Cheapskate Rural Dweller

D-DAY: The Journey of Thousand Miles Starts with Ten Thousand Steps

I kind of look at diabetes management as a triangle. Sort of like the fire triangle where you need three sides...heat, oxygen, and fuel.

For diabetes, I see it as food, exercise/weight loss, and monitoring. I've talked about food and monitoring in the last couple of posts, today it's exercise.

I go to the gym twice a week for weight training. My doctor has told me to ease back on that and replace it with a more aerobic exercise. If you follow me on Facebook, you'll know that my biggest form of aerobic exercise is walking.

My wife's a runner. She loves it. Me? Not so much but I do like walking. I've been walking daily for a few years now.

At first my minimum walk was a mile a day, which could be accomplished by doing a creative lap of the office complex where I work. Didn't seem like enough, so I started branching out.

Now, I do the 10,000 step regimen where I try to make sure I do a minimum of 10,000 steps a day, which works out to about 3.5 miles.

One problem is that I get bored easily with exercise and I need some motivation. Each day, I like to strike out from my office in a different direction. For the motivation part, I like to take pictures as I go along and post them to my Facebook.

There's not much more to it, just walking and shooting. I can tell it's helped. I feel healthier and I've lost 25 pounds in a year.

In the meantime, I've been assembling quite a portfolio of life in downtown Los Angeles, as you can see by some of the examples in this post.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Another Front Coming Through

The front yard rose garden is a bit played out.

We've pruned it but its time to give it a little boost. I added some bone meal to all the roses after pruning.

Now, I'm going to put a bag of mulch on.

After pulling the weeds, I dump a bag of GroMulch.

After raking in, it's ready for another season. Next up, do something about those rocks, and the front yard is done.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Being Upfront With Our Gardening

This week, we're concentrating on the front yard, starting with the lawn. Previously, back in December, we overseeded out lawn with a heat-resistant blend.

With the El Nino rains, the seeds have sprouted and I think it's finally time to mow.

The mower hasn't run since October but it starts the first try.

Lawn is done. See the difference from the day we seeded to today? Much greener.

There's still a big brown patch of thatched St. Augustine in the middle. I'll hit that with my aerator tool and see if I can coax some more green grass to come up there.

Darryl

This Week's Menu: Smoked Tri Tip Roast and Stuffed Pasilla Chiles

Changing it up a bit this week by focusing on a side dish instead of breakfast and giving you (reluctantly, I might add) one of my best recipes. It's not quick or easy but, darn, is it good.

It's my version of our Golden State's signature barbecue entree, smoked tri tip. You'll love it!

Super Side Dish: Stuffed Pasilla Chiles

Dinner: Smoked Tri Tip Roast

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Smoked Tri Tip Roast

Texas has it's saucy version of barbecue, Memphis has its rubs, and Kansas City it's smoke. All three are hard to get good versions of here in California but we do have an ace up our sleeve.

My home of the Golden State has its own style of barbecue, smoked tri tip.

It's a part of the cow that used to be ground up, or even just thrown away sometimes, until a butcher at the Von's in Santa Maria came up with this triangular cut. It's a bit tough to start but cooks on the Central Coast figured out that smoking it came up with a tenderizing and tasty way to serve it.

You can now find tri tip being served up in every corner of the state on weekends at fairs, farmers markets, church group fund raisers, and on almost every corner of Santa Maria.

This is a meal I reserve for special occasions. It takes quite a bit more to prepare and cook than the other recipes you'll find on this blog but it is well worth the results and you can have very good leftovers for days.

INGREDIENTS
2 or 3 tri tip roasts - minimum grade of USDA Choice, Prime if you can swing it.
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
16 oz pineapple juice
16 oz orange juice
1/2 pound hardwood chips (hickory, oak, or mesquite)

PREPARATION

The day before, put the roasts in a sealable plastic bowl and fill with a 50/50 mix of orange and pineapple juice. Seal and put in the refrigerator overnight.

Put the wood chips in a bucket and fill with water, let sit overnight.

RUB

Mix the cayenne, paprika, mustard, and onion powder together.

COOKING

Drain the pineapple and orange juice into a small sauce pan. Simmer on low for about an hour. This can be used as a glaze when the meat is done.

Sprinkle the salt and pepper over all surfaces of the meat.

Apply the rub thoroughly on all surfaces of the meat.

Drain the water from the chip bucket so that you only have soaked chips left in it. In a smoker or a charcoal grill, put a ring of charcoal around the edge. Don't make a full circle but leave about a quarter of the circumference empty. It should resemble a Greek omega symbol - Ω

Put a layer of wet wood chips on top of the charcoal.

