It's time for another recipe! As you may have seen on Twitter, I officially have gestational diabetes again. Third time. I'm a veteran here. What that means is that I basically have diabetes until the baby is born, and I manage my glucose levels through my diet (The goal is not to have insulin if you can, and so far I've been able to do that). Managing through diet simply means that I eat a measured amount of carbs in each meal, so my levels stay even. I can still eat whatever I want, just so long as I stay within my limits.
So for instance, tonight I really wanted to eat some clementines. Because that's how I wanted to get my carbs, I needed a low carb dinner. Salad is great for that! And there are so many ways to make a salad filling. This is definitely NOT the healthiest salad calorie-wise, but it's packed with protein and veggies which equal nutrients. That's how I think of healthy. Here's the simple recipe, which you can adjust to the amount of people you're making it for:
Bleu Cheese Salad
Ingredients:
• Romaine Lettuce, chopped
• Red cabbage, chopped
• Carrot, shredded
• Cucumber, sliced
• Tomato, sliced
• Red onion, sliced
• Black olives, sliced
• Almond slices
• Cubed grilled chicken or chopped bacon (or both!)
• Bleu cheese crumbles
• Balsamic vinegar reduction
• Your choice Bleu cheese dressing
Directions:
• Clean, cut, chop, and slice all vegetables and place in a large bowl and toss.
• Cook bacon/chicken as desired. For the chicken, I do a simple grill with olive oil. I season the chicken with garlic salt, pepper, and italian seasoning.
• In a small pot, pour balsamic vinegar and set on medium heat. Bring to a boil and let it reduce until the liquid is syrup-like (a good indicator is if it nicely coats a spoon). Let reduction cool while assembling the rest of the salad.
• Divide salad into desired portions, add almonds, chicken/bacon, bleu cheese crumbles as you'd like. (You can also add croutons, but I don't because of the diabetes thing, obviously.)
• Lightly drizzle dressing and a couple spoons of the balsamic reduction over the salad. Serve and enjoy.
Simple, right? I'm all for simple. Cooking doesn't have to be complex to be good.
It looks like you're aware of how to handle the situation, so that's great. Nice salad. Mine would definitely include lots of bread :)
ReplyDeleteI like the website www.katheats.com , she documents her eats (lots of salads and lots of balance) and its nice to read now and then.
Mmmmm salad. Such a great meal in general, but especially for pregnant women. I entered my 8th month yesterday and I have been craving salad like crazy.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the gestational diabetes. I managed to dodge that particular bullet. Are you in your second trimester? Are you going to post pictures of your bump?
Also, there's a hilarious pregnancy calender at http://alphamom.com/pregnancy-calendar-overview/
Mmmm yum! Looks like we might be getting some low carb recipe ideas in the next few months! Which is great for me as my husband has type 1 diabetes, so I'm always looking for new low carb ideas! He has a pump now, which is supposed to be better, but he has what is called 'brittle' diabetes, which means his body is very umpredicatable in the way it seems to process sugar and insulin, which basically means his sugars are up and down even with good management. It's endlessly frustrating!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with everything, and hope that you are able to manage your sugar levels with diet alone!
I love a salad as much as the next girl, but I'm much more a soup/casserole/past girl in the winter. Something about eating warm things when it's cold outside. Anyway, good suggestions for that kind of food that's gestational diabetes approved? (I didn't have diabetes while I was pregnant, but I think it's good to know either way.)
ReplyDeleteSounds delicious!
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