Peanut Butter Sesame Balls

Some of you have asked for the recipe for these delicious little nuggets.

Peanut Butter Sesame Balls

 

 

I have to admit, they are one of my favorite snacks.  They are healthy and sweet and guilt free.  They come from this book

This was one of the first things I asked my mom to buy me when I got married.  It was out of print, so she had to search thrift stores and garage sales.  I think she finally found it on Amazon, although I'm not sure where she found it.  I just know it was a brand spanking new copy of my very own.  It was originally printed in 1973 and my copy was printed in 1977.  I think it was last printed in 1982.  You can find it here.

Anyway, I love it.  If you cook vegan, vegetarian, whole foods, or just plain healthy foods, this book has recipes.  It also has loads of ideas for using food storage items. It is a Natural Foods Cookbook that actually has good tasting recipes. 

I wrote to Rhodale Press and asked if I could share my favorite recipe with you.  The answer was YES!  I'm so excited. 

I'm not including pictures today. The recipe is really simple.  It is packed with protein, and not from whey powder either, (which I never seem to have).  I bet you have the ingredients in your pantry right now. 

3/4 C Peanut Butter
1/2 C Honey
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 C skim milk powder
1 C Oatmeal (not cooked)
1/4 C Toasted Sesame seeds
2 Tbl boiling water

Chopped nuts, sesame seeds, carob or cocoa powder or coconut for rolling (optional)

Combine Peanut butter, honey, and vanilla and blend thoroughly.

Mix milk powder and oatmeal together and add slowly to peanut butter mixture. Blend in sesame seeds.

Add the water, blending well.

Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in nuts or carob powder. 

I like them best cold, so I refrigerate or freeze before eating. If I don't have sesame seeds, I have used wheat germ instead.  A little different texture but no real difference in flavor.  Also, I have added coconut and I have omitted the sesame seeds.  The recipe is highly adaptable. 

You can toast your sesame seeds in a pre-heated 200 degree oven for 20 minutes.

The recipe says that it yields about 3 dozen, but I always eat so many while I am making them, that I do not get this many. lol

My kids like this too.  Super easy to make, and much much better then a bag of cookies or chips. :)

Another Food Log

Are you so excited?  Can you believe anyone posts pictures of what they eat every day?  Can you think of anything more stimulating?  Okay, all sarcasm aside, this log does help me stay on track, so thank you for reading it.  I hope it is still helping you.  :)

Breakfast was interesting. I test my glucose levels fasting, and they were right in line so I grabbed 2 peanut butter balls and started my day.  Peanut butter balls are really filling.  I forgot to eat a regular breakfast and after getting the family to where everyone needed to be, went ahead and worked out.  No breakfast and a hard 45 min. workout.  Duh!

After my work out, I realized that I hadn't eaten.  I tested my sugars and I was at 74.  Yeah, I was low.  But for only 2 peanut butter balls, I wasn't too bad.  That peanut butter probably saved my bacon. lol.  I grabbed a Skor Bar.  I only had 1/3 of it and gave the rest away.  (Kids you know.)  Anyway, it was just the right amount.  But I have to be more careful.

For lunch I had left-over stir fry.  It's not as pretty as a left over. lol  Anyway, I didn't feel like making rice, so I put it over chow mien noodles.  Ideally I would have over brown rice, but this was okay too.

Snack time with my low sugar, coconut ice cream bar. 100 calories of yummy.

5 crackers before dinner to keep me going.

taco casserole. Yum.  Lots of lettuce on bottom.

My favorite little pick-me-up, frozen blueberries.  So good.

A couple handfuls of cereal, because it was easy, out and I wanted a snack.  Better than chips I guess.

You Can't Forget to Eat When You Are Diabetic

So yesterday, I forgot to eat lunch.  I had snacked some, but lunch just slipped past me.  Turns out, that is really not smart.  Snacks do not take the place of a good meal.  Lesson learned.  My sugar levels are finally evening out this morning, but the headache and the nasty feeling of nauseousness, it stinks. So there you go.  Don't skip meals.

I made a smoothie using frozen strawberries and slimfast and almond milk.  It was good, but it didn't keep me as full as the Attain shake does.  Since the attain also comes in strawberry, I am going to order some of that.  Don't get me wrong, the slimfast works. But the Attain does a better job at keeping my sugar levels even and keeping me full.  Additionally, they have added a GC control line which is designed for keeping sugar levels even and they have a Caramel Creme Brulee that looks fabulous, so I think I am going to invest in a few more shake flavors.

Just a few in the car to keep me from having a sugar crash, *wink*

This is a no-sugar added fruit bar.  It's only 25 calories, but it is tasty and cool. Yeah for tangerine.

 

Probably the best snack I had this day.  1 cheese stick.

Okay, I am weak- yes, I had some animal cookies. 

About the time that I realized that I had missed lunch, it was already 3:00.  I thought some whole wheat toast would be enough.  It really wasn't, but it helped.

Dinner was stir-fry over rice with some chow mien noodles.  I should have ditched the noodles.  I couldn't stop eating them.  Sugar levels were at 136 after dinner.  Too high, and it could have been avoided.  Oh well.  As you can see, one of the easiest ways to know if a meal is diabetic friendly- is the color test.  I strive to add as many colors as I can to my meals. Greens, reds, yellows, purples; lots of colors generally means lots of fruits and vegetables.  It's not the only indicator, but it is a helpful tip.

Pickles are yummy.

