Extra - Cooking Out with Friends

Keeping it simple!

Some of the best evenings are those that we spend outside the RV with friends.  Of course the happy hour is a great warmup to the cookout and we were happy to find out that the sugar is typically distilled out of alcohol, so as long as the sugar that is added back into the drink is minimal, then Alexx can enjoy a drink.  This is his new favorite:

Raspberry Margaritas

I use a small smoothie blender to make his drink - a $12 item at Target or Walmart and it's great for smoothies or mixing pancakes too.
Ingredients:
2 ice cubes
2 packets True Lime (pure lime with no sugar - find it in the baking section at Walmart.)
1 shot Tequila
1 shot water
4 drops liquid spenda
4 fresh raspberries (2 large strawberries also are good)
Blend and serve in a chilled glass!

Chips and Spicy Dip

As long as you have some fresh raspberries out, mash up a few more and mix them in with cream cheese and some fresh or refrigerated jalepanos.  I add these with high fiber crackers.  I also frequently mash avocados and salsa for another easy spicy dip.  The high fiber crackers are a good substitute for corn tortillas and have a lot less carbs.  Enjoy every morsel and you don't need many chips!

Farm Fresh Sausage and Mustard

One of our favorite things to do (well mine anyway - Alexx is a good sport about going along with me) while we travel from town to town in the RV is to go to local Farmer's Markets.  I have a great ap on my Iphone that tells me where all the Farmers Markets are in the country and even zones into where we are currently located.  It's free and available through ITunes.  It's called Farmers Market Finder.  We try to buy our cage free eggs, produce, cheese and grass fed beef and no nitrate pork locally each week.  I can even plan ahead so if I know we won't be near a Farmers Market for a while, I buy extra meat or poultry and freeze it.  One of our favorite things to purchase are homemade brats or kielbasa.  I put them in my 1 quart slow cooker with a can of beer and let them gently precook for a couple hours.  Then they cook quickly and evenly over the grill to just add a nice edge.  Serve them with mustard!

Grilled Veggies

See my notes on Day 3 for Meal Plan for grilled veges.  For the cookout I just wrap the veggies in tinfoil and toss them on the grill.  If you want extra flavor, marinate the veges in 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 tsp each of your favorite savory spices like garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, basil, lavendar, herbs de provence, and 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.  I vary my mixture depending on what I have on hand and often add a few drops of Tabasco.

Broccoli/Bacon/Cheese Crunchy Salad

Every now and then I find something at the Farmer's Market that is not on my shopping list and it just cries out for me to buy it.  I was planning to make this salad for dinner and to purchase a broccoli at the market, but when I got there, I found no brocoli - but instead this beautiful lavendar cauliflower!  I've never seen such a beautiful head of cauliflower so I had to buy it!  Instead of using broccoli in the salad below I substituted this beautiful cauliflower and it worked just fine!  Don't be afraid to try substitutions as long as the carbs are still low.  My general guideline is to stick to veggies that are grown above ground. (Doesn't work with peas, but for most everything else.)

Lavendar Cauliflower from the Santa Fe Farmers Market - Sept., 2013

Mix together the following ingredients:
1/4 head broccoli chopped fine or shredded
2 strips no nitrate bacon, cooked to crisp and broken into small pieces
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup slivered almonds
2 hard boiled eggs, shelled and chopped finely
1/2 green pepper chopped fine
1/4 cup red onion chopped fine
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
salt and pepper to taste
Pile the mixture into a serving bowl.  Top with grated cheese (cheddar, feta, Gouda are all nice choices) and chill for at least one hour before serving.  It keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Berries and Jello SaladGrilled Chocolate Chip Cookie

For dessert, I keep it simple and Midwestern style.  I mix up a fruit flavored jello in the morning and chill it all day.  The recipe for chocolate chip cookies that I posted in Day 1 Meal plan is the same cookie recipe I use for the cookout, but instead of baking the cookies, I make them on the griddle.  They aren't as pretty but they are very tasty.  Drop a dollop of whipped cream a few of those fresh berries on the jello and add a cookie that is fresh off the griddle for an easy and tasty dessert!

