Okay, I promised one more free heart-healthy cookbook, so here it is.  The very last one in this heart healthy series.

This is an older version of the print version of the Keep the Beat Cookbook I shared with you earlier. 

Also called Keep the Beat Heart Healthy Recipes from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, this version has 156 pages of heart healthy recipes and advice on how to cook heart healthy. 

The recipes have more of a  down home American feel to them, and cover quite a few categories, including:

• Appetizers
• Soups (yum – minestrone soup is included!)
• Main dish meats including beef, chicken, and fish, - and lamb, pork, and veal which you don’t often see.
• Vegetarian main dish meals
• Pasta recipes
• Vegetable, Potato, and Rice Side dishes
• A few quick breads, including the biscuit recipe that was in the Heart Healthy Southern Recipes Cookbook
•  plus some toppings and salad dressings

It all looks yummy – and healthy

Download your free pdf version of this cookbook from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (sorry can’t find the print version for this one)

Enjoy!

…Shannon

Don’t forget to Grab Your Copies of the other Heart-Healthy Cookbooks I shared in this series:

• Are You Taking Care of Your Heart?

• A Free Heart Healthy Cookbook for You

• Another Free Heart-Healthy Cookbook For You (Latino recipes)

• Free Cookbook: Heart Healthy Southern Recipes

And while not heart-healthy, here’s another free cookbook with great healthy family recipes in it:

• A Free Cookbook for Moms Feeding a Large Family

This week I found myself wiped out from a recurring back injury and after a very effective deep tissue massage, my massage therapist recommended that I follow it up with some Emergen-C as well as the bucket load of water I already was going to drink.

Supposedly the extra nutrition from the Emergen-C combined with drinking the extra water helps with the soreness that sometimes follows a deep tissue massage. I knew about the water, but hadn’t heard the nutrional recommendation before, but I was willing to give it a try.

I happen to have some Emergen-C left over from our road trip first aid kit, but needed another way to drink it – cuz the only way I like it is mixed with really cold bottled water, which I didn’t have. 

So I thought I’d do an experiment – how would it taste in a  banana orange smoohie recipe?

Oh my goodness – you’ve got to try this! It’s like drinking a Dreamcicle. Yum!

It even passed the kid test (I didn’t tell them I boosted it).

So here it is, my new Banana Orange Smoothie Recipe, with the optional nutritional boost:

1 banana

1 -2 cups vanilla almond milk, depending on how thick you like your smoothies

a heaping large spoonful of frozen concentrated orange juice

a handful of ice cubes

1 packet of Emergen-C, orange flavored (tangarine might work as well)

Dump it all into your favorite blender, and blend to taste (but be sure to use a setting that can handle ice cubes, cuz I’ve burned out more blenders on ice cubes and frozen bananas, and it’s not fun going without smoothies!)

Drink cold, hopefully with all those little yummy ice chips in there …yum!

Now if I can only find a way to keep J from drinking my smoothies… just kidding – just don’t tell him they are healthy for him

I promised you two more heart-healthy cookbooks, and today’s is heart-healthy Southern recipes. I know that sounds like a misnomer, but it’s true. Southern cooking can be healthy.

Today’s free cookbook is called Heart Healthy Home Cooking African American Style, but it is full of down home southern cooking – with a healthy twist. This is yet another free cookbook from the National Heart Lung Blood Institute.

Inside you’ll find 26 healthy southern recipes like:

• Good for you corn bread
• Homestyle biscuits
• Smothered greens
• Spicy Okra
• Crispy Oven Fried Chicken
• Jambalaya
• Spicy Southern Barbecued Chicken
• Mock- Southern Sweet Potato Pie
• Peach Cobbler

Makes my mouth water just reading through it.

You can download the free PDF version  or you can order a print version from the National Heart Blood Lung Institute website. (There may be a charge for the print version)

Enjoy!

…Shannon

Other Posts You Might Be Interested In:

As February is American Heart Month and I have some personal experience with the affects of not taking care of your heart, I promised to share with you some free heart-healthy cookbooks. 

