MOAB

I had planned to change the way I was eating anyway. The idea that I might be a diabetic made it a bit more important. Still waiting to find out about the blood test. lol I probably am or will be a diabetic. I have a bullseye on my forehead. My Father’s family and my Mother’s family have a history of it. My Mother was a diabetic who went from meds to insulin so I know the drill. I was her “chef” as Joshua has taken to calling me. lol I cooked for her using 3 different types of diet at different times. The diabetic exchange diet, vegetarian, and low-fat. During my cooking career which started when I was 3 (lol) I have cooked various types of food. French, asian, home-style, mexican, diet foods, and many more. The benefit of all of that is that I can make things at home and adapt them to a diet. It makes it easier.

Some dishes need more tinkering than others. Some need very little tinkering. I was thinking about chicken/shrimp creole yesterday. It’s basically tomatoes, seasonings, onion, a little bell pepper, and chicken or shrimp. Served over rice. The only thing I’d do is limit the amount of chicken/shrimp in each portion and maybe switch the rice to brown rice. But not necessarily. White rice’s glycemic value is not that much higher than brown so to make Richard feel comfortable with it I’d use white. The beauty of this recipe is that you can freeze individual portions of the sauce/chicken/shrimp and make rice to go with it later. You could also add a side salad to it and have a really good meal.

My main problem with changing the way we eat is that Richard hates the word “diet”. I think he thinks like most people do of cottage cheese, carrot sticks, celery, etc. It doesn’t have to be that way and it doesn’t mean you have to give up things you love. You have to adapt and be willing to make compromises but food doesn’t have to taste like prison food or bird food.

He despises no-fat sour cream. Okay, no problem. According to WW:

regular sour cream 1 tbsp
reduced fat sour cream 2 tbsp
light sour cream 3 tbsp
no-fat sour cream 1/4 cup

All of those are 1 point. I’ll switch him over to light sour cream. He’s had it before when I bought it by accident and didn’t notice. lol I’ll use the non-fat with a drop of lemon juice and seasonings to make a veggie dip. (Whipping it with a whisk helps.)

He has had no problems with the new bread I’ve bought, low calorie, high fiber, etc. We both have issues with the bagels I bought. Egad! They were awful! Wheat bagels are an abomination! We’ll use regular bagels and eat them less often using english muffins as well. He loves english muffins.

Salad dressings are another issue with him. I don’t blame him. I can’t stand the fat-fee dressings. So we’ll use some of the better reduced calorie dressings instead. He likes italian dressing so we’ll use that too in limited amounts. I found a really good red cal ranch and a fantastic asian toasted sesame the other day.

He loves pretzels. They are high on the glycemic index. I was surprised at how high they were. I won’t take away one of the things he loves. I’ll pre-package his pretzels in baggies in the amounts he can have. Maybe I can keep his paws off my reduced fat cheese nips that way. lol He likes those too.

One problem I’m trying to solve is that Richard doesn’t eat lunch. Working 12-8am makes that a problem. He sleeps after he eats breakfast and misses lunch and then has dinner. I’m thinking of giving him celery sticks, carrot sticks, pretzels, crackers and cheeses to take to work with him.

Ugh duty calls… backed up kitchen sink… I love living in apartments and having sink problems on a sunday…

I was thinking about diet dishes for dinners yesterday. We’re using the weight watchers program in combination with choosing foods with lower glycemic values. Something resembling chicken parmesan sounded good. Loved it as a kid.

So I used a couple of cans of diced tomatoes and cooked them with a bit of garlic, onion, a dash of worcestershire, and herbs until I was happy with it. I used a non-stick skillet to cook the chicken breasts to which I added only a bit of salt and pepper and used a tiny bit of olive oil to cook them in.. I like the foods flavor to come through instead of it being buried in seasonings. Cooked fettuccine only until it was firm. When the chicken was done I sliced it, placing it on top of one cup of fettuccine in each pasta bowl, then I added under 1 cup of sauce over both of them. The real kicker was each bowl received 4 tbsps of shredded regular parmesan cheese on top.

I chose the fettuccine because of it’s lower glycemic value. When I measured it I packed the cup I used to measure it… as taught at a diabetics class many moons ago. Don’t cheat yourself.

We ended up using 10 points according to WW. We could have had a cup of lettuce, some diced tomatoes, a little broccoli, cucumber, etc, for a salad with it and it would have been 0 points. Adding 2 points for 2 tbsps of reduced calorie salad dressing. We weren’t that hungry so we left off the salad. But with both I would dare anyone to be hungry or unhappy with what they’d eaten.

Richard loved it and wants me to make it again which is high praise for a diet meal from a man.