The best diet for optimal blood sugar control & health
Author: Emma
Emma Baird is an award-winning writer, specialising in romcoms and fiction that focuses on relationships, and a type 1 diabetic. She is also the co-author of The Diabetes Diet, co-written with a doctor. Most importantly, she is the guardian of one very spoiled cat…
So just a couple days ago I posted one of my recipes for making sushi sandwiches for your Super Bowl Party and had a few people remark that they didn’t like nori or didn’t like the idea of sushi without fish. Well, I thought I would post what is essentially the same recipe with cling wrap replacing the nori. Yes this is a basic recipe but there was a time that I didn’t know how to do this and hopefully I can reach some people that this will help as well.
Are you getting enough fish in your low carb diet? Fish is an excellent source of protein and Omega-3 fatty acids while being relatively low calorie. This recipe is the epitome of healthy living while still eating good food. Try it out and see what everyone I know is raving about.
Dem bones, dem bones, demo bones make damn fine stock.
Ever since abandoning vegetarianism (it was fun while it lasted, but not the best option for my health), I have been obsessed with home-made stock…
When I first added it to recipes, I couldn’t believe how much flavour it adds to a dish. And it’s so good for you because you get the vitamins and minerals from the bones and vegetables if you have cooked your stock for long enough.
Home-made stock is what makes home-made soup really special – and the reason why you can never buy a factory-made soup that tastes anywhere near as good. Nope, even those expensive cartons can’t measure up to good, home-made soup.
A new recipe I tried recently was a spin on another dish I make for myself frequently – spicy prawn curry. If I add this, instead of this and I up the quantity of this, I’ll get… You know the kind of thing keen cooks like to do. The result is this lovely soup, which is perfect for this time of year.
The obvious point to make is that I have used chicken and not fish stock for this recipe. I think of chicken stock as a universal stock – you can use it for any dish and you are more likely to have the basis of chicken rather than fish stock. Allow roughly 5g of carbs per serving.
Melt the coconut oil in large saucepan and add the celery. Cook gently for five minutes until softened.
Add the tinned tomatoes, stock, dried chillies, turmeric, ginger and chopped creamed coconut and bring the mixture to the boil. Turn down the heat and leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes. The mixture should reduce somewhat and you’ll be left with a spicy, fragrant and thickened liquid.
Chop the fish fillets into big, even-sized chunks (about 2ins chunks) and add to the soup. Leave the heat on for a minute or so and then turn off the heat and cover the saucepan for a lid. Leave for five minutes – this should be enough to cook the fish through.
This one is for my vegetarian readers out there that have seen a lot of meat-based soups in the last couple of months. Apologies for getting carried away with bacon, but honestly, what else do I have in the world when I can no longer binge on potato chips?
Does the idea of New Year resolutions send shivers down your spine..? It does mine.
For a start, January is a dull, dreich month here in Scotland and the thought of piling on misery in the form of Spartan eating and the like of boot camps can only make the month even more difficult to endure. And anyway, why choose one particular day for self-improvement when you could choose any day?
Having said all that (!), I did resolve to make Tabata training a regular part of my life this year. I wrote about Tabata training recently and the research I did for the article impressed me – particularly on the benefits of high-intensity interval training for type 1 and type 2 diabetics.
Ah, Christmas… Someone somewhere in the land of global food production decided that Christmas should be synonymous with chocolate.
From chocolate Santas to selection boxes and low-priced giant boxes of Quality Street, Celebrations, Miniature Heroes et all, chocolate is all around us.
[And as soon as it’s over, watch your supermarket rush to stock up on Easter eggs and chocolate bunny rabbits.]
I tried a new recipe out over Christmas that I found on Maria’s Mind, Body, Health – a ketogenic lifestyle website – which was billed as a kind of fudge recipe.
I didn’t find the recipe gave a fudge-like texture or taste (unlike this recipe here), but stored in the freezer it does take on chocolate-like consistency, including a snap when you break it apart.