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to download or order your copy of Keep the Beat: Deliciously Healthy Dinners, the cookbook I shared earlier.

But today, I have another free heart-healthy cookbook for you. 

It’s called Platillos Latinos: Delicious Heart Healthy Latino Recipes and is another wonderful downloadable (pdf) cookbook from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. 

Because it’s a Latino recipe cookbook, all the 26 recipes are in both English and Spanish, and includes both little heart-healthy cooking tips and the nutritional information in both English and Spanish.

I’m a California girl living in Texas, so Mexican and Latino recipes are integrated into our dinner menus, and I love the flavors. But I don’t usually like the fat.  This recipe collection gives great little tips on cutting the fat, and includes yummy Latino flavor.

The cookbook includes a total of 26 easy to prepare, heart-healthy Latino recipes such as:

• Appetizers and Soups, including a lentil soup recipe (lentils are wonderful nutrition and very-budget friendly)
• Entrees like Latino style Turkey Meatloaf, and Chilian Corn and Meat Pie
• Vegetarian Recipes like Quinoa and Black Bean Salad, and a veggie warp. (gotta love Quinoa!)
• Side Dishes and Sauces like fresh salsa and a Argentian Chimichurri sauce, and of course
• Desserts and beverages – like Flan and a mango shake.

There’s a substitutions page that shows if a recipe calls for a high fat ingredient like cream what to subsitute instead to make it more heart-healthy.

So there you, another free heart-healthy cookbook for you.  I’ve got at least one more to share with you next week, so be sure to come on back and grab that one too.

Enjoy!

…Shannon

P.S  Just click the title link to download your copy: Platillos Latinos: Delicious Heart Healthy Latino Recipes (opens in a new window)

P.S. S. It looks like you can also order a printed copy of the cookbook from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute here. But I haven’t tried it out myself, but the option looks like it is there if you prefer a printed copy.

Recently while cooking dinner, I realized I had run out of laundry soap – and didn’t have time – or ability – to run to the store. So J volunteered to make up some homemade powdered laundry detergent for me, if I would teach him how. (what a great kid!)

And then he agreed to do it all on camera so you can learn how to make homemade laundry soap too, just in case you ever have a need

The cost breakdown for homemade laundry soap is equal to about the cheapest laundry soap available on the market, but it is quick and easy to do, and a real time saver if you are caught in a pinch like I was.

Budget wise – I also consider it a time saver and money saver, because I can’t seem to get through a grocery store with *just* one item, so just having the ingredients on hand helps. And if money is tight having the ingredients already on hand, makes it much easier to make a new batch of homemade laundry detergent without figuring out where the money is going to come from to make another shopping run.

For ingredients, you need:

• a bar laundry soap (Fel Naptha, Zote, or any other bar laundry soap), usually costs about a $1
• washing soda , found in the laundry isle, usually costs about $3-4
• Borax, also found in the laundry isle, usually costs between $4-5

The washing soda and Borax will last you a while (the recipe only calls for 1 cup), and I usually just make sure I have a bar of Fels Naptha on hand (especially during poison oak/sumac season).

In all I think it costs about 5 to 10 cents per load, depending on how much you pay for your ingredients and if you use the optional Oxiclean (or generic) like I do in the video.

And then just follow the instructions in the video… it’s really that fast and easy.  And then all you need is 1 Tablespoon per load, 2 if the kids’ clothes are particularly dirty.

Enjoy!

…Shannon

P.S. If you aren’t able to see the video, here’s the short version of the homemade laundry soap recipe:

Mix together 1 bar of laundry soap (grated), 1 cup of washing soda, and 1 cup of Borax

Yep, that easy.

P.S.S.  If you have young children in the house and you make your own anything, be sure to write the ingredients on the container you use, so that if there’s ever an accident that involves you or a babysitter calling poison control, you can just read the ingredients off the container rather than trying to remember what’s in there.