Hypoglycemia ideas?

[ozmama]

We have suspicions of hypoglycemia in our camp and are trying an unofficial experiment with diet. What I've been able to determine from minimal research is that for the level I suspect we're at we need to balance out our carbs and proteins to help even-keel. I'm suddenly drawing blanks on proteins outside of the obvious meat. Breakfast and snacks are our weak points in acheiving balanced eating. One day we did a snack of a hard-boiled egg, a (store-bought) granola bar, and string cheese. Another day we did granola bar, string cheese, and raisins.

What ideas do y'all have for snacks and breakfast that are either quick-n-easy or can be done as OAMC? Thinking up a variety of carbs is easy for me (homemade granola bars, homemade muffins, homemade scones, homemade bread-stuffs, homemade crackers--granted, since we left our house we've been purchasing convenience snacks, etc rather than making them)--coinciding it with a variety of proteins is stumping my overtaxed brain. Meat, pb, legumes, eggs...am I missing anything?

[Stephanie]

I'm going to try and think of some more suggestions but one thing I really like as a quick healthy snack is soy beans (edamame). You can usually buy them flash frozen in bags and boil them for a few minutes. After you boil them they can be eaten either warm or cold. You could always boil them, then refrigerate in little baggies for a quick grab & go. I know I love them and they are so easy. The protein content is high and so is fiber (carbs are low).

Oh I know, what about using Peanut Butter as a protein option on either a nice whole grain bread or celery. That could be made ahead of time, bagged and easy to take.

[ozmama]

Thanks for the idea Stephanie! I react to soy products these days (along with everything else in the world it seems) so hadn't thought about that. I got smart and started combing recipezaar.com's diabetic recipes to find ideas. We did a breakfast of an english muffin (ultimately whole grain, but sourdough is what was available) topped with peanut butter, sliced peaches, and wheat bran (ultimately milled or ground flax seed). This morning was cottage cheese with the rest of the peach diced on top.

From some additional reading (googling 'protein sources') I've come across walnut oil as an excellent source for sneaking in more protein, and adding flax seeds or flax seed oil is another great way to get additional protein and nutrients.

I have a recipe for a butter spread that I'm going to alter slightly and see how the family takes to it (my new version: gradually whisk 1/2c. walnut oil into 1/2c. softened organic butter; keep refrigerated once mixed). According to the blood tests I'm not allergic to walnuts, have my epi-pen if it comes down to it I suppose....

We also picked up some paver stones to line the bottom of the solar oven to see if that increases our success of baking in it. *grin*

Still open to ideas and suggestions (that do not include altered sweetners *wink*)!

[Tracey]

Not sure how you feel about eating almonds but I make this really good yogurt for breakfast and snacks. I buy a large plain yogurt, usually at a health food store as it tends to taste better. Take a portion out, then I add a little natural sweetner like stevia and some sliced raw almonds. Every once in a while I also add some berries or peaches. It's really filling and tastes great. You might even be able to sneak your walnut oil into it ; )

Also a trick for getting more flax seed oil into your diet is to add a little to a homemade salad dressing - such as an oil and balsamic vinegar type. You won't even notice it but you get all of the great benefits.

Oh and I found that I don't really love plain cottage cheese so now I sometimes get fat free cottage cheese, add a little salt and pepper & sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. It tastes so much better (at least to me)

[ozmama]

Have you seen the Stevia Plus packets? It's like sweet-n-low packets, but it's stevia with fiber. Works great with herbal teas, can't tell you on coffees, etc as we don't drink them. One packet does 2-3 mugs of tea for me. One day I'll get adventurous and try making sweet tea with it. *grin*

We use plain yogart (and sometimes rice milk) in smoothies. Wednesday we made a smoothie of carrot, blackberry, raspberry, the last of the vanilla yogart (the plain was moldy) and a spalsh or two of rice milk. Eldest gave it rave reviews and it hasn't made it into the popsicle molds yet because he keeps drinking it. Wee-one doesnt' want it after the first day...i think he prefers the smoothie popsicles. We've also done apricot smoothies with the juice from canned pineapples and the juice from canned blueberries (from a blueb muffin mix). Those were a hit as popsicles as well.

This week we picked up some flax seed at Trader Joe's that I used in our favorite granola bar recipe (recipezaar.com #52779). Also grabbed some almond seed bars on impulse that they had at the register. They smelled great and the kids liked them--it's actually what gave me the idea of putting the flax in the granola (as well as poppy seed). Sprinkled some flax seed on peanut butter english muffins as well. We've been to one of the area farmer's markets two weeks in a row, and scoped out another one yesterday. It's so easy to blow $20 there!! *lol*

Pureed a bunch of apricots last month from one of the trees outside to make into fruit leather during the colder months when we can use the conventional oven more (or maybe I'll have a dehydrator by then).

On an off-topic kind of note...no change in the solar oven with the pavers. Going to have to fiddle some more, or actually get a solar oven cookbook...*wry grin*

Thanks for the additional ideas and input!

[Tracey]

I've seen the stevia packets but I haven't tried them yet. Maybe I'll pick some up the next time I'm at the shop.

Did you ever get the solar oven to work right?

[ozmama]

was going to offer to mail you a couple so you could try them out since a box of them is around $9 at Wal-Mart; but then I realised that you don't know me from Jack and it wouldn't be the most safe and prudent internet action. *grin* But know that the good intention was there! *wink*

As for the solar oven...life has been insanity so I haven't tried baking in it since getting the pavers. The oven thermometer I had place in there (and is now missing-in-action) still only registered 150*. There's a few reading resources at a website (I'll have to hunt it down another time to share the link) that I'll have to go ahead and invest in. Think I'll just have to wait on fine-tuning the SOven till after we get settled back into our home in NC.