Easy Frosted Cookie

I wanted a quick sweet treat today and had some "sugar" cookies leftover from the weekend in the fridge.  And I almost always have some sugar-free "magic shell" on my counter too, so I put the two together.  I iced my cookie with the magic shell and then put it in the freezer for about 30 seconds.  It was really good; sort of a fudge-like consistency.  This would also be an easy way to ice lots of cookies for a party and not worry about icing melting.

(Use the blog search bar to find the "sugar" cookie or magic shell recipes.)

May 2019 Endo Visit

Samuel had a great Endo appointment yesterday.  Our Endo is very supportive of our low carb lifestyle, his growth, and brain development. It's honestly only praise from the whole team, but it took us several years of conditioning them to our lifestyle to get to that point.

We only go to our Endo about every 6 months for general check-up's and prescription refills.  She calls us "self-supportive" which is fine by us.

These past 6 months have been a bit challenging.  He's had a lot of growth spurts and growing pains.  He's asked to try some new foods  - some worked great, others haven't.  He's started baseball for the first time, so we've had to figure out how to keep him steady during and after games.  All this is just to point out that diabetes with a child is constantly changing.  We learn new things all the time just like everyone else.  I was worried that his A1c would be negatively impacted because of all of this.  And to be clear, I'm not concerned about the A1c number just for sake of achieving a certain number.  I'm concerned about his A1c only in correlation to his health.

Here he is after his appointment sporting an A1c of 4.7%.

Despite challenges of T1 life, we're nearing the 4 year mark with A1c's in the 4.5 - 5.0% range.  That makes me a happy mama!

Grilled Chicken Strips & Honey Mustard Dip

I marinated about 8 large chicken breasts for a few hours. Cut into strips, season with your favorite sugar-free seasoning, and then grill.  Be sure to make enough for leftovers!

G. Hughes sugar-free Honey Mustard dipping sauce is an easy dipping sauce for a week night. (No actual honey in it.  2 Tbsp/30g is 1 carb.)

We made a simple salad and added some green beans for an easy dinner.

Sausage & Egg Ham Cups

I've posted smaller versions of these before, but I made these much larger using a hamburger bun pan.

I lined the pan with 3-4 thinly sliced pieces of ham. Then filled that with browned sausage.  Then I beat 7 eggs with salt & seasonings, and topped each of the ham cups. If you're not dairy-free you could top with cheese too.

Bake at 400° for about 25 minutes or until the eggs are set.

After cooked, each one of these weighed about 5.5 oz. This is perfect for us at dinner. Dinner is Samuel's lightest protein meal to avoid protein highs over night.

These were a really substantial meal and very satisfying. My husband thought they'd be great for camping or hiking wrapped in foil.  The kids also split one for a snack the next day.

Sausage & Guacamole Ham Cup

This is kind of unique, so bear with me.  The idea came to me in the middle of the night.  I only made a few to see how they would turn out and we thought they were really good. These would also be GREAT for Green Eggs & Ham for Dr. Seuss' birthday!

I lined a muffin tin with paper muffin liners.  Then line that with 2-3 very thinly sliced ham.  In a bowl, mix 2 eggs, salt, pepper, a small 2 oz container of guacamole, and about 3-4 oz of browned, crumbled sausage. Mix all together.

I was going to only make 3 cups, but the above mix was enough for 4 so I added another.  I didn't want it to be very eggy... I just wanted the egg to bind it all together. It admittedly looks a little gross.  😂

Bake at 400° for 20-25, just until the middle is set and stops jiggling.  Let cool just a bit and remove the muffin liner.

After baking they're still a bit strange looking, but they were really good.  The sausage gave it texture and the guacamole/egg mixture was really creamy.  This is one of those "I didn't prep anything for dinner" fast meals. These could even be great snacks throughout the week!

Cinco de Mayo Dinner

Ok, so this isn't really a Mexican dinner, but it was delicious.  To be honest with you, I didn't even remember it was May 5th until around 4pm.

I marinated chicken breasts in lemon juice, oil, salt and seasoning for about 8 hours (prepped in a zip top bag after breaksfast).  Then I just threw them on the grill for dinner.  For sides, I served green beans and a cauli-rice stir fry found at Wal-Mart (frozen). 

Disclaimer... This cauli rice has peas, red peppers, spring greens, corn and tamari soy sauce.  This is the first time Samuel has had it, but BG so far is very good.  A serving is 105g and is 5 net carbs.  He had 70g. I actually made sure his serving had a small amount of peas and only a few kernels of corn.

So, since I had just recently realized it was Cinco de Mayo, I made myself a low carb margarita (a double if I'm still being honest).  I made it in a mason jar, but then got lazy so I just scooped out the ice cube I shook with it and added some fresh ice.  This is the beauty of living in the country... drinking out of a mason jar is always appropriate. 😂 You can search the blog for this recipe or look in the 'Drinks' topics.

T1 Parents - Dates and Get-Aways for Self-Care

It's really easy for parents of T1 kids to get caught up in this disease.  Guilty as charged!  But I'm learning that it is SO important for parents to get away every once in a while together.  We need time to focus on on each other and our marriage/relationship.  My husband and I have been trying to schedule "Date-Days" every month or two.  We drop the kids off at our friend's house around 9am and usually get back around 8pm.  We don't go too far... we stay within about 1.5 - 2 hours from home.  And there is most definitely a lot of prep that goes into it, but it's worth it.  Here is how I organize our food and insulin for our Date-Day's.

Meals for Samuel and his sister are put in containers and labeled who it's for and which meal.  Snack are labeled also.  Shots are prefilled and labeled.  We make sure extra test strips, chewable glucose, liquid glucose, prefilled correction shots, and a Glucagon is sent.  Our instructions for the Glucagon are attached to it.

We have also let the kids stay overnight at their house twice.  This is obviously more nerve-wracking.  We've only recently gotten comfortable to try this.  I send lunches, dinners and all the same items as above.  She makes them breakfast of bacon, eggs, and I send a piece of my Rustic Faux-Wheat Bread and measured yogurt or coconut cream to add to what she makes.  

Our pre-arranged instructions were to call us if she EVER felt uncomfortable or if he went lower than 50.  And you know what happened?  He ran low all night (mid to upper 50's).  She ended up sleeping right next to him so she could administer glucose and keep an eye on him periodically.  But she was comfortable with it (she watches him many hours per week and deals with glucose during the day).  I honestly felt so bad, but she was great about it.  And I think it gave more more insight to what life with T1 is like.  

My system for overnights, is similar to Date-Day's, but I use a syringe case (from Amazon), with Post-It Note label for each shot.

Close-up of the syringe case: