Tag: diabetes diet

Low Carb Side Dishes

Emma8 Comments

diabetes dietHave you been caught out by the vegetable shortage in the shops? British supermarkets have run short of courgettes, spinach and other salad items thanks to bad weather in Spain and Italy.

If you follow a low-carb diet, you probably rely more on such vegetables than the average person. I decided to see what I could do with Scottish ingredients. The Diet Doctor website features a lot of cabbage, including main course and side dishes that use this vegetable. Most supermarkets stock Scottish or British-grown cabbage so there are no issues there with availability.

The Diet Doctor’s Cabbage Casserole can be made exclusively with Scottish ingredients, supporting our farmers and growers. I adapted the recipe slightly and here it is. Allow about 10g net carbs per serving and serve with pork chops, roast chicken legs or steak.

Please note – you’ll need a large saucepan because 450g cabbage is bulky. It reduces in size as it cooks.

Cabbage Casserole

  • Servings: 3
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 450g green or white cabbage, shredded
  • ½ medium-sized onion, sliced
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 150ml sour cream
  • 50g butter
  • 75g grated cheese
  • 75g soft cheese, such as Philadelphia
  • Salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the cabbage and onion and mix well to coat in the butter.

Cook gently for about seven minutes. You want the vegetables to be softened but not browned. Add salt and pepper and the garlic and cook for one minute more.

Mix the sour cream and soft cheese. Stir into the cabbage. Place the mixture in an ovenproof dish, top with the grated cheese, a good helping of black pepper and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.

PS – I thought I’d try this on my green vegetable hating husband, convinced that the cream and cheese would convert him. It didn’t work…

Mediterranean Trout with Kale

Emma6 Comments

diabetes dietInspired by the Diet Doctor – if you ever need low-carb recipe ideas this site is amazing – I created my own version of one of their recipes this week.

And, whisper it, I think mine’s better! I swapped salmon for trout fillets which brings down the cost substantially, replaced spinach with crispy kale and gave the dish an overall Mediterranean feel with some basil.

You end up with an extremely low-carb dish – about 3g net carbs – that’s also delicious and really filling. I bought my trout from Costco where I was able to buy a giant fillet that I cut up into eight 150g portions.

Kale is packed with vitamins and minerals – including beta carotene, and vitamins K and C – while trout has plenty of Omega 3s and B vitamins.

Mediterranean Trout with Kale

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 2 x 150g trout fillets
  • 4tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
  • 1tbsp tomato puree
  • 200g kale
  • 2tbsp butter
  • Salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees C. Season the fish and place them on a baking sheet lined with grease-proof paper or foil, skin side down.

Mix the mayonnaise, tomato puree and basil and spread the mixture evenly over the two fillets. Cook in the oven for 12-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets.

Five minutes before the end of the fish cooking time, heat a large saucepan or work with the butter. Add the kale and plenty of seasoning and cook until softened.

Serve with the fish.

 

Buy Our Book!

EmmaLeave a comment
diabetes diet
The Diabetes Diet is now available in paperback and e-book.

Forgive our wee plug – but if you’re looking for a comprehensive explanation of how you can use low-carb eating to help with diabetes (type 1 and type 2), we’ve got the answer with our book, The Diabetes Diet. 

How can it help you? If you’re a type 2, we give you detailed menu plans for different levels of carb intakes and lots of recipes, including plenty of baking and treats so you don’t feel as if you’re missing out on anything.

The missing link with many low carb diet plans is that they don’t tell you what happens if you take insulin or any other blood glucose lowering medication. (Hypos!) Our book explains how you manage your medication to prevent or minimise that and how you work out how much medication you need to take for protein. Yes, that needs taking care of too.

We also include some case studies of people who’ve used a low-carb diet to manage their diabetes and how it has helped them, including one from a vegan…

It doesn’t cost much and it might help you a lot.

Thanks in advance! Emma and Katharine.

 

Low Carb Diets and Microwaves

Emma3 Comments
We treated ourselves to a new cat bed, I mean microwave, in the January sales.
We bought a new cat bed, I mean microwave, in the January sales.

We treated ourselves to a new microwave recently – spending a whole £50 on one from Wilko.

Microwaves are great when it comes to low-carb diets and cutting down time in the kitchen. You can cook fish fillets in minutes in a microwave. Just remember to cover them up properly or you’ll find it difficult to get rid of the smell. Microwave half a lemon on high for a minute and this will help clean the microwave and banish fishy smells.