This is a low carb cookout that everyone enjoys!

Day 3 Meal Plan

Summer is over and school is back in session!  Wow - where did the time go!

Alexx and I have been traveling around the country in our RV and as promised, I have continued to keep track of his meal plans so that I can share them all with you!  Some alterations have had to be made due to some limitations of the RV, but not too many.  For instance, as I suspected, the ice cream machine wouldn't fit in the RV freezer so we left that behind.  However, we found that both Breyer's Carb Smart vanilla ice cream and Blue Bunny No Sugar Added ice cream do not spike his glucose count and keep him in his expected range.  Also, thrills upon thrills, we tested one scoop of Culver's vanilla frozen custard and it raised his blood sugar only 11 points after 1 hour.  We tried chocolate too but that didn't work out so well.  So now on occasion, we do stop at Culver's and Alexx is one happy fella!

Alexx praying to the frozen custard gods that he passes the glucose test!

 (Culver's reports the nutritional makeup as 30 carb/18 fat/6 protein for one scoop of vanilla frozen custard.)

But most of our meals on the road have been at "home" in the RV.  We do take advantage of some of the eating establishments along the way - especially after a day of travel when I just don't feel like cooking - but we find it relatively easy to find grilled chicken or fish and roasted vegetables and a garden salad on most menus.  What has been the most fun for my cooking adventures this summer is going to Farmer's Markets.  I got a great phone app that is free called MARKET FINDER.  It's been a great way to get the freshest produce as well as no nitrate, grass fed meat from local ranchers.  This app is the first thing I check when we land in any town.  I think my favorite purchases have been Michigan Blueberries, Grass Fed beef from Holland, MI, and fresh roasted coffee beans in Memphis.  Alexx's breakfast hash varies every day depending on what we had for dinner the previous night and what I found at the market that week, so keep that in mind in the recipe below.

Now on with the meal plans!  They will be coming regularly now as I need to complete all 15 meal plans by the end of November.  Please try some of the recipes and leave your comments!  It will really help me as I refine them and get the book ready for printing in the spring!

Breakfast - 9:00 AM

Oh, yes, the breakfast schedule got pushed back a bit on the road.  As we leisurely get into our day I usually get breakfast on our table by 9:00 and then after the paper is read, email and Facebook are checked, we are off to see the area where we are staying.  For today's breakfast we have another one of Alexx's favorites.  I like to make this on days we are driving to a new location or when we are in Phoenix on days that Alexx plays softball as he likes a lighter meal.  We call this...

Green Eggs and Ham

Today's breakfast includes:

• Green Eggs and Ham (see recipe below)
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1 pkg Pro/Grade Genesis mixed with 8 oz. water and 2 ice cubes (Alexx is getting tired of drinking this every day and decided less water and colder makes it better.)

Recipe for Green Eggs and Ham

2 Whole Peeled Hard Boiled Eggs
1 T. Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil 
3 oz. sliced fresh Avocado - Fresh
1 T. Bell Pepper 
1 T. Red Onion Raw 
1 T. Cream Cheese
1/4 tsp. Tabasco sauce
dash of salt
4 slices Ham, Hormel, 97% fat free, Natural Choice 100% Natural, Smoked Deli Ham 

Slice eggs and remove the yolks.  Mix the yolks with the mayo, 2 oz. of the avocado, bell pepper, onion, tabasco sauce and salt.  Stuff the empty egg white shell with the avocado mixture.  Spread 1/4 teaspoon of cream cheese at the center of each ham slice and place the stuffed egg in the center of each ham slice.  Curve up the sides of the ham slice and top each with a slice of avocado.  Arrange on a plate and chill until ready to serve.

This breakfast scores a 4 out 4 points on his rating scale for taste!  Hope you enjoy it too!

