This morning we had another day of racing out the door for school and it made me super thankful I had food in the house that was easy to toss in a lunch bag and be used for breakfast. Over the course of the last 2 years with T1D, I have slowly been changing the way we eat. In our house, we still eat all things anyone else can have but I try to be as diabetic friendly with foods around our house as possible.
Lately, that has meant that when I have time (and let’s face it, time means both having physical time and also the energy to feel like doing something), I try to prepare foods that I toss in the freezer. We see blood sugar spikes from things like frozen waffles or mini muffins so that made me think, I can actually just do this myself with ingredients that I want. It started with french toast, I like to make it with Sara Lee Healthy and Delightful bread so I took an entire loaf of bread and turned it into the french toast and packaged 2 pieces together in foil for easy access. The kids get it out, pop it in the toaster, and it tastes just like I made it if I had had time that morning. So what else did I do it with? Grilled cheese. Meat/veggie egg quiches. Keto muffins (both regular size and I’ve invested in a mini muffin pan). Chili. Baked oatmeal cups. Most recently, I’ve been experimenting with bread baking so lots of artisan loaves, cinnamon raisin loaves and focaccias. Over Christmas break I also jumped into the world of sourdough (my starter is named Breadney Spears) and I’ve even gotten some cool recipes out of that, most popular would be waffles. If I’m being real though, my favorite thing I’ve frozen is Sara Lee bread, made with peanut butter and sugar free jelly, cut into an uncrustable – because that has saved our butt on more than one occasion when I’m backing out of the driveway and a kid yells “I forgot my lunch!”
I do spend a lot of time preparing these things but the beauty of the freezer is that I do it when I’m feeling like I need a project and not when I have to find something to eat. On a slightly different topic, a lot of my freezer things have been my sourdough lately – I’m only a month in to sourdough and I still need lots of practice (which I hate) but I’m determined to be successful. Some loaves have turned out gorgeous. Some have not been cooked in the middle :(. But one thing I like about it is when I cook with sourdough and keto flour, I just don’t see a high blood sugar spike the way I would with a bread that comes from the store.
Before I sign off for now, I must bring up the new cookbook I’ve been using. It’s called Bakerita and it is desserts that are gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free. I’ve made some really neat things out of it and by and large my customers (children) have been pleased. And even though it is not a diabetic cookbook, I am highly pleased with the results of feeling like you can have desserts that don’t send you sailing into the 300s. I don’t officially endorse anything but I want people to know the fun I’ve had with this book.
T1D Type A Mom 