Happy Mother's Day!

In the US, the first Sunday in May is designated as a celebration of one of the most important persons in our lives, i.e., our moms! When I was growing up, I might make and bring breakfast to my mom, or clean the house, or just try to not fight with my brothers. As I grew up and started taking more responsibility in my life, I began to realize how...inadequate...those gestures were. Moms are truly super heroes made flesh! At times, my mom worked close to 20 hours a day for months on end in order to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our backs. And she did this with very little support from anyone. She was and is pretty darn remarkable for everything she went through and that she did it with as much grace as she did. So, on this day, I say Thank You, MOM!!

I also decided to make a cake for her. Not just any cake, though, but a cake based on her mother's recipe from the Depression Era called Poverty Cake. From what I've read, there were many different recipes for poverty cake out there, but from what I've seen, I think this may be one of the simplest recipes out there. That makes this poverty cake recipe really great for the 21st century cook who doesn't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen but still wants something sweet. I was also able to adapt the recipe to lessen the fat and sugars, making it decent treat for those of us with diabetes. So, without any further ado, here's Grandma Jean's Poverty Cake Recipe:

1 1/2 cups flour

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup Splenda Blend for Baking (or another sugar/sweetener blend)

1 teaspoon vanilla (pure real vanilla is best, but imitation will work as well)

1/4 cup canola oil

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350F (176.67C). Add flour, cocoa, baking soda, and Splenda Blend to an 8-9" cake pan. Mix to distribute dry ingredients evenly. Create three depressions in the flour. Fill one depression with vanilla, one with the oil, and one with the white vinegar. Pour the water over top. 

Stir the batter to mix completely. All the flour should be wet! Bake for 30 minutes, testing with a toothpick for doneness (toothpick should be clean after inserting into the center). 

Allow to cool in pan. You can sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar if you like. 

While I have frosted this cake, it's really much better when you eat it with powdered sugar or a fruit topping (I like berries!). There's just something about it that begs for something lighter than icing. Cut this into 12 servings, and each serving has:

140 calories

5 grams fat

20 grams carbohydrates

2 grams protein

Not bad and the taste is "bolus-worthy"!

So, to all those fabulous mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!!

Chicken Delicious and Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of my favorite dinners when I was growing up was a roasted chicken meal my mother called "Chicken Delicious". Back then, it was made with skin-on chicken (fat), Italian pork sausage (meaning high fat), garlic salt and salt (meaning high sodium), and loads of oil (adding more fat). Chicken may be one of the "good meats", but the way this was made "back in the day" certainly leaves a lot to be desired in this day and age of limiting salt and fat intake!

So, how to make an old favorite but with less of today's "no-nos"? I made a newer version of chicken delicious tonight that reduces the fat and salt but still maintains the taste. Preheat oven to 425F (218.3C). Start with about 1.5 lbs of frozen or 1.25 lbs of fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts and 1 lb low fat Italian turkey sausage. Defrost the frozen chicken and pat dry. Peel and slice 6 medium russet potatoes and place in roasting pan or casserole dish. Mix 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper in small bowl. Sprinkle half mix over potatoes. Slice turkey sausage into small pieces and place sausage and chicken on top of potatoes. Sprinkle the rest of the spices over the top of the chicken and then pour 1/4 cup of canola (or olive) oil over the chicken and sausage. Cover with either foil or lid, place in oven and cook for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove foil or lid and reduce heat to 375F (190.55C), cooking for 30 minutes or until potatoes are browned. Serve with a green salad and looks like this:

When done right, this is very good. If you overdo the oil or fail to defrost the chicken fully, the potatoes will turn to mush and it's not as good. On the other hand, if you overcook this dish, which is also easy to do, it can be dry and tasteless. When done right, the chicken is moist while the potatoes have a crisp edge. It's not the easiest to do, so I encourage people to not give up if the first try does not come out perfect.

