DASH Diet for Two: 125 Heart-Healthy Recipes to Lower Your Blood Pressure Together

I am a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist with over thirty years of clinical experience. I provide a copy of this cookbook to many of my clients to provide them with healthy meal ideas. The information about the DASH diet is written by a credentialed nutrition professional, and the DASH diet is one of the healthiest eating patterns for any adult to follow. The recipes are easy to prepare and don't have a long list of ingredients. These are healthy recipes that can also be easily used with a meal plan for diabetes.

Some of the biggest struggles for my clients are finding new ways to prepare nutritious meals, how to incorporate flavor without the salt, and cooking meals that are ready within minutes.
Roseanne does an excellent job pairing easy-to-follow recipes with science-based recommendations in The DASH Diet for Two. She provides a snapshot into the DASH diet and breaks it down into simple to understand topics. The recipes include something for everyone from ways to jazz up your vegetables to recreating main dishes. Whether you’re a newbie with cooking, work as a 5-star-chef, or searching for ways to incorporate more wholesome ingredients into your meals, you’ll find these recipes are just what you’ve been looking for!

This is a fantastic resource for individuals who want to eat more fruits, vegetables, and adopt the DASH diet! The recipes are tasty, colorful, and make eating for heart health easy. As a registered dietitian nutritionist, I recommend the DASH diet all the time and I'm thrilled to have another tool to share with my clients! Perfect for single adults, couples without kids, or empty nesters, the smaller portions from the recipes make cooking for one or two less daunting and helps reduce waste.

I received a complementary advance copy of the digital book, but was not compensated for my review. But this will be a book I buy to give as gifts for years to come - and I suspect that I'll have to buy a hard copy for myself too.

Having been recently diagnosed with high blood pressure I decided to look into the DASH diet at the recommendation of my doctor. So, I ordered this book to give it a try. I must preface this with, I'm not a great cook. Not sure of myself of naturally gifted with talent in the cooking field. I have a soft-cover version of the book. Unfortunately, the binder of the book broke before I even used the book. Looking through the book, there aren't many pictures - I need at least one picture of each recipe (remember, I'm not a natural in the kitchen). The book is 208 pages, The first recipe I tried was the Fusilli Primavera. I was amazed at how easy it was to make - although me cooking things in three different pots/pans at one time was unbelievable. It came out pretty well. It must have, my husband ate three helpings!

Each recipe has little tags that say things like "30 minutes or less", "Budget Saver", Vegetarian:, etc. It tells you how many people the recipe serves and how long prep time and cook time. At the end of the recipe it gives you prep tips and storage tips along with per serving nutrition facts.

Something that I found odd was that there wasn't a table of contents in the front of the book telling you, at least, where the different meal types began (breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.). You just had to flip through the pages to find where lunch recipes, for example) started.

The beginning of the book explains the basics of the DASH diet along with tips on items to keep "in stock", how to shop for two, etc.

Overall, In my opinion, the book needs more pictures. The recipes that I have tried so far have been pretty easy and taste ok if not quite as tasty as their unhealthy counterparts.

I'm way past retirement age and with the approval of my doctor have stopped taking BP meds and for 6 months am controlling my blood pressure with the DASH diet. And it's WORKED. I've read many - MANY - books on the subject. A lot of them from my doc and heath care healthy living program. The goal is to eat healthy and control the salt/sodium you're ingesting. This is one of the better resource books I've found.

The book starts with an overview of the DASH plan. Personally I I've tried more of the seafood suggestions because fish, shrimp & crab are my favorites. In this book I'd suggest the Grilled Shrimp-Stuffed Popovers, The Creamy Italian-Style Sea Scallops (although I made this with shrimp), and the Greek Style Cod with Olives and Tomatoes.

The Creamy Chicken Breast with Spinach and Mushrooms was a DASH hack on Chicken a la King and it worked. Finally,, I must mention the 50-50 burgers with Caramelized Onions is genius. You still get your meat fix but the patties are made with a combo of burger meat and finely chopped mushrooms (I used my mini-food processor for the right chop).

Most people think the way to reduce blood pressure is avoiding salt and/or taking meds. This is a fabulous book for anyone who wants to make healthy choices, not just those who have hypertension. As the author explains most cookbooks have recipes for a larger number of portions. This book is designed for two and even if the recipe yields 4 portions, 2 portions can be saved for another meal. This is a good suggestion as sometimes it seems as though cooking is a chore when having to cook for only 2 people. The recipes are also great for portion control and minimal waste.

If you haven't heard about the DASH diet, which should really be more of a lifestyle than a diet, the author nicely explains what the DASH plan is along with all of its benefits. The information in the first chapter is very educational and makes a lot of sense. Guidelines for DASH eating are outlined in case the reader doesn't always want to use the recipes from the book.

The first chapter also provides helpful hints for how often to shop and what to buy. If you're not sure if you have what you need you'll find lists of both kitchen equipment and ingredients needed.

Reading on there is a variety of recipes in many categories, including snacks, desserts, and sweets, often not thought of as foods to include in a healthy diet. I loved the introductions to each recipe with key features as well as recommended substitutions, such as using small red, yellow, and orange peppers instead of 1 larger green pepper. Each recipe provides prep time, cook time, nutrition information and tags indicating if it's one pot, vegetarian, or less than 30 minutes to prepare.

Diets are often boring and monotonous. I found the recipes to be very interesting, provide enough variety to make several tasty meals, and very easy to follow. I am sure I will make most of them.

Overall, not only as a registered dietitian but also a consumer who mostly cooks for two, I am very excited about trying the recipes in this book. I was happy to receive a complimentary review copy from the publisher. The review is my own honest opinion. I was not required to provide a review.

Everyone knows the DASH diet because it is not a fad. It has been around for years, first developed by the U.S. government. It is balanced nutrition, designed to fight hypertension which leads to the leading cause of deaths for Americans, heart disease. (pre-covid). It also is recommended to fight another rising American health problem--diabetes. DASH is aimed at getting Americans to follow a low-salt diet, and to limit fats, processed sugar and processed foods (that often contain hidden sodium.)

DASH is not specifically a weight-loss plan, although government studies did show that weight loss occurred, not quickly, but steadily. It reduced blood pressure and is balanced in carbs for diabetics. One of the hardest things about changing a diet and lifestyle is the menu planning for the new habits. Having easy basics to turn to is a big part of preparing for change and succeeding at it.

This book is helpful in that for two reasons: First, it has 125 recipes that are well thought out and present enough variety that most people will find things they like. Second, the preparation is for two people--nice so no temptation to eat too much, or to waste leftovers. For those who live alone, or are the only ones using DASH in the household, portions for two are manageable -- easy meal preparation that lasts another day or can be taken for lunch the next day.

There are a few full page color photos, but not many. Still, I gave the layout a positive mark because each recipe was on its own page and was laid out in a way that was easy to read. Most of the recipes have no more than 10 ingrediients. Like most cookbooks, the chapters are categories: (1) Intro to DASH; (2) Breakfast; (3) Soups and Salads; (4) Snacks; (5) Mains (Meatless); (6) Fish and Seafood; (7) Poultry; (8) Pork and Beef; (9) Sides; (10) Desserts and Sweets.

Here are some easy recipes I liked from each section: (2) yogurt, fruit and honey; various smoothies; blueberry banana muffin; avocado toast/salmon/tomato; veggie frittata (3) great collection of salads; inc. "DASH Cobb Salad"; stuffed pepper soup; black bean chili; (4) yogurt parfait; peanut snack bars, cranberry muffins; pita and bean dip; (5) Eggplant Parmesan; various casseroles with beans and vegetables; pastas; (6) salmon, cod, shrimp, tuna or bass with various pasta and vegetables n various ethnic flavorings and ingredients (7) Chicken & Shrimp Jambalaya--many chicken recipes; (8) beef fajitas; pork stir fry; (9) roasted brussell sprouts with dried cranberries; (10) baked apples; chewy oatmeal cookies.

This is a good, informative book with easy and flavorful recipes. Reduce blood sugar, blood pressure and weight in an easy and nutritious way--and easy. I like it, though am not yet using DASH all day, every day--the next step.

The recipes are easy and the ingredients are what is normally stocked in a kitchen. Very few unusual things. Size portions are for two people and all are tasty. It has substitute items which comes in handy.

The dash diet for two recipes look Yummy
Great have variety to go with the book helps people lower high blood pressure

I've been having cholesterol issues, and my doctor recommended this diet to me. I love it because it's less restrictive than most "diets". I feel like I can eat whatever I want and just substitute certain ingredients. I've made 4 or 5 recipes out of here, and every one of them is amazing! I can't wait to cook even more.