Feeling a bit horti

Mr. A and I usually keep our office plain and simple. We're more the function rather than fashion kind of people (as you have probably noted by my food pictures -- just snap a photo and eat -- which I should really change). But we got a really important lead for a big project and before we knew it, a meeting was set at our office. We knew we had to fix it up a bit to make it look more presentable to our prospects. Not being the artistic type (although I do appreciate beauty), I tried to brainstorm with Mr. A for ways to make our office look better, besides cleaning it. Our partner, Kath, suggested we add some foliage to our dreary work space.

Ah! Why didn't I think of that! A thing of beauty will definitely make our otherwise let's-get-down-to-business office look like a welcoming place. For the occassion, Mr. A's mom made a beautiful arrangement of fresh cut flowers that really brightened up our space for the day. The meeting pushed through and ended without a fuss -- and we have some good business going on. I thanked God (and Mr. A's mom) for the flowers and locked up the office.




The flowers have long died since lending my office their quiet charm but we decided to replace them with living beauties. A trip to the nursery got me feeling really horti(cultural) and I went ahead and purchased two small money trees (pachira aquatica) that I could nurture into bigger trees and a fully grown corn plant (dracaena fragrans).




I don't know if it's just me, but I think my office is more beautiful and actually smells fresher in the morning when I walk in.

A few tricks up my sleeve

I've always loved to cook but becoming a diabetic and trying to turn my life around by changing my lifestyle and food habits have forced me to learn a few kitchen tricks. Here's what I learned off of the internet and through low-carb forums

1. Brining

• Basically, this means soaking your meat in salt water for a few hours or so in order to impart some flavor. Some people have special brining recipes will all sorts of herbs, but I just brine with a simple salt solution or 1/2 cup coarse salt for every gallon of water. Some chefs say that you should add sugar, but I don't and I'm pretty happy with the results.
• To brine a whole chicken -- I only roast little chickens (about a pound and a half) as I find big ones really dry -- cover the whole thing with enough brining solution to ensure that the chicken is totally immersed. Refrigerate for an hour to an hour and a half. If you're new to brining, stay on the shorter side of brining time. It is said that there's no way to save meat that has been over brined.
• To brine pork chops, use enough brining solution to soak all your chops so that they are totally immersed. Refrigerate for about 12 hours.
• To use your chicken or pork, rinse your meat twice and pat dry. Then cook as you would, but pay attention to cooking time. Meat that has been brined cooks faster that meat that hasn't.
• If you're not using the meat immediately, rinse, pat dry, and refrigerate.
• ALWAYS discard your brining solution.

2. Making my own mayonnaise

As a low carber, I'm not afraid of fat. But I am if it's loaded with trans-fatty acids. Mayonnaise, an emmulsion of eggs and oil, is possibly full of trans-fats if it's commercially made. My solution is to make my own -- that way I can control the kind of oil used and how much sugar (or not at all) goes into it.

• To make mayonnaise, break 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg into a bowl with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Whisk with an electric mixer, food processor, or blender until light colored. Add 1 - 1/2 cups of your favorite oil (I use coconut or olive oil or a combination of both.) one drop at a time for the first 2 tablespoons, that 1 teaspoon at a time for the rest. Make sure the oil is well incoporated before adding more or your emulsion will break and you'll get an oily mess. Season your mayonnaise to taste.
  
• Other people like to add mustard. If you're adding mustard, put it in together with the eggs and lemon juice.
• This recipe makes a thin pourable mayonnaise, not unlike aioli (to make aioli, add garlic!). If you want a thicker mayonnaise, use 4 egg yolks instead.
• Refrigerate and toss after a week.
• Warning: once you've made your own mayonnaise, it's hard to return to store bought.

3. If you must bread...

• Use wheat bran. Mr. A loves breaded fish fillet, pork chops, chicken, whatever. I do too and there's no reason to miss your favorite foods if you can find a good substitute.
• Dip your chicken, fish, or pork pieces in beaten eggs until completely covered (skip the step where you dredge your meat in flour). Coat the meat with wheat bran and fry as usual.
• The color will be darker since wheat bran is already the golden color you're looking for.

Happy eating! Being diabetic doesn't mean you can't eat well.

Chocolate Love

I was a real bad girl yesterday and ate a whole lot of chocolate with sugar in it. Naturally, there was a corresponding rise in blood sugar that literally said "you shall be punished for what you did." So, today, I took the time to make my own chocolate candy without the sugar...


For this recipe, you will need:


5 oz good quality unsweetened chocolate. I once used unsweetened chocolate from a baking supplier and I was impressed at how cheap it was. Then once I used it, I realized I'd been had. If you get chocolate that's too cheap that you couldn't believe it, chances are, the coco butter in it has been replaced with vegetable oil and you get chocolate with a strange texture that sticks to your palette without melting smoothly in your mouth. Good chocolate melts at body temperature... if you pick it up, it should leave traces on your hand.
2 Tbsp heavy cream. You can use more if you like milk chocolate, less or none at all if you like super dark chocolate. If you increase the cream, reduce the next ingredient.

8 Tbsp virgin coconut oil. The oil is not necessary as good chocolate has good fat in it. I like to add my coconut oil because if it's health benefits -- and what better to get it down than with chocolate. I love chocolate!
1 tsp liquid stevia. You can use more or less depending on your taste. Remember though that too much stevia can reveal its bitterness. So, to counter the bitterness I add...

1/2 tsp raw honey. Use only raw unfiltered honey. For honey, clear is an abomination and is just as good as syrup. That means it's not good. Real raw honey is thick and cloudy and contains pollen and all other good stuff the bees put in. I also found that raw unfiltered honey doesn't hurt my BG much... but the cheap store-bought honey does.

Heat the coconut oil and cream in a saucepan until warm but not boiling. Throw in the chopped chocolate and stir until melted. Do not return the chocolate to the fire if you find that the oil isn't hot enough. Instead, put the chocolate mixture on top of another bowl with hot water to melt it. Stir in the stevia and the honey. Transfer to your chosen mold. For this batch, I decided I should save time and poured the chocolate into a foil-lined square container. Once cool, I sliced the chocolate into 16 squares.

Each square (if cut into 16 pcs) contains 1/2 Tbsp of coconut oil.

Good Old Meatballs

My sister used to sing this song... On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatballs when somebody sneezed... In my case, I didn't lose the meatballs. I lost the spaghetti!

Mr. A. took me to Amici on Tomas Morato one time. Knowing it was an Italian restaurant (started by priests) that specialized in staples like pasta, pizza and gelato, I didn't know if I'd find something to eat. (I prepared myself to eat pasta and just pay the price afterwards. Don't get the wrong idea about Mr. A, though. He's very supportive and helps me with my diabetes so much so that I get to choose the restaurant most of the time. Sometimes though, I also like to go with him where he wants to eat). Thankfully, they had a beautiful dish of Italian meatballs cooked in tomato sauce.

What can I say about it, though, except that it was a good plate of meatballs :). The dish was too simple for flowery prose, and everyone has had meatballs in tomato sauce on top of their spaghetti, anyway. But I guess my point is only that diabetes doesn't have to make you a killjoy and there's always something to eat where there seemingly is not. And sometimes, it brings a whole lot of comfort.

My take on the meatballs...

1 oz onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 c parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Mix all the ingredients together and form into good sized meatballs. Drop them into your favorite tomato sauce recipe. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

If you're not on a low-carb diet, eat it with spaghetti!

Low Carb Barbecue Sauce

Tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and other tomato products are on the No-no list of Dr. Bernstein but I can't seem to live without them. I've had a love affair with tomatoes for as long as I can remember. It started when my mom sliced a tomato into thin round chips. I eagerly picked up one slice at a time, dipped it into a little rock salt before putting it in my mouth -- seeds and all. Then I discovered ketchup. I ate everything with ketchup -- or more correctly, I ate ketchup with everything -- even corned beef and soup (the non-tomato kind). So it's no exaggeration when I say I was heartbroken when I found tomatoes were out of Dr. B.'s food list.

Can I make a compromise then if I can’t say goodbye to an old love (and I have given up quite a few!)? I found a recipe for low carb barbecue sauce somewhere online (so sorry to the original poster, I forgot where I found you) and even thought it’s base is tomato paste, I didn’t add any sugar (barbecue sauce and ketchup from the store will have about 15 – 17 grams of sugar per serving). The result isn’t as great as store bought (yet!) but it will do for now.

Low-Carb Barbecue Sauce

12 oz tomato paste
1 cup water
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 medium onions, minced
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp paprika
pinch cloves
salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients together and heat over stovetop until thickened. Puree if desired, but it’s not necessary. Keep in refrigerator – if you’re like Maria, eat it with everything!

Deviled Eggs

I love eggs sunny side up, over easy, scrambled, scrambled with other ingredients, hard-boiled, soft boiled, whatever! To me, it’s the cheapest nutritious thing I can eat without sacrificing quality. Eggs have a little less than 1 gram of carbohydrate per piece so it would be wise not to go overboard with the stuff especially if you’re adding mayonnaise or other ingredients with carbs.

This week, the king of my heart is the deviled egg. They are so easy to prepare and they pack so easily you could take them with you to work for lunch or a quick snack. I prepare my devilled eggs at night – cook eggs in their shell for about ten minutes on a low boil while you’re going about your nightly routine. When that’s done, your eggs are done too. Just pop ‘em in the fridge for the next morning.

In the morning, shell the eggs, cut in half and scoop the egg yolks out. Mash the egg yolks and mix in some mayo, mustard, paprika, salt, and pepper to suit your taste. Spoon the yolk mixture back into the egg white halves. Take two halves and press them together, wrap in plastic and pack to work. Voila! Instant packed lunch! (The rather unattractive picture is a tupperware full of deviled eggs that are going to be in my office refrigerator for a week).

My recipe is very basic but if a fancier recipe is desired, check out allrecipes.com. Other people have really special stuff going on.