November 13, 2023 by suzanne day by day

Diabetic-Friendly Thanksgiving Side Dishes and Dinners This Week

It is somehow the week before Thanksgiving and I am trying to tamp down my panic through denial and distraction.

One distraction is that I keep thinking about what diabetic-friendly side dishes I can offer for the family member who is pre-diabetic. We make the same things every year, because everyone has their Favorite Thing they don’t want to give up: dressing (my husband’s favorite), mashed potatoes (my favorite, and honestly the only thing I want to eat on Thanksgiving), sweet potatoes with marshmallows (Carla’s favorite), and turkey (the source of the gravy). We have tried adding a salad in the past, because honestly I like salad much more than anything else on the Thanksgiving menu, but no one eats it and salads do require a significant amount of work. (Plus, my plan is make butternut squash soup and a big salad for dinner the night after Thanksgiving, and those who like leftovers can eat those too. I don’t want to make a big salad two days in a row, is what I’m saying.)

The idea of adding another side dish to the rotation is awful, but I want every family member to have something to eat – and something enjoyable to eat, at that. So I think it would be highly worthwhile to find another dish that my pre-diabetic family member can enjoy without worry. (Before you suggest that I simply ask this person for suggestions, know that I have considered this idea! But this person is notorious for not wanting to be a bother, and I am SURE would simply say, “Oh, I don’t need anything extra! Don’t make a fuss!” and then would eat only turkey on Thanksgiving Day.)

There are complications, of course. Ideally, this mystery dish would be something I could prep, at least in part, before Thanksgiving. And, ideally, more than one person would eat this additional side. If it were Brussels sprouts, for instance, I think only three of us would eat them. My mother-in-law loves creamed spinach, and I am 100% sure she would make it for us… but again, only three people would eat it. Maybe that’s enough people.

(Also, just to clarify – my guests are all from out of town and will be staying with us. So there is no way to ask them to prepare a dish and bring it with them. All the food will be prepared here in my house. Mainly by me, because I am a control freak.)

In my perusal of internet options, here are a handful that sounded workable (although I honestly don’t know how truly diabetes-friendly they are):

Balsamic Oven Roasted Carrots: I hate cooked carrots with the fire of a thousand suns, but maybe other people would like them?
Steamed Broccoli with Lemon: This is a standard side dish in my house, and it’s easy, and if I steam it in my steamer basket I can use the microwave and don’t need to find another spot in the already-crowded ovens. (Yes, we have two ovens this year, although it is debatable whether one of them heats fully.)
Holiday Rice Salad: This sounds hearty and different, and I could make it ahead. (Perhaps without the golden raisins; raisins are my sworn enemy.)
Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic: This sounds easy and yummy… but the only thing more hotly in demand than the oven on Thanksgiving is the stovetop, so I don’t know if this is really doable.
Lemon-Herb Asparagus with Pine Nuts: I think it was Kae who said she is ordering the entire Thanksgiving meal this year, and I am 100% behind that. It doesn’t work for our family, because my husband likes a very specific stuffing, and I like a very specific mashed potatoes, and Carla likes a very specific sweet potatoes… we are difficult, is what I’m saying. But I am getting our turkey from Whole Foods, and they have ready-made sides like this asparagus dish… maybe it would be good?
Green Bean Salad with Toasted Almonds and Feta: Hmmm. This requires cooking on the stovetop, so it may be a no-go. But it sounds yummy.
Low Carb Cauliflower Stuffing: I really, vehemently dislike regular dressing (soggy bread? no thank you), so this sounds preferable. (We would still have regular dressing.) I bet I could prep all the veggies in advance, ask my mother-in-law to put everything together the day of, and maybe there would be space in one of the ovens???
Rosemary Roasted Root Vegetables: This sounds delicious, but it would require a LOT of chopping and peeling. Probably doable mostly in advance, though. And maybe with two ovens, I could manage this. I would skip the beets and maybe the potatoes. Maybe carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash? I wonder if I could throw some cauliflower in there too?

Do you have any low-carb or diabetes-friendly sides you swear by?

Okay, even though my mind is already in the thick planning for next week (HOW is Thanksgiving NEXT WEEK), we have to eat this week too. (Why?) So let’s think of some easy meals to make.

