{"id":3478,"date":"2009-12-14T11:30:11","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T16:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=3478"},"modified":"2016-12-07T07:12:32","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T12:12:32","slug":"whats-for-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=3478","title":{"rendered":"What’s For Dinner?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our family jokes about how our dinner conversation is always in regard to what is on the menu for the next meal.\u00a0 We like to eat.\u00a0 We like to eat almost anything, although we also consider ourselves gastronomical snobs.\u00a0 None of us ever stops in at a fast food joint, even in a dire emergency.\u00a0 Food is just too respected among us to ever lower ourselves to the quickie Big Mac or Double Double.\u00a0 We cook from the Julia Child\u2019s cookbooks, research epicurean specialties, and because my parents are Texans we can innately grill any food product, even bananas and turnips, turning them into delicious treats.<\/p>\n

Two years ago my then-78-year-old dad, and World Champion chili cook and barbecuer, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.\u00a0 He had just had a knee replacement operation and the doctor said the sedentariness after the surgery brought on the issues related to diabetes.\u00a0 But, chances are, his blood glucose level ranked pretty close to diabetic in the first place.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

My family considers ourselves pretty healthy because all of us exercise regularly, almost daily, and we eat fresh produce, the best cuts of meat and the finest ingredients (World class chili includes no pasta fillers and only the highest grade of sirloins.\u00a0 True barbecue sauce never includes sugar).\u00a0 As a family, we get together a few times a year to celebrate holidays and birthdays.\u00a0 Of course, this involves big meals that we all participate in preparing.\u00a0 This past year we had to learn some new ways to make our usual dishes. I was dead set on being disappointed in what was going to be served. Sugar-free chocolate pies?\u00a0 How do you make a roux without butter and flour?\u00a0 Everything would be bland and boring.<\/p>\n

Selfish perhaps, but eating is of such vital importance, not just for survival, but a part of our lives\u2019 enjoyment and entertainment, that I set out to make sure that my taste buds were not insulted.\u00a0 The Christmas presents from me that year would be the top notch foodstuffs for a diabetic diet.<\/p>\n

I thought this would be a challenge.\u00a0 Besides diabetic candy, which ranks somewhere just above Bridge mix mints and butterscotch, I had never considered what a diabetic ate.\u00a0 I scoured the web for food products I could wrap in bows and shower my dad with under the tree. Turns out that diabetics don\u2019t eat that much differently than we already did, just refocused.\u00a0 Our salads became bigger with lighter dressings.\u00a0 Our condiments focused on vinegar and less oil.\u00a0 We had already been big olive oil users (brought the finest home in our suitcases when we traveled), but too much apparently.\u00a0 And we love butter (see Julia Childs\u2019 Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook), but a little dab of \u201cI Can\u2019t Believe It\u2019s Not Butter\u201d can\u2019t be detected if the other ingredients are tiptop.\u00a0 Pasta became whole wheat and that just made us consider ourselves more gastronomically elite anyway.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Jim<\/a>
Jim Wallen and my boyfriend, Eber Lambert<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

We also began to rearrange our portions.\u00a0 Salads took up one half of the plate instead of one tiny corner.\u00a0 Pasta and rice and other grains and starches were really only a quarter cup, instead of enough to fill a food drop in Eritrea.<\/p>\n

I found myself not trying to find good tasting diabetic foods, but realizing it simply meant we only had to re-allot what our family was already doing well.<\/p>\n

Still, I had to get my dad something for Christmas, and the history book on cartography and my first attempt at knitting needed an addition.\u00a0 A bottle of agave sweetener I bought at the winery, Adobe Guadalupe<\/a> in Ensenada, Mexico turned out to be the perfect gift.\u00a0 The sweetener, made from the same plant used to make tequila, is diabetic-friendly.<\/p>\n

This summer, my father had his second knee replacement surgery.\u00a0 I went to Texas to help and prepared most of the meals.\u00a0 Every day he checked his blood sugar and maintained a steady level.\u00a0 We had one more challenge added to our cooking–he was taking coumadin, a drug to help with blood thinning for post-operative patients.\u00a0 Green leafy veggies are not allowed, as they counteract the job of the coumadin.\u00a0 But there\u2019s always yellow squash and eggplant and carrots.\u00a0 The squash and eggplant grill especially well, and carrots steamed with a little ginger and cinnamon can make an epicurean\u2019s heart flutter with love.<\/p>\n

My dad squeezed a little agave sweetener on a tablespoon of non-fat ricotta for his dessert while we talked about what we would make for the next evening\u2019s meal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eating is of such vital importance, not just for survival, but a part of our lives\u2019 enjoyment and entertainment, that I set out to make sure that my taste buds were not insulted. The Christmas presents from me that year would be the top notch foodstuffs for a diabetic diet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":3509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1449,1557],"tags":[438,1407],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's For Dinner?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two years ago my then-78-year-old dad, and World Champion chili cook and barbecuer, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. 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