Cheapskate Rural Dweller: food

Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

D-Day - Living with Type II: Great Helpers in the Fight Against Diabetes

As I go along on the journey of a diabetic, I learn what my friends and foes are in the food world. I've talked about some of the foes in the past, let's meet some friends.

First, I have to give recognition to two of the best places to find diabetic friendly food, Costco and Trader Joes, I can find quite a bit in those aisle.

Eggs are full of protein and are pretty diabetic friendly but the yolks add a bit of fat and a good dose of bad cholesterol, which can bring some other complications to a diabetic. I've got good numbers from my latest checkup except that my cholesterol has creeped up just above the red line.

I could eat eggs morning, noon, and night. I love them and would eat two a day. A bit much so I found these Kirkland egg whites at Costco. Now, I replace one of the eggs with an ounce of this which is not a great sacrifice at only 25 calories, no fat, 5 mg of protein, and 75 of sodium.

It's tasty, easy, and pretty cheap. One container of a similar product at Trader Joes costs about five dollars. A six pack at Costco is less than ten and the other containers freeze very well.

Also at Costco is this jerky, which has half the sodium (330 mg) of comparable jerkies, 60 calories, a half gram of fat, 5 grams of carbs, and 9 protein.

Along with this Havarti cheese from Trader Joes, an ounce of jerky with half an ounce of cheese is good for a quick twenty point reduction in my glucose level.

Bread is not what is considered friendly for diabetics, it's true, but this multigrain bread from Kirkland loads those carbs so slowly that it almost seems neutral. I made a grilled cheese and ham using it (recipe coming soon!) that actually lowered my glucose by 8 points. It's 140 calories per slice, 1.5 grams of fat, 210 mg. of sodium, 26 grams of carbs, and 6 of protein.

Speaking of ham, I use the low fat and low sodium variety made by Danola or Trader Joe's Healthy Ham for a really good dose of lean protein that really gives a satisfying kick to dishes such as this omelet as well as that sandwich. A slice of that ham has 20 calories, 180 mg. of sodium, no fat, no carbs, and 5 grams of protein. I use half a slice in either the omelet or the sandwich.

It's a journey but I'm glad I'm finding some treasures along the way. All of these foods have gone a long way to be tasty and keep me from feeling hungry. Hope to have some more to share with you soon.

Darry
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

New Transplants to the Neighborhood

Picture by Letty Musick

Our seedlings have been living the plush, comfortable life in a tray in our family room window. Sorry kids, out you go...

It's time to show these youngsters the way outside where they will now have to sink or swim in the cold, cruel world.

Actually, it's pretty warm now that spring is here and we've made a nice, comfortable, and nutritional bed for them with our tilling.

The little peat pockets I've started them in snap right off of the tray.

Next, a small hole is just right for that little peat pot. The plant stays in it as the whole thing is put in the ground so no transplant shock and the peat serves as food for the plant.

Time to water in.

Some plants, like the tomatoes and this canteloupe, need some protection from predators so I put this wire basket around them to keep the bad guys at bay.

Now, they're all part of the garden. Let's get ready for the harvest later.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

D-Day: Life After the Diagnosis

God works in mysterious ways. After years of good to very good checkups and starting this food blog, I get the news.

Just before Thanksgiving, my doctor's note comes in the mail. Dianosis: Diabetes Mellitus. In other words, I'm now a Type 2 diabetic.

First order of business is to attend my health plan's "Diabetes 101" class where I receive some basic nutritional information and a blood glucose monitor. After that, it's another four week advanced class for diabetes management.

Now, I'm officially on the program.

Actually, it's not a bad thing. Probably one of the better things to happen for my health because now I have an almost instant read (2 hours later) on how my last meal affected me. I'm getting to know what I can eat (a carne asada sope with a chile relleno works real good for my glucose level) and what I can't (white rice is a sugar bomb for my blood but that's ok, I don't really care for it anyway).

What's that mean for the blog? Well, I'll now do occasional D-Day posts spotlighting foods that work, those that don't, and other highs and lows of living with Type 2 Diabetes.

For me, so far, I've been able to keep within the range of 100-150 on the reading of my monitor, which is exactly where my doctor wants me to be. I've had two big spikes...once when I had a beef bowl from a local teriyaki place (B-Man's), where I learned that white rice is not my friend...and when I had a burrito wrapped in a huge, flour tortilla that spiked me up to over 200.

That was a bit harder to take than the rice but smaller flour tortillas don't affect me so badly. Corn are even better and I still need to try the wheat variety to see how that will be.

I'm not much for candy or sweets, though I do occasionally like to have them, so it's been pretty easy to cut back on them. I am a fan of butter, which doesn't pump up the sugar but does contribute to other things that don't go well with diabetes, so that will be a little harder to put down.

My goal is to stave off having to take medication for as long as possible. So long as I'm range and pay attention, I should be good for awhile.