Breakfast Nutritional Totals: 
• 464 calories
• 19 grams carbs (16.4%)
• 32 grams fat (62.1%)
• 25 grams protein (21.5%)

Lunch - 1:30 P.M.

With the later start to our morning we have eliminated the late morning snack and now go with three meals a day.  Eating four times a day works when we are in Phoenix and we are at home most of the time, but as we travel on the road we are frequently gone mid-morning with site-seeing and stop back to the RV around 1:30 or 2:00.  We try to plan our meals about 4.5 hours apart.

When the weather is cool, Alexx enjoys hot chocolate and used to drink it every day before he was diagnosed with diabetes.  Since then we have switched to Swiss Miss Diet Hot Chocolate on occasion, or Amberlyn's dark chocolate sugar free cocoa.  But Amberlyn dropped their line of cocoa and because I try to limit Alexx's intake of Splenda, and use natural foods instead, I have come up with this recipe for hot chocolate that he enjoys.

Alexx's Cocoa

• 6 ounces almond milk (unsweetened original by Silk or Almond Breeze)
• 2 tablespoons dark cocoa (Hershey's Dark Unsweetened Cocoa)
• 2 teaspoons coconut sugar
• 4 drops vanilla creme stevia

Mix the ingredients in a blender.  Heat in the microwave for 1 minute.

Nutritional information: 57 calories; Net Carbs: 8.3 g./ Fat: 5.8 g./ Protein: 2.8 g. 

Peanut Butter and Bacon on Grain Free Bread

Jif and Skippy peanut butter were mainstays in our house pre-diabetes diagnosis, so when Alexx realized that sugar was added to most jars, we took them off the shelf.  But once we started grinding our own peanut butter at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, we added it back to our menu.  All I needed to do was find a bread he liked and add the no-nitrate bacon we found from Hormel Natural Choice and he was back in heaven.  If I haven't made a loaf of fresh bread, we will spread it on one of the Carb Balance tortillas.  We have found another wrap since traveling that we enjoy and has more fiber and less net carbs that is made by La Tortilla. Most Walmart's around the country carry them.

We have tried a number of gluten free and low carb breads from various bakeries including Julian's, sand a local Phoenix bakery called Chompies, but they all are pretty flavorless and chewy.  After many trials this recipe rates a 3 out of 4 stars on Alexx's flavor scale.  We will continue to do trials but so far this is fitting the bill.  

Grain Free Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup nut butter (I've used both almond and cashew butters)
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 tablespoon raw honey
• 1/2 teaspoons organic apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line an 8.5" x 4.5" loaf pan with parchment paper.  Spread a thin layer of coconut oil over the paper.  

Using a hand mixer, blend the nut butter, egg yolks, honey, vinegar and milk.

Beat the egg whites separately until peaks form.

Combine the flour, soda, and salt in a separate dish.

When the oven is preheated, pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix quickly, before adding the egg whites and then blend everything.  Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and put it immediately into the oven.  Working quickly and efficiently will give your bread a better chance of rising nicely.

Bake for 45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Remove when done and let the bread cool for 20 minutes before removing the loaf from the pan.  Then cool the loaf for an additional hour on a cooling rack.  

Slice the loaf into 12 equal pieces and store it wrapped in the refrigerator.

Toast the bread before serving with a spread or using as a base for an open face sandwich. 

Nutritional information per slice: Calories: 179/ Net Carbs: 5.0 g/ Fat: 13.9 g/ Protein: 5.9 g

Total Lunch Nutritional Information:

Calories: 462

Carbs: 22 g (19%)

Fat: 34 g (66.2%)

Protein: 17 g (14.8%)

Dinner - 6:00 P.M.