Dinners for the Week of November 13-19

Tacos
Japanese Curry with Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, & Broccoli: The first time we made this, we used carrots instead of broccoli and I just cannot deal with cooked carrots. Broccoli it is!
Sheet Pan Garlic Ginger Chicken and Broccoli: Nothing easier than a sheet pan meal!
Quick Garlicky Shrimp Couscous: Can I convince my husband to eat shrimp? We’ll see.
Teriyaki Chicken with Spicy Cucumber Salad: This sounds yummy and I have never had cucumbers prepared this way.

What are you eating for dinner this week?

I am kinda sorta attempting to complete NaBloPoMo, with the full expectation that life will make it impossible any day now. If you want to follow along, or join the fun, check out San’s blog here.

May 13, 2023 by suzanne day by day

Seven Things Saturday

I have a bunch of tiny inconsequential things to discuss this weekend.

1. This Headline Made Me Mad: I recognize that not everyone cares about Mother’s Day, and that it is a perfectly fine and/or pleasant holiday for many, that it is a non-event for some – and that it is, for reasons of loss or estrangement or jerkfacery, horrible for others. That’s why I am building up quite a froth about this headline, and about all the other “last minute Mother’s Day” emails in my inbox. Because it is clearly accepted that some people will wait until the very last second, and that’s a shitty take. It is YOUR MOTHER, or the mother of YOUR CHILD. It is not hard to remember to do literally anything to celebrate the mother in your life! LITERALLY ANYTHING! That is the bar! For me, Mother’s Day has typically been a day of ambiguous expectations, complicated feelings, and subsequent guilt. For no reason other than that Mother’s Day is a day built on very high expectations that really have no way of being met while simultaneously feeling that I should nonetheless have no expectations at all. Gigi noted on Elisabeth’s post the other day that she tries to think of Mother’s Day as about others, not about herself; it is not a day for her but a day she gives her loved ones the chance to honor her. The Lazy Genius posted something similar on Instagram today, and both of these arguments resonated with me. So I am trying to reframe Mother’s Day for myself. (This does not work, of course, if your family choose not to honor you, which is fortunately not my situation. But if it is your situation, I see you and I am furious on your behalf.) I am also thinking about Sarah’s beautiful article (which she linked to recently in a related post) about reframing the often tedious and resentment-building tasks of motherhood as acts of love, because it seems topically appropriate.

2. Indoor Outdoor: Guess who wore her indoors only shoes outside? And only figured it out halfway through the walk? Turns out you can wash sneakers in the washing machine, which is good to know.

3. Speaking of Shoes: I have FINALLY found a new pair of walking shoes. Mine were really in a state of disrepair. I don’t know WHAT I do to shoes, but the heel part of each shoe has a giant hole in it. It took me three tries, but I finally settled on a pair of Brooks Ghost 14s. It took me so long because my typical size felt very small, and then so did the next size up. So I am wearing size 9.5 instead of 8. They are very comfy and I only got blisters the first day I wore them, which speaks more to the state of my heels than to the shoes themselves. Now I am working on finding CUTE sandals that won’t make my feet ache.

4. I’ve Never Bean So Surprised: I went to roast some chickpeas the other day, and my can of chickpeas had a bunch of kidney beans in it! I was a little weirded out. It seemed highly likely that the beans were perfectly fine to eat, and that I should just move on with my day… but the catastrophizer portion of my brain very helpfully started coming up with all these Danger Scenarios: If the bean segregation system was down, wouldn’t that mean that other important systems could be down, too? Cleaning systems? Packaging systems that allow the beans to be safely canned? Perhaps the quality assurance had taken a nosedive at Hanover, and if they weren’t monitoring this aspect of quality, maybe there were other areas that were failing as well. If there is contamination of bean types, could there be other kinds of contamination? What if the bean containment unit hadn’t been cleaned properly, and the kidney beans were left behind and were all old and gross? So I poured the beans down the sink and opened a new can. Same issue! Kidney beans in the garbanzos! I poured that one out too and submitted a comment on the Hanover website. Then I opened a third can. Seemed fine. I rinsed the chickpeas and poured them onto a sheet pan. Where I spotted one lone kidney bean. I tossed it and roasted the chickpeas.

