My Favourite Number

D-Feast Friday (The From-Scratch Era v.3)

Today is D-Feast Friday and, across the diabetes online community, a huge recipe swap is underway.  Folks are opening wide their (virtual) kitchen doors, welcoming us into the heart of their homes and sharing their favourite dishes.  If you’ve spent any time on my blog, you know that I love food.  So, of course, I am participating.

My D-Feast offering is a recipe that I sincerely hope you will all try.  Coconut brownies with dried cherries and chopped hazelnuts and almonds.  Chocolate, coconut and cherries.  How can you go wrong with a combination like that?!  Plus, these brownies are gluten and grain free.  Omit the nuts and substitute vanilla for the almond extract, and you’ve got a nut-free recipe too.

In her description of D-Feast Friday recipe submissions, fellow diabetes blogger Lorraine asks (and answers), “Does it have to be low carb? Not necessarily since we know that everyone’s BGs react differently to food.”

Although sweet, these brownies are surprisingly low in carbohydrates (for brownies, that is!).  This is because the only “flour” in the recipe is coconut, and coconut is extremely low in carbs.  I find that 1/18 of this recipe makes for a good serving size.  Although, if you want to go all-out-impressive with your dessert course, I would cut the brownies into nine squares and put a big ol’ scoop of vanilla ice cream (or whipped cream) on top.  Decadence at its finest.

The carbohydrate information I’ve included is based on the specific ingredients I used.  Your ingredients may run a bit lower or higher in carbs so I suggest using my value as a guide only.  Also, my carb count does not account for fibre.  I am of the camp that subtracts grams of fibre from total CHO.  If you do otherwise, please determine your own carbohydrate value for your recipe.

But enough with the disclaiming.  On to the brownies!

Coconut Cherry Brownies

1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
6 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pure almond extract
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (I used equal parts hazelnuts and almonds)
1/2 cup coconut flakes
80g dried cherries

Preheat oven to 350’.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat.  Once melted, stir in the cocoa powder (I find a rubber spatula works well for this job).  Remove your butter-cocoa blend from the heat and allow to cool.
While the cocoa mixture is cooling, beat together your eggs, sugar, salt and almond extract.  Once mixed, stir in the cocoa mixture and blend well.
At this point, add your coconut flour.  Whisk the batter until smooth.  (To avoid lumps, you may want to either sift or whisk your coconut flour with a wire whisk before adding.)
Once smooth, gently fold in your nuts, coconut flakes and cherries.
Pour your batter into a greased 8″ square baking pan.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Let the brownies cool and then slice into squares.
Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy!

Makes 9-18 brownies.

Total CHO (entire batter) = 236g

This is Food.

Last Monday, Karen at the Bitter-Sweet Diabetes Blog proposed that this week be Diabetes Blog Week.  She assigned topics for each day and, at last check, almost 100 diabetes bloggers are participating (how cool is that?!).  You can find the full list of participants here.  I’m hopping on the Diabetes Blog Week bandwagon a bit late.  I blame getting my wisdom teeth extracted and being in a Tylenol 3/Amoxicillin induced haze for the past few days (everything went fine, by the way).  Today’s prompt is about food and, in Karen’s words, is described as follows:

To carb or not to carb. Today let’s blog about what we eat. And perhaps what we don’t eat. Some believe a low carb diet is important in diabetes management, while others believe carbs are fine as long as they are counted and bolused for. Which side of the fence do you fall on? What kind of things do you eat for meals and snacks? What foods do you deem bolus-worthy? What other foodie wisdom would you like to share?

Food.  Where do I even begin with this one?  In some respects, food is what I am.  Who I am.  It isn’t the only element that shapes me but it certainly plays a significant role.  And not just because diabetes and celiac force me to analyze and double check every single bit of sustenance I consume.  No, it’s much bigger than that.

Rinsing the dirt from a freshly pulled carrot, removing a caterpillar from a vibrantly green leaf of lettuce, rubbing my hands in my thyme plant and breathing in that heady, flavourful aroma.

This is food.

I like to savour.  I like to slow.  I like to support local, ethical and sustainable food choices.  I like to experiment.  And I love groaning with gustatory pleasure.

Homemade vanilla bean pudding.  Minted mushy pea and braised leek risotto.  Red quinoa and chickpea salad.  My very own, homemade, multi-grain, gluten-free bread (the result of a dozen tweakings, reworkings and slight variations of flour combinations).  Broccoli and white cheddar frittata with sautéed chard.

This is food.

In my kitchen, I have a shelf of cookbooks and culinary reference texts.  My three most-read guides are 1) Calorie King.  The go-to reference for all things carbohydrate content. 2) The Flavor Bible.  I just can’t get enough of this book.  It’s like a grown-up, foodie version of a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.  3) The Food Lover’s Companion.  Where else can you learn the subtle differences between hominy, cornmeal, corn flour and masa; that “the firm fleshed rockfish is suitable for virtually any cooking method”; or that celery seed comes from a wild celery, mostly found in India, called lovage?

Growing up on the old exchange system, carbs were the controlling factor in my diet.  The meal plan I followed throughout most of my grade school and high school years is ingrained into my memory.  All food was referred to in terms of “starches,” “milks,” “fruits,” “proteins,” “fats,” or “extras” and each of these monikers had its associated, coloured symbol (brown square, blue diamond, etc., etc.).  Like clockwork, my meals would follow the same basic outline every single day.  For breakfast, two starches, one fruit, two milks.  For lunch, the same.  For dinner, three starches, two fruits, two milks.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.

