Sausage Turtles Snack

Morning snack was a pre-cooked sausage patty that I quickly browned in a skillet and added a few pecans.  It wasn't until I put it on the plate that I realized they looked like turtles.

 Fast, easy, low carb, protein snack.

Breaded Pickles

Grind plain pork rinds in a food processor with your spices of choice (no salt though) until fine.

Dry baby dill pickles well.  Coat in egg, then roll in the pork rind breading.

Place breaded pickles on a wire rack over an aluminum foil covered baking sheet.

Bake at 400° for about 15 minutes.  Serve with dip of your choice.

Valentine Chocolates

We made our own low carb Valentine chocolates using a mold and a cute heart tin from Hobby Lobby.

Add 6oz oz of Lily's or KNOW chocolate chips with 1 tsp of refined coconut oil.  Melt in a microwavable bowl at 50% power for 45 seconds.  Stir.  Melt again at 50% power for 25 seconds.  Stir again.  Repeat another time or two until smooth.  Put into silicone molds.  Place in fridge to set. 

This makes 15 chocolates in the size you see in the pic.

Spicy Buffalo Breaded Baked Chicken

Breaded baked chicken with a spicy buffalo mayo sauce, cinnamon "maple" cauli rice, and raw green peppers.  4 net carbs.

Search the blog for the Breaded Baked Chicken recipe.

Sauce is made of homemade mayo (or your favorite no-sugar store bought), your favorite hot sauce, and sweet paprika.  Mix well.  Thin with unsweetened plain almond milk until just thin enough to drizzle.

Cinnamon "maple" cauli rice is steamed cauli rice drizzled with Walden Farms 0 carb maple walnut sauce, and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Chicken Nuggets (or Turkey)

Mix together:
1 lb ground chicken or turkey
1 oz parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. ranch dressing
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
A few dashes hot sauce
1 egg
2 Tbsp coconut flour

Mix until well combined. Roll into balls and shape into nuggets. I get 25 nuggets.

Breading:
1/4 cup almond flour
1/8 cup parmesan cheese
1/8 cup walnut meal
1/4 tsp Old Bay seasoning
1/4 tsp sweet paprika

Mix seasonings and roll nuggets to coat. Deep fry for 5-6 minutes.

0.3 carbs per nugget (depending on ingredients).

Sloppy Joes & Cold Sides

I made a big batch of cole slaw and carrot "apple" salad today to last several days.  Threw together some Sloppy Joes on Smartbuns and dinner was done.

About 8 nets carbs.

Use the search feature on the right side of the blog to find all of these recipes.

Breaded Baked Chicken

This is a really easy way to make breaded  low carb chicken.

Grind up plain pork rinds in your food processor until really fine.  Or put in a bag and whack with a rolling pin or mallet, but get them really fine. Then add your favorite seasonings.  I don't add salt because the pork rinds are really salty.

Then do your basic egg wash/coat in the pork rinds technique.  If you want your chicken really crispy and no soggy bottoms, places the breaded chicken directly on a metal rack.  (Whoops!  I forgot my rack at first. I put my chicken on it, but forgot to retake my pic.  Do as I say, not as I do.)

Then bake in a 400° pre-heated oven for about 20-25 minutes until 160° inside.

Fast and easy dinner.  High in protein and very low carb or even no carbs in the breading (depending on your seasonings).

Our Journey in a Snapshot

One of the things I'm asked most often by parents of newly diagnosed T1 diabetic kids is what our journey looks like.  I break our journey into 3 phases (red, yellow, green), which I've outlined on this 7 year long graph of Samuel's A1c history.

Each phase was an important stepping stone to the next.  I wish we hadn't gotten stuck in the middle (yellow) phase for so long, but at the time we were in our Low Carb journey completely on our own (no online support/groups), but I don't regret the phase.  It was an important way for us to learn.  I have to see WHY things works - either for the good and the bad.

Part of the reason I feel like we have such good control now isn't because I read a book [Diabetes Solution] and it told me what to do (although that WOULD work if that is how you learn!).  Our control is because we know what NOT to do because we tried doing "our" version of Low Carb.  After about 2 years of not getting the results we wanted, we re-read Diabetes Solution and binge watched Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes University videos on YouTube.  We buckled down and made massive changes to follow the book/videos.  That is result you see in the consistency in the 3rd and final (green) phase of the graph below.

No super mom/dad powers.  No rocket science. No quantum physics degrees.  Just a mom and dad that took a while to realize the book they read was spot on and decided to follow it with only a few exceptions that we don't feel are "core" deviances. ❤️

First Eye Exam: Diabetic or Not?

I took Samuel for his first eye exam today.  After indicating he was T1, the Tech asked me his A1c, average BG for the past month, and time since dx. Our Doctor came in and did the normal exam (20/20 vision), then she said there are 2 scans she does for diabetics.  I explained his A1c his been 5.0 - 4.5 for 3 years straight and was under the impression retinopathy occurred from high BG.  She readily admitted damage is from high/uncontrolled BG, but also felt the tests were a good idea to give us a base-line for his first exam.  I agreed.

She did an OCT test to check his retina thickness and look for leaking fluid.

Then she did a really cool retina picture.  It clearly showed his entire eye, all the blood vessels, macula, optic nerve, etc.  After this test she got really excited an animated.

Moment of truth...

"Despite only being 8yo, since he's had diabetes for 7 years, I fully expected to see some damage.  If you hadn't told me he's diabetic, I would have had absolutely NO idea he was.  And I've suspected people are diabetic before they've known and sent them to their GP where they've been diagnosed".

She then spoke directly to my son telling him that how his Mom & Dad take care of his diabetes is really, really great.  Then she pulled up some retina pictures of other diabetics and showed us the damage high/uncontrolled BG has done (my son's eye on the left/uncontrolled BG eye on the right...zoom in!).

I've been close to tears several times today.  Seeing something so visual (no pun intended) to validate the importance of what we do has been huge to all of us today.