Tag Archives: cooking

dealing with food

Posted on by

I am not sure about anyone else, but I know that I have issues with eating healthy. I am dealing with many last minute schedule changes which leave me running to a fast food restaurant so I can manage to eat.

So… my new attempt to fix this is meal prep. I am a huge fan of the damndelicious website. This website has recipes that even my super picky daughter was happy with (for lunches this week, the Korean beef bowl and the steak cobb salad. )

Note: if you are looking for a super low carb recipe, don’t bother with the Korean beef bowl. It has both sugar and rice. (At my count (which could be wrong), it was approx. 29 carbs per meal. Fine for me, but not for everyone.)

This is the Steak Cobb salad. My items didn’t seem to fit as nicely as the website photo, but it did look pretty close

This is the Korean beef bowl. At the time, all I had were these containers which are not the prettiest. But, the containers did fit everything. Next time I make this recipe I am planning on less rice and more spinach.

Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be enough time in my schedule to make as many lunches as I would like. (Daughter and husband want meals too, which leaves me only 2-3 days of lunches for myself.) I am making sure that the days that I have food with me are the days where my schedule seems to be a bit out of control.

I’ll let you guys know how well this experiment goes…

 

BBQ and diabetes

Posted on by

It is Memorial Day, and it is time to think of all those who have died in our nation’s service. Around here, people tend to go to parades, and then head to a barbecue. I am planning on doing the same.

As I was trying to figure out what to bring to the after-parade barbecue, I started to think about all the typical food items that we normally have there. The various meats tend to be fine, but then BBQ sauce gets added – quite a few that are FILLED with sugar. Then there are all the pasta salads, the potato salads, the corn on the cobs, the cakes and other desserts. Yeesh, it is carb city. I do realize that I can eat carbs, but I try to keep myself down to a certain amount per meal. It helps my control if I do that. So, what can I do ?

Chef Hymie Grande created three BBQ sauces with no high fructose corn syrup or processed sugars (also vegan friendly and all natural). Also, part of the profits go to the American Diabetes Association. There is another sauce, this one by Jersey Mary. It has brown sugar, but the carbs are only 4 per 2 tablespoons serving and is low in sodium. They give part of their profits to the Juvenile Diabetes Association.

So, that is one way to reduce sugar intake. But what about veggies? Did you know that you can cover  lots of different veggies with foil and cook them on the grill? Bell peppers, onion, snap peas and mushrooms taste great cooked this way. Just put the veggies in a sheet of foil. I tend to drizzle them with olive oil. Then, fold the foil in half to cover the contents; make narrow folds along edges to seal. (It looks like a little pocket, but completely sealed.)  Then, put it on the grill from 10-30 minutes. (It depends on the size and type of the veggies.)

Did you go to a BBQ? What did you eat?

Here are some links for more information.

Reader’s Digest – 6 tips for healthier grilling

Veggies on the Grill recipe

I found this video talking about some barbecue tips for those with diabetes.

Vegetables

Posted on by
Fruit and Vegetables in crates and boxes.

Fruit and Vegetables in crates and boxes. (from freeclipartnow.com)

One way I tried to improve my diet/lifestyle (that actually worked) was to join a CSA.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. A person gives a a farm a certain amount of money which allows them to buy a share of the farm. Everyone who has a share gets a certain amount of vegetables during the growing season. Usually buying a share also means pledging to do a certain amount of farm work.

My share last year helped in a couple of ways. The variety of vegetables added more lower carb options to my diet.  I got some vegetables I would never have thought to buy when I was at the store. Since I already had them, I looked into interesting recipes. But, the CSA even had more. My CSA (like a lot of others) had a weekly newsletter that had interesting recipes. And, I had to work at the farm for a certain number of hours. So, a certain amount of outside exercise was something that I had to do.

If you are interested in signing up for a CSA near you, start looking into it very soon. My CSA sent me an email about sign-ups already. Quite a few CSAs sell all their shares by early February.

Looking for more information?

Here is a list of some Massachusetts CSAs: http://www.foodonthefood.com/food_on_the_food/2009/01/putting-the-loca-in-locavore.html

Here is a list of local farms and CSAs near Marlborough MA:  http://marlboroughlocalfood.wetpaint.com/page/Small+Farm 

Massachusetts list of CSAs: http://www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/csa.htm

Looking for a CSA in another state in the USA: http://www.localharvest.org/

Cold weather, time for the slow cooker

Posted on by

A well used crockpotSoon as the weather gets nice and cold I bring out the slow cooker. There is something great about coming in the house after a cold winter walk to the smell of stew cooking. One site I found especially useful for slow cooker recipes is “The Year of Crockpotting”.  This blog came about last year when a woman had a New Years resolution to use her crockpot every day. She posted each recipe on her blog. And yes, she finished the whole year.

Most people would stop at a year, but not “The Crockpot Lady”. She said that she will continue to post this year with tips and other crockpot information.

Her current posting is especially relevant for me. She posted suggestions on how to use her crockpot recipes and have a healthy diet. http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/01/crockpot-diet.html

Are you interested in reading even more on slow cooking? Diabetes Self Management decided to post about slow cookers recently too. Here is a link to their latest blog: http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/Amy_Campbell/Slow_Cookers_A_Must_Have_for_Healthy_Eating

Those two links should give you lots of links for recipes, but it you would prefer to own a book, here are a couple:

Do you use a crockpot/slow cooker? What are your favorite recipes?