5. Memory Failure: My husband picked up his acoustic guitar the other day and I asked him if he was going to serenade me. No. He instead gave me a mini lecture on… chords, I think? Not really sure. I am not nor do I suspect I will ever be interested in playing the guitar and I tuned out a little, remembering this guy in high school who DID serenade me with his acoustic guitar. He was a lovely boy, so sweet and smart and very talented at both playing the guitar and singing. He used to sing me James Taylor and Eric Clapton songs, and I remember very distinctly how cool it was (a boy was serenading me! and he was legit good at it!) and yet how uncomfortable it was (did he… expect Something? I was not interested in him romantically) (and also it is a little weird to just sit in a room while someone sings at you). (I do think I may have kissed him once? Despite not being romantically interested in him? Which felt like a reasonable concession on my part for all the lovely serenades, but also probably confused the issue for him. Ugh. How do I prevent Carla from feeling like she ever owes a person kisses?) Anyway. I was sitting there, not listening to my poor darling husband as he earnestly explained how to use one’s finger as a capo??? to make power chords???? and thinking about this boy from high school and how I could NOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME REMEMBER HIS LAST NAME. I could remember his first name. I could remember the first and last name of the woman he married. (I wonder if he won her over by serenading her? and, if so, whether he sang her the same exact songs?) (And does he serenade her to this day?) But I CANNOT remember his last name. I remember his first name. Although the more I try to locate his last name in my memory, the shakier I feel about the accuracy of his first name. There are people I could ask, of course. And maybe I have a yearbook floating around somewhere that features him and his entire name. But instead, I keep picturing his very pleasant face and being unable to come up with the name. Memory is weird.

6. Non Dairy Update (as Opposed to a Dairy Non Update, or a Non Dairy Non Update): I have been dairy free for two and a half weeks now. It’s going fine. I don’t LOVE dairy products, so I don’t really miss them. The only place I need dairy is in my morning tea, and Nicole recommended cashew milk, so I am using that and it’s very creamy. It tastes like cashews though, which shouldn’t be a surprise based on the fact that it is cashew milk. But I found it surprising, and each time I drink my tea now I have to remind myself, This will taste mildly of cashews. I like cashews, and eat them as a snack quite frequently, so it’s not that I dislike the taste in any way. It’s just… not a flavor I experience often outside of the actual nut. The biggest issue I’m having is that I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get as much protein as I was able to squeeze in before. I have been counting calories since January (with very little luck, but I haven’t braved another option), and yogurt, skim milk, and cottage cheese have been KEY to me getting enough protein while sticking within my calorie limit. I will admit that I don’t really know what I’m doing in terms of protein, but from the resources I’ve consulted, it seems like the goal is at least 30 grams of protein per meal, with a secondary goal of 130 grams per day (some sources say as many grams of protein as your weight in pounds). I was pretty good at getting at least 100 grams per day with my regimen of yogurt-plus-skim-milk-smoothie with protein-fortified bread and almond butter for breakfast, cottage cheese for lunch or snack, and lean meat for dinner, with sometimes a little boost of yogurt for dessert. But now I am lucky if I can get to 70 grams of protein a day. Probably this is because I hate eggs (although I do eat them) and cannot eat soy (not that I could stomach the texture of tofu even if I could eat soy). Anyway. If you have Hot Tips about meeting protein goals I am keen to hear them.

7. Bee Mug: It is very grey and yucky outside today with occasional spurts of rain, which means that half of my Mother’s Day request will go unmet, at least for the near future. (I wanted to go to a local attraction we’ve never visited, because my child and husband have no interest in it; they agreed to go with me as a Mother’s Day gift. We can’t go tomorrow because my daughter has An Event; not sure if the event schedulers are geniuses or jerks.) So I am blogging, reading, and drinking green tea from my bee mug, which was a birthday gift from Gigi and which makes me deeply pleased every time I drink from it.

What are you up to this weekend? Any email headlines really grating your cheese today? From what vehicle are you drinking your morning beverage of choice these days? Any suggestions for CUTE feet friendly sandals I should look into? Have you ever been serenaded?

June 6, 2022 by suzanne day by day

Out of the Food Fret Frying Pan and Into the Fire

I DID IT. Based on your supportive comments and gentle nudges toward action, I talked to my neighbor about her lovely lunch invitation. First, I resolved to talk to her about it. Next, I cobbled together a script from several commenters’ suggestions, and I practiced it in the car and in the shower. Then, I waited for the Right Opportunity.

