Another Meal Option

Time is short for me these days and keeping a food log is hard.  Still worthwhile though.  At the same time, since I have a shake almost every morning and the same things for lunch every day, it is a little repetitive to post here.  I still want to show what meals are helpful to my sugars though.  I also find it helpful to my own nutrition goals to keep posting, so although I may not post full days of food logs here, I will still post meals and options that have helped me.  :)

A few weeks back I told you that a friend of mine has the most amazing recipes.  Last night I used one of her most delicious.  It is a version of Caesar Salad, that does not have fish in the dressing.  This is really important to me since one of my family members is allergic to certain types of fish.  It is a little like Russian Roulette to find a Caesar dressing for him, and yes it is his favorite.

This is not a low cal food, but it is good for a diabetic or someone following the South Beach diet (which happens to be the diet that 3 doctors have recommended that I live on and the lady at the Diabetes Center also recommended).  The marinade for the chicken does not have sugar, and the dressing, while made with mayonnaise, also is low on the sugar scale.  Additionally, if the croutons are too much for your sugar levels, they are easily removed.  The meat is grilled, not fried and the cheese is Parmesan so a little goes a long way.  It is my family's favorite salad.  :)  We had it with sugar-free jello.

Back Again

I took a break last week.  It was a rough week, and blogging just wasn't in the cards for me.  But I am back this week. My sugar levels were pretty good yesterday and this morning, so even though the end of day snack was a bit high in sugar, it was still alright.  Here is yesterday's food log.

I tried the vanilla Attain for the first time.  Sooo delicious.  I love this stuff.  I used coconut milk and a banana and it was a little tropical happiness in a glass.  And sugar levels stayed low and hunger stayed low.  Nice, huh?

Don't let the picture fool you.  I had a nice big helping of strawberries.  I did not add more cream, as I am getting used to eating without adding sweetness, but I did have triple this amount of strawberries.

Watermelon.  It is so hot where I live.  I seem to want fruit and that is it.  Watermelon is that fruit that hydrates and satisfies.  It is very sweet, but hasn't affected my sugar levels thus far, so I happily chow down.

Okay- when you only have strawberries and watermelon for lunch, you will get hungry very quick.  About an hour after lunch, I had some yummy potato salad. Only about a cup.

My sweet hubby bought me Rolos.  Because they are individually wrapped I can have just 2-3.  I get my chocolate/sweet fix and don't eat a whole candy bar.  It is a nice compromise.

Thanks to Pinterest I learned that you can bake potatoes in the slow cooker.  It was 108 degrees yesterday.  Being able to make dinner in the slow cooker was awesome!  I had one potato with broccoli, (actually, I ended up adding more broccoli after taking this photo- it was so yummy).  I also topped it with cheese, ham, gravy and yes, some sour cream.  It is an odd thing, but baked potatoes turn to sugar in the body really fast, so if you are going to eat one, putting fat on it is a GOOD thing.  Weird huh?  But the fats slow the absorption of  the sugar by slowing the digestion process.  It is also a small potato with lots of broccoli.  As a diabetic, you can eat anything- but you must understand what the food does in your body and how to compensate for undesirable effects. 

It is vanilla ice cream and raspberry soda.  No I did not opt for sugar free this time.  I could have, but it isn't as good.  Plus, I have a theory, that at some level, sugar is better for our bodies than substitutes.  It gets back to that whole moderation thing that I keep bringing up.  One soda float, once in a while, will not hurt me.  Seconds are not an option.  It also can't be a daily occurrence. 

Food Log- again. lol

If you have suggestions for topics you would like me to blog about, let me know.  Mostly, if you have questions about what it's like to be diabetic; or what changes have been hard or easy to make; or if you want to have a recipe changed up so that it is more diabetic friendly- please let me know.

Until then, here is another food log. :)  I had a hard time eating yesterday.  I was so tired, and just really didn't feel like I wanted any food.  I did force myself to eat some, because it is important that I do.  It is actually important that anyone does.  Skipping meals is not healthy. 

Shake for breakfast.  Tell me you're surprised. :)

A few steamed veggies started my lunch.

A handful of grapes.

A cheese stick.

and 1/2 of a sugar free pudding and lunch was over.  I didn't feel like eating, the small amounts I had, were all I could handle.

