After 13 years in PR, I still get a good chuckle out of being “pitched” for this blog.  But, every once in a while one comes my way where I say, “Why, thank you, PR Person!  That actually *is* relevant to me and my readers!”  In fact, I let out a little squeal of joy that the Mrs. Dash people included lil’ old us on their news distro list…*

Here’s the scoop: According to a new survey, 71% of Americans don’t know the recommended daily allowance for sodium (it’s 2300 mg– now you know!) and a good number of folks get DOUBLE that!  And, a whopping 50% of people surveyed engage in one of my biggest pet peeves– Salting food before they even taste it!  Tsk, Tsk!

Personally, I’ve been keeping a keen eye on my sodium lately as I want to make sure I go into SF Marathon with as little extra weight on as possible– be it waterweight or flubber-weight– and have been pretty surprised at how quickly I go over.**  Hence, I did just happen to buy two shakers of Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy the other day, and will now share with you my favorite uses for Mrs Dash’s Extra Spicy!

- My #1 Mrs Dash’s Extra Spicy Addiction– Sprinkle it on air-popped popcorn.  Sometimes I give it a blast of olive oil mist to get it to stick– this stuff rules on popcorn! (In fact, I bought a shaker of it to leave at my favorite bar just so I could have it on my popcorn there at Friday happy hour.)

- My #2 Mrs Dash’s Extra Spicy Addiction– Squeeze a lime on an avocado and sprinkle w/ Mrs Dash’s Extra Spicy.  I’ll do this before putting avocado on a sandwich, as it really makes the avo “pop” without the salt.  I also top my homemade guac with a sprinkle of Extra Spicy– looks pretty and tastes great!

- Add a teaspoon or so to a pot of Low Sodium Black Beans, add a little water, mash with a fork for the tastiest low-sodium “refried” beans you’ve ever had!

- Put some on chicken and veggies with a little blast of lime and grill. I often put some on a whole mess of chicken breast on Sunday nights and grill then chill so that I have it all week long for salads, wraps, etc.

- When you are making a pot of chili or soup, instead of reaching for more salt, try acid first (kind of tickles the same taste buds) like a blast of lime or lemon, then reach for something like Mrs Dash’s, then and only then, consider more salt. Usually, a combo of the acid and the Mrs Dash’s will do the trick.

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*You can ask anyone who knows me that I am a serious Mrs Dash’s Extra Spicy proselytizer, so the email I got didn’t influence this post at all, other than to prompt me to “go public” on this blog with my love for the stuff.  Frankly, a “coming out” that was long overdue.

** I do want to add the caveat that a good part of the reason I go over in my sodium is because I am doing a lot of distance running and, thus, consuming sodium-enhanced electrolyte replacements which I then sweat out as quickly as possible.  I do not advocate endurance athletes cutting out sodium all together, or over-hydrating with an absence of electrolytes.  It’s a pretty specific case, though– your average person certainly doesn’t need  be concerned about hyponatremia, but for the sake of completeness I did want to mention it.