauteed in olive oil or something like that.

Years ago, we started having a meatless main dish for dinner at least once a week. Thanks to Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven cookbook, we learned the concept of "side by side" meals. We later added Fat Fridays, when we can eat any of the "bad" foods. If I want a doughnut on Wednesday, I don't get it because I can wait and eat one on Friday. About 3/4 of the time, by Friday the urge has passed. If DH is craving a big fat steak, Friday would be the day to schedule going out for dinner to a place where he could get one.

I wish you luck in your new culinary adventures. There's a whole world of new dishes your DH (and his heart) will love waiting out there.

Fat free half and half is skim milk with high fructose corn syrup added. Yuck!!

- Grass-fed beef and bison (which Annie explained above).

- Homemade Gluten/Seitan is a meat alternative I make which is cholesterol- and fat-free. You can even make "fake" jerky using gluten. A good source for how-to: "The Amazing Wheat Book" by LeArta Moulton or the DVD "Quick Wholesome Foods" by Rita Bingham and LeArta Moulton.

- Grind your own turkey burger from turkey breast meat and avoid the skin and dark meat. You can even make lean sausage by grinding turkey or lean cuts of pork for sausage.

- Boil ground beef/bison/turkey in water, instead of browning it in a pan, to remove most of the fat. Drain well. I quick freeze well-drained boiled ground meat on a cookie sheet and then break it up and re-package it for freezer storage in user-friendly amounts.

- Fat can often be reduced in baked products by 1/4-1/3. Applesauce or other pureed fruit may be used instead of fat in some products. Check out books by Sandra Woodruff, RD for fat-free baking. It's my personal experience that adding a small amount of REAL butter (1-2 T.) to fat-free recipes will help them keep better, have a better crumb, and they are more satisfying when eaten in small amounts than eating fat-free baked goods.

- We love bean burgers as a substitute for hamburgers, and I keep a stack of them in the freezer along with homemade multi-grain burger buns for quick meals. Our favorite recipe comes out of "Eat More, Weigh Less" by Dr. Dean Ornish - page 207 (all the recipes in the book are geared for reversing heart disease). You can also find recipes for rice burgers and cracked wheat patties as other burger alternatives.

- I make fat-free or low-fat kefir with live kefir grains (similar to yogurt, but easier to make and better for you). I use it as a substitute for buttermilk. Drain the curd (similar to making yogurt cheese) and use the drained curd as a substitute for sour cream, cream cheese, or plain yogurt.

- "Natural Meals In Minutes" by Rita Bingham is another favorite book I use. The recipe for tortillas I use out of the book uses 2 T. of applesauce, instead of fat. Most of the recipes in this book are low-fat. This book also has a recipe for "Dry Sauce Mix" that works well as a substitute in cream soups and casseroles (fat: .1g in the recipe that makes 3-cups of mix).

-Grainlady

Grainlady, I forgot about veggie burgers, I love the bean burgers. Then again, I never met a bean I didn't like, except those big honking dry limas!

I've also gotten a couple of issues of a new magazine called "Clean Eating", I know they have an on line site too, and although some of their stuff is pretty extreme, much is very good.

Annie

Annie -

I looked at "Clean Eating" magazine at the store recently - I'm just too cheap to subscribe to (ANY) magazines (LOL).

There were some good recipes at their web site, so thanks for directing me there. Many are too entailed for a plain cook like me, although I do eat "clean" (for the most part), using the whole foods they ascribe to. Some of the recipes were horribly high in carbs, which I limit. I get recipe-shy if the list of ingredients goes on-and-on....

I love beans too - but only SMALL lima beans please. I use a lot of bean flour and low-glycemic chana dal. I even remember when beans were CHEAP food. The prices are horrible! (I must be gettin' old - I'm complaining about prices ;-).

-Grainlady

Oh I love seitan especially the BBQ type. Got little man and hubby hooked too! :-) By the way, I also make sourdough breads and I my own yogurt. Hubby eats the yogurt and I use the extra to make yogurt cheese. I pretty much sub yogurt and yogurt cheese for most fat/cream in sauce and dips etc. Pretty healthy and very yummy! Al

Oh no, I don't SUBSCRIBE to Clean Eating, I'm too cheap too!