Carla provided me with a very nice segue – she was playing with the neighbor’s dog, and I needed her to come home to eat lunch. So I walked next door to fetch her. The neighbor came out and said hello, and I told her the reason for my appearance. Then I made my little speech: “Speaking of lunch, I was thinking about your kind invitation that we have lunch together, and I was so delighted by the offer that I said yes without thinking, but the truth is, Carla and I have so many silly food restrictions between us it’s not really worth getting into, and I was wondering if we could do something a little simpler, like afternoon tea or lemonade?” When I practiced it, I was Breezy and Casual and I had a little self-deprecating laugh in there, plus I also had a line about how of COURSE we wanted to spend time with her… and I also wanted to offer to bring homemade cookies or something… but it all came out in a rush and I forgot some of it. Oh well. At least I got out the important part which was LUNCH WILL NOT GO WELL.

Her immediate reaction was, “Oh no, sometimes I give Carla food when she comes over!” and so I had to reassure her that I didn’t mean allergies, but rather that Carla is the pickiest person on the planet. (Deftly trying to put the bulk of the blame on Carla’s food restrictions rather than my own.) Here is where Carla chimed in and informed our neighbor that I HATE tomatoes. So I am clearly not blameless.

Once I had assured her she wasn’t doing something egregious by feeding my child cherries and red peppers, she seemed to relax a bit. She asked if something like tea and biscuits would be fine and I said that would be lovely and we discussed possible dates (though didn’t settle on anything specific). I am… so relieved. THANK YOU for helping me figure out the right way to handle this sticky situation.

Now I can turn my Food Frets toward camp.

Carla is attending a new camp this summer, and they don’t offer meals. So we will be packing a lunch. This is fine.

Now that she is nearly NINE (which is nearly TEN, omg), I am looking forward to ~~forcing~~ encouraging Carla to make her own lunch (with supervision). We discussed some potential ideas for lunches, and her Ideal Lunch is a Lunchable. She only eats the ham Lunchable, and she only eats the ham, the cookies, and the crackers. She refuses to eat the cheese. If I pack her slices of other cheese – specifically cheddar that I have cut for her – she will eat that.

So I was banking on sending her with Lunchables each day, and that if Lunchables become unavailable (again), or if she gets sick of them, we can pack a bagel and cream cheese with some pepperoni.

To round out her lunch, I would add other things she eats, like pickles and grapes and berries and grape tomatoes and red peppers and sugar snap peas.

So I felt pretty good about our options.

Then we got a note from camp that said NO PORK PRODUCTS.

AHHHHHHHHH

What now???

I suppose what we have to do is revert to PBJ. The camp is not a nut-free campus, so peanut butter is an option. Carla also ~~enjoys~~ eats sun butter, so she (and I) can make sandwiches every day. Carla eats sun butter sandwiches at school all year long, so I know she WILL eat them. But the last time I tried to make her one, she complained because my sandwiches weren’t the SAME as the ones at school.

Weary sigh.

I suppose I can just send her with the equivalent of Snack Dinner, but for lunch. But I am just not sure what the protein situation will be in that case. Snack Dinner usually has pepperoni or a couple of chicken nuggets or two.

I wonder if she would eat cold chicken nuggets (hork)?

The reason that I am fretting about this is two-fold.

The first fold is that the camp really made a Big Deal about ensuring that we sent a LOT of food with our kids to camp. They emphasized that we should send MORE than we think – like, enough food for a week rather than a day. The kids work so hard and are so active, they are ravenous when they get to lunchtime. So I want to a) comply with the rules and b) make sure my particular kid is getting enough sustenance.

The second fold is that Carla already eats next to nothing for lunch. I assume she eats something at school each day, although her reports are sporadic and often sound like, “Oh yeah, I ate a hamburger bun and a slice of American cheese.” So I am already facing an uphill climb when it comes to getting her to eat. I want to stack all the odds in my favor by ensuring her lunches are full of things she LIKES, not just things she tolerates.

Well. I am not really asking for ideas, because I feel like it will be an exercise in frustration. (You, reasonably: “Send her with some chickpeas! Or beans! Or hummus! Or tuna salad! Or turkey! Or a protein drink!” and I will cringe at you while shaking my head because she will not touch ANY of that, and the list is endless.) (I am going to buy some turkey pepperoni and see if Carla will deign to try it.) I am just whining. New camp, new frets.

suzanne day by day

the mundane, the magical, and everything in between

Food restrictions

Diabetic-Friendly Thanksgiving Side Dishes and Dinners This Week

Seven Things Saturday