Suggest to your mom that you make some of the goodies, giving her a hand. Then bring some alternatives that are low-carb, low fat, etc. Believe it or not, everyone may find that your new alternatives far exceed what you’ve been eating all these years. Take cranberry sauce, that good old Thanksgiving staple that comes in a can. It’s very high in sugar, very high in carbs, though cranberries themselves are a super low carb fruit. The stuff that comes in the can is quite blah as far as I’m concerned in comparison to the stuff I make from fresh cranberries. It’s better for everyone, has far more flavor, and it has a fantastic aroma while it’s cooking and cooling. Directions:
8 servings/serving size: ¼ cup
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Chilling time: 1 hour
2 cups fresh cranberries
2 cups water
2/3 cup Splenda (granular)
2 tsp. Grated orange zest
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick (1/2 tsp ground cinnamon if you don’t have sticks)
¼ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. Ground ginger
Combine all ingredients into a large heavy saucepan.
Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 45 minutes until thick.
Discard the cinnamon and mash cranberries slightly with a potato masher.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Calories: 20
Total fat: 0 grams
Saturated fat: 0 grams
Cholesterol: 0 milligrams
Sodium: 0 milligrams
Total carbohydrates: 5 grams
Dietary Fiber: 1 gram
Sugars: 4 grams
Protein: 0 grams
I hate to send you elsewhere, but dLife has a fabulous receipe for mashed sweet potatoes that (again) is extremely tasty, lower in carbs, and higher in fiber than the canned stuff. Check around the web for recipes that look like they would fit with your new meal plans and would fit with your family’s tastes and expectations. dLife has a huge recipe database, as does the American Diabetes Association. If you don’t mind dealing with pop-up ads begging you to subscribe, Diabetic Living magazine’s website also has a lot of recipes available.
Most important, though, is to watch your serving sizes and to carefully consider what you are eating. If you are only going to use enough insulin to cover the amount of carbs you normally eat, then think and plan ahead for the carbs you’re going to consume. For instance, let’s say for Thanksgiving Day dinner, I take my usual 3 units of Humalog, which covers about 54g of carbs. Let’s also say that I want a slice of my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, which has only 18g carbs per 1/8 serving. I also want those mashed sweet potatoes, which have only 14g carbs per 3/4 cup serving. There’s 32 of my 54 grams of carbs, which leaves me with only 22g left to play with – and the typical Thanksgiving dinner includes corn, stuffing (dressing), biscuits or rolls, cranberry sauce, and a host of other high-carb foods considered “traditional”. Well, a typical biscuit would quickly eat up those 22 carb grams, leaving me without my sauce (BOO!) or another of my favorites, the stuffing. So, I may skip the biscuit, have 1/4 cup of stuffing (7 g carbs the way I make it), 1/4 cup of corn (~7g carbs, if from a can), 2 tablespoons of my homemade cranberry sauce (~2 g carbs), and then round out the rest of the carbs with a salad and low-carb veggies we typically serve on Thanksgiving, such as asparagus.
Something else that’s important, especially on your first Thanksgiving (and Christmas, and New Year’s, and every other holiday that comes up during this first year with diabetes): DO NOT BE TOO HARD ON YOURSELF IF YOU DO NOT ACHIEVE “PERFECT” BLOOD SUGARS. I cannot emphasize this enough. YOU ARE MORE THAN YOUR BLOOD SUGARS, AND IF YOU ARE TOO HIGH AFTER YOUR THANKSGIVING MEAL, IT IS OK. YOU ARE A PERSON AND NOT A PANCREAS. You are just learning about your diabetes and it will take time. So, please, be kind to yourself. If you have not been told how to correct for high blood sugars, call your diabetes educator or endo and ask. Test a couple of hours after eating to find out how you did, and if they are higher than you’d like, DO NOT WORRY. Follow your CDE’s instructions for correcting a high bg and remember, it will be OK.