@K E Gordon "Potatoes aren't bad for you really, they are an important source of potassium" And bananas are proclaimed to be also high in Potassium. I figured out once, that 40 bananas eaten in a day would provide the daily minimum adult amount of Potassium! Now, if you "salt" your food with Potassium Chloride instead of Sodium Chloride, you can easily get plenty of Potassium by eating nothing containing calories, carbs, fat, or anything else. I toss about 3/4 teaspoon of "No-Salt" in my evening "soup", getting way over 50% of the requirement as "seasoning" only. Since I love salty food, it seems a reasonable way to go, cuts down on Sodium intake, too! Costly, but what ain't? Frank
BOOOOOO. Ooops, sorry, @Frank Sanoica ... couldn't resist. You've made me hungry for potato salad (real or fake, either would do).
That explains the miniscule portions, @Frank Sanoica . And I totally understand the separate eating, as well. Bobby and I have different food requirements, and we often eat separate meals just like you and your wife do. Because of the rheumatoid arthritis, and my heart condition, I have to be very careful of inflammatory foods; while Bobby can eat about all he wants of them. I like my main meal around noon/early afternoon, Bobby enjoys his later at night, so often he is making and eating something just for himself, like you do. Sometimes, we have meals that we eat together, sometimes we don't. Like your wife, Bobby HAS to have the television on for him to enjoy a meal. Eating with headphones on didn't work out so well for me; so I have just learned to tune out the noise if I am not interested in whatever he is watching. With the iPads, we mostly use headphones anyway, so if I am only reading and he is watching a movie on Netflix, the house is still peaceful. All part of married life.....
@Yvonne Smith A peaceful household must be the key to peaceful coexistence, I suppose. We have not, unfortunately, yet found the "key". Frank
Actually, potatoes ARE bad for me, @K E Gordon . Probably not for everyone; but for people with any kind of auto-immune disease, like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, and proabably several other ones that I forgot, any and all inflammatory foods are bad news. I also have heart failure, so eliminating most of the inflammatory foods helps to keep my body from hurting and helps keep the old ticker working better, too. I really enjoy potatoes, but they are very inflammatory, and sweet potatoes are fine; so usually we have sweet potatoes instead. I know that people make sweet potato salad just like they make regular potato salad; but I have never tried it because I can't get my mind around the idea of mixing those two tastes. However........good news ! ! ....... Tonight we tried the fake potato salad ( or maybe it was just cauliflower salad, @Joe Riley ), and in any case, it was pretty darned good, if I do say so myself. I made it basically the same way as I make potato salad, and added just a little bit of Bobby's mashed potato flakes to give it that special "creaminess" that potato salad has, and also added some (fake) bacon bits, since that was part of Frank's recipe that he shared. I put the cauliflower in the Ninja blender/processor, and did the rice-thing to it first, and then steamed it until it was done and tender, and then proceeded as I would have done for regular potato salad. Bobby and I both agreed that it was a good compromise, and except for that little bit of mashed potato flakes, it was pretty low-carb, and not inflammatory either; so we will probably have it again. There was some left and it is in the refrigerator for the night, and should be even better by tomorrow.
Buttered cauliflower and broccoli, that's our favorite side dish (or is it called garnishing?) when we have fried chicken or steak. What's good is the easy preparation - we also eat the stem of broccoli, my husband loves that. Another good thing with those veggies is the cost, broccoli is cheap in the nearby small market although cauliflower is quite expensive. We also have a dish called American chop suey, a variation of that Chinese vegetable dish. With sauteed strips of chicken and pork, we mix with the broccoli and cauliflower. Eating with chopsticks gives it a semblance of Chinese food.
Just as an "FYI Announcement", @Yvonne Smith , the Arthritis Foundation disagrees about potatoes being bad/inflammatory. Link Here They also seem to debunk other things people mistakenly think work, such as apple cider vinegar and citrus. Again, for what it's worth... results may vary. My Mama's had RA for many years, and her specialists told her the same thing that the Foundation says.
Most of the "home remedies" , such as ACV, are not proven scientifically to help any disease. All medications are put through excessive testing before they are sold to the public , and have to show at lease some proof of helping the condition. Since things like berries, vinegar, or lemons can't actually be sold as a prescription and money made from their sale; there is actually no reason for any of the companies to test these products, and all we have to go by is the testimony of people who have used the food or product. Some products simply can't be tested properly, such as DMSO. Anyone who puts DMSO on their skin will immediately have a taste similar to garlic in their mouth; so there is no way that a double blind type of test could even be performed, should any company even want to do that. Because taking care of my heart (and my body) is important to me, I read about foods that might be either helpful or unhelpful, and adjust my food plan accordingly. If I share that here, I am not implying that anyone else should follow suit, I am just relating what I have read, or what works for me. Each person is responsible for their own body, and makes their best decisions on how to care for it. Solanine poisoning is an actual fact, and people have died from eating too many potatoes. Granted, you would have to be eating a whole lot of potatoes with some green on their skin for this to happen; but so far as I know , most of the foods that we usually consume are not poisonous, even in large amounts, so this fact does set the potato apart from most foods. http://www.anaturalway.com/Foods that Cripple.html
I grew up with potatoes as a staple with every meal, breakfast, dinner and supper, and I still eat potatoes, only not as many of them as I used to. We are using brown rice in some cases, where we used to use potatoes. Most of the time, we still use potatoes, but just not the same volume.