Yes. Yes you can. And if anyone complains, refer them to The Librarian.

I'll eat a bowl full of veggies with some butter for dinner, not so much without the butter.

It took me a while to remember/realize that of my quick meal choices, frozen veggies with ::gasp:: butter is FAR ahead of nearly anything cheap I could "grab on the way home". Grab a can of sardines and its fast approaching a balanced meal.

Swiffer Wet Jet?

What I've got in the Cube is very similar, but wih reusable microfiber pads.

BTW, my neighbor on the corner has a rooster.

Corn, carrots, limas, and omgpotatoes are just as high in sugar as most fruit

True that.

I'm focusing on the basic food rule, "Eat food (and in actual, unprocessed food)...not too much...mostly vegetables.

Actually, I'm following a modified Fat Flush regimen.

It is helping me to have a checklist of types of food to have each day: cruciferous, sulphur, leafy greens, protein, healthy fats, probiotic, fiber, citrus, fluids.

Rather than, "What am I in the mood for," which invariably leads to chips and Dr. Pepper, "What do I need to fill this category?" leads me to enjoy things I might otherwise have avoided.

For instance, since citrus isn't big for me, so I made fresh lime juice ice cubes last night...28 of them! Now, I can pop one in a glass of fizzy water with some stevia and, Bob's your uncle, I feed two birds with one seed off my list.

Oh, that's a cool shirt! Unfortunately I am not a librarian, nor do I play one on tv.

With you on the adults get to eat what they choose. I can't abide broccoli plain, either. But it's been so long since I had cheese on it now I don't like it that way, either. I do make miniflorets and warm them with leftovers: slivers of chicken breast and steamed rice, plus a handful of diced cheddar, num! But I will occasionally have a bowl of steamed broc for dinner because that's what I'm craving at the time. What's made it not only edible but num for me is whole sea salt, just a random sprinkling. We have sea salt grinders, but I love the crunch of the whole crystal amongst the broc florets. It sparks the flavor, for me.

H has been on no-salt for so long he would ban the shaker from the house. I've massively *reduced* my sodium intake, but I find now that a tiny bit of salt can spark all the flavors of a dish, making what would be boring and plain a treat of different flavors. Plus, I read somewhere but won't swear to it that sea salt actually contains less sodium than table salt, so I feel all virtuous now for using sea salt.

I can't abide broccoli plain

I'm surely cheating to the extent of getting very little nutritional return, but I've been steaming TJ's broccoli slaw to get my broc portion. Unlike my childhood self, I much prefer steamed cauliflower plain over broccoli.

Bev, I've been using TJ's 'everyday seasoning', which features sea salt, pepper, mustard, garlic and some other stuff, as a way to get more flavor with less salt...because my love for salt borders on the manic. I can recommend the combo. It gives nice 'bites' of differing flavors in a 'hmm what's next?' sort of way. I likee.

I love broccoli.

I also am perfectly happy eating sheep intestines cooked on the grill. So.

fresh lime juice ice cubes

Oh! I've rediscovered lime! In other forms than jello and sherbet, I mean.

I have long avoided lemon in...nearly everything. I don't know when the aversion became so strong, but I now can't abide it in scents for cleaners or disinfectants as well as in my glass of water. Sherbet? Meringue pie? Sure, even lemonade, but man, those all require a shedload of sugar. I'd rather eschew than substitute--subs all taste like cheats to me and I never eat what they're trying to achieve, so I just do without.

But H picked up a Perrier for me one hot day when we were away from our home fizzy water. I took one sip and spat it out: lemon-ized. Couldn't drink it. This weekend I bought Perrier again, making sure there was no lemon on the label. One sip and--oh! that's...not bad at all. That's actually quite GOOD. The green lime symbol against the green label hadn't shown up.

I may have a new addiction.

sea salt actually contains less sodium than table salt

This is true if measured by volume, but not if measured by weight - sea salt is considerably less dense than table salt because of the crystal size. For the same amount of salty taste you'll get the same amount of sodium, though, which is why baking books recommend weighing salt rather than trusting volume measurements, especially if you use sea salt or kosher salt instead of table salt, since different sea salt and kosher salts will actually have different densities from each other.

I do think you're less likely to over-salt using larger salt crystals, though, so in practice switching will probably reduce your sodium intake some. Most sodium intake problems start at the grocery store or restaurant kitchen, though, not the salt shaker.

Most sodium intake problems start at the grocery store

(nods) Which is why we use almost nothing that's prepared. Cold cereal, but storebrand rice chex and oatie-os for me and Raisin bran for H, almond milk--no dairy for him, no soy for me. No instant anything ever because of the sodium content. It takes as long to make rolled oats as to boil water for instant, and I throw the ground cloves and walnut pieces and dried cranberries into the water while it's coming to a boil, add the oats once it boils and let set for five minutes while I decant the coffee and wash the pot. Who needs instant? The hard part is finding a pot small enough to make *one serving* of oatmeal without scorching.

Meats, poultry, and fish are fresh, so is produce (usually steamed or roasted), and we do use pastas--that's the extent of our prepared foods.

We patronize a vanishing few restaurants because of sodium issues. We're down to one Chinese place, one Pho house, and one steakhouse.