The Diabetic Pastry Chef

A meal planning technique many diabetics use for managing their blood glucose levels is known as carb counting.

Carb counting should take into account how active you are; and what, if any, medications you are taking.  Generally a diabetic should start with 45 to 60 grams of carbs per meal and adjust this to their health.  Food labels and carb counters can be relied on for help in carb counting.

To further lower the carbs in my recipes, or in your own, you might choose to use a mixture of some of the lower-carb flours such as coconut flour, almond flour, flaxseed flour, soy flour or oat flour.

8 tea bags
4 quarts water
2 oranges, washed and quartered
1 1/3 c Splenda
ground cinnamon
ground nutmeg
ground cloves

Steep teabags in boiling water and cool. Add to pitcher. By hand, squeeze the juice from the oranges into the pitcher. Drop the squeezed quarters into the pitcher. Stir in the Splenda and add cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to taste. Stir and chill.

Note: Lemons can be substituted for the oranges, or a combination of oranges and lemons can be added. Yield: 1 gallon.

1/2 square unsweetened chocolate
2 tsps Splenda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 c milk

Place all ingredients in top of double boiler and heat until chocolate melts. Whip vigorously untl a good foam forms on top. Top with whipped cream and an additional sprinkle of cinnamon.

In baking, you may use a heaping Tablespoon of soy flour and a Tablespoon of water to equal one egg. Once baked, there is no texture or taste difference.

1 large egg = 1 1/2 large egg whites

1 large egg = 3 Tablespoons egg substitute

1 large egg white = 2 Tablespoons egg substitute

1 large egg white plus 2 teaspoons canola oil = 1 egg (to reduce the cholesterol)

I will occasionally substitute “some” of the whole eggs in a recipe with soy flour or egg whites.  I consider this when a recipe calls for more than 2 eggs.

Portion size, that is. If you’ve ever found yourself baking a cake or pie and devouring it all in a few sittings, this tip is for you. Think portion size.

Don’t bake a cake - bake cupcakes or bake your pound cake batter in mini cake pans.  Eat one and freeze the remainder of the individual portions.

Don’t bake a pie – bake small tarts.

Portion puddings and ice cream into ramekins.

One or two cookies is a portion size. Freeze the rest.

Once you’ve had your portion for the day, that’s it!

2 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c canola oil or olive oil

Whip butter with electric mixer.  Add and beat canola oil or olive oil. Pour into container and refrigerate until hardened. Keep refrigerated.

I use this as a healthy spread for my quick breads such as biscuits, waffles and muffins; also to butter my vegetables. Use anywhere you would use butter or margarine. Works well in most recipes that call for butter, margarine or Smart Balance spread.

For those of you who have an interest in nutrition information and would like to count the carbs in recipes and foods, here are a couple of useful links:

www.BellaOnline.com/subjects/4486.asp

www.ntwrks.com/~mikev/chart5a.htm

They are excellent resources!

Shake Ingredients: 

2 1/2 c no sugar-added, fat-free vanilla ice cream
1/2 c milk
2 T Smucker’s sugar-free chocolate sundae syrup
2 T graham cracker crumbs

Garnish:

whipped cream
graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

Place all ingredients for shake in blender and blend until smooth.

Pour into 2 12-oz glasses. Garnish each with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs. Serve with a straw.

Here are some important guidelines to remember when drinking alcohol, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA):

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/alcohol.html

1/2 c Splenda
1/2 c orange juice
1/2 c lemon juice
3 c burgundy wine or white wine
3/4 c club soda or sparkling water
3 or more types of fresh (or canned) fruit
(orange slices, lemon slices, lime slices,
banana slices, fresh or frozen berries, peach
slices, apple slices, pear slices, plum slices,
cherries).

Mix Splenda and fruit juices together. At serving time, add wine and club soda or sparkling water. Pour over fruit and ice. Yield: 10 servings.