I did food prep. I think the world might be ending.

My least favorite part of cooking is food prep.  Slicing, dicing, mixing etc... Ugh!  So time consuming and annoyingly tedious.  

Because I hate prep so much, Hubby actually bought me a mandolin when I first started cooking.  As a former Music Teacher, I always thought a Mandolin was an instrument.  I had no idea there was a mandolin that that would help me slice faster and easier.  That mandolin has been a great addition to my kitchen!  I don't have to know how to slice and dice.  I just run it across my mandolin and it's done!

That doesn't mean I like doing prep.  In fact, I still hate it and try to find recipes that don't have much prep required.  

Since I've been so extremely busy lately, I've been finding it hard to prepare fresh snacks to eat.  On my busy days, I just don't have the time.  This week, I got home from the grocery store with all my fresh veggies, fruits etc... and decided to take some time, right then, to do some snack prep.  NOT something I've ever done, because...um...ugh...who wants to take time to do food prep when you're not going to eat it right away?!  Seriously!

I did it anyway.  I REALLY wish I could afford to hire someone to do food prep for me every week.  If anyone wants to come do it for free, just leave a comment and I'll take you up on it.  :)  

In doing the prep on Monday, I've had all sorts of fresh foods to eat this week.  It's very easy to choose healthy when I'm busy and everything is ready to eat.  I also found that I've had less kitchen clean-up at snack times.  When I prep at the time I eat...I tend to feel like I'm always cleaning up the kitchen.  Especially since I eat 4-5 times a day!  So, I might...I say MIGHT...just have to do this again.  

For those of you who are wondering what foods I prepped and how I made them into quick snacks, I've included that below.  

• Green Beans - Fresh green beans were $0.99 a pound.  So, I grabbed me a bag full. 
• Prep-Wash, snap off the ends and put in a veggie bag to keep fresh.
• Snack-I've been eating them raw and they are a very crunchy, tasty snack!
  
• Strawberries - Strawberries were on sale too, so I grabbed one container of those (probably should've grabbed two, but you live and you learn). 
• Prep-Peel off the leaves, core out the stem and slice.  
• Tools-Hubby got me a couple handy, dandy strawberry tools for Christmas this year.  One of them takes the stem core out and the other slices them like an egg slicer.  Easy!
• Snack-Strawberry and yogurt parfait.  Pile out some strawberries (2-3 strawberries sliced), spoon a couple heaping teaspoons of vanilla yogurt on top, sprinkle a tiny bit of granola on top of that and you have a tasty dessert.
  
• Cucumbers - These are one of my favorite veggies to snack on. I bought two, so I'd have plenty.
• Prep-Peel off four stripes and slice.  The mandolin is very helpful for this.
• Snack 1-I get those little pre-drained cans of tuna.  Add a little mayonnaise, some pre-shredded carrots, some dill relish for tuna salad.  Then I take one cucumber slice, add a bit of cojack cheese and then scoop on some tuna salad.  This makes a tasty, very low carb snack!
• Snack 2-Or shall I say, lunch side dish.  Hubby and I have been munching on these with our lunches raw.  Yummy!

 If you have any tips on food prep, I'd love to hear them. 

Snacks are the key to eating for Diabetes.

Eating the right amount of carbs per meal is important for staying on track with healthy eating for Diabetes.  What I notice is that snacks are the key.  Snacks are why I either do or do not make healthy choices.  Why?  Because if I eat snacks, then I'm not as hungry come meal time.  For some reason when I'm hungry going into a meal, I just can't say no to seconds, a big bowl of pasta or the fried fish.  When I'm eating out, I will order way more food than I need and most of it will not be healthy.  So, snacks ARE the key for me.

I must have snacks at home.  While I don't deprive myself of crunchie munchies, as previously mentioned on this blog, I do keep the house stocked with a variety of other snacks to go with them.  I almost always have fresh fruit carbs in the house (blueberries, lunchtime apples, grapes etc...).  There is always low to no-carb protein in the house too (cottage cheese, turkey, ham, cheese, frozen grilled chicken patties etc...).   My most favorite staple is eggs.  I also have some sort of non-starchy vegetable (veggie tray, baby carrots, snack sized cucumbers etc...).  

Having these things in the house allows me to eat based on how my day has gone.  If my numbers are little a high, I'll have veggies for a snack.  If they are low, then I'll have a crunchy munchy.  If I'm extra hungry during a 1 carb snack time, then I have extra protein and veggies I can throw in along with my carb so I can fill up.

I must have travel snacks.  For days when I know I'm not going to be home during snack times, I think ahead and make sure I have some travel snacks.  Raisins, diabetic snack bars, an insulated bag with veggies, wax wrapped cheese, turkey sausage sticks...these are all snacks I'll carry with me.  I've been known to carry a small cooler to make sure I have enough food for the day.  Again, if I don't have the food on me, then I'm likely to eat what's available and that usually isn't the best choice.  When the easy thing is healthy, then I usually choose healthy. 

I'm a fan of fresh made grocery store foods.  We have two stores near us that make foods fresh at the store and then you can take them home.  I love this idea!  I can get roasted chicken, gourmet veggies or ONE slice of pizza.  They even have fresh soups packaged up and ready for an afternoon snack.  Warm and go.  I've been known to buy high protein dips that are tasty with veggies.  I sometimes get thick cut turkey that the store makes for dinners.  I'll cut the turkey into little squares and make a snack out of it while watching tv.   Hubby and I even sometimes get these foods for lunches.  I had one cabbage roll for lunch one day.  It was tasty!!!  Paired with some veggies and yogurt, it was a very tasty lunch.  