Easy dinner.  Soup over rice.  

I actually had vanilla ice cream with toffee bits and some caramel topping, but I didn't have a picture, so this is the picture I am using.  Later I had a healthy handful of cashews.

What are you willing to do?

It started out as a fluke.  I randomly posted my lunch on Facebook with the caption, 'eat like a diabetic.'  It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek comment on how boring my meals were.  Then one person said "blog this." Then another, then another.  Enough people asked for a blog, that I thought, "Why not?" So I started logging my meals online. 

I  have to admit that keeping this blog has been more than a little uncomfortable for me.  I am not really a "share with the world" kind of person.  I normally would tell my friends about my diabetes, in person, if it came up in conversation; but to blog about it is so completely open.  Don't get me wrong, I am not a shy person.  I am very outgoing, but I don't share really personal things.

 While I know that what I eat is not necessarily personal, it does open me to a lot of scrutiny.  Especially since I normally take a lot of joy in what I cook and consider myself a good cook.  I also take some enjoyment from knowing that what I make is normally from scratch and my own unique recipe.  What I have shared here so far has been modifications for the changes in sugar and starch, or has been made using "prepared" foods that make things quick for me.  It is actually embarrassing to me.  Funny, huh?

As I move through this journey, I fully expect to learn to cook all my new foods from scratch and to develop recipes that are as tasty as the originals.  And so far, I have been really pleased with the recipes that I have developed and shared.  They are my reality at this point, as is my diabetes.  But I think it is funny, how sometimes I just don't want to share a recipe, because I know that I have used a commercially prepared sauce or a can of soup. 

Sharing my feelings on the day that I realized that I did indeed have diabetes, was completely foreign to me.  I didn't want people to feel sorry for me, but I felt so many emotions at that moment. It wasn't that I wanted to be "honest to my followers." It was more that I needed that outlet at that moment.  Having done that, I was able to move forward.  This blog has helped me more than anything, to keep on track.  To be accountable to so many, has forced better habits of diet and exercise on me.

I have been surprised at how many of my friends have followed my journey.  I have also been grateful.  This isn't the most scintillating of blogs- I mean, it's a food log.  But it has shown me how many people care about me, and that has been humbling.

So I will keep blogging my meals, and thank you for your kind comments and help in keeping me one track. 

Low Sugars

My sugar levels have were low last week. Normally, I worry about levels that are too high, so this is new to me. I haven't been able to track down a reason either.  So this week, I have a goal to watch what I eat very carefully and make sure that I am eating enough, eating on time, and eating the correct foods.

Here is Friday's food log.

Normal smoothie for breakfast.

This is an all fruit bar.  No extra sugar added.  They are delicious.

And when the calories and the sugar are low- I went ahead and had more than I normally would. 

I just wanted a small lunch, so I started with toast. Whole wheat, of course.

A cheese stick for protein.

And I shared a cup of soup with my daughter.  She ate the noodles, I ate the broth.

Mid afternoon snack.  This is a really sweet treat that is almost guilt free.  about 100-110 calories.  Sweetened with Truvia.  No added hormones and non-hormone fed cows, for the milk.  Yum!

My husband brought home dinner.  I requested BBQ.  I find I can have almost anything I want- in moderation.  What you see on my plate is actually what I had.  I didn't have seconds.  I was too full.  I also had some ice cream later in the evening, but I forgot to photograph it.

Another Food Log

 Last night was a rough night, so not everything is pictured, but I will still log it.

shake for breakfast

2 burritos for lunch.  I was really hungry.  It left me on the high end of my sugars, but not out of range.

Frozen Pizza and fresh veggies for dinner.  I am getting tired of cooking I think.

I also had some milk (almond) with my meal.  I didn't have 2nds.  This gave me awful heartburn, so even though I wasn't full, I didn't want any more.

Snack after dinner. But I also had cheese and crackers and some sugar-free hot cocoa later in the evening.