Light each end of the ring. I put about ten briquettes in a starter chimney and and then put about half of the burning charcoal on each end of the ring. This will burn slowly around the ring but give enough of the temperature to cook (you're shooting for 250 degrees F).

The wood will also help regulate the temperature along with providing the smoke needed for flavor.

The meat all goes in the center, with no direct heat underneath them.

It's a slow process, maybe two hours for one roast and an hour for each roast you add to that. A meat thermometer will help you monitor the progress. Keep the smoker or grill covered, check once an hour or so. Remember that each time you remove the lid, you'll be adding 15 minutes to cooking time so do this sparingly.

You're looking for an internal temperature of 140 - 150 degrees F for medium rare. Once done, remove to a platter, cover with foil for 10 minutes before serving.

We like to serve it as a sandwich with my wife's homemade sourdough bread with a little jack cheese...

Super Sides: Stuffed Pasilla Peppers

I like stuffed bell peppers but, for some reason, these mild peppers give me an acute case of heartburn. The hotter pasilla chiles don't so I use them instead, just like I would bell peppers.

Here is a very good and easy recipe for them, similar to jalapeno poppers.

INGREDIENTS
3 large pasilla peppers
1/4 pound cream cheese

Slice open the pasilla chiles. Remove the seeds inside if you want to reduce the heat. Slide in some cream cheese.

Loosely wrap with foil paper.

D-DAY: The Spatter Specialist

An ongoing look a life as a type II diabetic...

Today is a blood profile day. That means readings throughout the day to gauge how the glucose levels in my blood fluctuate at different times and to see where it spikes and dips, which can point to flaws in the diet during those times that needs to be addressed.

First, a little preparation. Since I don't get an unlimited supply of lancets and test strips, that means no tests for a couple of days before or after so I can have enough to do this day...a minimum of six tests, one before and after each meal.

Second, have a napkin around at all times or else the spatter will look like the set of Dexter. Well, not quite, but it's going to get bloody in here.

So, with preparations in place, off we go...

First test is my fasting from the night before and pre-breakfast test...150. That's right at the top of the range and is thanks to a phenomenon knows as the Somogyi Effect.

Diabetics can be frustrated that after fasting all night, their morning reading is higher than their bedtime reading. This is because the liver, sensing that there is a drop in blood sugar over an extended time, will release more to replenish the system (it's also called a Liver Dump. The Somogyi Effect is named after the researcher, Dr. Michael Somogyi, who identified it.

As long as my morning reading is within range and doesn't spike to, let's say 200, I'm not going to sweat it.

Breakfast is a bacon (1/4 slice, chopped up) and cheese omelet with 8 ounces of 1% milk which works out to 17 grams of carbs; 13 fat, and 25 protein.

The next test comes two hours after breakfast. OK, another poke, more blood, and...112! Great number and usually the case with breakfast. My liver realizes it's not going to die and lets my blood sugar drop back down to a reasonable level. (see pic above)

In between breakfast and lunch, I go for a walk. My diabetic education nurse says a half hour walk can lower your blood sugar by 40 points. I can't find that exact number but many studies have shown that a walk can lower your blood sugar and A1c readings. Still, without any ingestion of food or liquid, my reading goes up 4 to 116.

So much for walking lowering the reading but it's still healthy and I'm sure it will help in the long run

Lunch is a bit more elaborate than the previous meal. A slice of last night's meatloaf with 1/4 cup of roasted potatoes, a few roasted cauliflower bites, and three pieces of fruit (apple, banana, and orange). Two hours later the reading is 132. That's a great reading...a big, filling lunch only raised it by 16 points.

Dinner, after a quick reading of 107, is a salad I've been meaning to try, a spring mix topped with some chopped ham and shredded cheese. I got some super fresh and premium olive oil from a ranch we visited last week so I'm making my own oil and vinegar dressing with that and some balsamic from Costco. I also cook a scrambled egg and have a glass of milk.

Post dinner reading is 140, a 33 point gain which I will take any day.

A glass of milk, some jerky and cheese for my after Jeopardy snack and my bedtime reading is 142.

This is how those readings work into a blood profile for the day. As long as that line doesn't go over the top, I'm good. If it does, as long as it comes right back down, I should be OK, too.

I'm able to stay in the zone quite comfortably today. True, I have to pass on the cupcakes and donuts my colleagues brought in but I still feel that I got enough food that was tasty and satisfying. I started the day right up against the upper limit of that zone, dipped down towards the bottom, and came back up towards the end.

My fingers are like pin cushions by the end of the day but these occasional blood profile days are very educational to see just how the food I take in affects the sugar in my blood. I will be playing with that mix on upcoming blood profile days to see where I can push it a little (afternoon seems to have room for just a little indulgence) and where I need to take a step back.

By the way, the next morning, my fasting reading was 141.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved