Lessons Learned

Healthy Living low carb bread does NOT make good stuffing, even though it would seem to make sense to use it.  Something very bad happens when liquid stock is added.  What tastes perfectly fine when used for a sandwich or toast takes on a nasty taste and gets overly moist when used instead of actual, full-carbohydrate bread.

The cranberry sauce was very good, however.

Thanks for the Cranberries

Canned cranberry sauces, both jelled and whole berry, are pretty pricy in terms of carbs.  (By the way, when I write "carbs", I mean grams of carbohydrates.)

Canned sauces range between 37-38 carbs per 1/4 cup serving.

For those of us who would like to keep our total daily carb count below 100, that is too many, unless we are extremely fond of cranberry sauce.

It's all the added sugar that ramps up the count.  Cranberries are berries, after all, and they are favored fruits for diabetics.  They have even less carbohydrate per serving than raspberries:  12 g. per cup.

The best thing to do is to buy fresh cranberries in the supermarket and make your own sugar-free sauce.  It's easy.  There are a good number of recipes on the Internet.  Just search for" sugar-free cranberry sauce recipes."

To my knowledge, there aren't any commercial prepared sugar-free sauces on the market, although I'd think it would be a good niche market.

Here's my simple recipe for some tasty cranberry sauce.  I made it in the microwave, but you can use the stovetop.

Pour the contents of a bag of fresh cranberries in a glass bowl.  This measured out to 3 1/2 cups for a 16 oz. bag.  Add 1/2 cup water and microwave for about 6 minutes.  Actually, since the power of microwaves vary, try cooking it on high power in three minute intervals, stirring before the next interval.  When the berries have popped and are starting to look sauce-like, take the mixture out and let it cool slightly.

Meanwhile, boil a cup of water.  Add a packet of sugar-free orange gelatin and stir well.  Add the gelatin to the cranberry mixture.  Stir in a little orange zest, if you have it, and about a teaspoon of vanilla to the cooling mixture.  You can add Splenda or sugar-free syrup to taste if this isn't sweet enough for you.  Put the sauce in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

The cranberries cook down quite a bit, so this will serve three or four people.  There are a total of 42 carbs in the total recipe.  Divide by four for four servings:  10.5 carbs per serving.

Note on the sugar-free gelatin:  Some of the name-brand gelatins actually list 10 carbs per serving.  I always buy store brands which specify 0 carbs.

If you have a favorite recipe for cranberry sauce, feel free to leave it in the comments section.

Introduction

As a newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetic, I am finding my way around a new landscape:  carb counting.  This is a whole new world, with strange (to me) products, ingredients, and understandings of what makes blood glucose rise and fall.

I'm calling it Lowcarblandia.

So far, I've read a number of books about diabetes, including Blood Sugar 101, Diabetes for Dummies, and The Diabetes Solution.  I'm in the process of reading Good Calories, Bad Calories.

The basic understandings I've gained about controlling blood sugar are that carbohydrates raise blood sugar and it is a good idea to learn how to count carbs and keep the amounts down to a minimum.

In fact, I've been doing this for several months while taking the basic medication, Metformin, and my blood sugar readings have come down to closer to normal.

I'm not too worried about calories or fat in my diet.  My attitude is: Count the carbs and the calories will take care of themselves.

Some of the books I've read point out clearly that the theories surrounding cholesterol's supposed link to heart disease are unproven, and I choose to accept this based on my observations.  So, the recipes and products included on this blog will reflect my current understandings.