Low Carb in Nashville, TN

I was just in Nashville, TN for a week and found it an easy city to stay low carb in.  I ate in nice restaurants, bar-type restaurants, my hotel restaurant, mall restaurants and even a gas station when I was in a pinch.  All of them offered something I could eat.

I also drank a lot of coffee from a lot of coffee shops and every single one of them had sugar-free syrups/sweetener and didn't bat an eye when I asked for my latte be made with heavy cream or half and half.

Here are a few of my favorites...

Grilled Salmon with pureed butternut squash and charred brussel sprouts.

Some days I work from secure facilities where I have to be metal detected and have bags searched.  I dislike having to leave just to go through that process again.  So I always take LC snacks in so I don't have to leave.  I also had jerky, but forgot to take a pic.

Seafood stuffed tilapia with grilled shrimp and a cream lobster sauce.  It was amazing!

Hotel room service of beef brisket chili with no beans.  Topped with cheddar cheese and dill sour cream.

My hotel had an omelet bar.  I watched the person in front of me get theirs made and the egg mixture clearly had some sort of batter in it.  This is a restaurant trick to make omelets light and fluffy. And full of hidden wheat and carbs.  I asked for my omelet to be made with fresh cracked eggs, which the cook had handy right at his station.  Sausage, bacon, pepper, tomato omelet - yummy.

My co-worker and I checked out a winery where we got a block of gouda to go with our wine.  Great light snack.

Grilled chicken sandwich - no bun - topped with melted gouda and aioli.

I had some really good coffee in Nashville.  This was one of the prettiest from a coffee shop in the Gulch.

I went to a cool restaurant downtown that made me a craft whiskey sour that I asked to not be sweet. The bartender did a great job - beautiful and tasty.

And at that same cool restaurant, I got a delicious salad with strawberries, pecans, feta, red onions, and blackened salmon.

Over-easy eggs with chipotle sauce, lots o' bacon and sausage.

This day I was driving in a 3 vehicle caravan and we only had a few minutes to stop for lunch.  Look what I found at a rural gas station in TN!  Pepperoni, cheese, almonds, and a hard boiled egg.  Add a diet soda and I'm all set.  Score!

Grilled chicken smothered in cheese and mushrooms and southern style green beans.

I had a great time in Nashville.  Every time I travel, I'm convinced more and more that staying LC can be easy peasy!  Happy travels!

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.

Fast Unplanned Dinner

Thursday night is my daughter's dance class, so we go out to eat and I get a night off cooking.  She's been under the weather today and decided she didn't feel well enough to go (nor did I want to get other kids sick).

Unfortunately, I didn't have anything prepped for dinner.  But I did have some carrot "apple" salad made.  And some zucchini bread in the freezer that I toasted.  And some pre-cooked breakfast sausage from Costco that I browned in a skillet.  Throw in some scrambled eggs, and we have a fast, filling, low carb dinner.

About 6 net carbs.

Mexican: Something New

My husband I recently had a date-day and decided on Mexican for dinner.  My go-to is usually some sort of salad because it's easy to make low carb.  But, I wasn't super hungry and I wanted something I could take home for leftovers. 

I usually skim over the chicken dishes at Mexican restaurants, but this jumped out at me.  Grilled chicken breast, covered in salsa verde, cheese, and pico de gallo, with fresh sliced avocado on the side.  It was really delicious and I got 2 meals out of it!

Valentine Glucose

Sweetarts Valentine Hearts are in stores now that work great for treating low blood sugar. The first ingredient is dextrose (aka glucose) which will bring blood sugar up faster than any other form of sugar because the body doesn't need to convert it before using it.

These are a little bit bigger than regular Sweetarts or Bottlecaps (I put a Bottlecap in the pic to compare).  Based on weight, each heart is about 1.3 carbs.

Shout Out to the Non-D Siblings

Our T1 kiddos endure a lot, but their non-diabetic siblings are not without impact.  They hear medical terms most kids don't know.  They see blood, needles, shots, infusion set/CGM insertions daily. 

Numbers and math are a part of life - blood sugar, carbs, protein, insulin doses... and those numbers can be life or death.

They discuss food like adults.... what will that do to blood sugar?, is that low carb?, is that healthy?, does that have sugar?

And there are a few that are so passionate about helping their T1 siblings, they offer to do all they can.  Our daughter willingly checks her sugar periodically so we can see what a functioning kids' pancreas does.  She reads labels with us.  She watches cooking shows and thinks about how a meal can be made low carb to work for us.  She cooks  and bakes with me.  She eats exactly like her brother (and us) to support him. She's worn a CGM for weeks so we have extended data so we can set goals ~ an attempt to mimic what is happening in her body with our son.

This little girl is a mother hen ~ the most compassionate and selfless T1 sibling  anyone could ask for. 

