Puteri’s World

One of the things that I really enjoy when I am invited to an 8-course Chinese dinner especially at a wedding reception is the cold dish, the appetizer, before the other heavier dishes are served.

This particular cold dish was served at a blogger friend’s wedding in Sibu early this month. I had never seen siew mai among the stuff on a cold dish before. I guessed that is what they do in Sibu!

All in all it wasn’t a bad dish, but I have had better!

Have you been on one of those days when you just don’t feel like cooking?  Last night was one such day.  I told Doug maybe we could go out and maybe grab some fast food for dinner.  But it was raining and gusty all yesterday.  So I thought, I was not going out in that kind of weather!

Late this morning I had a doctor’s appointment and after that I went to Joanne to see if there was anything I could pick up from their post season sales.  Nothing actually.   It was already past noon when I left Joanne and my stomach was grumbling away.

Okay, how about I pick up some Chinese food to go?  There was a Panda restaurant, a Chinese fast food restaurant, not far from Joanne.

I love Chinese food, but they can be too salty.   Not the best kind of food for someone who also has to watch her salt intake!

This evening, as our usual practice on a Friday night, we went out to dinner. Since it was still drizzling after a day of high winds and rain, we decided to eat at our local sushi restaurant instead of driving 10 miles to the next town for a Chinese Seafood Buffet.

Twice before, after a sushi dinner my blood glucose readings were higher than normal. I had vowed to stay away from sushi after those two experiences! Oh well, so much for the vow!

However, this time I remembered to take my gymnema sylvestre capsule before leaving for the restaurant. Gynema sylvestre is an herb and proven to have sugar lowering properties.

As usual I ordered one of my favorite sushi rolls on the menu, as well as green tea. I drank several cups of tea throughout the meal, and after the meal I took a tablet of alpha lipoic acid. Alpha Lipoic acid is known to speed up the removal of glucose in the bloodstream.

Because of the weather we skipped the usual shopping after dinner and went straight home. I spent a few minutes on my exercise bicycle hoping that that bit of exercise will also help with lowering my blood glucose.

Two hours after dinner, I did my blood glucose test. Wow, I was happy to note that it was 115 mg/dL. The blood glucose reading for a normal person is under 120 mg/dLl two hours after a meal.

That means I do not have to totally give up sushi as long as I remember to take my gymnema sylvestre capsule before a meal, take my alpha lipoic acid tablet after the meal and do some exercise after the meal. And oh yes, drink some green tea during the meal! Green tea is also known to have some blood sugar lowering properties.

I love sushi and what a relief to know I can continue to eat sushi. Of course I can further help myself by refraining from ordering the BIG rolls!

My goodness, this blog is turning into a diabetic food blog!

 I bought a recipe book called Diabetic Living by Better Homes and Garden. There are some really easy recipes there and I decided to do a soup that required barley because I already had some barley in the house. The recipe called for cooked chicken and cream of chicken soup but I substituted chicken with sliced roast beef and a can of cream of chicken soup with cream of mushroom soup.

Besides barley, chicken, cream of mushroom soup, I also needed some chicken stock, and spinach. That was one yummy soup and Doug loved it so much that he wished I had fixed him that kind of soup from the beginning of our marriage!

 Yesterday before I left for church I broiled 2 pieces of chicken breasts, and cooked some brown rice. After church I fixed a brown rice chicken salad. I needed low fat Italian dressing, some coleslaw mix (I used American salad) and a can of hearts of artichokes. I’m not much of a salad person but that brown rice chicken salad was something else. I enjoyed it, and because it was a reasonably low carb dish, I was able to eat a small slice of banana bread of the the meal.

I am learning that having to watch my blood sugar does not mean that I am resigned to eating tasteless  food! 

This morning I had cereal for breakfast - Kellog’s Special K Protein Plus. Ever since I started watching my blood sugar level, I have a hard time figuring what to eat for breakfast. I do not want to eat anything that will elevate my blood sugar so early in the morning.

I found a website that had some good breakfast recipes for diabetics. Most of them require some work and require ingredients that I don’t have around the house. Usually cereal is fine with me, but most of the cereal I have in the house tend to be sweet.

The Kellog’s Special K I had this morning was something I bought yesterday. It is a low carb and high protein cereal and I guess that should be fine for me. I ate it with my 2% fat lactose free milk, and from what I read yesterday, I may have to either go for fat free or skim milk. Milk just doesn’t taste like milk without the fat!

I guess if I want to stay healthy, I have to put up with fat free or skim milk in my cereal!