Bummed - looking for recipe recs

[wickedwords]

In case I haven't mentioned it, I have pre-diabetes.  My a1c is up now to 6.2, and while I haven't yet tipped over to full-blown diabetes, it is discouraging.  Does anyone have any good diabetic recipe sites or dishes that are go to items for them? Idea for lunches would also be great as I have a very hard time pulling something together to take to work, and just getting something from the cafeteria.  

Comments

[raine]

My go-to sites for this sort of thing:
http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/cookbook-recipes/
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/17899/health-condition/diabetic/
https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/nutrition-101/diabetic-recipes

I also really like Ellie Krieger's recipes because she doesn't cut out flavor just to be healthy:
http://www.elliekrieger.com/recipes/

[wickedwords]

Thank you! A lot of yummy looking stuff here, and looks like a great way to start.

[raine]

:-) You're welcome! Hope you find something that works for what you want. :-)

[ariadne83]

Not sure if it's available in your area (I'm in Australia) but I have an app called Diabetes Friendly Recipes.

[wickedwords]

I'll look for it, thanks!

[emyrys]

The only way I could ever have lunches to go was if I cooked large amounts of something for dinner (or on a Sunday), and then portion out the leftovers into containers I could grab on my way out the door.



I remember that there was a lot of grilled or boiled chicken in my Dad's diabetic diet, and I thought I'd drop in and tell you what I just discovered: slow cooking chicken.

It's SO EASY (5 minutes prep), then you have 6 cooked chicken breasts to use or freeze (yomz likes to pull it with forks but I like to have them whole so I can grab them for a sandwich or chop them up and throw them in a salad or something).

(Ignore the rest of this if you slow cook chicken already)

I buy a bag of frozen chicken breasts (there's 6 in them), thaw and then stick them in a large slow cooker with 1) a cup of broth (yomz puts a beef bouillon cubes in with the chicken cubes), 2) cover with a bunch of water, 3) season (1 tsp each salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder or whatever you want), and 4) then slow cook for 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high.

We strain the broth, and then I tend to make soup with it.

[wickedwords]

Sounds yummy. I always have difficulty with fixing salad stuff, and that sounds like a good option.

I do have one salad recipe

[emyrys]

My favorite salad is pretty time intensive to prepare, but lasts for days (and is better the second or third (or fourth day).

I don't like the bulgar wheat in tabouleh, so I make my Aunt's version of fatoosh. Currently, Fatoosh is served in most restaurants with toasted-to-a-crisp pita mixed in, but when I was little, my family made this with torn up pieces of syrian bread mixed in so it got all soggy.

I tend to eat fatoosh with either 1) syrian bread to scoop it up as I eat it, 2) served over cut up pieces of whatever bread I have in the house or 3) in the middle of pita bread. It can be eaten without bread, and I don't mix bread into it until serving because, while I love me some soggy bread, any bread mixed in and stored with it in the fridge will become too soggy for even me (and disintegrate).

Fatoosh

Put the following into a mixing bowl:

One Bunch of parsley - snipped off of the stems
(not the flat italian kind)
Cucumber (chopped)
Tomatoes (chopped same size as cucumber)
Green onions (I use a little less of these)

Mix together with a generous amount of Olive Oil and Lemon to taste (I like more oil than the rest of my family, who prefers more lemon).

It's important to soak the vegetable mix thoroughly, as the oil and lemon help all the flavors blend in together into something wonderful the next day (I was too conservative last time I made this & it was a bit dry. :-(, but I just added more oil and lemon and mixed it some more. It was realllly good the third day, when I got the proportions correct :-) )

NOTE: I use kitchen scissors to snip the parsley off of the stems, and it takes forever (seriously, it takes me like an hour to do one bunch), so I typically do this step first while watching TV (using a TV tray or coffee table).
NOTE 2: This salad goes well with Hashwi, and when I serve these two together I don't need any bread. (and since I don't mind cold hamburger, I would stick lefover hashwi & fatoosh side by side in a container to take for lunch.

Hashwi : hamburger seasoned with cinnamon and then cooked in a large sautee pan with diced onions and pine nuts.

(hashwi is excellent when scooped up with syrian bread, too).

If you use lean hamburger, and more lemon than oil, this was considered a diabetic friendly meal 30 years ago (when my Dad's sugar first went out of control and Mom started being very careful).