Leftovers make great snacks too.  I've been known to make a taco salad for an afternoon snack with leftover taco meat from a dinner.  I also have been known to heat up dinner veggie leftovers.  When there's not enough for a meal, there's usually enough for a tasty snack.  These are some of the most filling and satisfying snacks I've had too.  They keep me out of trouble.    

In short, planning ahead and keeping healthy foods on hand keeps me on track.  What do you need to stay on track?

Pizza is one of my favorite foods.

One of the things that's been a challenge to give up is making a meal out of pizza.  I used to eat 4 regular slices of pizza (or 2-3 thick crust pieces), plus garlic/cheese bread and a salad for dinner.

I still eat pizza and I do it frequently, because it's one of my favorite foods.  However, most of the time, my numbers tell me one regular slice is enough.  Can't really make a full meal out of one slice of pizza and be full.  Plus, I need more carbs than just 15 grams or I'm asking for a low.  While I don't make a whole meal out of pizza, I have found ways to make those carbs stretch.  Here are some basic tricks I use:

• I always order thin crust.  Sometimes thin crust just means no thick crust on the edge.  Sometimes think crust actually means a cracker thin crust.  If I can find a good thin crust, I can eat quite a bit of pizza.  Almost a whole dinner, but I still need salad and some starchy vegetables.  
• I double up on toppings (not by ordering extra, though).  Hubby and I go to a local pizza buffet every now and then.  This makes it easy for me to double up on toppings.  I do this by taking two pieces of pizza from the buffet.  Then I take my knife, scrape the cheese plus toppings off of one piece and pile it on the other.  Double the toppings, but not double the crust.  It's tasty!
• I've been known to order crustless pizza.  There's a chain, here in the midwest, that has a soy crumble "crustless" pizza.  It's a 10" pizza and the whole thing is only 15 grams of carb.  Regular pizza toppings don't taste all that good, so I usually order it with chicken, spinach, mushrooms cheese and spices.  Plus there are enough carbs left over that I can have a little garlic bread with it.  Add salad and it's a very filling pizza meal.
• Pizza makes a great snack!  When I'm really hankering for some good old fashioned pepperoni pizza, I sometimes make it at home as a snack.  I get pre-made whole wheat dough, use a 15 carb gram portion, roll it extra thin, add toppings and bake it.  I've also been known to use Naan bread.  1 quarter of the store bought whole grain Naan bread is 15 grams of carbs.  Top, bake and you have pizza.  

Thanks to Pinterest, I discovered the most tasty, pizza craving killer snack ever; Zucchini Pizza Bites (My picture below). 

Oh, these are so tasty and yummy!!  I had some zucchini left over from a failed recipe and all the toppings, except the mini pepperoni's, in the house.  So, I substituted bacon pieces (which I almost always have around) and made some for a snack.  My compliments to The Comfort of Cooking blog for posting this.  

I'm not the biggest fan of zucchini, but I do like it in tomato sauce and I almost always have some sort of organic marinara on hand (I use organic because the carb count is usually a lot lower than the brand names).  I think I'll have to make these at Christmas time this year.  

Nutrition-wise, it's loaded with protein and vegetables.  How can you go wrong?!  Healthy AND tasty...um, and I don't usually like these sort of "substitute out the bread for something else" things.  The zucchini adds the crunch and the toppings are delicious.  Try it and let me know what you think.  

What are your tricks for curing a pizza craving? 

I eat crunchy munchies!

I absolutely love crunchy chips, crunchy cheesy snacks etc...  You know.  All those "processed" foods us diabetics aren't supposed to eat.  Yes, for some diabetics that might be true.  Thankfully, I get to keep them on the menu.

Before diabetes, I would get a big bag of crunchy munchies from the pantry.  I would mindlessly crunch and at some point I'd think; "I should probably stop now."  Did I stop?  Of course not!

When I shifted the way I eat, I stopped buying big bags of crunchy munchies.  It's rare that we have a big bag in the house.  When we do, it's for a game day, BBQ or something with guests.  The bag doesn't get opened until guests arrive and usually there's nothing left, but every now and then there are leftovers. Sometimes we'll just throw them out.  Usually, we buy something that's not one of my favorites, so I'm not tempted to eat the whole bag.

I may not buy big bags often, but I do buy crunchy munchies every week.  Have you ever seem the little $0.50 lunch box sized bags?  Look at the back.  Most are between 12 and 17 grams of carbs.  A perfect carb serving size!  

After a few months of buying these, I noticed that there's something about finishing the bag for me.  There's just something so satisfying about licking my finger, sticking it in the bag and picking up all the crumbs I can get.  There's something satisfying about tapping the last few crumbs into my mouth by holding the bag up to my lips.  Pure crunchy/salty bliss!

I never needed to eat tons of crunchy munchies, I just needed to empty the bag!!!  I empty my little lunch box bags and I'm perfectly happy to move on to some veggies or protein for my next snack.  

What's your trick for keeping the crunchy munchy carbs at a reasonable count?