Fried Cabbage.....well, sort of

I love fried cabbage.  To be honest, I love cabbage in any form, and it is good for you.  I used to make fried cabbage with ground beef added to it, and it was yummy!  I found another recipe and tried it the other night, and it was really good, too!  It has ground beef, onions, garlic, cabbage, salt, pepper, and tomatoes.  It was very filling and did not raise my sugar at all!  I think I will try adding some "noodles" to it.  I put noodles in quotations because I do not use real noodles.  I have found some shirataki noodles that have 2 net carbs for the entire package.  They are not made with grains, so they are VERY LOW carbs.  They take on the flavor of whatever you cook them with.  It is like having spaghetti without the spaghetti!

I found these at Walmart by the salad section.  There are 4 carbs per serving, but 3 of those are fiber.  

I think they will be great in my cabbage goulash.  (my name for this dish...)  I am also going to try them with some very low carb spaghetti sauce I found.  I will let you know how that turns out!

 

Another Pizza

I wrote previously about making pizza using cauliflower for a crust, but I have found a new recipe!
This one uses cheese for the crust and is MUCH LESS time consuming than the cauliflower recipe. The mozzarella cheese has less than a carb per serving.  It took seven cups, which is about 31 carbs total.  The sauce has about 24 carbs per jar.  The toppings have no carbs, except for the cheese.  Total carbs for the whole pizza is about 60.  If you cut it into 12 pieces....I cut it into more than that.....it is about 5 carbs per slice!

This is the crust after I took it out of the oven.  I brushed melted butter mixed with garlic powder on it before I added the toppings.

This is what it looked like with the toppings added before I baked it again.

This is what the final pizza looked like.  It was very good, but since I am not really a cheese person, it was kind of heavy for me.  I will DEFINITELY make it again, but next time I will use less cheese for the crust so it is not so thick.  The recipe is on my recipe tab at the top of the page.  Check it out!

Fried Chicken....Yes, I said Fried Chicken!

Who doesn't love some good fried chicken?  I know I do, but being diabetic puts a damper on that.  Or does it?  I have found a way to get fried chicken with NO CARBS!  I use coconut oil (VERY good for you and will not add cholesterol) to fry it in.  I take some coconut oil (I use solid not liquid) and put it in my pan.  Allow it to melt and heat up just like regular oil.  I put my chicken (I use chicken tenderloins) in the pan and let them really brown up on both sides.  Then, I turn the heat to medium low and allow them to cook the rest of the way.  They are crisp, just like fried chicken and taste like fried chicken but have absolutely NO breading on them.  Here is what they look like:

It looks like real fried chicken, doesn't it?  It tastes like it, too!!

Crackers

Every time I go to Walmart, I am always on the lookout for new stuff to try.  Today was no different. 

I knew that I was making tomato soup, and I had decided that I was going to get some of my flat bread, cut it into small pieces, bake it, and try to make some crackers to go with my soup.  As I was headed over to get it, I noticed some boxes above the fancy cheese section near the deli.  I went over to see what they were, and I found some crackers!!!  Here is what they are:

Ok...so they are Crisps instead of crackers....but they are crackers!  They have 11 carbs in a serving of 9 crackers.  There are 0 sugar carbs and 0 dietary carbs.  I chose the cracked pepper flavor.  They had another flavor, but this one sounded better to me.  So how did my sugar do after eating them?  Well...before I ate, my sugar was 88.  1 hour after eating, it was 124.  2 hours after eating it was 98.  These readings are after eating 2 cups of my tomato soup and 9 crackers.  I added bacon to the soup to add protein so that I am not eating just carbs.  I guess you can say I had my crackers and ate them, too!!  Dinner was really great....tomato soup and crackers!  Excited that I now have found a substitute for regular crackers....which I have not eaten since September when I gave up all processed foods!  I think these would be great with cheese, also.  They have a great texture and wonderful flavor.  They are VERY thin but taste great!

Slaw

So....I have been out of commission for about a week with a kidney stone.  UGH!!!  Not fun at all!!!
I ended up with a UTI on top of that....so let's just say it has been a memorable week....and not in a good way!  I am pretty sure that the change in diet and weight loss contributed to the stone coming out.  The doctor said it was definitely possible.  Added to that is the fact that I began drinking the warm lemon water about 2 months ago.  Lemon water will help clean your kidneys and will dissolve uric acid....which is what most stones are made of.  I think I got just the right combination of all these to cause the stone to pass!  Not intentional...but glad it is done!!  LOL!!  It was a very small stone, but painful none the less.  Anyway...enough of my yuck!  I wanted to post about some very good slaw I found.  You may be familiar with it, but it was like gold to me when I found it.  It is called Green Giant Fresh Broccoli Slaw.  It has 5 carbs per serving and 4 serving per bag.  It has 2 dietary fiber, which leaves 3 net carbs.  It does contain 2 sugar carbs.    I just mix it with my Just Mayo, salt, and pepper.  It is delicious with a hamburger patty or chopped sirloin, or steak!  It makes for a great lunch.  The first time I ate it, I felt like I was eating something that I should not eat....it was that good!
I love it and thought you might as well!  Here is a picture of the bag.  I get it at Walmart in the fresh veggie section.

What are some things you have found that don't spike your sugar?  I would love to hear about them!

Something as Simple as Mustard

When my sister was doing her research to help her husband, she found that Turmeric, a yellow spice, would help lower blood sugar.  He would take a teaspoon each morning with coconut oil and it would lower his sugar throughout the day.  My sugar was going down so quickly that I was afraid it would lower mine too much, so I did not take it.  I did notice, however, that when I would eat mustard on my meat, that my sugar would be lower.  Come to find out, mustard has Turmeric in it!  Now I don't eat mustard on my meat every time, but if I know I am having higher carbs with my meal, I will use it.  It really seems to lower my sugar more than if I don't use it!  Something as simple as mustard!!  Imagine that!!

Sugar Substitutes

I wrote a post recently about how eating 1 breath mint spiked my sugar to 171.  Well, today I found some with NO CARBS OR SUGAR!  They are called Spry.  They have 0 carbs and have Xylitol instead of sugar.  You may be familiar with Stevia, but may not be as familiar with Xylitol.  I like it MUCH better.  With Stevia, you have to be careful to not use too much or you will get a bitter flavor. Xylitol is different.  My husband tried both in his coffee.  He said the Stevia made it bitter, but the Xylitol tasted exactly like sugar.  It measures exactly like sugar.  If something calls for a cup of sugar, you use a cup of Xylitol.  It is all natural like Stevia, but will not raise your sugar.  You do need to be careful when transitioning over to Xylitol.  It can have a laxative effect at first.  There are many benefits of Xylitol.  Dental health is greatly enhanced.  Studies show that using Xylitol daily can reduce your risk of tooth decay and can increase your overall dental health!  It does not have an after-taste like many of the artificial sweeteners.  Those sweeteners are REALLY bad for you, by the way.  Research shows that drinking or eating artificial sweeteners can cause all kinds of health issues.....and it does not matter which kind of artificial sweeteners you use.  You can order Xylitol online, or you can usually purchase it at a health food store.  It is kind of expensive, but well worth it for as little as I use.  I am pretty sure it would be cheaper ordering it online.  Here is the bag I have, and the breath mints....I am pretty excited about the mints...can you tell?