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Contents:

Highlighted Recipes this Month

For the Love of Herbs

Interesting and Fun Chocolate

Food Facts

Cooking Tips

More Foods of Love

Recipe of the Month—Pot Roast in Foil

Tomatoes

Soup

It is winter…Happy New Year!!! Last year we released 12 newsletters. This year we will probably release 6 newsletters. We need to bal-ance creating newsletters and creating new reci-pes. During January, we added over 15 new rec-ipes…maybe the theory is working.

On occasion, we mention products that pro-vide the desired flavour and meet our NSA re-quirements. Campbell’s Condensed No Salt Added Cream of Mushroom Soup and Chicken Soup have made it possible for us to re-create our mother’s recipes for you. This month’s Rec-ipe of the Month uses the mushroom soup.

Unfortunately, these Campbell’s products are only available in Canada…at this time. Our ad-vice to you is to ask your grocer, but in the meantime, use low sodium versions.

Mark Critoph & Melinda Critoph Neyer Highlighted Recipes This Month (just fol-low the links):

Chicken Broccoli Rice Soup

Ranch Dressing

Tilapia with Roasted Corn

Swiss Steak

Asparagus and Red Peppers

Creamed Spinach

Chili Powder Substitute

NO SALT ADDED

A NEWSLETTER ABOUT LOW SALT, LOW FAT, AND LOW SUGAR COOKING WEBSITE: nosaltaddedrecipes.com

Issue: February - March 2017

FOR THE LOVE OF HERBS

By Melinda Critoph Neyer

For this newsletter, instead of an article about Flavor Without Salt, I thought it would be interesting to write about several herbs that have been associated with love. Herbs are not just for cooking and healing. They have been used as aphrodisiacs and in love potions since time began.

Lavender has always been considered the herb of love. Its romantic scent has been used to attract men for generations; a study done by a research foundation in Chicago found that the combined scent of lavender and pumpkin was the most arousing of all the scents to male subjects. In days of old, wom-en would put lavender under their mattress to ensure passion in their marital bed.

Parsley has a long folk history of increasing the female libido. It also sweetens your breath and helps with digestion.

Ginger, spicy and “hot” herb. The root is warming to the body. It has been used to arouse a reluctant lover, and warm up a “cold” woman.

Basil’s scent will simply "drive men wild." It also improves blood supply.

Catnip will make a woman more desirable to potential lovers. A nice bath with raspber-ry, catnip, and rose petals before going out can help you to attract a lover. It is also tra-ditional to use Catnip in spells or washes to

increase physical beauty.

Vanilla encourages love The smell is one of the strongest triggers of feelings. It is scientifically proven to bring up the best feelings in men. Both the scent and the taste of vanilla can increase feelings of lust. Creating a sugar with vanilla and then baking cookies for your partner with this sugar is a sure fire way to increase their love and lust-filled feelings for you.

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Rosemary represents love and faithful-ness. Many cultures have used this herb as an aphrodisiac and to keep love strong. In days of yore, women carried rosemary for their bridal bouquet in lieu of flowers!. It is widely known across many traditions that Rosemary will bring an increase to female power, espe-cially in connection to relationships and the household. When a woman carries Rosemary on her body with a bit of her lovers hair wrapped around it, it is believed that this will keep her partner faithful and keep the home peaceful. .

Damiana has been used in Mexico and south-ward to Central and South America since the times of the ancient Aztec, and is still quite popular today. A woman who wants to get her man to stop pulling away from their relation-ship should add some of this herb to the food that she makes for him; this will intensify any feelings that already exist and make their con-nection stronger

Balm of Gilead — This herb is often called the great soother. It can help to ease a broken heart

or shift the negative energy left after an argu-ment with a lover or partner. If you and your lover are having problems in the bedroom you

can place a pair of Balm of Gilead buds in every corner of the room with a fifth pair under your bed. This will help to shift your love life back

into alignment.

Deer’s Tongue is a plant. People use the dried leaf to make medicine. Deer’s tongue is used by many folks for luck in love affairs. Folks who follow the so-called Doctrine of Signatures as-cribe to it the mysterious power of granting elo-

quence and pleasing speech to anyone who car-ries it.. The plant is sometimes called vanilla leaf, or wild vanilla, because of the distinct

smell of vanilla when the leaves are crushed.

• Another name for chickens is Cackle-berries.

• Chickens only have one ovary which contains a few thousand ova that turn into eggs one at a time.

• Double yolks are the result of two ova being dropped at one time.