You can also poach eggs in a microwave. Crack an egg onto a greased saucer, prick the yolk a couple of times with a fork and cook at about 80 percent in three to four 20-second bursts, leaving the egg to rest for 20 seconds or so in between. It’s really important to prick the yolk and cook the egg in short bursts to stop it exploding…

Cook omelettes the same way. Beat up two to three eggs with a little milk or cream and pour onto a greased side or dinner plate. Cook in 20 and 30-second bursts until cooked.

You can also make scrambled eggs, again cooking the eggs in bursts and mixing well in between to break up the big ‘curds’ that develop. Cook them in a greased bowl, for easier cleaning.

Another trick is to use the microwave to soften avocados – you know, those ones you bought from the supermarket that promised you they were ready to eat?! Prick the skin all over and microwave on a medium or low setting in 30-second bursts. It should feel softer – if not, give it one more 30-second blast until it is.

The microwave can cook you a cupcake – a literal cupcake that it. We’ve got a low-carb recipe for a chocolate version here. And if you want to make our low-carb chocolate fudge, you can soften the ingredients in the microwave for mixing together.

For more low-carb microwave ideas, try the Spark People website for meatloaf, bread meatballs, egg custard and more.

Do you have any low-carb tips for microwaves? Please feel free to share them here.

 

 

 

Creamy Leeks & The Moggie Sous Chef

Emma4 Comments

wp-image-1732445482jpg.jpgI’ll ‘fess up. The real reason I wanted to do this blog was so I could post a cute picture of my cat acting as the sous chef.

As cat owners will know, moggies love supervising in the kitchen. They get to sit up high with a bird’s eye view of everything, it’s nice and warm and there’s always the chance their owner might not pay full attention, allowing for the stealth theft of meat or cheese.

Non-cat owners might balk. This doesn’t look hygienic, I grant you. But pets are brilliant for your immune system as it gets to practise fighting germs on a small scale and makes it better prepared for bigger assaults.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The recipe is for creamy baked leeks, based on a Jamie Oliver recipe I adapted. It goes well with a roast chicken leg or on top of a steak.

Creamy Baked Leeks

  • Servings: 3-4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 1 large leek, washed and sliced
  • 1 onion, finely sliced
  • 1tbsp butter
  • 1tbsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 150ml double cream
  • 100g extra mature cheddar, grated
  • Salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the onions and leeks. Turn down the heat and cook gently, stirring from time to time, for seven minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for another couple of minutes.

Tip the lot into a bowl and add the grated cheese, cream and some salt and pepper. You won’t need much salt as the cheese is salty.

Pop in a shallow, oven-proof dish and cook in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees C) for 20 minutes.

Recipe contains about 10g net carbs per serving for three.

 

 

Exercise and Type 1 Diabetes

EmmaLeave a comment
Walk those blood sugar levels down.
Walk those blood sugar levels down.

A very small (six people!) study out last week revealed that type 1 diabetics might benefit from exercise.

Often, studies confirm what people have known for years, but additional confirmation can be comforting. The study comes with the usual caveat – further research is needed – but what it basically says is that the six people with type 1 diabetes who were monitored over three months had better blood sugar control, needed less insulin and had fewer hyperglycaemic episodes than the seven who did no exercise”.

The study was carried out by American and Italian researchers. It focused on middle-aged people using insulin pumps. It gathered information on metabolic activity, and inflammatory and autoimmune parameters.

Educational Programme Including Exercise

The researchers concluded that studies on greater numbers of people were needed, but the study’s co-author Dr Livio Luzi said an educational programme for type 1 diabetics that focused on “insulin injection monitoring, diet and exercise” would be highly advantageous.

The findings are to be published in an article in Cell Transplantation.

No Need to Huff and Puff

Do you need any further encouragement? You could wait for the further studies, or you could just decide exercise will benefit you anyway and do it until you hear otherwise.

One further point that the Diabetes Diet likes to make – exercise doesn’t need to be horrible. If you hate huffing and puffing (and I certainly do), don’t do it. If you don’t enjoy something, you are unlikely to keep it up. Walking is effective – see this news article on the benefits of a brisk 10-minute walk after meals for type 2s – as is anything that involves moving about, bending, lifting and stretching such as housework and gardening.

