Tasty Tricks: Ways to Turn Your Favorite Dishes into Diabetes-Friendly Meals

Excerpts taken from Diabetes Forecast Magazine/November 2009
Written by Tracey Neithercott


One of the most repeated diabetes myths is this: People with diabetes must eat special foods. Truth is, whether you have diabetes or not, you should be eating more whole grains, vegetables, and fruits and fewer packaged items, fried foods, and refined carbohydrates. But that doesn't mean you have to stick to a diet of salad and yogurt. By employing some clever kitchen tricks, you can cut out excess calories, fat, carbohydrates, and sodium without sacrificing taste.

1..Adjust Portion Sizes. Before you alter your recipe, consider whether you can simply eat a little less of it. Example, if your pie recipe yields six servings, cut it into eight portions instead. Doing so would save 92 calories per slice of a 2,200 calorie pie.

2. Make Simple Swaps. Next time you dish out a plate of spaghetti, make sure it's the whole wheat kind. Eating rice? Choose brown rice instead of white. Swaps like this can help you get more nutrients without drastically altering the taste of a dish. Other ingredient substitutions are equally easy: Pick skim milk or 1 percent over whole. Cook with 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder instead of an ounce of unsweetened bar chocolate. Try evaporated skim milk as a replacement for cream. Use two egg whites instead of a full egg (though usually some of a recipe's eggs should remain whole to maintain texture) or switch to Egg Beaters, which are also lower in cholesterol. And when creating a dip, skip the mayo or full-fat sour cream and use nonfat sour cream or fat-free plain Greek-style yogurt in its place.

Baking a dish is a little trickier since any changes you make will affect the final product's texture, density, and volume. An easy-to-adopt swap: Replace cooking oil with an equal amount of unsweetened applesauce or baby-food pureed prunes.

Finally, you can dump at least some of the salt. Experts agree that this one change won't cost you flavor since many recipes are already too high in sodium. A simple fix is to use herbs and spices instead.

3. Get More of the Good Stuff. Give yourself a double dose of vegetables or beans, and you'll eat less of the high-carb, high-fat, or high-calorie portion of the meal. Throw some broccoli and cauliflower into mac and cheese and you're bulking up on vegetables.

4. Become Meat Savvy. Certain meats (think ground beef, bacon and sausage) are high in saturated fat, a major dietary cause of high cholesterol. But eating healthfully shouldn't force you to scrap your favorite recipes. Instead pick lower-fat proteins: Ground turkey can sub for ground beef, turkey bacon for pork bacon, and turkey sausage or meat-free sausage for the fattier variety.

5. Be Smart About Fat. Skip saturated fats found in butter, certain meats, cream, and cheeses in favor of healthier fats from avocados, walnuts, and olive oil. Give sandwiches a feeling of richness without using mayo or cheese by including avocado slices. Though they're higher in calories than other veggies, avocados are packed with vitamins and made of healthful monounsaturated fats. Use hard cheeses like Parmesan (they're lower in fat) instead of softer ones, or picking reduced-fat or low-fat versions instead.

6. Save the Best for Last. The reason most recipes call for butter, butter, and more butter is that fat adds fullness of flavor. But if you're trying to cut back, do most of your sauteeing or roasting with cooking spray or a little olive oil. Then, as a finishing touch, add a teensy bit of butter for flavor. Except when baking, you can greatly reduce the amount of oil a recipe calls for, then add a drizzle of flavored oil at the end.

You can slim down a meal and make flavors pop by topping your dish with an indulgent ingredient. So, sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese over your pasta, but don't dump in a cupful.

7. Think Outside the Box. Sometimes the best way to make a recipe healthier is to reinvent it. Lasagna is just as ooey-gooey when transformed into lasagna rolls, but since each roll requires less cheese and fewer noodles, it's much more diabetes friendly. Similarly, baked chicken that's seasoned and rolled in Japanese panko bread crumbs (airier and crunchier than the typical crumb) is every bit as tasty as fried chicken.

8. Go Easy on Yourself. Even professional chefs can't get a recipe right on the first try, so don't beat yourself up if it takes a few dinners to find success. Don't be afraid of experimenting. Once you've modified a recipe to your liking, you can enjoy it over and over again.

