I've been a good diabetic patient for a while, so all the companies have my number. And you will sometimes get stuff sent to you for "free." My latest is a gourmet cookbook courtesy of Novo Nordisk.
It's not like I don't appreciate "free" stuff, but I do know when discard when I see one. This book, while it does contain some recipes that might be interesting, like calf brains, it is really dated. It has been superseded by a new version that I have to presume is an "improvement." This book (from 2005) only contains the exchanges for the recipes, but not carb counts. And the recipes are well, let me just say "leave a bit to be desired." Here is one:
I often give away things I don't need, but I'm torn on whether it is appropriate to give this to another diabetic.
What kind of "generous" diabetic freebies have you gotten? Would you feel bad about passing it on? Have you ever gotten something really "good?"
Just a comment – I noticed they made a feature on the cover about a “special dessert” section – hopefully that’s not where the calves brains recipe is, lol!
And I thought people were joking when they referred to “learning to boil water”.
I haven’t found much use for the diabetic cookbooks I’ve seen. First of all, I’m a vegetarian. Second of all I’m a gourmet cook and third of all they don’t bear any resemblence to anyone’s idea of “diabetic eating”!
I really enjoy the show dlife and watch it every Sunday. But I tune out the cooking segment. First of all the chef annoys me with his bouncing way of talking. But his recipes are nothing I would ever eat and his carb counts seem doubtful. Having made recipes with a lot of ingredients I know how much that “couple tablespoons of this” and a “sprinkle of that” actually add up and his carbs are low. Then he will finish by saying something like “serve it on a bed of rice, the carbs for the rice not included in the carb count.” Huh? I do best by picking recipes I like, modifying them as needed and then marking up the books with the carb counts for next time.
Oh, and to answer the question, nope, never got anything for free for diabetes. Except my meter. I believe that is normal for doctor’s or cde’s to give you a meter?
When I was a kid my parents used to occasionally take us to a nice restaurant and I discovered I liked the “sweetbreads”. I believe those are calves brains? But when I was a kid, nobody told me, I just thought it was a kind of “stew” (beef) with a good sauce. No wonder I turned into a vegetarian!
What a creative recipe! They found a way to get rid of their outdated cookbook. Must be a tax write-off.
A friend gave me a gift of diabetic cookbooks. I trashed them because I didn’t think passing on bad info was a good thing to do. I felt badly throwing away a gift.
I have vegetable buillion cubes - they is actualy quite tasty. Nice base for soups. No carbs but yes alot of salt.
And believe it or not, there actually ARE people who can’t boil water.
bsc, I think I saw this book at a recent Diabetes Expo - they were freebies. I wonder if I picked one up - I’ll have to look through my big freebie pile.
I use vegetable bouillion all the time, but not the kind that comes in cubes; I think Gerri is right about the salt content of those. In my super market you can buy about a dozen different kinds of vegetable stock that come in a box (liquid). They make good bases for vegetarian soups.
I don’t think they forget the carb counts, I think they just don’t care and assume people buying their books don’t care either, unless they are specifically directing recipes to our “market”
Ok, just so everyone is clear, this book is published by Novo Nordisk. They “sell” the book, but they probably sell few copies. They probably just give it away and write off the “expense” of the full price book. And how do you think Novo Nordisk makes a profit? Well, they are in the business of selling insulin. I don’t think I need to fully connect the dots.
Perhaps tomorrow, I’ll share one of the “special desserts.”
I’m scared to see a special dessert also! Take two scoops of Ben & Jerry’s, add brownies, cover with chocolate syrup & decorate with low-fat Cool Whip.
Lol! You forgot the part where it sits briefly on top of pink and blue cotton candy and you have to swallow it all in one bit because it’s melting rapidly in your hands!
Well, I’ll not go into details, but Gerri has the basic idea. Replace sugar with artificial sweetener and reduce the serving size and “Tada” you have a diabetic dessert.
ps. Is “Tada” an actual word?
pps. Sorry to suggest that there were meat based desserts.
ppps. I am a good cook, I bet I could come up with diabetic friendly meat based dessert that you would like.