I also found a recipe for Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies that I decided to try from Diabetic Cooking magazine. It looked good and we finished the Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies I made last week, so I figured I'd give it a try. It calls for:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Splenda
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cocoa or dark cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons skim milk
1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 375F (190.55C). Beat margarine, sugar and sugar substitute with electric mixer on medium speed. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Alternate adding dry ingredients and milk to the margarine-sugar mix and beat until well-blended. Stir in chocolate chips and drop by teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets, baking for 7-9 minutes, until just set. Remove to wire rack and cool completely.

I found that if you use an actual teaspoon measure and scoop the batter out by a level teaspoon, you can make nearly 6 dozen cookies as opposed to the 3 dozen the recipe says it makes. That means 4 cookies would constitute a serving and have 107 calories, 6g fat, 25mg cholesterol, 11g carbohydrate, 1g dietary fiber, 2g protein, and 57mg sodium. After baking, if you don't flatten them out, they look like this:

This batch had a light texture that I like -- kind of like a meringue cookie, though they are definitely a drop cookie. I had barely gotten the cookies out of the oven when my brother started eating them, so I would say they are definitely going to stay on my list of cookies to make.

Hope everyone out there is enjoying their holidays and, if you're in the path of some nasty winter weather, staying warm and dry!

Holiday Baking

Twenty years ago was my first year with diabetes, and it was my first Christmas with diabetes. Like most people in their first year of diagnosis, I was finding the holidays very difficult, since I felt as if I couldn't have any of the traditional favorites, including cookies. It was in that frame of mind that I went to a holiday open house/holiday party at a local hospital for people with diabetes. Three things happened: (1) I was able to sample some delicious desserts that were appropriate for people with diabetes and get the recipes for them, (2) I won a copy of The Art of Cooking for the Diabetic, and (3) I bought the ADA's Holiday Cookbook. That helped me to believe that, yes indeed, I could have holiday treats and still manage my diabetes.

So, here we are, once again in the holiday season and on the only decent day this weekend, and I decided to make cookies. Specifically, I made Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies -- a double batch. This recipe was originally published in the November/December 2008 issue of Diabetes Cooking. The ingredients are as follows:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon shortening
4 squares (1 oz each) semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons molasses
1 egg
Prepared icing (optional)

It's a fairly standard cut-out cookie recipe. Essentially, you combine the dry ingredients: flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, ginger, baking soda, ground cinnamon, salt, and ground black pepper in a bowl and sift together, resulting in this:

Next, beat the butter, both sugars, and shortening in a large bowl with mixer set on a medium speed until creamy. Add the chocolate and beat again until blended, then add the molasses and egg, beat a third time until this is well blended.

I made several substitutions in this recipe, some more radical than others. For instance, I substituted margarine for the butter (usually not a big deal, except for those who like the true butter flavor). I also substituted margarine for the shortening, since we do not have shortening in the house. I also found out that we did not have any semisweet chocolate squares in the house, so instead of the squares, I used semisweet mini chocolate chips:

FYI: I melt chocolate on the stove, not in the microwave. I've found that melting chocolate in the microwave gives it a funny consistency, and as long as you stir the chocolate consistently while it's melting, I find I like chocolate that's been melted on the stove better.

I also didn't have any molasses and that is a much bigger problem. It's a liquid, which is needed to be able to form the cookies. It has a specific flavor, so you can't just use any old substitute. What I did was substitute brown sugar and water for the molasses. Brown sugar has its color and flavor from (get this) molasses, so it makes sense to use it. It also has the same number of calories and carbohydrates per tablespoon. So, I used 2 tablespoons of brown sugar (per batch) and 1 1/2 tablespoons water to create a syrup. I've done this before and it works quite well.

After mixing the dry and wet ingredients together thoroughly, divide the dough in half and make each half into a disc shape. Wrap each disc tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

When ready, preheat the oven to 350F and roll out 1 of the discs between sheets of plastic wrap to 1/4" thickness. Cut into shapes, place on ungreased cookie sheet and then refrigerate once again for at least 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are set. Cool on sheet for 5 minutes and then place on rack to cool completely. Decorate with icing if desired.

