Hubby is diabetic, and balanced meals, controlling carbs and fats, and daily exercise are his main medicine.
He is also a foodie!
I plan our meals with these principles:
1. Use up what's already in the kitchen.
2. Serve fresh vegetables every day, for most meals.
3 Emphasize lean sources of protein such as legumes, fish and poultry.
4. Eat locally grown, and in season products, whenever possible.
On our plates, vegetables take up half the space, then protein, and finally, starch.
Breakfasts and snacks look like this:
one egg, one piece of toast, tomato--------------------------cucumber and cheese cubes
one pancake, berries, 1/2 C cottage cheese-------peanut butter and 1/2 apple
lean ham wrap with one tortilla, one orange---------- hummus and toast point
toast with ricotta cheese, half a banana-----broiled tomato/bacon on muffin
oatmeal with cut-up apple, milk-------------turkey, green peppers quesadilla
So, my shopping list will have the usual:
eggs
tortilla/bread/muffins, all all multi-grain
fruit
milk and cheeses
peanut butter
hummus (make your own if you can!)
Breakfasts and all meals are small, and so are the snacks we eat if we get hungry before the next meal.
For lunch and dinner:
Salads with grilled fish or chichen, or legumes.
Soup-homemade stock with added sauteed vegetables and similar protein or half a sandwich with protein
Pasta, rice, barley, cous-cous, farro, with legumes, greens, or meat sauce
I have a rotating set of recipes and spice up the menu once in a while by adding new vegetables, a different starch.
Open the refrigerator today and pull out everything that needs to be used up and invent a dish. Look at the item, and ask yourself, what goes well with this? What can I add to spice it up?
Try to recreate something you had at a restaurant, at a friend's house. The more you cook, the better cook you will become.