I bought one of their issues, Elery bought another, and now I check their website, along with Heart Healthy Living and Diabetic Living online. I can glean the recipes I like and might use from them and leave the rest.

Annie

Thanks all for your help. I will look into the grass fed beef. I do most of my shopping at a locally owned market with real butchers that know their customers by name!

I appreciate everyone's input - will look for the books and mags recommended. Although I don't post everyday, I read here everyday and value your opinions and suggestions.

Ruthanna~your philosophy is good. DH is mid 50's, so we have to really be proactive in healthier eating.

grainlady~you have mentioned some ingredients I know nothing about -Seitan - what is it?

Just so you know - I love lima beans - all sizes ~LOL~ cooked any ole way!

My DH's cholesterol was borderline...he starting taking fish oil pills and lowered it 20 points is 6 months.
We both take two pills every day!!

Linda

Seitan is wheat gluten. It can have a meat-like texture. It is sometimes called "wheat meat".

And there is evidence that Wheat is bad for your cholesterol. Not the numbers your Dr. tells you (HDL, LDL, Triglycerides), but the details specfically that pertain to what your LDL cholesterol is made up of (small particles vs large particles) which is more important than the LDL number in and of itself. I have seen this myself since I stopped eating wheat.

And then there's the Lp(a) cholesterol (genetic only) which most Drs don't test for, but is a common reason why healthy people with "healthy" cholesterol levels have heart attacks.

Don't mean to open a can of worms, but there are simple tests most Drs don't do, and details they don't tell you.

Bonnie

Bonnie - thanks for the link to the blog - I will definitely read it. We had wheat pasta tonite & I said I don't like switching everything to wheat. I need to do more investigation - I only got enough information on his condition to let them make all the decisions - they are the ones who are the educated ones! That said, I am a true believer that knowledge is power and the more we know, the better we can take care of ourselves. Thanks for the link.

I read a lot but never post. Couldn't resist this time to say I use Cooking Light lots and really like Trader Joe's Organic Chicken Broth. No fat, low cal, very low solium.

Lots of good advice above. I've been into heart healthy cooking for a long time since heart disease at a young age runs in my family. That being the case it's sometimes hard to get interested in a lot of the recipes I find here - unfortunately.

Here are some of the things I do:

Very limited qty of red meat but I do have it once in a while. I love a good steak on the grill but where I might have eaten an entire NY strip in the past I now have maybe 1/4 - 1/3 of a steak.

I never use hamburger any more - I substitute the leanest ground turkey.

I eat a lot more fish than I used to and have found lots of interesting recipes for it.

Pretty much avoid refined white stuff and substitute whole grains as much as possible.

More vegetables and fruit - always have things on hand for snacking

Low fat cooking - for example I'd never cook something with cream. I use skim milk in most everything - light coconut milk in some asian dishes - evaporated skim milk.

Simple, unadulterated foods - not in sauces, etc. I now use more interesting salt free spice blends - Penzey's is my friend.

I agree with the person who above said to try totally new things - don't just try to make low fat/low salt versions of the old stuff. It will likely be disappointing.

I've discovered so many amazing flavors that come through when foods are not loaded down with salt, cream, butter and cheese. There are especially interesting foods and flavors from other parts of the world.

I love Cooking Light - it's the first place I look for something new to try - love the online search capability though I also get the magazine. I know I'm not going to discover a great recipe only to find it laden with butter, cream and bacon.

Good-luck - consider it a cooking adventure!

What Annie said on the ground turkey. On Weight Watchers, they promoted the 96% lean ground beef and NOT the ground turkey, so they must have been aware of their strategy of grinding in dark meat and skin.
Good luck. I use a lot of no-fat products. I know others complain about them, ie. how they taste and what's really in it...but I lost 40 lbs and dropped blood pressure in three months by cutting my fat and cholesterol intake, and those products really help. We still use fat free sour cream and fat free cottage cheese.
Good luck. You have gotten some good suggestions here.