Tag Archives: Snacks

Back to School!

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This school year, everyone is going to be prepared!

Last year and the year before I wasn’t great about keeping a lot of supplies at school. A box of graham crackers for awhile….maybe a few extra juice boxes. But this year I’m not going to have the luxury of running up to the health room if someone pulls a set or needs more strips for their meter. So, in the hopes that as many issues as possible can be taken care of at school, I put together diabetes supply boxes for Evie and Luke:photo 1 (11)

I felt like I was packing for a week in the wilderness! Diabetes is all about troubleshooting and planning ahead, so there are multiples of everything that either of them could need at any time; anything they could need replaced, or forget, or run out of is in this box.

  • Glucose Tabs
  • Ketone Test Strips
  • Infusion Sets
  • Reservoirs
  • IV-3000
  • Skin Tac WIpes
  • Alcohol Wipes
  • Insulin Syringes
  • Disposable Lancets
  • Pump Batteries
  • Extra BG meter
  • BG Test Strips
  • Lancets
  • Meter Charger
  • Snacks
  • Juice Boxes

Did I forget anything?

The only thing not in here is insulin, which I will eventually have to provide per Washington State’s Disaster Preparedness Plan. I just don’t have enough right now to tie up two bottles at two different schools. That stuff’s like gold.

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It fits!!!

Well, we’re they’re as ready as we’re they’re going to be. Happy Back-To-School (with diabetes)!

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This looks like it could be a great tool! I wonder if I can take a peek at the code book before buying?

See Jen Dance

My CDE noticed my new appreciation for making things from scratch. (Or more often than not, having my husband make things from scratch for me because I hate cooking.) She also noticed that my blood sugars are being poorly affected from miscalculating carb counts in fresh foods.

The quinoa bake was a really good example of the mistakes one can make during insulin dosing. (Seriously… why do pasta and grain packages only give you nutrition information for dry portions?) Since I was getting frustrated not knowing exactly what I was eating when making things from scratch, she suggested I get a scale. But not just any scale – one that measures carbs and other nutrition facts for a multitude of other foods.

I bought one this weekend. Here is my Perfect Portions Nutrition Scale.

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Don’t get me wrong. This is a small investment. My little $5 scale pales in comparison…

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Why I’ll Never Buy Microwave Popcorn Again

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PopcornI love popcorn. And my kids love popcorn! Plain popcorn is a healthy, crunchy, whole-food snack with only 6 grams of carbohydrate per cup (popped). What I don’t like, however, is popcorn smothered in butter, oil, and sugar and/or salt. I want it PLAIN.

I also want it to be quick, and without a lot of fuss, or an extra appliance to fiddle with. I tried Alton Brown’s Good Eats method once, but the process of shaking a metal bowl of kernels over a gas burner was cumbersome, and it turned my bowl black (and it was HOT!). I need something more kid-friendly.

Enter the microwave, the quintessential convenience tool. Throw in a bag, enter the time, stand back and listen for the POP. Great, right? Except that most of the microwave popcorn found on grocery store shelves is full of ingredients that make me cringe.

Even the few labeled “Home Style” and “Natural,” and the organic varieties, contain tons of oil (usually soybean or palm oils, sometimes partially hydrogenated) and salt. The worst offenders contain nasty ingredients like diacetyl, which gives a butter flavor, chemical preservatives and colorings, and artificial flavoring agents. To top it off, the bags are lined with PFCs (perfluorinated compounds). Yum.

So it dawned on me yesterday that there wasn’t really anything special about microwave popcorn. I have paper bags. I can buy plain popping corn. And sure enough, it was a breeze to make. Here’s what we did:

Evie measures out the popcorn into a brown paper lunch sack

The right amount of popcorn for a brown paper lunch bag is between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup. Our first try resulted in a bag that opened up mid-pop, so we solved that problem by threading it closed with half of a wooden skewer. I think a toothpick would work just as well.

A wooden skewer keeps the full bag closed while the corn pops

A wooden skewer keeps the full bag closed while the corn pops

We set our microwave for 4.5 minutes, and it finished popping around 4 minutes. Every microwave is different, so make sure you listen for when the popping slows to 1 or 2 per second to avoid burning.

Evie pours perfectly fluffy and white popcorn into a bowl

Evie pours perfectly fluffy and white popcorn into a bowl

Open the bag carefully (it’s hot!), pour into a bowl, and munch away! If you’re not really as into plain popcorn as I am, here are some fun recipes to try:

Source: foodgawker.com via Angie on Pinterest