Checking her blood sugar... she was sporting a blood sugar of 84mg/dL.  ❤️💋

Sleeping Through The Night

Waking up today marks the THIRD night in a ROW that we've all slept through the night with no CGM alerts.  I'm pretty certain this is an all-time record.  My non-diabetic friends right now are thinking "huh?".  But my fellow T1 friends/parents of T1's... you know what I'm talkin' 'bout!

There are all kinds of night-time diabetic routines.  What is yours?  🤔

Ours is to trust our CGM.  I don't set alarms to wake up to do night checks unless our CGM that day has been uncomfortably "off".  Maintaining good blood sugar at night is SO important to health, but so is sleep.  During the day I set CGM alerts to 65-105.  At night, I set it to 65-120. I find Samuel has a natural circadian rhythm were he often drifts up to about 115 until about midnight and then drifts back down.  So I set his CGM alerts to allow that to happen (if/when it does), but to not let it get too high.  

Balance... great BG and sleep are needed for the health of our WHOLE family.

Italian Mushrooms

We had some leftover meat sauce from our spaghetti the other day and some portabella mushrooms, so I put it all together.  I just scooped the meat sauce into the mushrooms and topped with cheese - my daughter chose American and I had provel cheese.  Baked at 400° in the toaster oven for about 12 minutes.  We called them Italian Mushrooms.

Samuel is dairy-free and is allergic to mushrooms, so he just had his in a bowl like chili and was totally happy.

We also had fried "apples" that always have made and zucchini muffins.  Since Samuel didn't have the mushroom, he also had guacamole.

Super-fast delicious lunch ready in under 20 minutes.  About 8 net carbs.

Low Carb Spaghetti Noodles!... Sort Of

In all fairness, my kids don't know what pasta tastes like.  But they've seen spaghetti and think it looks good.  Wheat is a non-negotiable for us, so when I started seeing these veggie noodles, I figured I'd give them a try.  These are 4 total carbs, 2 net carbs per serving.  About 4 servings per box.

Disclaimer:  if you are a pasta/noodle connoisseur, you will probably have an issue with these.  They are a veggie - Hearts of Palm to be exact, that are in spaghetti shape.  Alone, they have a veggie taste and even smell veggie-like.  But cook them a bit and serve with meat sauce or a cream sauce and the noodles fade to the background.  However, the texture is definitely more fiberous than pasta.  Texture aside, I was pretty surprised.

A package is 9oz, but it's wet, so I used that to feed our family of 4 and it was PLENTY.  Very filling stuff.  So we had our spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans, and sauteed artichoke hearts, peppers and capers (the kids didn't love this last edition, but hey, I tried 😉).

The downsides to these noodles are...

1) the cost... $36 for a box of 6 on Amazon, so these will be used sparingly.

2) it seemed everyone was, uh, how shall I say, a bit gassy the rest of the day. No discomfort or pain though. It could be the high fiber or a coincidence... we shall see.

Breakfast Saved with 90-second Bread

Every Sunday my husband makes open faced egg sandwiches.  I didn't get around to making my Rustic Faux-Wheat Bread yesterday and we're completely out (GASP!).  So, I used my '90 second cake' recipe and reduced the vanilla and sweetener so it would be more bread-like.  Breakfast was saved!

The kid's breakfast was the bread (each has half), 2 eggs, bacon, no sugar added ketchup, blueberries with coconut cream, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and 2 oz veggie juice...

I'm not much of a breakfast person.  I fast through breakfast during the week, but eat it on the weekends just for the family time.  I had my 90-second bread split... 1 egg, bacon and hot sauce on one side.  Butter and sugar-free orange marmalade on the other.  And coffee.

Use the search feature on the right side of the blog... Search "90 second" for the cake/bread recipe.

Best. Day. Ever.

We have a lot of really great days.  In fairness, we also have some not so great days, but the good outweigh the bad.  And our "bad" is nothing compared to when we started our journey years ago.  Yesterday we had such an extraordinary day, I had to dig through records to see if any diabetes day had topped this one... and I can't find one. 

I forgot to snap a CGM pic, but it aligned with our log below... average BG of 79mg/dL with an SD of 4 for the day.

There wasn't anything particularly special about this day.  Normal foods, normal activity, normal insulin doses.  Everything just happened to align for a perfect day.  I am a big proponent of logging our day (chart below). It helps me identify trends, look for issues, and make tiny adjustments the next day (based on what happened yesterday or the past few days).

At it's most basic, we rate our blood sugar (BG) control based on 2 things:

• Average BG - The average BG for a child (pre-puberty) is in the 70's.  My non-diabetic daughter's average BG is 79. (A non-diabetic teen/adult is in the 80's.)

