Blog Posts by CookingLight.com

Trying to cut back on salt but fond of convenience foods? These delicious packaged items manage to dramatically slash sodium without sacrificing flavor. By Maureen Callahan, MS, RD

Experts encourage moderation when it comes to salt (sodium chloride) since excessive amounts of sodium not only raise blood pressure but can damage artery linings. Since the lion's share of sodium comes from processed foods, we sampled our way through the supermarket to find the best-tasting lower sodium products. Government standards define low sodium as 140 milligrams of sodium or less per serving, but we've included a few noteworthy products that cut sodium levels by 50 percent or more. Not seeing your favorite convenience food on this list? A smart shopping strategy courtesy of the newest Dietary Guidelines: Compare soups, breads, and similar foods and buy the brand with the lowest sodium numbers.

See More: Meet the New Nutrition Labels

Boar's Head All Natural Cap-Off Top Round Oven

Be brilliant in much less time: delicious dishes that have at their heart a work-done-for-you supermarket ingredient.

Healthy Shortcut Dinners

Speed up the cooking with versatile, healthy supermarket convenience foods that help you turn out vibrant, healthy main dishes. The prep time for each of our featured shortcut recipes is slashed to about 20 minutes. We guarantee that these helpful tips and products will help you turn out a delicious, made-with-care meal in no time.

See More: 100 Easy Chicken Recipes

Shortcut Pizza: Refrigerated Fresh Pizza Dough

Store-bought dough yields pizzeria quality. Ask for it in the bakery of your supermarket, or check specialty retailers like Trader Joe's. In a pinch, buy dough in tubes from the refrigerated section of the grocery store (it's higher in sodium than fresh dough). Just bring the dough to room temperature while the oven preheats.

Roasted Vegetable and Ricotta Pizza

Ingredients:
1 pound refrigerated fresh

You'd think fat would be the problem with chicken strips. Not so. But some have a full day's worth of salt.

Dietary Guidelines for Sodium Intake

The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend 1,500mg of sodium daily for those at risk for blood-pressure-related diseases, and 2,300mg for everyone else. For a little perspective on how easy it is to hit those marks, look at how heavily the salt shaker is deployed with these eight fast-food chicken strips.

For each restaurant example, we chose the smallest-available serving. Differences in serving size account for some of the sodium variation.

See More: 22 Healthy Lunch Ideas

Hardee's

The Facts:
3 pieces per order
260 calories
2.5g sat fat
770mg sodium

McDonald's

The Facts:
3 pieces per order
400 calories
3.5g sat fat
1,010mg sodium

See More: Top Lower-Sodium Foods

Arby's

The Facts:
3 pieces per order
360 calories
2.5g sat fat
1,160mg sodium

We radically slim down one of the most egregiously over-the-top cakes in the universe. By Sidney Fry, MS, RD

Some time back, carrot cake became the poster child for a healthy-sounding food that is actually a fat and calorie disaster. But we'd forgotten how much of a disaster it could be until we looked at an online recipe from a celebrity chef who shall go unnamed. There it was, in all its splendor, weighing in at 1,460 calories and 28 grams of saturated fat in one gargantuan three-layer slice.

See More: 10 Nutrition Myths

Few are the recipes that have been made over quite this dramatically. We shaved about 1,000 calories and 89 grams of total fat. Yet, it's delicious: Creamy butter and smooth buttermilk create a perfectly moist, tender texture. Earthy brown sugar brings out the warm cinnamon spices. Real-deal cream cheese and butter maximize frosting flavor. Low-fat fromage blanc and a light sprinkle of toasted pecans make it a special, vastly lighter treat.

See

A calorie is a calorie, no matter how you eat it, right? That was the thinking, but the thinking is changing. By Janet Helm, MS, RD

Last summer, Mark Haub, Ph.D, an associate professor of nutrition at Kansas State University, made headlines when he lost 27 pounds after two months of living on Twinkies, Ho-Hos, Little Debbies, and other convenience-store snack cakes.

Haub's experiment reinforced the calories-in/calories-out equation: If you drastically cut back-as Haub did, from 2,600 to 1,800 calories per day-you will lose weight, no matter how nutrient-deprived your diet may otherwise be. Anyone who knows what calories are-units of energy-knows this to be so.

But lost in the brouhaha surrounding the so-called Twinkie Diet was a more interesting trend: a revision of the idea that all calories are equal. New studies hint that the body may burn calories from whole foods better than it does calories from processed foods like Twinkies. Essentially, it appears the body can

Whole-wheat flour recipes can have all the allure of regular baked goods. We have the breads, scones, muffins, and cookies to prove it.

See More: Decoding Whole-Grain Food Labeling

Baking With Whole-Wheat Flour
When baking with whole-wheat flour, it's important to not dive into a regular recipe and just replace regular flour with whole wheat. There are definite texture and flavor differences. It's safe to replace half of all-purpose flour with whole-wheat in most recipes. For recipes that use more than 50% whole-wheat flour, it's best to use a recipe that's been developed and tested using the good stuff (fiber-rich whole-wheat flour).

In Fig, Date, and Walnut Quick Bread, equal parts of whole-wheat and all-purpose flour serve as the base, and potassium- and fiber-rich dried figs and dates offer moisture and even more nutritional punch.

Fig, Date, and Walnut Quick Bread

Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup low-fat

How can you tell if a product is really a whole-grain food? Stick to the ingredient list for the answer, and find 10 common products here and see if they pass our whole-grain test. By Sidney Fry, MS, RD

Walk through any supermarket and you'll find an array of whole-grain claims on packages. But how can you tell if a product is really a whole-grain food? We've done the homework for you, and we've learned to always focus on the ingredient list, and not on the often-confusing health claims on the front of the package. We've selected some common products-crackers, chips, popcorn, cereal, baking mixes, breads, and more-and evaluated whether they're a whole-grain food or not. Our explanations for each will help you to evaluate some of your favorite products yourself to see if they pass the whole-grains test.

See More: 10 Foods for Strong Bones

Wheat Thins Original Cracker
YES: Touting 11 grams of whole grains per serving, these crispy thins are made with whole-grain wheat

Make whole-grain salads in advance, chill, and enjoy for easy, quick-to-serve lunches and dinners.

Healthy, Hearty Whole-Grain Salads

With their nutty taste, mild flavor, and irresistible chewy texture, whole grains are a fitting canvas for salads because they harmonize with the bright, fresh flavors we enjoy most.

Start with recipes with lots of herbs and vegetables, like this bulgur salad, as a basis for customizing your own grain salad. Stir in leftover chicken or shrimp to vary the flavor if you prefer.

View Recipe: Bulgur Salad with Edamame and Cherry Tomatoes

Colorful Quick Quinoa Grecian Salad

Featuring peak summer produce and protein-rich quinoa, this colorful recipe was a finalist from our Ultimate Reader Recipe Contest. Save leftovers to serve for lunch throughout the week.

View Recipe: Colorful Quick Quinoa Grecian Salad

Cracked Wheat Salad with Nectarines, Parsley, and Pistachios

Great with grilled chicken, lamb, or salmon, this