We try to include fish in our diet a couple times a week.  Our rotation is typically shrimp, grass fed beef, salmon, chicken, sausage and occasionally pork.  (Other than a pork tenderloin I never have mastered cooking pork so we only have pork listed once in our rotation.)  But I do watch for sales and if any of these meats are on sale or available at the Farmers Market, I purchase them and freeze them.  Occasionally I will purchase a fish other than salmon but typically that's the only fish Alexx likes.  So when I saw talapia on sale for a great price, I bought it.  This recipe can be made with any fish really, but salmon has such a strong flavor of it's own that I typically don't spice it.  If you are like Alexx and can't tell one white fish apart from another, I recommend this spice rub.  It's easy to make and a lot less expensive than buying a pre-mixed spicy blend, but for ease, you can also just use a Cajun or jerk blended spice.  I use it to spice egg scrambles and to make pork fajitas too!  This recipe is enough to cover 1-2 pounds of fish, depending on how thickly crusted you want the fish.

Spicy Rub for Grilled, Sauteed or Baked Fish

• Spice Rub Mixture:
• Combine the following in a plastic sandwich bag and shake until well blended
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon fennegreek powder (available at Mediterranean or Indian Markets)
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon oregano 
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon stevia or sugar substitute
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

Mix the spices together and put in a shallow bowl or plate with edges.  Wash 2 6-8oz. fish fillets and lay on a grill or cooling rack over a piece of paper towel.  Gently coat the fillets by dipping them into the dish of spice and spreading the rub over the fish.  Coat your baking dish, saute pan or grill with coconut oil depending on how you plan to cook the fish. (All methods are great.  The method varies for us depending on the time of year and whether we want to use the RV oven or not.)  Cook the fish according to your preferred method.  Do not overcook it though.  It will take anywhere from 6 - 20 minutes depending on the method used.  Check the fish for flakiness after 6 minutes and determine how much longer it will need.
Calories: 193/ Net Carbs: 2g/ Fat: 9.7g/ Protein: 25g

To complement the fish I also do a vegetable mix of which ever veggies are available at the Farmer's Market. On this occasion we had zuchini, onions, peppers and mushrooms and whenever possible, I add asparagus - it's one of the best veggies for lowering cholesterol and helping to efficiently use the insulin in the body.  A fresh veggie mixture is a perfect complement to spicy fish and it's simple to do either roasted in the oven, sauteed in a pan on the stove, or wrapped in tin foil and put over the campfire.  Depending on how done you like your vegetables, you might want to do a one minute microwave of the stalk vegetables to have them cook at the same degree as the onions, peppers and mushrooms.

Mixing 1/4th cup of each vegetable with the addition of one garlic clove serves 2 people nicely.  I like to saute it in 1 Tablespoon olive oil and 1 tsp sesame oil with 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper.  Salt and pepper to your taste.

Calories: 140/Net Carbs: 6.5g/ Fat: 9.4  g/ Protein: 1.9g

Typically, I will add a green salad to the dinner, but if I have lots of fresh veggies than I will do a mildly starchy salad instead.  Aunt Bea's Salad was a favorite of mine growing up (not the Aunt Bea from Mayberry - my dad's sister's name was Bea so I really had my very own Aunt Bea!) and now it's become one of Alexx's favorites too.  However, I think any time I add peanuts to a dish it automatically becomes a "4" in his book. I'm sure I have added much more to the salad than she had, but she was generous with the peas and I use much less because the carbs in peas are very high.  The first time we tested Alexx on the original recipe his glucose numbers sky-rocketed, but the recipe I have now he can tolerate with no problem and the peas are still represented.  I have fond memories of Aunt Bea whenever I make this.  She always had great hugs for me when I visited and we loved to talk food.  She, my dad, and their older sister all died within months of each other.  They were all great cooks and absolutely loved good food.  I'm sure they are all dining together now and their influence will probably sneak into this blog again.