Low Fat Mac and Cheese with Broccoli

I don't have a normal food log today.  I do, however, have some meal ideas for you.  Coming up with something new for dinner can be a real drag when you are diabetic or dieting.  I have a few standards that I always go back to: Stir-Fry, Taco Salad, Chicken with Salad, Soup, and then I'm out of ideas.  While there is nothing wrong with this menu, it does get a little monotonous. This weekend I made a homemade Mac and Cheese that was WAYYYY lower in fat and pumped up in nutrition with the addition of broccoli, (FAMILY LOVED IT.) I also made a pork loin roast and celery with peanut butter.  I stuffed my fridge with fruits and veggies so that is mostly what we ate this weekend.  Snacks were cherries and strawberries. We ate watermelon until we were covered in red sticky juice, and we piled our plates with avocados and tomatoes.

This is pasta boiling in skim milk instead of water. Well actually only simmering.  If you let it boil, bad things can happen to milk.  Cooking the pasta in the milk allows the mac and cheese to get creamy without the standard white sauce.  (This is 3 cups uncooked pasta and 3 1/2 cups 1% milk.)

I didn't use the cream cheese photographed here, because the pasta was creamy enough and I didn't want to add any extra calories.  I only used about a cup of the cheddar cheese and then I used a few slices of reduced fat swiss cheese.  I am not a swiss cheese fan, but in a recipe like this, a bite of strong cheese is really helpful for adding taste with just a small amount of cheese. Yes I do add mustard, and that is some onion powder in front of it.

This is for the top of the casserole. It is a little less than a cup. You can skip this step.

I ended up adding double this amount of broccoli.  Just line your pan and spray it with cooking oil.  I used olive oil. Then add bite sized portions of broccoli.

I added the swiss cheese directly to the noodles and milk and stirred.  It is only 3 thin sliced pieces.

Then I added the cheddar and the mustard and the onion powder. (about 1 Tbl mustard and 1/2 tsp onion poweder.)

See how creamy.  You could serve it like this, but I wanted the broccoli in there.

So I dumped it over the top of the broccoli and then added a tiny bit (about 1/4 cup) milk over the top, to make sure there was enough liquid to cook the broccoli.

Crush a few of these.  I only used a very small few.  One handful is enough for the whole top of the casserole, and of course, you can leave this off.  You can also use toasted bread crumbs or panko.

I also added the last of the cheese.

bake at 375 for about 20 min. until the top is golden.

Lower Sugar Cafe Rio Style Chicken

I love the Cafe Rio style chicken and pork.  However the two dominant recipes that I have seen call for either tons of brown sugar, or tons of brown sugar PLUS cola!  That is so much sugar for a diabetic or dieter to contend with.  The easy solution was to replace the sugar with Splenda or some other sugar replacement, (and I have done this in the past with great results) but I didn't want that.  I really wanted something that just used basic ingredients.   I used a can of pineapple for the sweetener.  It worked like a dream.  It added just enough sweetness to balance the salsa, without overpowering it.  Intrigued? Try it yourself.  You don't need tons of sugar to have tons of flavor- and a natural sugar, well that's just icing on the cake. :)

Yummy Chicken Burrito - that won't make your sugar levels sky rocket!

This is what you need for the meat- 5 ingredients. 

I added a little over 1/2 the bottle of salsa to 4 large chicken breasts.

Then I added the entire can of crushed pineapple including the juice.

add 2 Tsp. minced garlic along with 3 Tbl Worcestershire and 2 tsp. liquid smoke.

Cook on low for 8 hours.  Prepare to be hungry all day because it smells divine while it cooks.

I was going to use all of this for the dressing- I didn't.  I only used Mayo, 1/2 pkg ranch dip and the salsa Verde packets from Taco Bell.  okay- I love the salsa Verde from Taco Bell.  I collect the dumb little packets.  You can use any salsa Verde you like, but if you happen to go to Taco Bell, ask for a few of these babies and add them to your ranch dressing.  I promise that you won't regret it. 

Mix up the ranch dressing according to directions on your package and then add Salsa Verde. Mmmmnnnn. 

cut tomato, 2-3 green onions, including the white part. You can also add avocado. And I forgot to photograph the cheese, but don't forget that.

Black beans, drained and rinsed. I also forgot to photograph the corn.  I'm new at this photographing while I cook.  I'll get better. :)

shred the chicken.

Serve with lettuce on tortillas.

Or serve as a salad without the tortilla.  Both are delicious!