What are your favorite Diabetic Friendly Recipes to cook on Special Occassions? (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years etc.)
I've found recently that just like me, most Diabetics excuse theirselves from the healthy diabetic foods. So I want to change my question on here, What meals do you like to cook for your family on a day to day basis? I'm looking for new recipes that's the reason I'm asking.
You know what? I will admit it. I'm "BAD". I don't have diabetic friendly holiday recipes. First off, since the 60s I've been (sort of) fortunate that when I am really, really happy, my blood sugar drops. It took my Mom years to figure it out - the thought of Santa coming would make me drop. Anyway, I eat the "real", yummy stuff in smaller portions of course. It tastes great and satisfies my hunger for something special. I feel "normal" and that was terrific when I was a kid. To be honest with you, I don't really like the taste of artificial sweeteners so a smaller portion of something tasty is wonderful. Sometimes it's hard top control myself, but that is part of life. We can't always have as much as we want.
I so agree with Cora. I absolutely despise "diabetic cookbooks." "Sugarless candy, low fat, low calorie tastes horrible, is full of chemicals and has as many, sometimes more, carbs than the real thing. I eat the real stuff--in very small quantities. I give up potatoes for a 1/2' slice of pie, etc. I am part of the crowd and it feels good.
That said, to diabetesize a meal--simple homemade veggies, salads, etc. can go a long way to remaining part of the crowd.
Well then maybe I should rephrase my question "What are some of your favorite things to cook?!"
Since I low carb the traditional recipes for dressing to go with turkey are off limits, so I was pleased when tuD member Gerri posted her dressing recipe. The key for me is to substitute this almond bread recipe for the cornbread I used to use.
Almond Bread-- 16 net grams for the entire recipe because it has 17 grams of fiber.1.5 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract( personally I skip the vanilla extract)
4 eggs
(Optional for using for stuffing--1/2 tsp liquid Splenda I use Fiberfit from netrition.com--zero carbs).Preheat oven to 325.
Put all ingredients in a blender & blend until smooth.
Pour batter into a well greased baking dish.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. It won't brown.
Let cool before removing from pan.
From there you can use the almond bread in your favorite recipe, I use it to make a sausage based dressing. I brought it to last years Thanksgiving and all the non diabetics got seconds and pronounced it excellent.
Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years etc..this is a time for me to enjoy life and my family. Nothing is off limits on those days. If I can eat right the rest of the year my A1c would be in normal range most of the year, but honestly life is short and I'm long on good food...I don't feel guilty about what I eat on Holidays, some other days, guilty, guilty, guilty.
The Almond Bread actually sounds pretty amazing :) Thank you for re-sharing the recipe with me, I will definitely be trying this one.
That's the way I've always felt about Holidays. I know growing up, as a kid with Diabetes that would be the only time that my parents would let me splurge on foods. So holidays were always nice for me :)
I wish this forum had a "like" button. Sometimes you just have to say "to he** with it" and have some (whatever). I just try to keep the "guilty" days to a minimum.
Exactly we shouldn't feel guilty for indulging ourselves on special occasions. Sad thing is when your sitting at whoever's house your at for those special occasions you look around and notice all your loved ones looking at you like "Should you be eating that?" or "Shouldn't you be counting your carbs?" I just normally sit back and laugh and say it's my life, I work hard the rest of the days of the year, today is my day to do whatever it is that I want to do.
i really like to use all the different types of squash to make snacks and soups. i soften the squash a bit on the hob and then blend it with heavy cream. for soups ill put ginger, curry, sometimes. my favourite thing to do with it is add the heavy cream and then a bit of spenda and cinnamon, some pine nuts or walnuts.
the squash has to be covered with insulin but its sweet enough to be a bit of a treat and pretty healthy.
I don't have recipes either. When I was on MDI (R/N...), I'd have what I'd later learn to have been a correction bolus in my leg and run up and down the stairs 10-12 times to get it going. These days I just fire up my insulin pump and "whatever" it. I pay attention to it though as I don't want to gain a bunch of weight through the season and I keep running through the winter to keep my metabolism cooking.
im also all for firing up the insulin-no one gets enough opportunities to eat pecan and pumkin pies-they should really be year round!
I could eat smaller portion of everything and estimate but I found that with my family it's too tricky. I usually make my own recipe to not feel exclude and know how much carbs there is in food. This way, I still indulge but I feel so much safer. I try to make my own cranberries chutney, bring my own bread and bake a cake (made a yule log (bûche de noël) last year and everybody start eating it).
I try to make each holiday a single day (or just a few special occasions.) So, I don't have these treats leading up to the holiday (Christmas cookies, anyone?) and eat the healthy stuff for leftovers. As others said, a one day won't hurt us, if we watch our BG carefully.