Aunt Bea's Salad Deluxe

•  1/4 cup frozen peas microwaved for 1 minute
• 1/4 cup Spanish peanuts
• 1/4 cup chopped green pepper
• 1/4 cup green onions chopped
• 1/4 cup diced cheese (I use whatever I have on hand - sharp cheddar is a favorite)
• 1/4 of a whole avocado, chopped
• 2 strips of cooked bacon diced into small pieces 
• 2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
• dash of pepper
• a few sprigs of fresh basil for garnish
• 2 lettuce cups or leaves of any green
  

Place all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl except the mayo, pepper, basil and lettuce.  Mix gently.  Then fold the mayonnaise into the mixed ingredients.  Scoop the mixture into lettuce cups and garnish with pepper and fresh basil leaves.  Chill for at least one hour before serving.
Calories: 360/ Net Carbs: 4.7/ Fat: 29.2g/ Protein: 16.3 

Strawberry Chocolate Pie

     For desert, I made a strawberry chocolate pie.  This is easy to make, but the trick in the RV is to make sure I have enough room in the refrigerator as it's not a standard size.  So pictured here is the pie I make when we are home and I can use a regular size pie pan.  For the RV I have miniature pie pans complements of  my sister-in-law, Linda. (I have to clarify as both Linda and Lisa are great cooks - I think it was a criteria for my brothers so the the Diederich tradition of "foodie" that we learned from Dad would live on.)
     Linda and I share lots of recipes.  In fact you'll see some of her contributions in future posts...but I digress.  Linda was worried that I would have trouble continuing to bake in the RV with such a small space and small oven, so as a "housewarming" gift when we bought the RV she gave me a set of  little baking pans.  I think she found them at salesman samples stores and later I found some like them at the flea market in Shipshiwana, Indiana. If you are baking in an RV, I highly recommend them.  I just cut my recipe for pie in half and use two of the small pie pans to adjust this recipe.  This recipe is also great with any fresh berries. I've made it with a blend of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries with equally great raves.  I haven't tried it with frozen berries yet though I anticipate they would also work well.

Pie Crust:

Mix the following together:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon soda
• In a separate measuring cup combine:
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 36 drops sweetz-free liquid sugar substitute or equivalent of 3 tablespoons sugar substitute
• 3 squares melted unsweetened chocolate
• 1 Tablespoon sugarfree vanilla syrup
• Blend the liquid ingredients with the dry ingredients and press into a pie pan that has been slicked with coconut oil.  
• Prick the pressed pie crust with a fork
• Bake at 350 degrees in a preheated oven for 8 minutes and then cool.

Pie Filling:

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 4 oz sour cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar free vanilla syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract
• 8 ounces whipped topping or sugarfree sweetened whipped cream
• 1 quart fresh strawberries sliced, that have been refrigerated for an hour and sprinkled with 10 drops of vanilla creme stevia

Beat together the cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla syrup and strawberry extract.  Fold in the strawberries and whipped topping.  Pile the mixture into the prepared and cooled pie shell.  

Freeze the pie for at least 2 hours.  Let sit about 15 minutes before serving.  Garnish with sliced strawberries. Calories: 280.3 /Net Carbs: 7.8g / Fat: 26.1g/ Protein: 5.0g
 

Nutritional Totals for dinner:
Calories: 951
Net Carbs: 21g (8.8%)
Fat: 75g (71%)
Protein: 48 (20.2%)

Late Night Snack - 10:00 PM

Because Alexx has to take Metformin medication in the evening as well as his long term insulin shot (9cc a day) he has switched his afternoon snack to an evening snack.  This usually consists of something light and easy and rounds out his day of whatever he might be lacking in carbs, protein or fats.  He likes something light as he usually goes to bed between 11 and midnight and doesn't want to be full.  On this particular evening he had:

• 1 scoop Bonnie Bell No Sugar Added ice cream
• 1 tablespoon heated sugar free chocolate syrup
• 1 tablespoon Redi Whip or Cool Whip topping
• two fresh raspberries

Nutritional Value: Calories: 77 / Net Carbs: 11g (56.8%)/ Fat: 1.5g (17.4%)/ Protein: 5g (25.8%)

Not a bad way to end the day!

Nutritional Values for Day 3
Calories: 1955
Net Carbs: 73g (15%)
Fat: 142.5g (65.6%)
Protein: 95g (19.4%)