Fridays are Delicious!

I've mentioned it before that I go to a weekly potluck/game day on Fridays at my church. And I like trying out new recipes on those Fridays.

Today it was a mix of tried-and-true recipes with a new one. We (my dad and I) decided to try out turkey kielbasa (polish sausage) in a glazed kielbasa recipe we've made many times. It's from one of our Taste of Home cookbooks. We weren't sure we'd like the turkey kielbasa because we don't like turkey bacon or turkey hot dogs, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was actually pretty good. Plus, it was lower in salt than regular kielbasa. My dad still can't eat a lot of it, but he can have some and still say under the recommended amount for salt.

I also made a recipe that I've made for many years. My dad used to make it a lot when I was a kid and then I started making it myself. Monkey bread. Yes, it can be found in the frozen section at Wal-Mart these days, but I make it myself. No, I don't make the biscuits from scratch. But I do get either the Great Value Buttermilk Biscuits or the Grands Biscuits (usually the 8 to a can ones) to use. I look for regular biscuits, not the flaky kind. Accidentally used the flaky kind once, it didn't turn out well.

I used to make it with diced walnuts, but I've switched to using golden raisins instead because my dad likes it better that way. Today I used some coconut palm sugar (in an attempt to cut down on sugar) with cinnamon to coat the biscuits (after quartering them) and it tasted pretty good. I used my low salt butter with brown sugar to make the syrup. I always make more syrup than I need so I never end up using it all. As long as I don't eat much, my blood sugar will be okay. It always goes up after I eat, but after a few hours, it goes down again. I was very pleased with the results and so was everyone at the potluck (including my dad).

My new recipe was called Mediterranean Low Carb Broccoli Salad. I found it on the Food Faith Fitness website (www.foodfaithfitness.com). It was created by Taylor Kiser. I only tweaked it a little. I left out the olives and used mozzarella pearls (my dad doesn't really like olives anyway). I used unsalted sunflower seeds instead of salted, didn't add salt to the dressing, and didn't use all the dressing on the salad itself. Since my dad has to watch his salt intake, I do what I can without making it bland. It was really good. My dad liked it and that made me happy. I liked it too.

If you are interested in a good salt substitute, may I recommend Benson's Table Tasty Salt Substitute from Benson's Gourmet Seasonings. I found it on Amazon. It can also be found at www.bensonsgourmetseasonings.com. I will say that it is not something that works well with cooking. To me, it works better just using it like regular salt at the table. It is low in potassium and is salt-free, sugar-free, and gluten-free. Highly recommend. My dad was told to avoid salt substitutes because most have too much potassium in them. We showed this stuff to the dietician at one of his appointments and she was very pleased with it. Took it to potluck one Friday and everyone who tried it liked it. It is pricy but I will say that getting the one-pound bag and using it in a shaker is better economically that buying a lot of the smaller bottles of it. That's the only criticism I have about it.  Just a little shameless plug for this product.

God Bless!