It took me 4 days, but I finally finished my cheesecake.

Salsa is a "free" food for a diabetic or a dieter.  I eat it with veggies, on cottage cheese and over eggs. 

But that night, I had corn chips. :)

I like this stuff now.  Who knew?

2 days in 1

Because my internet was down, I didn't blog my meals for Thursday.  So I will combine Thursday and Friday here.  I had a visit with the nurse practitioner at my doctor's office yesterday.  I have not lost weight!@!! Yeah!!!!  I have not gained weight. !! Yeah!!!!!  So everybody is happy!!!  This means I am probably striking close to the right balance on my meal plan.  Now in normal circumstances the meal plan I am on, would probably cause me to lose weight.  And actually my scale says I lost 3 lbs, but since my doctor's scale didn't say that, all the world is happy. lol

So Thursday, I was pretty good and kept my levels decent, although a little high after dinner.  However Friday, well, I did well for breakfast and dinner, but lunch?  Ha ha -- it was splurge day. :)

Started out pretty normal.  I had some cheerios and almond milk.

Lunch was simple, PB&J on whole grain with 1/2 a banana.  As you can see I split the plate with my youngest.  PB&J is really hard on sugar levels, so I can't have a whole sandwich, but I really wanted one, so I just ate less.

You will notice there wasn't a snack, and dinner is pretty small.  I fell on Saturday.  I mean epic parking lot fall.  I didn't think that anything more than my skinned knee would show up.  Wednesday night the back pain started. By Thursday I could barely move.  I have a hard time eating when I am in pain. All I want to do is sleep.  So cooking was out of the question.  I pulled out some chicken patties and made the family sandwiches and then grabbed easy sides.  I chose not to have a bun.  Then I had 2 bites of the patty and chose not to eat that either.  I don't know what that was, but it was not chicken!  Anyway.  I ate the cheese and the rest of what you see on this plate, plus another helping of beans.

Later, when I got hungry, I had 2 handfuls of this.  Yep, straight out of the box.  Come on guys- this is real life. We all sometimes just eat some cereal out of the box. :)

Breakfast on Friday started out normal. A yummy protein shake with banana and strawberries added to the mix.

Lunch was Red Robin.  This is the burger that I had. I ate it all- well almost. I also had sweet potato fries and part of my child's strawberry shake.  Yes, I did just have an entire day's worth of calories at one sitting, and I enjoyed it. 

I had 2 for a snack and then 2 after dinner. Yummy.

Dinner was yummy and diabetic friendly. A little rice, some fresh pineapple and 2 grilled chicken kabobs.  I will post the recipe later. It was yummy.  Later that night I started to feel really sick.  I tested my blood sugar and it was only at 74.  OUCH!  Seth made me a pancake and fried egg, pronto. I felt much better. :)

Seth's Amazing Asian Wraps

Last year my good friend Liz came to stay with me for a few days.  While she was in town she made me Asian Wraps.  They were so fast and easy and YUMMY.  I have been obsessed with them every since.  I make them whenever I have a little extra lunch meat. My husband makes them a little differently than I do.  He made them last night and they were beautiful and tasty.  I'm going to show how he does it, as it is easy and fast.  I make my own sauce, but he used a bottled sauce.  For right now that is okay with me, because the carbs, sugars and calories are already counted for me on the bottle.  I will go to work at making a sugar-free sauce soon.  If anyone is interested I'll post that at a later date.

This is what we are making.

So delicious.

 Basically just chop your favorite veggies and some lunch meat, and mix with a peanut sauce.  You can use any Asian sauce but we like peanut. spoon into large leaves of lettuce and enjoy.  It is that easy.  It is a yummy summer meal, as it doesn't heat up your kitchen.  My boys will even eat this, and they are meat eaters, not rabbits. lol 

Seth used shredded carrots, broccoli slaw mix, and I think he forgot the celery, but normally, he would add that.  I would also add sliced almonds and cucumbers, but Seth doesn't like cucumbers, and he was cooking. :)  I would also add green onions.

This is the sauce he used.  After chopping the meat and adding the veggies, he added almost the entire bottle of peanut sauce. I would say 3/4.

I like turkey best in Asian wraps.  Seth chopped his and added to the veggies. I normally just add a few slices to the top of each wrap.  What can I say? I'm lazy that way.

Seth likes ham, so he added that too.

The first Meal Log

Day one wasn't so bad.  I don't have my snacks shown, so I'll tell you what they were and try to do better in the future.  My early day snack was a small handful of dry roasted peanuts along with an equal portion of craisins. I'd say about 2 tbl of each.  My late snack was more substantial.  I realized I was only at 1000 calories for the entire day, so I had a cheese sandwich on whole wheat, plus 4 (count 'em) sour cream and chive potato chips.  I also had a few peanut butter balls. (although mine have some oats in them for extra fiber) So this is a very incomplete vision of day one.
 With that said, here we go:

 Lunch was cucumbers filled with tuna salad. I used less mayo and added some lemon juice to add flavor and reduce the fat.  I also used a little low fat mozzarella cheese.  I cut a tomato down the center and stuffed it with cottage cheese.  A little seasoning salt on top.  Then I chose to add 5 saltines, because the carbs do help fill me up.

Dinner was 1/2 a chicken breast, a salad with all the veggies I could find and a slice of watermelon.  Watermelon isn't always the best choice for those watching sugar levels, but since I skipped a starch in the meal I figured it was fine.

So that was day one.  Exciting stuff, huh?