• One chicken can lay as many as 2,000 to 4,000 eggs in her lifetime.

• Cornish game hens are just 4 to 6 week old chickens weighing about 2 pounds.

• Three buffalo wings contain up to 25 grams of fat.

• Ground chicken and turkey can have a fat content as high as ground beef.

More Fun Facts

• Apricot pits and apple seeds contain small amounts of cyanide.

• Bacteria will not grow in honey.

• Dieters miss fats more than sweets.

Fun Fowl Facts

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Cooking Tips

Avoid products labeled “cooking wine”. These often contain salt and are of poor quality. They also taste awful. If it is not good enough to drink don’t cook with it.

Use stainless steal knives to cut fruit. Carbon steel knives can react with fruit and cause unsightly dis-coloration.

A gravy ladle is a handy tool to pour your muffin mixture into your cup-cake pan.

For those of you who enjoy both cooking and gardening, a grapefruit knife is a good tool to transplant seedlings.

Some stained plastic dishes are easi-er cleaned if washed with warm wa-ter and baking soda.

2 whole chicken breasts about 10 oz each equals about 2 cups of chicken cubed or chopped.

In honor of Valentine’s Day this month’s article is about chocolate.

Hershey Kisses are named for the smooching sound the machine makes as it releases the small chocolate pyramids onto the conveyor belt.

During WWII the Nazi's hashed a plan to assassinate UK Prime Minister Win-ston Churchill with an exploding choco-late bar. Thankfully, the plan was foiled.

Master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock filmed the gruesome shower scene in the 1960 thriller Psycho using chocolate syrup as blood. Oh, the splendour and simplicity of black and white.

Ever wonder what's so German about carmel-y, coconut-y German Chocolate Cake? Not a thing. It's named after the creator, Sam German who also invented baking chocolate.

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View thirteen rose-shaped foods that will

melt your Valentine’s heart from the Cana-

dian Food Network. Please follow the link.

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/

valentines-day/photos/rose-shaped-

foods-for-your-valentine/

Interesting and Fun Chocolate Food Facts

Sea Salt VS Table Salt

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More Foods of Love

By Melinda Critoph Neyer

Recipe of the Month

Pot Roast in Foil

My sister and I grew up eating this recipe that our mother made for us sev-eral times a month. She would serve this with mashed potatoes, green beans, and sometimes raspberry jello with fro-zen raspberries. The cut of beef was in-expensive and usually on sale. I have passed this recipe to many of my Cana-dian friends who have enjoyed this reci-pe.

One of my Canadian friends suggest-ed to skip the foil and just use a covered casserole dish. Mom always used alu-minum foil, so I did too. I took his ad-vice and now use a reusable casserole dish…more environmentally friendly.

Please follow the link:

Pot Roast in Foil

Besides herbs, there are other foods asso-ciated with love.

Chili Peppers contain capsaicin. The same irritant that gives peppers their fiery heat also releases endorphins, raises your heart rate, and gets you flushed and sweaty.

Oysters contain a high level of zinc which apparently helps boost testosterone production and increase sex drive.

Chocolate encourages the production of do-pamine and serotonin, boosting happy feel-ings.

Alcohol—Too much, and booze will slow you down, but just enough and you'll find yourself relaxed and your inhibitions reduced.

Asparagus—An English herbalist from the 17th century, Nicholas Culpepper, wrote that it "stirs up lust in man and woman." In 19th century France, bridegrooms were served three courses of the sexy spears at their pre-nuptial dinners.

Honey contains chrysin, which is said to stim-ulate estrogen levels in women and testos-terone in men. Some even reference the Vi-king tradition of a couple going into seclusion and drinking a whole lot of mead for a month after their nuptials, known as the honey-moon!

Almonds, through antiquity, were regarded as fertility symbols. The aroma of almond sup-posedly arouses passion in females.

Fruits and vegetables are the founda-tion for a healthy diet. They contain many ingredients required by the body to maintain functionality and fight disease. These foods deliver the components essential to keep up the mechanisms necessary to sustain a healthy body. Fruits and vegetables contain no added salt, fats, or sugar. Plus, most of them contain natural versions and low amounts of these substances.

Some of the most important elements the body requires are Vitamin C, Vitamin A, fiber, and potassium. One or more of these fight cancer, high blood pressure, heart dis-ease, diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis. In addition, they help to build tough connective tissue, boost energy, and enhance the skin. The following are lists of many of the foods that contain these items.