We'll see...my next blood work appointment is next month.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Recipes for a Cheapskate: Stuffed Pasilla Chiles

First harvest of 2015!

These two chiles came from this plant that I gave up on two years ago. It's a survivor, though, and it starting to to produce some great looking peppers.

The chicken wire is to prevent squirrels from eating the leaves. They don't care for the fruit but will decimate the leaves if I don't do something.

So here's what I'm going to do...

Slice an opening down the middle of each chile and cook on a comal (a hot flattop).

Once they're blistered up pretty good, try to remove the membrane that sits on the outer layer of the chile.

Fill each one with cream cheese and bacon.

Cook right on the grill on indirect heat.

Serve and eat.

It's kind of like stuffed bell peppers but I find the taste richer, a bit spicier, and they don't give me heartburn like the bell peppers do.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Keeping up Appearances

Checking into the status of the garden. First, in this era a megadroughts, how about a look at water usage? It's raining today, that's good, but we're still under rationing.

Last month's bill was $17 and change. this compared to the same time last year when we paid, well, more (the water company's website is down and I can't look up last year's bill right now). There is also a strange credit on the bill of a couple of bucks, called the "CA: LA Payment Assistance" credit, that I don't know what it's for but in water usage, we used 6,732 gallons this May and 7,480 gallons last May.

My next door neighbor, who has a large green lawn that she only waters once a week, has a bill over $180 for the same period. Yikes!

The tomatoes are busting out all over. Many fruit on our hybrid plant and cherry tomato plant. The heirloom plant is showing lots of flowers but no fruit yet.

Our chiles are doing better this year. I used this Anaheim chile in our eggs this weekend and there's some gorgeous pasilla chiles on another plant. I'll maked stuffed peppers out of them someday.

Got six ears of corn showing so far.

The grapes are showing slight signs of smut so I hit them with some sulfur dust on Sunday.

My wife made me take the cage off of our zucchini, now it's showing signs of animal damage and I still haven't gotten any fruit. I put the cage back on, let's see how it does.

It's June. The vendor at the farmers market who sold us the dragon fruit plants told me to cut back by a third and we should see flowers by May. I did. Got lot's of new growth but no flowers or fruit yet.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

How to Eat Your Dragon

One plant I really love in our garden is the dragon fruit. This tropical cactus does very well in our climate and I'm hoping to get more production out of it.

We have two varieties, one with white flesh and the other a vibrant, hot-pink flesh like a watermelon on acid.

It's time to eat this one. Eaten straight, it's ok. Slightly sweet but a bit bland.

The best, we've found, is to cut it up in cubes and very lightly sprinkle a little powdered sugar on it.

This amps up the natural sweetness and the taste is as stunning as the looks of the fruit.

Best of all, I went out this morning and found more flower buds on the plant. More fruit to come...

Darryl
Copyright 2014 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Recipes for a Cheapskate: Stuffed Chiles

Sunday's are barbecue days at the Cheapskate's house. Probably 40 out of the 52 weeks in a year will find me out on the patio grilling some poor, dead creature over flame. The garden often provides the side dish.

This week, along with some roasted potatoes, it's an extremely simple stuffed chile dish.

These three Anaheim chiles are from our plant. They have somehow made it through the relentless squirrel attacks we've had this year.

Anaheim chiles are very tasty and have just a hint of heat.

After washing, I just score them. The chiles off of this particular plant have hardly any skin on them so I don't bother peeling them.

Not a lot of seeds inside either, so it's just insert a sliver of cream cheese, sprinkle on a shredded jack and cheddar mix, wrap in foil, and cook on indirect heat on the grill along with our main dish.

Darryl
Copyright 2014 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

The State of the Garden

So how's the garden doing this week? A few cymbidiums are blooming, like this 'tethys,' above and the yellow one below.

Those orchids are almost done so it will be time to repot soon after we enjoy then a few more weeks.

In our herb corner, this iris is popping through.

Tomatoes will be available for harvest soon...

...and a new zucchini plant is pushing up through the soil.

Enjoying the Fruits of our Labors

Gardening is in full swing. Chores are being done with regularity and, in this warm drought year, the plants are doing spectacularly well.

We've been working our behinds off and, now, we're going to take a little break to enjoy the results. Check out the cherry tomatoes sneaking in to the hanging dendrobium, above.

Speaking of orchids, the cymbidiums on our orchid bench are almost overwhelming in their color. My mother in law gets mad because I'm behind on my cymbidium care chores but they still bloom anyway.

The Moonstone and it's unknown neighbor rose let me know they're doing well in the drought. They survived our earthquake too, but that's a story for another day.

Double Delight still delights...

...and Mr. Lincoln is producing it's usual platter-sized, deep red blooms as it always does at the beginning of the blooming season.

Here's a very delicately colored pink bougainvillea to finish off this week's look at the beauty side of our garden.