Cooking for diabetics.

When Hubby was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, I got my marching orders: Control his carbs! Yes, indeed, I took those orders seriously. Controlling carbs is what allows a person to enjoy life and most foods. Since he and I enjoy a glass of wine with our dinners, we needed strong strategies to succeed in our pursuit of happiness.

These are my strategies:

1. Provide small snacks between meals that curb the appetite and control his blood sugar.

2. Serve vegetables at every meal. Salads or vegetable soups are always served before a meal.  Dressings are homemade.

3. Meals are varied and based on seasonal vegetables. The plate:1/2 vegetables; 1/4 protein; 1/4 starchy vegetable or a grain.

So, here is yesterday's meal plan:

Breakfast:  Toasted whole wheat bread topped with sliced tomato, slice of par- broiled bacon, and 1/2  slice of cheese.

Morning snack: Yogurt and blackberries. (picked on our morning walk)

Lunch: Pot roast with cabbages, onions and carrots.

Afternoon snack: 1/4 apple, sliced and served  with peanut butter.

Dinner: Salad greens, mint, apples, pumpkin seeds, and oil and vinegar dressing, pot roast meat on the side, and 1/2 glass of cabernet.

Note: I cooked enough pot roast to serve as a main meal and a couple of small meals at another time. The rest of the pot roast will become a beef/vegetable soup for lunch today.
I make enough dressing to last me a couple of meals.

Recipes for an easy salad dressing: Double the recipe if you want enough dressing for a week.

1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 T of vinegar ( experiment with different ones)
1 teaspoon of sugar or Splenda
1 T chopped shallot or red onion

In a jar with a screw top, pour everything in and shake. Use a Tablespoon for each serving. Refrigerate the rest. Change vinegar for a new flavor. Use citrus juices and herbs to enhance a certain taste.

We have both lost weight and feel great with this diet. The best part? We are never hungry!


What if we crave a dessert?
We substitute it for the starch in our meal. So, instead of bread, or potatoes, or pasta at any meal, we can choose to have 1/2 cup of ice cream. 


The best part for me, the cook?  I don't have to cook separate meals!

Eating and walking and living, oh my!

We eat at least three times a day, day and night, day in and day out, year in and year out.  Within an hour of a meal, we start thinking about the next one. At work, the talk is more about what people eat and what they will cook that night. What to cook is on everyone's mind all the time.

When our children were little we  chose restaurants  where their favorite foods were served. When our first born was a toddler he refused to eat meat. Yet, at a cafeteria, he wanted to eat all kinds of meat dishes, to our delight and sighs of relief. Cafeterias became our go to place.

My husband is diabetic, so now our diet/food choices are a bit limited. If we want dessert, we eliminate potatoes of pasta or starches from our meal; and even then, we share that piece of cake, so the damage is minimal.

We are now balancing our lives better. We rest, we recreate, we exercise, all knowing that our choices will affect our health so intimately.  It took a lifetime for us to learn these lessons.

You'd think that there would be more information on nutrition and life choices in schools. All home economics classes have been eliminated years ago; health information is relegated to  short chapters  in science or health textbooks.

There is good news on the horizon with the new FDA food nutrition program in school cafeterias. Perhaps, the new generation will be fed better and have fewer health issues in their future.