I found that a double batch made 5 1/4 dozen (63) cookies -- a LOT of cookies! These cookies are neighbor-approved: My friend and neighbor, Pam (who is not diabetic, but whose mother is diabetic), taste tested these cookies this evening and she thought they were quite good, though not as sweet as she usually makes. That's fine, since I do not have as big a sweet tooth as I did before I developed diabetes. Here's the final result:

Very tasty cookies, even without icing! If you're stuck at home because of the weather and want something to do, these cookies are fairly easy to make and I enjoy them. Merry Christmas!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I will be going to visit family for Thanksgiving, starting tomorrow, so I have been busy baking pies for the big day. That way, I will have the desserts made and on Thursday, I'll be able to focus solely on the dinner. Naturally, I made my classic low calorie pumpkin pie, this time with Stevia sweetener instead of Splenda. I've never baked with Stevia, so Thursday will be a bit of a new experience for me, too! Here's a shot of my pumpkin pie:

It's a little darker than in the past, but I used brown sugar for this pie instead of regular sugar, which does add a little more color. The recipe is here.

The other "pie" I made was a cranberry-apple crumble. I like fresh fruit desserts and this is one that is loaded with flavor, though far less calories than a traditional crumble.  I used about 2 lbs of peeled, chopped apples and 1 1/2 cups of cranberries for the fruit, tossing them with 1/2 cup sugar, 8 packets Stevia, 2 Tbs lemon juice, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp clove, and 1/2 tsp ginger. Pour the entire mix into a pie tin sprayed with nonstick spray, cover with foil and bake in a 375F oven for 45 minutes. To make the crumble, combine 1/4c flour, 1/2c brown sugar, 2 Tbs light stick margarine, and 1 tsp cinnamon. Blend margarine into the mix until crumbly and then add 1/4c quick cook oats. When the first 45 minutes is up, uncover the fruit and sprinkle the crumble on top. Return to oven and bake for another 20 minutes or until the crumble is golden brown. It looks like this:

I got the basic recipe from the ADA's book Diabetes Meals On $7 a Day -- Or Less! I recommend this book, as it has a number of very basic and easy recipes that can be modified without much work.

With my modifications, 1/9 of this recipe has 167 calories and approximately 32g of carbohydrates per serving -- only 4g carbohydrates more than the original! Personally, I would have half of the recommended serving or even less, so I could have a taste of that and a taste of the pie without blowing my blood sugars through the roof.

With that, let me say happy Thanksgiving to all my friends! Eat well and remember that even with diabetes, you can still eat deliciously!

Introducing.....

Welcome to my new blog! Here, I hope to share recipes, food ideas and more I've gathered and learned from the 20 years I've had diabetes and the 20 years I've kept off around 50 pounds. I am not a health care professional; I'm just a patient who has had some success at maintaining weight loss and who enjoys eating good foods. I also enjoy cooking, so when I was told I had diabetes, I decided to look at my new diagnosis as a challenge. How could I cook foods that would appealing but would fit in with the dietary challenges of managing diabetes?

Since I am starting this on Christmas Eve, I thought I might start off with a holiday recipe, one I found back in November of 1993 -- just 7 months after I was diagnosed. I was not looking forward to either giving up pumpkin pie or having an extremely tiny sliver of pie. That was until I found this recipe in the November, 1993 issue of Diabetes Forecast:

Low-calorie Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

Nonstick spray

1 16-oz. Can solid-pack pumpkin
1 13-oz. Can evaporated skim milk
1 egg
2 egg whites
½ cup biscuit mix
2 Tbsp. Sugar
8 packets heat stable sugar substitute
2 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp. Vanilla

Heat oven to 350° F. Lightly spray a 9-inch pie pan with nonstick spray.

Place all ingredients in blender, food processor, or mixing bowl.

Blend 1 minute or beat 2 minutes with mixer.

Pour into pie pan and bake for 50 minutes or until center is puffed up.

One serving is 1/8 of the pie, has 110 calories, 18 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat, and 175 mg sodium. A slice actually fits into my diet -- I need only 1 unit of Humalog for a slice of pie!

I've made this pie every year since. Here's what it looks like:

Well, I hope this is a good start. Happy Holidays!