Re: I do have one salad recipe

[wickedwords]

That looks really good too. Cinnamon has been found to help keep blood sugar stable, so the 'more lemon, less oil' would be good for me to try out.

Re: I do have one salad recipe

[emyrys]

oh, wow, I didn't know that about cinnamon. I put it in hamburgers (well, I put in pretty much everything I make with hamburger meat (except spaghetti sauce)).

[morgandawn]

That's what we do. Make a lot of one pot stews or dishes, freeze 2-3 portions for lunch. We then alternate so we're not eating the same items every week..

[wickedwords]

We've been making a lot of big meals (yah, instapot!) but freezing them for later. I never thought about taking them for lunches.

[morgandawn]

we got cute lunch sized containers with snap on lids. Have to remove the lids to microwave them but you can eat out of them. also good for portion control.

I freeze the stews and soups. stir fry (over rice) or tangine over couscous freezes well. Pasta dishes are fine, but I think tomato sauces microwave better.

Once you get a few weeks ahead you can pull items out to get a better variety.

[franzeska]

Beans!

Dry beans, that is, not the repulsive, flavorless, pre-cooked slime that comes from a can. They're one of the easiest things to cook, and the time isn't all that bad if soak them. Most bean dishes are a meal in themselves. Those recipe sources look great, but I am lazy and cheap, and a pot of beans is much more my speed. Personally, I got excited about them because my mother was a nerd about heirloom crops, but they're supposed to be a diabetes superfood too.

For lunch, if you want salad and not something runny, my favorite thing is chickpea and kale salad. Cook some chickpeas (this does require pre-soaking because they take longer to cook than other legumes). Chop kale very fine. Dress with lemon juice, minced garlic and parsley, and a little oil.

But mostly, I just eat a ridiculous amount of "pot beans", usually cooked with garlic, maybe some onion or paprika or cumin: whatever I have around. You can eat nothing but boiled beans all week and never have the same thing twice. I'll put dry beans in a bowl to soak before I leave for the day and cook them that night.

Decent quality dried beans make a world of difference, though I like almost any dry black beans. The queen of foodie dry bean sources is Rancho Gordo, which includes recipes and cooking suggestions on their site.

https://www.ranchogordo.com/

[wickedwords]

That looks like a great site, and will dig around for something to try. Thanks!

[elynross]

I thought of this today, as I sat eating my lunch: a can of stewed tomatoes+1/2 can of garbanzo beans.

My hardest problem is that I haven't felt like cooking in eons, so easy as possible is good for me. vegetables+beans, like the above, or I'm thinking cauliflower rice + beans, or broccoli + cheese -- stuff I can do in the microwave at work, and it just involves throwing cans and/or small bags of frozen vegs.

If you wanted to go the dried bean route, you could easily do up a batch on the weekend and use them during the week.

Just in a "do as I say, not as I do" vein, I've found that it's pretty simple to do protein+veg or fruit. I'll do oatmeal&fruit, or hard-boiled eggs/egg salad with some veg; sliced meats&cheese, avocado, cream cheese; celery with cheese; apple with cheese or nuts, that kind of thing.

I have controlled diabetes, have had since 2014, and I kept it mostly under control for a couple years just with diet and exercise. I'm on metformin now, and still working on controlling the carbs. I find that the thin-sliced Dave's Killer Bread whole grain/seeded breads are great, with 13 carbs per slice, which is about a quarter of what I'm supposed to have for a meal.

When I do up a pot of food, it's something like chili, curries/Indian food, stir fry, anything that's mostly veg&protein. I don't have particular sites, but googling Keto recipes, etc., works.

[elynross]

And I just got this from a company our insurance works with -- a week's worth of meal plans for diabetics:

https://livongo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015281293

[wickedwords]

Oh cool! I'll save it. Thanks!

[wickedwords]

Thanks for the info. My doc is already starting to nudge me towards the metformin, but if I can push that out a while, I'd be happier about it. I know that eventually I will need it as my body is just going that way, but more time is better overall.

[elynross]

Exercise is also a great help, supposedly. Okay, yes, it is, just. When I overdo, like yard work, sometimes my sugar level has gone up?

But I find I do best when I include a good bit of protein with any carbs. And the workshop I went to said to aim for 45 carbs per meal, 15 carbs per snack, once morning and evening.

I have actually reached the point of considering bariatric surgery, simply because every health issue I have (diabetes, asthma, BP, etc.) would probably improve if I lost significant weight. But I'm still thinking about it; it's not really something I want to do.