Beef & Tomato Soup

I turned my tomato soup recipe into a more substantial soup by adding lots of browned ground beef and a can of diced tomatoes. We've been eating this a ton lately! Add a salad and dinner is ready.

Link to tomato soup recipe 

 

Toast with PB, syrup, and whipped cream!

We had burgers for lunch on SmartBuns, but I think the buns are too thick so I cut a little bit off to make them thinner. I saved the slivers and turned them into this afternoon snack with a little bit of peanut butter, Walden Farms pancake syrup, whipped cream, and sugar free sprinkles. About 2 net carbs.

 

The kids REALLY like it. Samuel said he couldn't believe it was the buns from lunch and that I should go on a cooking show. I'm pretty darn confident this wouldn't qualify for a cooking show.  Hahaha...

 

 

Easy Low Carb Cupcakes or Cake

It doesn't get much easier than this recipe... dump everything in, stir, and bake. Decorate as simply or elaborately as you want.

Pizza Pie

Super easy low carb weeknight dinner. And delicious as leftovers!

Lightly oil/spray a pie pan and preheat oven to 350°.
Brown 1 lb of Italian sausage. Mix in ⅓ cup pizza sauce.
Put sausage mix in pie pan. Layer pepperoni on top.
Mix together 6 eggs, 1 cup heavy cream, salt, pepper, garlic, and pizza herbs. Gently pour over sausage mix.
Add cheese of choice on top.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until center of pie is set.

YUMMY!!!

When in Doubt; TEST!

Smart kiddo testing his soda and salad dressing for sugar. Diet soda was fine, but the Italian dressing was full of sugar. I anticipated it and bolused extra, but good to know for sure. He's avoiding big globs of it. (Using a Diastix to test.)

Individual Whisps

Small individual packets of Whisps. Kinda pricey, but great for on-the-go days. Found in the cracker aisle at Wal-Mart. 0 carbs.

Life moves on despite having diabetes

T1 life. Life moves on despite having diabetes.

 

I try to sit close to Samuel during his weekly swim class so his CGM sensor will continue to transmit to his phone, which is sitting next to me. 

 

Today, half way through class his blood sugar started to drop, so while his sister was taking a turn down the lane, I motioned for him to come to me. We poked quickly and he was 62. He said he felt perfect, so we conservatively corrected with 2 Bottlecaps (2 carbs of glucose). I sent him on his way chewing glucose as he got back in the water in this pic. We'll poke again after class (or sooner if he feels like he needs to) just to be safe.

 

 

Low Carb Tomato Soup

My daughter asked for tomato soup so I Googled "low carb homemade tomato soup" and several came up. The problem was that they all started with whole tomatoes which I didn't have time for. I threw this together as I went and thought it was really, really good.

In a medium saucepan add:

✅ 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce (lowest carb you can find. I use Hunts with 4g total/2g net carbs)
✅ 1 can (15 oz) unsalted chicken broth
✅ 2 tsp dried basil
✅ ¼ tsp onion powder
✅ ¼ tsp of salt, or to taste
✅ pepper to taste

Simmer on stove stirring occasionally until it thickens - about 10 minutes. Turn off heat and add:
✅ 1 Tbsp heavy cream

Mine made about 20 oz when done. I'm cautious with cooked tomatoes for Samuel, so we had small 4 oz servings ~ just enough to dip our grilled turkey & cheese sandwiches in. So that made our servings about 3 net carbs each. 😋

Sugar-free Chai Tea Latte

This pre-made chai tea is in the tea/coffee section at Wal-Mart (and other places, I'm sure). A serving is ½ a cup which is 1 carb. Add a ½ cup+ of unsweetened vanilla almond milk and you have really awesome tasting drink under 2 carbs.

I think this tastes similar Panera Bread's (aka St. Louis Bread Co) chai tea latte, except theirs has about 42 carbs!

Both of my kiddos came down sick hard yesterday and neither want to eat, so we're alternating liquids. This was a nice warm treat for them on a yucky day.

Egg Roll in a Bowl

3 out of 5 people in the house liked this a lot. 1 thought it was "ok". The youngest didn't like it. I personally loved it (and had seconds which I don't do often)! 

I used ground beef and added a little bit of Dijon for some tang. I used 2.25 lbs of beef to 1 bag of cabbage and thought it was a good ratio.

Recipe Link: Egg Roll in a Bowl 

Oven Baking Tip

🍞🌡️🍪‼️ Baking Tip  🍞🌡️🍪‼️

Did you know???  If you have the type of oven that beeps letting you know it's done pre-heating (let's say you set it to 350°), chances are VERY good it's not actually up to 350° yet when it beeps. In fact, I've NEVER had an oven that has been. My current oven is only at about 300° when it beeps...it needs another 20 minutes to get up to 350°. 

This is why using an oven thermometer is so important. A lot of people think they're not "bakers" because their baked goods come out gooey or they fall/collapse. But chances are good you're actually just under-baking them due to your oven temp.  You don't notice this when cooking because you simply let it go longer until it's done or browned. But baking is science/chemistry and oven temp is crucial to making that science work.

Also, if your oven temp is "off", did you know it can be calibrated to be correct?  Just Google how to calibrate your make/model oven and you can easily adjust it!

Oven thermometers are inexpensive... I have a double-oven and have one in each.

🎄🎅 No-Cook Low Carb Eggnog🎄🎅

I know there are LC eggnog recipes online, but I always just whip it up on-the-fly and taking time to cook a custard-base and let it cool just isn't something I want to do. So, I thought I'd share how I make it in just a few minutes. There is one ingredient you might need to order or pick up at your health food/baking store ~ eggnog flavor or oil. I use Lorann brand and always keep it on-hand.

Add to a large Mason jar:

⛄16 oz unsweetened vanilla almond milk
⛄2 oz heavy cream
⛄2 tsp eggnog flavor (or to taste)
⛄1/2 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
⛄1/4 tsp nutmeg (or to taste)
⛄4-6 squirts/drops liquid 0 carb sweetener (or to taste)

Put lid on jar, shake hard, and serve. Serves 2-3.

BBQ Beef Cups

These are a variation of the sausage muffins I make using my "corn" dog batter. 

Brown 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef and season with your favorite low carb BBQ spices.  Cook until just cooked through because it will bake in the oven also.

While the beef is browning, I make a double batch of my "corn" dog recipe. This will make about 30 BBQ cups.

When the ground beef is done, turn off the heat and add your favorite low carb BBQ sauce. I use a mix of Walden Farms and G. Hughes.

Line muffin tins with paper liners (parchment is my favorite) and fill each about 1/3 of the way with batter.  Then top with the BBQ ground beef.  Push the meat down into the cup.

Bake in a 400° preheated oven for about 22 minutes.  Let cool a bit (the liner will come off better).  I drizzle a little more G. Hughes BBQ sauce on top. Store leftovers in the fridge.

Protein-led Lunch

Took my kiddos out for lunch today to a restaurant we trust.  They know us pretty well, but I still clarify our dietary needs when I order.
🧒🏼 T1 son had a 3 egg omelet loaded with bacon, sausage and ham. NO onions. (Logging and careful testing helped us determine onions are like glucose to him, so we avoid.) His diet soda is always tested to make sure the waitress didn't make a mistake.
👧🏼 Non-D daughter had a cheeseburger, no bun, veggies on the side, and a salad.

Happy kiddos and great blood sugar.

Grilled SmartBun Sandwich

Ok, I admittedly make odd sandwiches from time to time, but man, this one was good!  And I FINALLY figured out how to grill a SmartBun without burning it!  You turn it inside out.  Hmm, does that make sense?  So the sides that would normally be on the outside were facing in.  It grilled beautifully! 

Fry a breakfast sausage patty and fry an egg - set aside.  I toasted mine in bacon grease or you could use butter. While the bottom piece was toasting I added Walden Farms apple jelly, cheese, turkey, my sausage patty, the egg, a little more apple jelly, and then the top bun. By now the bottom should be golden brown (but peek to check), carefully flip your sandwich over and let the top brown. 

It's a little messy and oozy, but so gosh darn good.  Lots of protein and practically 0 net carbs. 😍

First Watch Cafe

I stumbled upon First Watch around lunchtime one day and decided to give it a try.  The menu was primarily breakfast, waffles/pancakes, omelets and sandwiches. And fresh squeezed juices looked really popular.

When I sat down my waiter asked if wanted coffee.  Yes, please!  He poured for me and left the carafe on the table.  I love pouring my own coffee when I want.  A pet peeve of mine at restaurants is having my coffee topped off - it totally messes with my creamer to sweetener ratio!  One note... the restaurant only offered sugar in the raw and stevia in the raw. I use Splenda in my coffee and fortunately had some in my purse.

I ordered The Works omelet - bacon, sausage, ham, grilled onions, mushrooms and 2 different cheeses, with fresh tomatoes and sour cream on top. My side was a simple dressed greens salad.  It also came with toast, and as a side note, they offered Udi's gluten free bread for no additional charge.  I went ahead and ordered it to try it. I didn't eat it all to keep my meal low carb, but it was quite good! (If Samuel had been with me, I wouldn't have ordered it. I think it was 12 carbs and some T1's might be able to dose for that, but it's not something I would have tried.) The waiter also asked if I ordered the gluten free bread because of an allergy or just preference - I love an educated staff!

As I was winding down, the waiter brought me a fresh pot of coffee (despite only drinking half of mine) and asked if I wanted a to-go cup. 😍

This was a lovely little restaurant with great service. I'll definitely be back!

Instant Pot Pulled Pork

So, I'm not the most adept Instant Pot user, but was forced into it this past Sunday. I planned to have pulled pork and had my roast all ready to go for the Crock-Pot, but slept late and my Crock-Pot window had passed. My husband pointed to the Instant Pot sitting proudly on the counter and said "you could use that thing".

Fine, fine.... I'll try it!

And you know what?  This pulled pork was every bit as good as it would have been sitting in the Crock-Pot for 10 hours in less than half the time!  I'm STILL amazed!  I'm sure there are recipes online, but I didn't have time for any of that shenanigans Sunday morning (😂) so here's what I did.

I had a huge bone-in butt roast (nearly 8 lbs) so I cut it up into about 8 chunks. I seasoned all the pieces really well with sugar-free BBQ seasoning.

Then add little oil your IP and pre-heat on the Saute setting.  Brown all your pieces (I did in 3 batches).

Then add a splash of stock (I used beef, but pork or chicken would work) to the IP and use a wooden spoon to scrape all the yummy bits from the bottom of the pot (this goodness is called "fond"). Then add about 2 cups more stock.  Add about 1 tsp each liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce (both should be sugar-free). Add your pork staggering to leave air pockets...

Make sure your vent is sealed. Then cook for 90 minutes on Manual. (If your roast is smaller, you probably could do less time.) When it was done I let it naturally release pressure for about 15 minutes. Then I cooked on the Slower Cooker High setting for 1 1/2 hours.

After this ~3 hours of cooking it was fall apart tender. Seriously as tender as 10 hours in a Crock-Pot!

Just use 2 forks to shred and top with your favorite sugar-free BBQ sauce. Our favorites are Walden Farms and G. Hughs.

I served with mashed cauliflower and roasted, cheesy green beans.

When In Doubt.... Retest!

I have one smart kiddo and glad I trusted his instincts.

Around 3:30 his CGM said 72 mg/dL, but dropping a little. I checked his blood sugar for a snack and his reading was...gasp... 26 mg/dL.  We looked at each other in shock for a second and I grabbed the liquid glucose post-haste.  He stopped me and said "no Mommy, I'm sure it's wrong. I feel perfect. I'm going to wash my hands and recheck!".

A lot of thoughts went through my head...

1) did I screw up his lunch shot that badly...is Regular peaking hard?
2) what will washing his hands do for a low??? 🤔
3) I hope he doesn't pass out while washing his hands!

He came back perfectly calm, rechecked, and he was 78 mg/dL.

WHEW! Holy moly!  Talk about getting a Mama's heart rate going!  🥴

But this begs the question... what can cause a false low THAT far off?  Just a bad strip?  I'm not sure, but I sure am glad I trusted him and retested.

Buffalo Ranch Pork Rinds

I'm not a lover of plain pork rinds, but most of the flavored ones have maltodextrin (sugar) and starches so I try to avoid.

Plain pork rinds in this buffalo ranch dip though... 👍🏻👌🏻😋

0 carbs, but a high protein snack so T1's need to keep that in mind to avoid a slow, delayed blood sugar rise.

Decorated Shortbread Cookies

My daughter and I were on vacation last week and she found a cupcake shaped cookie cutter she wanted so I told her we'd make cookies for dessert on Sunday. I used this shortbread cookie recipe, but swapped coconut oil for the butter to make it dairy-free. That makes it a bit harder to work with, but still doable.  I also had to bake it a few extra minutes until firm.

I added strawberry extract and a little red food coloring for a pink'ish cupcake. The icing is Swerve confectioners with almond extract and a little almond milk - mix until smooth. Just put the icing in a Ziploc baggie and snip the corner to pipe onto the cookie..  I used KNOW chocolate chips for decorations and added a little whipped cream on the side (almond milk whipped cream for Samuel).

About 3-4 net carbs.

Bananas Foster Sauce and Cupcakes

It's been about 12+ years since I've made Bananas Foster.  I stopped eating it years before going low carb because of the calorie count (butter, sugar, bananas - YIKES!).  So it really hasn't been on my radar for a low carb adaptation, but it popped in my head yesterday so I thought I'd give it a go. Originally I was just going to make the "banana" sauce to top ice cream, but after I made it, I realized it would be a great addition to cupcakes/muffins too.

This turned out to be a really, really delicious dessert for about 5 net carbs.  Samuel especially liked the "banana" cupcakes.  His birthday is in 2 days and he asked instead of the birthday cake we had planned, if he could have these cupcakes with whipped cream on top. I already made extra cupcakes, so this totally works for me. Haha.

So here we go.  This is a modification to two easy recipes.  To make the Bananas Foster sauce, I basically used the Fried "Apples" recipe.  Yes, I used zucchini to mimic bananas.  Cut the pieces quite small so they can soften well. I added quite a bit more Jordan's Vanilla Skinny Syrup because you want the zucchini to really cook down and get soft like bananas would.

Then I took the zucchini out to leave just the sauce.  Add more Jordan's Vanilla Skinny Syrup if it cooked down too much.  Then while it simmers add about 3/4 tsp of xanthan gum and whisk really hard to thicken - just like a gravy.

Then add the zucchini back in to coat.  Turn the heat off and let it cool just a bit.  Add about 3/4 tsp of Banana Cream oil.  (I like oil better than extract - it has a much less pungent/chemical taste to me.) Serve right over ice cream.  To use in the cupcakes too, let cool.

To make the cupcakes, I actually used my Low Carb Corn Dog recipe. I just added a little extra sweetener and added about 1/2 tsp of banana oil. Then I added about 1 cup of the Banana Fosters sauce and mixed well. I baked in lined muffin tins at 325° degrees for about 23-25 minutes.  They were really, really moist from the zucchini.

Precision Counts

This afternoon Samuel was a bit high (127mg/dL) so I was thinking about how insulin I wanted to correct with.

OriginallyI was going to do 1.5u, but then thought that might not be enough. My husband was in the room and I mentioned I might do 2.0u and he was a little hesitant thinking it might be too much. But, he said "you're darned if you do, you're darned if you don't" so we compromised and I did 1.75u.

EXCEPT we're not talking about FULL units here. We dilute insulin to a 4:1 ratio so we are really talking about a difference of 0.3u vs 0.4u. So the compromise of "1.75u" was actually a correction of only 0.35u which ended up bringing him down to 76mg/dL (CGM leveled off there), which puts us in a much better position for his dinner bolus. Perfect!!  🥰

Low Carb Tequila Rose

For those not familiar with Tequila Rose, it's a thick strawberry cream liqueur. You can drink it as a shot, straight-up over ice or mixed with milk, or as an ingredient in a multitude of mixed drinks.  I usually drank it over ice with a splash of milk.  I haven't had it in years though since going low carb. One (1) shot of it is 7 carbs. EEK!

A couple of weeks ago I bought a new flavor of Jordan's Skinny Syrup - Strawberry Rose - without really having a plan for it.  And then today a low carb Tequila Rose drink popped in my head.  It is really refreshing, but would be easy to drink quickly (and maybe a few too many), so be careful. 😉 My husband doesn't normally like sweeter mixed drinks, but he really liked this too.

Here's what you need:

4 oz unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 oz heavy cream
1 1/2 oz Tequila
1 oz Jordan's Strawberry Rose Syrup

Shake over ice and strain into glass of your choice and enjoy!  You could also leave the tequila out for a non-alcoholic version.

About 1 carb! 😍

Spicy Buffalo Soft Boiled Eggs

These are an easy and delicious 0 carb side.  Boil eggs using your preferred method... either about 8-10 minutes in simmering water or 1 1/2 - 2 minutes in an Instant Pot (I use the IP).  Cool and cut lengthwise. The yolk should be very soft and slightly runny. 

Top with a spicy buffalo sauce/mayo. Then top with crunchy Maldon salt flakes (or Kosher salt if that is what you have). If your kids done like spicy, use a different type of mayo/sauce.

The creamy egg, spicy sauce, and crunchy salt is fantastic together! 

Blueberry Lavender Wine Spritzer

This is really light and refreshing. I used a small amount of the Blueberry Lavender syrup since I was using a sweeter wine, which gave it a very subtle flavor.  If I was using a drier wine, I would have used the higher amount listed below for a little stronger flavor.

5 oz white wine
3 oz seltzer water
1/2 - 1 oz Jordan's Blueberry Lavender Skinny Syrup
Stir gently and top with ice

Carbs only in the wine you choose.

24-hour Snapshot

I haven't posted a 24-hour snapshot in a while.  Samuel has been having night time growth spurts and leg cramping so we've had to be extra diligent to keep BG in check - sometimes multiple corrections, sooner than we sometimes would otherwise with a bit more insulin than usual.

Within this 24 hours, we.....

☑️ had no lows. Those 2 dips on the graph weren't that low... both had finger pricks of 71 mg/dL.

☑️ he had 1g of glucose (at the 3pm 71mg/dL), which in hindsight was a mistake because he was in the 90's by dinner.

☑️ 2 insulin corrections...

     * 10:15pm = BG was 109, which might sound risky to correct, but based on his growth spurt spikes for the past 2 weeks, I was comfortable.  Correction was 0.6u of Novolog, and kept him flat until...

     * 6:15am = BG was 125. This is fairly close to breakfast and I didn't want to stack badly, so gave him a 0.4u which brought him down to 100 by breakfast at 7:30am.

Blood sugar averaged to 91mg/dL with a Standard Deviation of 20. Otherwise, he just had his normal low carb snacks and meals and T1 was a pretty minimal part of our day. 

Kids being kids!

Kids having fun, eating foods they like, and maintaining normal blood sugar aren't mutually exclusive.

On Saturday, the kids and I were gone for about 7 hours.  We went to the library. Then to the park. Then we took a break to go to McDonald's (with some slight modifications to be low carb). Then we headed back to the park for another 2 hours of play.  Finally we headed to a sno-cone stand that serves truly sugar-free sno-cones.

Super, super happy kids, being carefree, yet maintaining really good blood sugar control.  Win-win-win.

Grilled Lunch & Dessert

It's raining today, but we found a brief window to do some fast grilling.  My husband took care of grilling burgers and chicken, while I prepped the sides.  We let the kids mix and match protein and veggies.

Evie picked burgers and parmesan roasted green beans.

Samuel picked grilled chicken, cinnamon cauliflower rice, and a small amount of peas.

For dessert they had Chewy Walnut Flour Chocolate Chip cookies.  I had to make some modifications...

1) sub butter to make dairy-free
2) Lakanto spikes Samuel so I used Swerve brown sugar. (I think this gave it an "off" taste. Next time I'll just use more granular Swerve or birch xylitol.)
3) I omitted the monk fruit extract completely. It was plenty sweet without for us.

https://www.carolinesketokitchen.com/2018/12/chewy-walnut-flour-chocolate-chip

Our Process of Tweaking

I'm often asked how we fine tune and make adjustments. Sometimes it hard for me to answer...there are so many variables and I honestly know ours.  But there are practices that I feel all T1's can employ. 

One of those is to log your results.  You can't fix what you can't see.

Next, change only one variable at a time. If you increase your bolus amount and increase your pre-bolus time and you go low, which change caused it?  It takes longer to fine tune this way, but I feel you have the best ability to learn how all variables work together.

When Samuel goes through a hard growth spurt (as he is now) often both his basal and bolus needs change - definitely during the spurt, but often permanently changes after it settles down.

His boluses have changed quite a bit -  the amount and prebolus time.  We've been working on each meal and look at them individually.

Here are some general rules of thumb for how we adjust insulin:

*Fast spike, stays high: more fast-acting insulin
*Slow spike, stays high: more Regular insulin
*Spike, but drifts down: longer pre-bolus
*Drops fast, stays low: reduce insulin
*Drops, comes back up: decrease pre-bolus time

Sometimes adjustments are a combination of these tweaks, but one at a time.

Below is our past 12 hours.

Overall, good but we're still getting a spike after lunch.  We've adjusted his Novolog and Regular (independently) and feel like we have the dose right.  I've been increasing his pre-bolus time 2 minutes at a time.  Each day the spike gets less severe and smooths out on its own.  Today was a 24 minute pre-bolus. Tomorrow I'll increase it to 26 minutes and we'll see what that does.

This is a pretty casual process for us. We don't like highs or lows, but they happen. We log the result, try to keep our foods consistent, and try better the next day.  This process is what we're trying to teach Samuel as he grows up with this disease.

Sir Kensington Dressing/ Dips

We really like these Sir Kensington's dressings. They're thick enough to be used as dip also. And they're dairy-free so Samuel can have them too.

The classic ranch and buffalo ranch are our favorites. The pizza is ok, but not really "pizza-y".

These are 0 carbs. The ingredients essentially make these flavored mayo, but they don't taste cloying like some mayo-based dressings.

We get these at Wal-Mart.