Help me save my husbands life

One easy thing to remember is that cholesterol only exists in animal products. If something doesn't come from an animal then it has ZERO cholesterol. Would the food you normally cook work without animal products? For example if you normally make pasta with veggies and chicken could you make pasta with veggies and canellini beans instead? Or if you might normally serve a salisbury steak with mushroom gravy and a side of roasted potatoes and carrots could you serve a Boca (veggie) burger with mushroom gravy and a side of roasted potatoes and carrots? Or serve a piece of fish instead -- even though it is an animal product I believe fish is actually good for a low cholesterol diet.

Actually the more I think about this Boca burgers could really be your friend. They are in the freezer section of pretty much any supermarket. They also sell "Boca Crumbles" as a substitute for browned ground beef. If you use them instead of beef you could probably make many of the things you make now.

That being said you asked for recipes. This is one of my go-to recipes. It has no meat, cheese or eggs so by definition it is low cholesterol.

Pasta with Veggies and Cherry Tomato Sauce

Ingredients (serves 4)
8 oz of whole wheat pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 pint of cherry tomatoes
1/2 tsp chicken boullion and 1/2 cup water or 1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
1 can canellini beans (or white beans) drained and rinsed
1 tsp dried herbs
2 cups broccoli (or veggie of your choice)

Cook pasta in boiling water. In separate pan saute onion in olive oil a couple of minutes until starting to soften. Add the minced garlic and let it cook one more minute. Add the cherry tomatoes (whole), chicken boulion or broth, wine, beans and herbs. Let this all cook cook down together for about 10 minutes. When the cherry tomatoes soften use a potato masher or the back of a spoon to mash them a little bit so the insides come out and start to form the sauce. Meanwhile cook the broccoli in the microwave in a little bit of water. 1 or 2 minutes on high should do it. (I cook the broccoli separate because it keeps its color better that way. You can also just cook it in the pan with the onion and tomato.) Add broccoli to tomato mixture. When the pasta is done drain it and ad it to the pan with the tomatoes onion and broccoli. Toss to coat. If it seems a little dry add some of the pasta water or some more wine or stock.

If your husband is not a bean fan you can substitute walnuts or mushrooms.

I totally understand how you feel. My husband has a strong family history of heart disease too and he suffered a heart attack himself when he was only 28 year old. It was a scary thing to go through but thankfully he came out of it ok. We made a lot of changes after that... we both quit smoking (which was probably the most important change), he started to exercise and lose some weight, he began taking a lot of different meds to hopefully keep him from another heart attack, and we changed our diet. Up to that point our diet was terrible. We swapped out high fat ground beef for ground turkey breast, we greatly limited our red meat consumption, we switched to fat free milk, and I started serving more veggies.

Everything helps but in the end he has to make the choice to live healthy. You can certainly support him by shopping and cooking healthy but he'll have to watch his diet away from home as well and it's a struggle. My husband does wonderfully 90% of the time but he still is human and still eats things that aren't the best for him.

Hugs...I know it's scary.

I would definatly talk to his doctor before making any big changes, but I think the other comments are a good idea, try and go toward less animal products. With eggs never use the yoke (maybe start with half yoke to get him used to it) stay away from the red meats especially.

If I remember what I read in my nutrition class right, fiber will help to flush out some of the cholesterol. But a nutritionist would be the best way to learn what your husband should be eating.

I also wanted to add this recipe that I think I'm going to try out tonight. It sounds delicious and super easy! To make it even easier, you can cook the rice and lentils in a rice cooker if you have one and then just cook the onions on the side and add them later. That's probably what I'm going to do.

http://theconfusedhomemaker.com/2010/03/10/mujadara-lentils-rice-and-carmalized-onions/
Mujadara: Lentils, Rice and Onions
1 Cup Lentils
1 Cup Rice
3 1/2 Cups Water
4 Onions
1 Tea­spoon Cumin
1 Tea­spoon Salt
1/2 Tea­spoon Pep­per
2 Table­spoons Veg­etable Oil

Serves 4–6

How to put it together:
Slice the onions. The onions should be sliced long, so they look like a rain­bow ver­sus diced into small pieces.
Heat pot on med-high heat. Add 1 Table­spoon of Veg­etable Oil and 1/2 an onion. Cook until onion is caramelized.
Add lentils, water, salt and pep­per. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and sim­mer for 20 minutes.
After 20 min­utes, add rice and 1 Tea­spoon Cumin. Cover and sim­mer for addi­tional 20 minutes.
Heat a fry­ing pan over med-high heat. Add the remain­ing 1 Table­spoon of Veg­etable Oil and remain­ing onions. Cook until fully caramelized and blackened.
Also, he used green lentils & yel­low onions for this dish.
We usu­ally serve our Mujadara with hum­mus & pita. Let me tell you it goes fast. And it is a great meal to have when you are look­ing for some­thing meat­less, easy, and delicious.