Hi, BMW girl. I too have been placed on a a low purine diet and I too also have only one working kidney. My problem is kidney stones which have 'plugged' the ureter and almost 'done me in'. I'm 73, have sailed around the world twice, live alone on St Croix in teh US Virgin Islands. I'm looking for low purine recipes that have soome flavor and sufficient volume to fill me up ! Any FLAVORFUL food is fine with me. I love ethnic recipes and would love to exchange what I have with you. Merv Baer St Croix

You can put textured vegetable protein (TVP) in chili, and eventually if you find that he likes the taste, put it in other things too. Vegetarian chili is also good, plenty of protein in beans. Morningstar Farms makes fake chicken patties, nuggets and buffalo wings that are really good, even to people who are not into fake meat. You could try cooking a lot of chinese food, with mostly vegetables and the meat just for flavoring rather than a main ingredient. Things like fried rice. Some pasta dishes use meat mainly for flavoring too, like pasta with bacon and broccoli and spaghetti carbonara. Cheese-based dishes and egg-based dishes both have lots of fat and protein, which are probably what he craves. Homemade macaroni and cheese is so good. Meatless lasange. Spinach is the best, with whole milk ricotta, yum! Risotto. Enchiladas are much better with vegetables than they are with meat, in my opinion. Spinach enchiladas especially. Try making meals out of a few heavy dishes that he really likes that are traditionally sides, and just leave out the main course. For instance (I don't know if he likes this stuff but it is just a suggestion), deviled eggs, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, and a vegetable. What about fish? I don't really know what gout is, but maybe he can eat fish, or shellfish - clam chowder. Corn chowder is good too. I sometimes just serve salad and baked potatoes with lots of toppings (butter, sour cream, chives, fake bacon bits, broccoli, grated cheese, salsa). Twice-baked potatoes are also good. Add warm potatoes and/or cauliflower to green salads to make them a bigger part of the meal, and experiment with making your own dressings, which are usually so much better than bottled. Also experiment with adding cheeses to salad. Spinach salad is a nice change if you don't usually have that.

My Dad has the same problems as your Dad. You should make your own bread. Bread has lots of sodium and you can make it sodium free. Milk has lots of sodium. You can buy soy or other grain milks but they have lots of sodium also. But, you can make rice milk real easy and not add salt and either drink or use it in your receipes and it is sodium free. If a salad dressing calls for oil, use water and thicken with cornstarch or arrowroot. I use Fetherweight Baking powder (no sodium), EnerG egg replacer (0 fat, 0 cholesterol, 5 mg. sodium), EnerG baking soda (no sodium). I create my own receipes for my Dad. I gave him a low sodium cookbook (uses less than 500 mg. sodium in a days meals). I cannot remember the name of it. E-mail me and I will let you know.

In order to eat lo-fat you need to omit meats and the addition of oils in recipes. Have a diet of no fats, no refined sugars and no white flours and you WILL lose weight. Eat whole grains, veggies, fruits, beans and seeds. This is a high fiber way of eating and as a bonus your cholestrol will plummet. When you reach your weight 'goal' have 2 meals a week of anything you want. Refer to drmirkin.com for more info on this way of eating. Sorry, no recipes, just go to the bulk food section to find grains and hit the produce area of the grocery.