Here are some heart healthy, low fat, low sodium ways to keep the flavor in your meals with herbs and spices.  With all the talk about heart healthy eating, it often seems like we're trading flavor for health. However, that doesn't have to happen, if you know what spices to use with different types of foods.

        Adding Spice to Meat, Poultry, and Fish

• Beef-Spice up your beef with:
  Bay leaf, marjoram, nutmeg, onion, pepper, sage, or thyme.
• Lamb-Add delicious flavor to your lamb with:
  Curry powder, garlic, rosemary, or mint.
• Pork-Pork is easy to spice up with:
  Garlic, onion, sage, pepper, oregano, or thyme.
• Veal-Veal is a delicious and tender meat you can add distinctive flavor to with:
  Bay leaf, curry powder, ginger, marjoram, or oregano.
• Chicken or Turkey-Poultry such as chicken and turkey is easily spiced up with:
  Ginger, marjoram, oregano, paprika, poultry seasoning, rosemary, sage, tarragon, or thyme.
• Fish-Add great taste to your fish with:
  Curry powder, dill, dry mustard, lemon juice, marjoram, paprika, or pepper.

              Tasty Ways to Spice Up Your Vegetables

• Carrots-Carrots taste great with:
  Cinnamon, cloves, marjoram, nutmeg, rosemary, or sage.
• Corn-Corn is easy to add taste to with:
  Cumin, curry powder, onion, paprika, or parsley.
• Green Beans-Add a special touch to green beans with:
  Dill, curry powder, lemon juice, marjoram, oregano, tarragon, or thyme.
• Greens-Greens and spice go hand-in-hand with these terrific spices:
  Garlic, onion, or pepper.
• Peas-Some delicious ways to add flavor to your peas include:
  Ginger, marjoram, onion, parsley, sage.Potatoes-Instead adding butter and salt to your potatoes, add flavor with:
  Dill, garlic, onion, paprika, parsley, or sage.
• Summer Squash-The yummy taste of summer squash is enhanced with:
  Cloves, curry powder, marjoram, nutmeg, onion, rosemary, or sage.
• Winter Squash-What could be better than winter squash with:
  Cinnamon, ginger, marjoram, or onion.
• Tomatoes-There's nothing better than ripe red tomatoes with:
  Basil, bay leaf, dill, marjoram, onion, oregano, parsley, or pepper.

By Tracee Cornforth
Source: Keep the Beat, Heart Healthy Recipes from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute - NHLBI a part of the National Institutes of Health - NIH