Power Packed foods – High Vitamin C/High Vita-min A/High Fiber

Asparagus Dark Leafy Greens Broccoli Green Bell Peppers

Brussels Sprouts Red Bell Peppers

Cabbage Strawberries

Fruits and Vegetables

No Added Salt, Fats or Sugar

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The tomato or Love Ap-ple, is a member of the deadly nightshade family. Tomatoes were once erro-neously thought to be poi-sonous by Europeans who

were suspicious of their bright, shiny fruit. The leaves are in fact poisonous, although the fruit is not. By 500 BC, it was already being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas.

While tomatoes are botanically berry-type fruits, they are considered culinary vegetables. The toma-to has a much lower sugar content than other edi-ble fruits, and is therefore not as sweet.

The massive "tomato tree" that used to grow inside the Walt Disney World's experimental greenhous-es has been recognized as a Guinness World Rec-ord Holder, with a harvest of more than 32,000 tomatoes (1,151 lb). The vine grew golf ball-sized tomatoes, which were served at Walt Disney World restaurants. The tree developed a disease and was removed in April 2010 after about 13 months of life.

On 30 August 2007, 40,000 Spaniards gathered in Buñol to throw 115,000 kg (254,000 lb) of to-matoes at each other in the yearly Tomati festival.

In Ontario, Canada, member of provincial parlia-ment Mike Colle named the tomato the official vegetable of the province and designated July 15 as Tomato Day under the Tomato Act in 2016.

When cooking tomatoes, it is recommended the use of aluminum cookware be avoided since the high acid content of the tomatoes may interact with the metal in the cookware.

Tomato Recipes

Tomatoes

One of the ways individuals can effi-ciently control the amount of salt, fat, and sugar in their diet is to make homemade ver-sions of the processed foods they love and use on a regular basis.

Substitutions for salad dressings, brown sug-ar, soy sauce, and worcestershire sauce, are just some of the recipes we have included in our website. Although these substitutions may not taste exactly the same as their pro-cessed counterparts, we feel that you will enjoy trying them. Just follow the link to the list of substitutions we have come up with. Please send us how they worked for you and any suggestions or additions you may have.

LINK

Cooking Tips-Fats

• When frying foods, Panko bread

crumbs absorb less oil than flour.

• After skimming the fat off of gravy, put

in a few ice cubes. The additional fat

Substitutions

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We are always happy to hear from you. Al-so, we would like to know if any of you have favor-ite low salt/sugar or no salt/sugar added recipes or cooking tips that you would be willing to share with the rest of us. Please e-mail them at the e-mail link below.

E-mail Link

Mark Critoph and Melinda Critoph Neyer

For access to all prior newsletters, click the link below:

Archived Newsletters

It is winter…time to make soup! Soups and stews have been around since pots were put into use. The legend of “Stone Soup” has been told in Europe for hundreds of years. For most people, the moral of the story is that by work-ing together greater things can be achieved than by working alone. To a cook, it is a road map to making a tasty and nutritious soup.

The heart of a good tasting soup is the broth. Commercial broth can be used in soups, but unless you buy NSA broth, commercial broth is loaded with sodium. Homemade broth can be more flavourful and contains 1/10th the sodi-um. Broth is made by simmering meat in wa-ter. Stock is made by simmering bones in wa-ter. For depth of flavour, I use both meat and bones referred to as brock or stoth. I include skin and visible fat during the cooking process to enhance the flavour of the broth. Skin and fat are removed before soup is made. This is my process: Making Meat Broth.

Once you have decided on the broth, the next flavour and nutrition factors are the vegeta-bles. Each vegetable affects the flavour of your soup and your personal taste buds must be considered. Vegetables like garlic, onions, carrots, and mushrooms, in my opinion, are core vegetables that provide mild background flavour and are compatible with all other vege-tables.

SOUP

By Mark Critoph

Most other vegetables are feature vegeta-bles that may conflict flavour-wise with

each other. Asparagus and broccoli, in my

opinion, should not be used in the same

soup. Okra should not be used at all (my personal opinion is not shared by most of

the southern US or the Caribbean or Africa

or Asia).

Add cooked meat, noodles, legumes, and/or rice for a delicious and nutritious soup that can be eaten immediately or frozen for lat-er. In the spirit of “Stone Soup”, add what ever you have on hand and you can use vegetables that too limp to serve as a standalone side dish. Making soup can be a fun experience…

Please follow the links:

Great example: Turkey Mushroom Cream Corn Soup

Soups