Double Chocolate Cake

20 Servings (1- 2 1/2 inch square)
135 Calories
4.5 grams Fat
21 grams Carbs
1 gram Fiber
3 grams Protein


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 whole eggs
1/2 cup Splenda sugar blend
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup sugar-free chocolate syrup

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray. Dust very lightly with a bit of flour. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and pinch of salt in a large bowl. Set aside. In another bowl, beat together the oil and applesauce on medium with an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Add in half the Splenda and brown sugar alternately with half of the buttermilk. Repeat until all the buttermilk is used. Add in the vanilla and beat for 30 seconds. Fold in the chocolate chips by hand. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Cut into squares and place on individual plates. Drizzle with some chocolate syrup, and serve the cake warm or at room temperature.

Classic Baked Artichoke Dip

28 Servings (3 1/2 cups)
45 Calories
2.5 grams Fat
2 grams Carbs
o grams Fiber
2 grams Protein


1/2 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch ground red pepper
1 (14 oz) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
12 oz. fat-free cream cheese
4 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a 2 quart casserole dish with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, and stir until well blended. Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish, and bake for 30 minutes. Serve with whatever crackers, raw veggies that you prefer.

Pork Chops Stuffed with Apples and Dates

8 Servings
1 Chops plus 5 tablespoons of stuffing
230 Calories
10 grams Fat
14 grams Carbs
2 grams Fiber
22 grams protein


2 tablespoons sweet Madeira wine, divided
2 cups chopped gala apples, unpeeled
1/2 cup pitted dates
2 tablespoons coarsley chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon honey
8 (4 oz) lean boneless pork chops (3/4 to 1 inch thick)
2 teaspoons canola oil

Combine the wine with the apples, dates, walnuts, thyme and honey. Make a horizontal slit in each pork chop. Stuff equal portions of the mixture into each chop. Sprinkle each chop with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add half the canola oil, and sear 4 of the chops for about 7 to 8 minutes per side. Add the remaining oil to the pan, and repeat with the remaining chops.

Just As I Am

Taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine, October 2009
Written by Brigid Blaschak

This is not a recipe, but something I felt need to be remembered when trying to lose weight and/or eat healthy.

There's a TV commercial that makes me cringe every time I see it. It's for a weight-loss program that provides pre-packaged foods and that's endorsed by retired football players, a has-been 1970s pop idol and a buxom blonde who likes sports and tosses a football. The latest ad includes the aforementioned 1970s has-been pop star and a "normal" person. This "average Jane" proclaims to have lost 60 pounds on the program. She says her goal was to lose 40 pounds, but that it was "so effortless," she lost 20 pounds more. Yeah - I bet. I also have some swampland...

Fine, I'll give Plain Jane kudos for the weight loss. Maybe it was effortless for her, but take notice of the fine print at the bottom of the screen that appears for two milliseconds: "Results not typical." It begs the question. What is typical?

Most people can lose 10-20 pounds in the first few weeks of a diet. It's a great boost, but as your body adapts to the new conditions, weight loss begins to taper and often stops altogether. Then you get sick of the bananas and/or Acai berries and you slip slowly back into your old habits and the weight creeps right back. I don't need to look up statistics on this. I've lived it more times than I can count. In the end, about 5% of people who lose weight keep it off.

I'm fortunate to finally be in the rare 5%, and I can tell you it wasn't "effortless." To tell the truth, I'm glad it wasn't. I've found that things don't mean much if you don't work for them.

The hardest thing I've dealth with was accepting myself as I was, right at the moment. It's difficult to make the small changes, knowing that it won't result in anything noticeable for weeks, maybe months. In this day and age when instant gratification is king, we want things done yesterday. It's this attitude that spawns the demand for "get thin quick" schemes that often put you in a worse state than when you started.

So it's essential to accept yourself just the way you are. You don't need to love the way you look (who does?), but at least be grateful for the body you have. It's not perfect, but on one's is. Even supermodels need to be airbrushed. The simple fact that you can get up every morning and make a living says your body works. Maybe it doesn't work as efficiently as it should, but it works and you have a base upon which to build.

Accepting yourself takes the desperation out of your actions, makes you less susceptible to fad diets and makes it easier to take those sustainable baby steps to lasting change. So think about those little steps you can take right now, like taking the stairs or drinking water instead of a soda. When you only have to worry about small changes, you can concentrate on the much harder task of accepting yourself. You are who you are and it's essential to honor your uniqueness which is completely separate from your size, shape and level of fitness. This is the road to acceptance and breaking the get-thin-quick cycle.