• Standard Deviation (SD) - SD is a statistic that shows how tightly various numbers are clustered around a mean in a set of data.  In our case, it's how tightly controlled your blood sugar range is.  For example: BG of 60 - 250 is a large SD and not tightly controlled.  BG of 60 - 110 is a much tighter range.  A healthy, non-diabetic's SD is roughly 5-12.  For a diabetic, SD of <20 is considered exceptional. I am happy with 25 or less for now.  As Samuel gets older and learns how he feels when his blood sugar is low or high, I hope this will get tighter.  Our goal is to mimic a non-diabetic's SD as best we can.

When I looked at my records, I can find plenty of days were his average BG is in the 70-80 range, but couldn't find a day that had as tight SD as yesterday.  Being low carb and using the insulin management routine we have is a huge part of our success.  Do I wish I could figure out a magic formula to make everyday this perfect?  You bet your sweet bippy I do, but in the meantime, I'll soak in days like this all I can.

Huge shout out to Dr. Richard K. Bernstein and his book Diabetes Solution that taught us how to achieve non-diabetic blood sugar for our kiddo.  We will forever be grateful.

Figuring Out BG on Dairy-Free

Since going dairy-free Samuel's blood sugar has been a little wonky - more lows and more highs than we're used to. Nothing truly horrible, but I want to get back to knowing what to expect.

T1 is a disease that requires analyzing, tweaking, and refinement. It's just par for the course.  We've been adjusting basal and bolus amounts and have had smoother BG the past few days.  Here's to hoping we have this figured out!  🙏

Dairy-Free Oopsie Rolls

You may also know this bread as Oopsie Bread or Cloud Bread.  It's a simple, spongy bread with only 3 ingredients.  The original version uses cream cheese, so today I tried swapping the cream cheese with coconut cream (same amount) and viola... dairy-free Oopsie Rolls!

I like making them in a hamburger bun pan to keep their shape.

After you bake, turn the oven off and let them sit in the oven for a bit so they don't deflate.  But, if you pull them out right away they'll deflate which I use to my advantage to make little bread "cups".  I topped mine with tuna salad...

But the kids wanted sugar-free jelly on theirs, which kind of looked like a danish.  In fact, if I added sweetener to the bread and drizzled with icing, these would be very danish-like..

Here's a link to my original Oopsie Roll post:

https://happyhealthythriving.blogspot.com/2017/02/oopsies-rolls-aka-cloud-bread.html?m=1

Quick & Easy: Chili & Cold Sides

Easy dinners are a must for us.  After working a 9 - 5 job the last thing I feel like doing is starting a complex dinner.  But compromising the health of my family, especially my T1's blood sugar, is never an option.  This is why I'm such a huge proponent of making things in big batches.  Which made up most of tonight's dinner (and every weekday dinner).

On Sunday, I made a huge pot of LC chili... about 8 lbs of chili to be exact.

I also have about 18 deviled eggs in the fridge (whites split and the yolk mixture in a zip-top bag with the corner cut; then just pipe the yolk into the egg white as you need them).  Instant Pots are awesome for hard boiled eggs!

I have about 2 lbs of carrot & "apple" salad made.

The only thing I had to add to this dinner was a cup of pre-made guacamole and some bell pepper sticks.

This was all thrown together quicker than Samuel's 20-minute pre-bolus.  💪

Pizza Frittata (Dairy-free)

There are probably low carb, dairy-free pizza frittata recipes out there, but I've seen nor heard of it.  My 7 yo daughter came up with this idea, so I'm giving her credit. 😁 At first I thought it sounded kind of gross, but the idea grew on me enough to try it.

I don't have a recipe per se... just winged it as I went.  I made ours dairy-free, but it'd be delicious with cheese too.

12 eggs, beaten
Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes.

Melt butter or olive oil in an oven safe skillet.  Start as if you're making an omelet or scrambled eggs.  Cook eggs until mostly set - smooch down and smooth a bit.  Think of this as your "pizza crust"

Then add your pizza sauce...

Then add your toppings (meats should be pre-cooked)...

Broil (500+°) for about 6 minutes or until golden brown...

I treat pizza sauce as a fast carb, so I paired it with slow acting veggies... cinnamon "maple" riced cauli and fried "apples" (zucchini).  Meal was about 8 net carbs.

BG at 12:30 = 77
BG at 3:00 = 92
BG at 5:00 = 88

Dairy-Free Pizza

Since going dairy-free, I haven't taken a stab at pizza.  What I don't want to do is replace cheese with a soy-based cheese-like product, so I'm really limited.  Then I wondered......what would pizza taste like without cheese?  🤔

So I found a dairy-free low carb crust recipe online.  Added our usual sauce and pepperoni.  I honestly didn't think this was going to fly with the kids or hubby.  The kids took a couple of bites and declared it "really good" and then asked what made it dairy-free (they're still learning on this topic). When I pointed out there is no cheese on it, they said "......oh yeah!". LOL

My husband took a bite and looked at me as he chewed (I was thinking "ut oh!"). His comment was that it was surprisingly good with no cheese.  Whew!

