Thursday, January 24, 2013

Day 23 The Diabetic Food Stamp Project

With 1.56 unspent, added to my 4.25 I have 5.81 today.

Most of the 'extra' I will blow at breakfast.

I am still craving fresh, healthy food. We are in the middle of a cold snap when my thoughts typically turn to stews and popovers with lashes of butter and roast root vegetables, but when I awoke I wanted nothing more than fennel salad.

I began picking at the two servings left from yesterday and before I knew it my salad was gone.

Of course I needed a bit of something substantial so I had three slices of the bread I had baked toasted with cheese. It was an extravagant, expensive morning.

Fennel, orange, and Pomegranate Salad 1.66
Coffee with cream .15
Toasts .30
Cheese .20
Total 2.31
Carbs 73 grams

This is diabetic crisis territory for some people. I called the nutritionist I am working with and we talked about the source of the carbs.

Whole grains, flax, vegetables, fruit. We talked about the number of grams of fiber, 28 grams.

Right now I am paying close attention to how I feel, if I have any highs, lows, cravings for sugar or coffee or if my slow eating (I spent two hours sipping and picking) and choice of carbohydrates makes a difference.

As the morning progresses I am going to keep checking in with myself.

....It is noon. I am not starving, I don't feel tired. So far today, no highs or lows despite the high carb consumption. I am going to hold off on lunch. I see no reason to rush forward with eating until I feel the need.

It is now 2:30 and I have sustained energy. Granted I have been too busy but when I stop and think about it, I am not hungry. I should have a snack before the gym, but I am going to wait. I am not sure if it is the 500 calories from this morning or if I am still digesting the pork belly from last night...

I had planned on serving the venison ribs tonight to some neighbors...but I was just informed that my soy ginger glaze would not go over. If I wanted folks to try venison I would have to give it a Memphis style sweet red sauce.

I am going to have to see what I can fashion that is low carb.

I have gone back and forth in a heated discussion on Huffington Post with vegans who claim their lifestyle is so easy and cheap. These discussion are always the same...when I point out that to get enough calories and balanced nutrition it cannot possibly be done on a budget. They finally come back with rice and beans.

Rice is what is killing our poor. A little rice in a varied diet is okay, but the masses of rice used to stretch meals is leading to out of control blood sugar problems.

I miss afternoon coffee, since it seems that lunch is not going to be needed today I decided to have a bite of cheese and an afternoon coffee....bliss.

Cheese .10
Coffee .15
Total .25

I went to the gym with sustained energy and then to Trader Joe's. I finally had to replace my first seasoning. Those of you who have read from the beginning know that I set aside .25 per day to pay for oil and seasonings.

I have barely used any oil or salt but I did kill a bottle of 21 Seasoning Salute. This is only sold at Trader Joe's and makes Mrs. Dash and the other salt free seasonings taste like...stale bits of dreck.

This is a fresh powerful flavor and since I decided to eschew salt on most of my foods in order to really understand flavor for my Congestive Heart Failure patients I have relied heavily on this mix.

As I have mentioned in the past I need salt, I need a lot of salt so I am currently taking salt in pill form in order to stay healthy.

I came home with a powerful craving for chicken soup. I had no chicken and to make it would take too long, soup at a restaurant was not an option so I had some of the chili that had been simmering in the crock pot all day.

The chili contained 1 lb of beans .99, 1 lb of meat 3.99, I can tomatoes .97, 1 onion .10, 1 carrot .12. Total 6.17.

From this I got 12 cups of chili at a cost of .52 per cup.


Dinner was
1.5 cups of chili .79
Yogurt .15
Cheese .12
Iced Tea .03
Total  1.09
Carbs 31 grams

My calories for the day were very low 1,096.

My costs: 3.40, this leaves me with a balance of 2.41 to carry over.







4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just can't do chili without rice, and the rice throws me over.

Chili is a good cheap meal.

You got an idea instead of rice for chili I can try?

Anonymous said...

I eat a lot of beans without rice. Rice stops me up, frankly, sorry TMI.

I love beans so much and they're so good for you.

I wonder if you can make riceless bean burritos with cheese, lettuce, avo (I know it's exp, but you can buy it at Costco cheap like $5 for 5), onion (Costco again $5 for a bag of 8), a tomato (flat is about $6), and flourless tortillas from Costco, again, pretty good price but I can't remember what it is.

Pinto beans in bulk from Costco are the best price too about $1 a pound.

We eat this a lot, I love it.

We're not vegan/vegetarians, just need to scale back a lot of times. In fact I'm overnighting a HUGE bowl of pintos right now, I expect that this will last us for a week. And fill us up.

Chef, even if you don't do this, please let your readers know that you CAN live on this. I can't tell you about beans and diabetes....that might require some googling.

Thx!

Anonymous said...

2nd comment to my other one. Beans are amazing for diabetics, and cheap too. You can buy them in bulk at Whole Foods, but they are $1.99 a pound usually organic. Best to get them from an ethnic market in bulk (about $1.69, not organic) or even better at Costco, about $1/lb in a large bulk size.

Read this, beans are amazing for diabetics.

http://www.joybauer.com/photo-gallery/best-foods-for-type-2-diabetes.aspx

Karl said...

I am publishing your comment and it has some good information.

For diabetics it is important to measure the beans and know how many carbohyrdates are in the tortilla, it varies enormously by brand.

There are a lot of nutrients you need that beans don't fullfill, for the short term or as part of your diet it is a great ida.

I made chili bean quesadillas at the beginning of the month and froze them and have had a few so far, they are delicious.

Avocado etc...not doable right now so mine were just beans with seasoning and a bit of cheese.