Lifting weights is also beneficial for anyone with diabetes (type 1 or type 2) because it can help build or preserve muscle mass, which makes you more sensitive to insulin.

 

 

A Day of Very Low-Carb Eating

Emma2 Comments

What does a day of very low-carb eating look like? Bacon and eggs, chicken salad and then steak, blue cheese sauce and green beans?!

Okay, some of the low-carb clichés work well. I don’t mind bacon and eggs in some form for breakfast every day. Otherwise, I might have low-carb bread (and you can see our great recipe for this here) with butter and Marmite, or I have smoked salmon or leftovers from the night before.

Whisper it: I’m not fussed about steak. A great burger, on the other hand… I’m also keen on turkey, particularly turkey mince which is very versatile. Turkey tacos, turkey chilli, turkey burgers and turkey curry are regular features in my house.

Bacon and egg.

Two rashers of back bacon, chopped up and fried in a little egg. Once they have cooked, I add in one large egg and mix it up. The whole thing takes less than 10 minutes to make.

2g carbs

Prawns and vegetables

imageI made my own Marie Rose sauce (2tbsp mayonnaise, a teaspoon of tomato puree and a dash of Tabasco), and mixed this with 100g king prawns. I served this with salad and steamed broccoli. I also had some dry-roasted peanuts.

10g carbs

Turkey steaks in mushroom sauce

I had one and half turkey steaks, diced with a cream sauce. The sauce was made from mushrooms fried in a little butter. I added a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard, 250ml double cream and some salt. (I used about a quarter of this sauce.) I served it with steamed cauliflower and salad.

8g carbs

atkins-barI finished with an Atkins bar – the chocolate coconut one that’s a bit like a Bounty bar. These bars are controversial in low-carb circles. They are heavily processed, after all. However, I really love the coconut chocolate one and I count 8g of carbs per bar, not the 2g of net carbs the label claims*.

8g carbs

 

 

 

*You need to figure this out yourself. The nutritional information for the Atkins bar subtracts polyols (the sugar alcohol used as a sweetener) from the total to give you the net carb content, but some people find polyols do affect their blood sugar levels.

Spicy Peanut Pork

Emma2 Comments

diabetes dietPeanut butter is one of my favourite foods. Of course it’s incredible on toast, but toast is out of bounds when you are low-carbing. It’s great as a snack though with apple slices or sticks of celery. You can choose the worthy peanut butter – the stuff without sugar or salt – but I suspect most people love the cheap stuff. I find most own-brand peanut butter indistinguishable from the brand leaders.

Anyway, I created a new recipe this week – Peanut Pork. It’s basically a satay sauce type recipe that makes the most of peanut butter and pork, two ingredients I really love. You can double it up easily enough to serve more people.

Spicy Peanut Pork

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 200g, pork shoulder steak
  • 50g creamed coconut
  • 1 tbs, coconut oil
  • 75g crunchy peanut butter
  • 2 spring onions, sliced
  • 75g baby sweetcorn chopped in half
  • 1 medium red pepper, sliced
  • 50g mange tout
  • 300mls boiling water
  • 2 red chillies, finely sliced (keep the seeds if you like your food spicier)
  • Salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Cut the pork steak into evenly-sized cubes (about two centimetre squared).

Melt the coconut oil in a wok and add the spring onions, pepper and baby sweetcorn. Stir-fry for five minutes.

Chop the creamed coconut up and add this and the peanut butter to the boiled water. Whisk well to combine. Add this to the vegetables and bring to a simmer. Add the pork and allow to simmer for five minutes. Add the mange tout and simmer for another five minutes.

Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

Serve with cauliflower rice or in bowls with a spoon.

Allow 20g of carbs per portion.

Dana Carpender: Low Carbing on a Budget

kaitiscotland3 Comments

Dana, how can you follow a low carb meal plan if you are on a tight budget?

Well, first, you’re going to have to cook. 🙂

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A year or two after I went low carb, my husband started grad school, and had to reduce to part time hours. I was not yet writing for a living. The budget was definitely slim.

I find the greatest friend my food budget has is a freezer. Even a little one, maybe 5 cubic feet, lets you take advantage of loss-leader sales and markdowns. As I type this, mine is full of chicken thighs I bought at 49c/pound and pork shoulder I bought for 99c/pound – oh, and bacon that went down to $1.99. I am not above buying meat that’s been marked down because it’s nearing the pull-by date; that’s how we afford rib-eye steak now and then. One delirious day I got 10 pounds of bacon and 8 pounds of pork sausage because they’d all been marked down to 99c/pound for clearance. Indeed, I rarely buy meat at full price. Heck, I have a turkey in there that was marked down to 79c/pound after the holidays. It’ll be great smoked on the grill this summer.

You’re thinking “How do I afford a freezer?” Check Craigslist; our big chest freezer (and by “big” I mean I could fit a body in it if it weren’t full of marked-down meat) cost us $125 and the hauling; it has saved us that many times over. It’s run beautifully for 6-7 years now. Do shop for one that’s fairly recent vintage; it will cost you less in electricity. You can also shop scratch-and-dent stores. Prices run higher, but you may get a warranty.

Keep in mind that your body doesn’t care if you get your protein from those 49c/pound chicken thighs or from lobster tail. It will be just as happy with cabbage as with out-of-season lettuce. Speaking of seasons, even today there is some seasonal variation in food prices. Take advantage of them.  We just stocked up on eggs when they were cheap at Easter; eggs are great any time of day. When Kerrygold butter went on sale, I bought 6 packages.

I’m a dinosaur; I still get a dead-tree newspaper daily, so I see the weekly grocery store flyers. As a result, I know when Aldi has avocados at 49c a pound, and when Lucky’s has a sale on prime rib – yes, I got a prime rib roast for $4.99/pound. That’s roughly half the usual price. I also try to be aware of who has the best prices on what on a day-to-day basis. We go through a lot of pork rinds, so it’s more than worth it to drive 20 minutes across town to Aldi, where they cost 99c a bag, instead of $2.99 a bag at the nearest grocery store. I buy them a case at a time. If you don’t get a paper, see if you can get the local grocery store circulars online.

Don’t waste food. As I said above, I eat leftovers a lot. I also save the bones from my chicken and steaks in plastic grocery sacks in the freezer, and turn them into broth when I have a bagful.

Most low carb speciality foods are pricey, and none of them are essential.

Two more thoughts:

One, many carby foods are expensive. I have long thought of cold cereal as a conspiracy to get suckers to pay $4 for 15c worth of grain. How much did the potatoes in that bag of chips cost? Why do you think pizza places keep bragging about their crust, or offering “free” Crazy Bread? They can appear generous while sucking dollars out of your pocket for something that cost them pennies. Cut the expensive carby junk out of your food budget, and you’ll have more money for bacon and eggs.

And two, any food that makes you fat, hungry, tired, and sick wouldn’t be cheap if they were giving it away.

 

Dana Carpender is the author of nine cookbooks, including the best-selling 500 Low-Carb Recipes.

 

Low-Carb Pizza

Emma10 Comments

low-carb pizzaLow-carb pizza for dinner? Anyone who follows a low-carb diet for diabetes is probably familiar with the work of Dr Andreas Eenfeldt.

The Swedish practitioner set up the Diet Doctor blog in 2007. The blog is now the most popular health blog in Scandinavia and the website offers all kinds of useful resources for those wanting to take up a low carb high fat diet. There are expert videos, how to courses and lots of recipes.

I decided to try one out this week – for low-carb pizza. This version uses aubergine slices to replace the bread. I adapted it slightly, but you can see the original recipe here.

Don’t forget that our book, The Diabetes Diet contains plenty of low-carb recipes and advice on how to adjust your medication when you embark on a low carb diet, which applies to those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Low Carb Pizza

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 1 aubergine, medium to large
  • 200g minced beef (use pork or turkey if you prefer)
  • 200g tinned tomatoes
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • ½ small onion
  • 150g grated cheese – use a mix of mozzarella and cheddar for the best taste)
  • ½ tbsp. dried oregano
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Slice the aubergines length-wise about ⅓–½ inches (1 cm) thick. Coat with olive oil and bake in oven for about 20 minutes or until they turn a little in colour. Turn them half-way through cooking.

Fry the meat, finely chopped onion and garlic in pan until the onions have softened the meat is browned. Add the tomato sauce and seasoning. Let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes or more.

Remove the aubergine slices from the oven and spread the meat mixture on top. Sprinkle with cheese and oregano. Place in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Serve with a green salad.

Allow roughly 10-13g of carbohydrates per portion.