It's different, for sure, but good.  And different isn't necessarily a bad thing, right?

This crust gets really crispy and firm (sort of like a thick cracker) so you can load it up... next time I'll add more meat and maybe some veggies.  Another thing to keep in mind is just a quarter of this pizza crust is a 1/2 cup of almond flour so keep that in mind if you're T1 and bolusing insulin!

Link to the crust I used:

https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes/paleo-pizza-crust/

McDonald's... In A Pinch

I try to avoid fast food. And I don't like eating in my car, but I have a bad habit of not eating while I'm out shopping and then I get too hungry. And getting too hungry leads to bad decisions.  So I often bring a Smartbun with me... just in case.

And today, I needed that "just in case" Smartbun.  I ran through McD's and ordered a triple cheeseburger with no bun and then just plopped it on my Smartbun.

I had a fast, $3 lunch (including my Diet Coke), with about 5 net carbs.

(Another option would be to buy 1/4 lb of lunch meat while you're shopping and grab a couple packets if mustard/mayo deli's usually put out and voila... instant Smartbun deli sandwich.)

Peanut Butter Drizzle Topping

After some trial and error, I've finally got down how to make peanut butter drizzle and its really easy.  The amounts listed make enough to drizzle about 8-10 cookies.  It's also really good on ice cream and other desserts.  I've been know to drizzle this in my glass for a PB & Chocolate martini too.

Put 2 Tbsp (32g) peanut butter in a small glass bowl.  Add 1/2 tsp refined coconut oil (refined has no coconut taste).  Heat in the microwave for 15 seconds on 50% power.  Stir really well.  If it's too thick to drizzle stir in another 1/4 tsp coconut oil.  You want it just drizzle-able.

After you drizzle, put in the fridge for a few minutes to set up if you want it to firm up a bit. This is an easy way to dress up simple cookies.

Roast Beef & Egg Cups. And Mary Poppins.

A few days ago I took the kids to see Mary Poppins Returns, so we decided to watch the original Mary Poppins tonight.  It's a long movie so we started it and paused half way through to make dinner.

While my husband checked Samuel's sugar and got his shot ready, I started pulling leftovers out of the fridge.  I decided to make lunchmeat egg cups so I got my toaster oven preheating. Just line a cupcake pan with lunchmeat to make a cup shape- I often use ham or turkey, but roast beef is what I had on hand tonight.  Crack in an egg, season with salt and pepper and bake at 375° for about 15 minutes or until the egg is as set as you want.  The edges of the lunchmeat will be nice and crispy.

Samuel's prebolus is about 20-25 minutes, so this was started and finished within that time.

Now, everyone back to the movie...  spit spot!  😉

Low carb... The Tables Are Turning

I usually cringe at most diabetes magazines.  They're loaded with typical "eat whatever you want - you'll be fine" mentality.  I was pleasantly surprised by this recent article in Diabetes Forecast stating a low carb, even ketogenic, diet for diabetes control may be a smart way to go.

A few years ago people thought following a low carb diet was going to cause the sky to fall and it was most definitely a fad - all the while often not realizing that low carb was THE way doctors treated Type 1 diabetes before insulin and even up until about 20 years ago. It's been around for well over a century and to my knowledge the sky hasn't fallen once! It's only been since the development of fast-acting insulin that the medical mindset changed [for the worse in my opinion].

We've been low carb for 6 of Samuel's 7 years as a Type 1 diabetic and would never, ever consider go back to high carb.  We've been down that road and it took us several years to undo the damage it did.

One note I want to make is that the article mentions high fat, moderate protein which a lot of keto folks do.  However, more science-based low carb/keto diets are moderate fat, higher protein, which is the model we follow and has given Samuel fantastic growth.

Link to the full article...

http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2019/01-jan-feb/what-you-need-to-know-about.html#.XCVpnQddw84.link

Sandwich Kick

We've been on a low carb sandwich kick lately - they're fast, easy, and delicious. 

My workload at work ebbs and flows - sometimes it's really light and other times, like now, I can work 60+ hours a week and still be behind.  Sometimes I need easy, consistent meals out of necessity and sandwiches fit the bill.  When I have more time, they'll get snazzier meals.

I've been making a new bread for the kids that is dairy-free for Samuel's Hashimoto's, so they eat their sandwiches in that.  Sides are usually easy things like raw veggies or sauteed "apples" or sweet & salty brussel sprouts that I make in big batches. (Note: Samuel can only do a small amount of peas at lunch; they don't work at dinner.)

The half sandwiches pictured are my meals on half a Smartbun - quite a bit smaller than the kids (because I'm less active and obviously not growing).