This recipe doesn’t make large quantities (and like many low-carb sweet recipes, it is pricey to make) but it is very rich and pretty calorific, thanks to the large amounts of fat it contains. I’ve suggested that it will give you roughly six servings, with a carb count of approximately 6g per serving.
It looks like chocolate, it tastes like chocolate…
250g coconut oil (1 cup)
75mls full-fat coconut milk (1/4 cup)*
2-3tbsp granulated sweetener (about ¼ cup)
3tbsp unsweetened cocoa or cacoa powder
Pinch salt
1/2tsp vanilla extract
Line a small, square baking tray (about 8ins or 20cm square) with baking parchment.
Place the coconut oil and coconut milk in a large non-metallic bowl and microwave for 20-30 seconds, just to soften the oil sufficiently.
Mix well with an electric mixer and add the sweetener, vanilla extract and salt. Add the cocoa or cacoa powder and mix gently with the mixer switched off until it is mostly mixed in and then put the mixer back on and mix until well combined. You should have a very glossy, smooth mix.
Pour into the prepared tray and tap gently to even it out. Place the tray in the freezer and leave for about an hour/one hour and 15 mins.
Tip the “chocolate” out of the tray and break into pieces. Store it in small bags in the freezer. You can eat it straight from the freezer (eating it so cold also minimises the after-taste you get from sweeteners).
*To avoid wasting coconut milk (which you usually buy in tins), buy creamed coconut and make up the amount you need. 100g creamed coconut dissolved in 400ml boiling water makes 400ml coconut milk, so roughly 20g creamed coconut will make 75ml.
Of course, you could always buy yourself some very strong plain chocolate – 85 percent cocoa solids chocolate is much lower in sugar than normal, commercial chocolate for example – but where’s the fun in that?! In addition, this recipe gives you dairy-free, gluten-free and soya free chocolate.
Here at the Diabetes Diet we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best in 2015.
Is this your year for committing to a low-carb lifestyle to help you manage your blood sugar levels? If so, you’ll find plenty of resources on this website to help you, but there is also detailed advice and guidance (including how to manage your medications when low-carbing) in the Diabetes Diet book.
(Forgive our little plug…)
In the meantime, we hope the New Year brings you a whole lot of good health and happiness.
Now that the expense of Christmas is over and done with, you might be looking at belt-tightening all round – and that might include your food budget too.
Eating low-carb can be expensive as cheap ingredients such as rice, potatoes, bread, pasta and beans are often used in meals as the filler – think lasagne, chilli con carne and shepherd’s pie for instance. Meat and fish can be expensive, but there are ways to eat a low-carb diet without incurring huge grocery bills. Continue reading “Seven Tips for Budget Low-Carb Eating”→
Morning – is anyone feeling a little fragile this a.m. thanks to too much seasonal indulgence yesterday..?!
The Diabetes Diet has the perfect solution for you – a low-carb breakfast packed with vitamins and minerals, and very delicious too. With its kick of spice, this dish will help blow away the cobwebs and have you firing on all cylinders once more.
This recipe serves one, but can obviously be doubled up.
Pinch dried chilli flakes (add more or less, according to how spicy you like your food
½ tin chopped tomatoes (roughly 200g)
2tbsp grated strong cheese (Parmesan or a mature cheddar)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Melt the butter in a small frying/omelette pan and add the diced peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally until softened (about five minutes).
Add the tomatoes, garlic and chilli flakes. Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer and leave, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. You should be left with a thick sauce. Make two indentations in the mixture and crack the eggs in. Leave until the whites are set – about five minutes. (You may need to move the whites around a little to cook.)
Add a little salt and pepper and top with the grated cheese. Place under a pre-heated grill until the cheese is melted.
This is delicious with some salad on the side or on top of steamed broccoli. Allow roughly 10-15g carbs per serving.
Super Bowl Roll-A-Wrap
Diabetes Diet 