I've made this one several times, each time it's a hit! You ever had Starbucks Classic Coffee Cake? This is that recipe! Yes it is! -Topping- 1 c flour (all purpose) 1 c light brown sugar packed 1/2 c butter softened 1tsp cinnamon 1/2 c chopped pecans -cake- 1 cup butter softened 3/4 c light brown sugar packed 1/2 c sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 tsp vanilla 2 cups all purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/3 c milk preheat oven 325° Make topping by combining flour w/brown sugar, stick of butter and cinnamon in medium bowl. Mixture should have consistency of moist sand. Add pecans. In large bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, sugar w/mixer til smooth and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and mix well. In a Separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt. Add dry mixture to moist ingredients, a little at a time. Add milk and mix well. Spoon batter into 9 x 13 pan, buttered and dusted with light coating of flour. Sprinkle crumb topping over batter, be sure topping completely covers batter. Bake cake for 50 mins or until edges begin to turn light brown. Cool and slice. Serves 8

Elisamcs, I've been dealing with low sodium cooking since my husband was diagnosed with congestive heart failure a few years ago. (Jesse, thanks for remembering me.) There are a lot of good resources available. I've listed my favoirtes on my blog, but I'll list them here too. For advice, inspiration, recipes, etc., you can't beat Low Sodium Cooking by Dick Logue. I've linked to the recipe archive, but if you go to the home page, you can sign up for the free newsletter. Each month you'll get a list of recipes. Dick's site also provides information about online sources for low sodium products. Another great source of information and recipes is Don Gazzaniga's site MegaHeart. He also has a free newsletter with recipes. Both Don & Dick have published cookbooks you might be interested in ordering. Although the free newsletters and websites provide plenty of recipes. I order products regularly from online sources specializing in low sodium products. Healthy Heart Market is a great source as are SaltWatcher and HeartWise Food. Another great source of product information is Low Salt Foods. I especially like the low salt foods directory. It gives me some brand names to look for when I'm shopping. Cooking low salt is a real challenge. As others have mentioned, you really need to read labels carefully. Most canned foods and even fresh pork & chicken are loaded with sodium. Luckily, more and more grocery stores are stocking salt free canned beans and tomato products. But be forewarned: Just because a product purports to be low sodium doesn't mean it's acceptable in a low sodium diet. Swanson's sells a lower sodium (for them) chicken broth, but it's still too high in salt content for me to comfortably use. So I use other products. The same is true for grocery store low sodium soy sauce. (You can read about my chicken broth adventures on my blog. I think I've tested every low sodium offering out there.) I've linked to my blog below. (Due to family difficulties, I haven't blogged recently. I hope to get back to it in late Spring.) You should be able to find some more informational links and possibly some help in managing low sodium cooking. It's not as simple as not adding salt to the foods you cook. You have to watch the sodium content of every ingredient you use in your cooking. And no matter what anyone says, some foods just don't make the transition to the world of low sodium cooking very well. If you think I could help you further, feel free to contact me via the GardenWeb email system or through my blog. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Please, DON'T Pass the Salt!

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

Carol heres one for you if you like italian sauces I make up a big batch of this tomato sauce and freeze it in serving sized containers. You can use any vegetables that you have on hand 1 large onion clove garlic crushed stick of celery small green capsicum small red capsicum mushrooms carrot, brocoli large tin crushed tomatoes couple of spoons of tomato paste bottle or tin of tomatoe puree chicken stock cube herbs fresh or dry It doesn't matter if you chop them up fine or chunky, its up to you and what you prefer Start with the onion and garlic in a big pan with no oil, sweat them, just stir it till onion is clear then add the other vegetables till combined and stir to stop them sticking Add the crumbled stock cube tomatoes and tomato paste and puree and allow to simmer with lid on pan for an hour or so. Take lid of pan and continue to simmer until sauce thickens stirring occasionally. When done you cook up some pasta 10 minutes only drain put it in the base of a deep baking pan. Put leftover chicken on top then the sauce on top and bake in mod oven for 15 minutes. No fat at all except whats in the chicken! Also grated low fat cheese sprinkled on top before baking if desired and you can use this with veal and other left overs or just use the sauce on its own for a vegi meal.