a Pinch of Salt--supermarket finds

I've posted before about the inevitable, disappointing temporary weight gain whenever I go out for Thai food or indulge in popcorn.  I haven't yet solved the Thai food out problem, but I'm thrilled with my new popcorn fix.

I make my popcorn in the Presto Power-Pop Microwave Popper, read this post for my review.  I still love it.  Until yesterday, I'd always used a sprinkle of Jolly Time Buttery Seasoning with the popcorn.  A quick look at the nutritional info disclosed that JTBS has a whopping 540 mg of sodium per 1/4 tsp serving.  That's what probably caused my temporary weight gain--a big jolt of salt.

Fast forward to Wednesday.  I went shopping at Wegman's, a huge, well-stocked grocery with Whole-Foods type merchandise.  I checked out their popcorn seasoning (usually located next to the popcorn) and found this!  Kernel Season's Popcorn Seasoning. 
 It came in two flavors, regular and white cheddar.  (The quoted price is for a pack of 6.)
Our friends at Amazon.com have five flavors.  Anyway, the white cheddar has 75 mg of sodium per 1/4 tsp serving, less than 1/6th the Jolly Time.

DH and I made popcorn last night.  We shared a batch.  The verdict?  Awesome!  We had the white cheddar.  It's a keeper.  I'm tossing the other high-salt brand in the trash.  Oh, and yes, both DH and I had a nice little loss from yesterday to today--who knew?  WW works if you really do it right!

The other low-sodium find was  Pacific Natural Low Sodium Chicken Broth.  I was delighted to find this at Costco.  They used to only have the regular (not low sodium).  I bought it because it was a good price.  When I checked out the nutrition info I was amazed.  My regular brand of low sodium chicken broth (Swanson) has 570 mg per cup.  The Pacific Natural has only 80 mg per cup.  This makes a big difference.  This is, by the way, also fat free, although it doesn't tout that info on the front of the box.   I'm a believer.  And, of course, our friends at Amazon have this available online in case you don't shop at Costco.

I use a lot of chicken broth in my OP cooking.  Tonight I made a herb crusted braised pork tenderloin with vegetables (carrots, parsnips, and celery).  I gladly added the 3/4 cup of required chicken broth and know I am well within my target sodium level. That recipe is from the recipes at WW online.  It was good.  I rated it a solid B.

If you're sensitive to high doses of sodium, you might give these a try.

I have no connection with any of the companies that make these products and they don't know that I exist.   I just like that they help me with my goal of healthy eating.

For your viewing pleasure.                                                      On a recent visit to Mount Vernon, I asked Jack to pose with the statue of one of George Washington's step-children.  Here he is trying to get the little boy statue to hold his hand.

It's a Good Thing Popcorn is a Whole Grain

Yes, I made a big bowl of popcorn and ate the whole thing.   I used to eat the 94% ff microwave popcorn, but I was leery of all the chemicals in the ingredient list, not to mention all the sodium.  And the smell, if it happened to burn, made you know there was bad stuff in there.  I read a rave review of the PowerPop Microwave popcorn maker and decided to give it a try.  Awesome.  You just add the popcorn and stick it in the microwave for a couple of minutes.  Voila.  You can use it with or without oil (I use 1 tsp of canola oil) and anything else is optional.  The popcorn doesn't have that too dry, styrofoam taste I associate with hot-air poppers.  I add a sprinkle of popcorn salt and, if I want a "kettlecorn" taste, a couple of packets of splenda.  When I first lost weight, two years ago, I had an entire bowl of this popcorn every single day.  I used to make it and take a gallon size baggie of it to school to ward off the snack machine munchies. Now it's an occasional treat and I try to share the batch with DH, but sometimes . . . .   Anyway, popcorn was calling my name today and I stepped right up to answer the call.  [this is an entirely unsolicited and uncompensated review]

One of the reasons I was vulnerable to the siren call of popcorn was that I got back from a Costco run to find a long line of water droplets dripping steadily from the ceiling in our office.  It took me a few phone calls to locate someone who would come investigate today and a few hours of waiting for the person to show up.  I called the company that had installed our new AC (in the attic) because we figured that it was probably a leak in the condensation line.  It turned out to be a plumbing leak from one of the fixtures in the upstairs bathroom, but, fortunately, the AC company also does plumbing.  They finally left around 8:30 tonight.  We now have two biggish holes in the ceiling, and they pulled out lots of soppy insulation.  I need to call my friend the painter tomorrow to see if he can come repair the drywall ceiling and re-paint in that room.  Did I mention that we're having ~30 people at a choir party at our house next weekend?  I don't need this.  Oh well, the popcorn helped, somehow.

Little E could have used her yellow umbrella with pink and green polka dots to good advantage had she been here today!



We took a nice hour-long bike ride tonight after dinner (leaving the plumber working--he assured us he'd be there for a good long time).  We rode by our new house again.  We checked out the very nice community pool and biked by the house several times to get an idea of what we might want to do in the garden and yard before we rent it out.  Our realtor let us know that they (the sellers) had found their dream house and were negotiating on it today, so maybe we'll close a lot sooner than we thought.

On the biking, when we don't have plumber-guys working in our house, I want to start going out a little earlier and biking a little farther to work up to feeling confident about the 35 mile route we'll do over Labor Day.  The weather today was so nice--not the muggy hot we've had recently, but very nice not-muggy high 70s.  Yay! We're going to take the bikes to the 'bike spa' just before we go to make sure they're all tuned up and ready to go.

Thanks for your comments re blogger posting issues.  They helped.  After yesterday's comment about slow traffic on weekends, I had a nice amount of traffic today, so I'll keep posting on Saturdays for now.  I'm also thinking that posting regularly at night before I go to bed is a good thing as my posts will appear at a more uniform time and also, the 5 hour delay doesn't matter so much.

I'm hoping for another nice weather day tomorrow so I can run comfortably in the afternoon.  Grilled lamb loin chops, sauteed spinach with sultanas and toasted pine nuts, and whole wheat orzo with roasted cherry tomatoes on the menu for dinner tomorrow.

Do you eat a special dinner on Sunday nights or is it the cook's day off?