At the time, I didn’t mind.  It was just how things were done (and, as a bonus, it forced me to eat a balanced diet).  However, when carb counting came into fashion in the late nineties, freedom came with it.  Carbohydrates are still a critically important factor in my diet, but they are no longer a controlling one.  The food I consume is so much more than a diabetic requirement.

Oh, I count my carbs with (as much) precision (as possible) and there are times when I’ll skip dessert because I’m running high or chug back a warm juice box because my sugar is dropping.  There are foods that I avoid at certain times of the day (I’m a lot more carb sensitive in the morning) and foods that I avoid at all times of the day (see: anything containing gluten).  I have a list of indulgences that require a “bolus-and-a-half” (including, ironically enough, my sugar-free syrup) and I save certain foods for “sometimes” treats (my homemade, sugar-filled strawberry jam, for example).

Despite all this, the incessant numbers and measuring and counting are secondary to the fact that food brings me pleasure.  Food fills me with love.  Cooking and sharing meals with the people I care for is one of my favourite things.  I guess that explains why, on my birthday, my husband and I were mad enough to fill our living room with multiple tables, placed end-to-end, and cook a three course dinner for ten of our friends in our teeny, tiny, pint-sized kitchen…without a dishwasher.

While knowledge of food is central to the good management of my diabetes and celiac, to me food is so much more.  It sustains me and inspires me, and one of the ways I show my love for those around me is through food.  When it comes to diabetes, this online community plays a key role in helping me stay sane (well, most of the time).  For that, I thank you.  If I could, I’d cook the whole D-OC a beautiful, healthful, delicious meal…and I wouldn’t even ask for help with the dishes.

I Wanna Be Sedated (or at least that’s what I keep telling myself).

I’ve been putting it off for almost ten years but tomorrow is the day.  I’m getting my wisdom teeth removed.  All four of them.  And I’m slightly terrified.  To gather my thoughts (and my nerves) I wrote today’s post in list form.  Yes, I find lists comforting (maybe I should add that to the comforts section…).

The Fears

• I’m nervous about waking up with a blood glucose that is wildly out of range and having to deal with a potential spike or low during surgery from an incorrect correction.  (Oh diabetes, you’re just full of oxymorons.).
• I keep singing the Ramones over and over, trying to convince myself that I do, in fact, want to be sedated.  As much as I love the Ramones, it’s not working.  Sedation scares the daylights out of me. (No pun intended.  Ah, who am I kidding.  Pun intended.)
• Why does sedation scare the daylights out of me? 1) As ridiculous as it sounds, I’m afraid I won’t wake up.  2) I’m terrified of having a low while I’m ‘under.’  3) I hate that term, ‘under.’ Totally creepy.
• While not exactly a fear, I’m not thrilled that, in 24 hours time, I’m going to look like a cheeks-fully-stocked-with-chestnuts-in-preparation-for-the-cold-hard-winter-ahead tree squirrel who recently lost (quite badly, I might add) to the lightweight champion of the world.  In other words, swollen and bruised.

The Comforts

• My endocrinologist is always at the other end of his cell phone.  About a week ago, he called to go over my fasting/insulin needs the night before the surgery.  Stellar.  At that time he told me that if I felt flustered or needed help after the extraction, I was more than welcome to call.  Double stellar.
• My uncle is a dentist and, like my endo, is also always at the other end of his cell phone.  My aunt sent me an email with his number, as well as a litany of post extraction advice.  For example, I was instructed to get extra gauze pads because I most likely won’t be given enough and I’ll have to change the packing every half hour until bleeding stops.  Gross.
• Daniel got the day off work to take care of me.  This is probably the biggest comfort of the bunch.
• Smoothies.  I love them.  The fact that they are an approved post-wisdom-teeth-removal indulgence pleases me.  I even splurged on some frozen mango to add to the mix.  Mmm.
• While I’m well aware I’ll never get through them all, I have stacked a veritable mother load of movies on top of our DVD player in preparation for my recovery:
  -Titanic (My go-to sick day movie.  Cheesy, tragic, epic.  Perfect for making a girl feel better about her own situation.)
  -Ken Burns’s Baseball
  -Harry Potter 1-6.
  -A large subset of the complete works of Hayao Miyazaki.
  -A bunch of Masterpiece Theatre productions.

Alright, I’m off to rock out to some more of Road to Ruin.  Wish me luck!  Oh, and I’d love any advice that you might have!

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words.

Hello dear readers.  I’m well aware that it’s been awhile since I penned a solid blog post.  Other writing projects have been usurping my time, the weather has been beautiful and the islands have been beckoning (not a great combination for upping content on the ol’ blog).  Today, I am writing a post.  However, I don’t feel like reflecting on diabetes.  I’ve been struggling with a lot of stress-induced highs lately.  As a result, I’ve been pretty darn frustrated and not in the mood to write about it (I’ve been more in the mood to throw my meter at the wall).  So today I am offering an array of photos that make me happy.  Sometimes I need a reminder that diabetes is only part of my life.  These images help to do just that.

This ridge is so far above sea level that, from this vantage point, you can no longer hear the sound of the ocean and individual waves are no longer discernible.  Instead, you hear silence and see the sun shimmering on the water’s surface, moving as a single, undulating mass.

These incredible rock formations line the coasts of the Southern Gulf Islands.  Some look like petrified netting.  Others look like they were shaped by hard-falling raindrops.  I don’t know anything about their geology.  But I do know they are fascinating and beautiful.

No photo diary is complete without the presence of Jack.  Here he is being very bad, trying to MacGyver himself into the cupboard that he’s learned contains his kibble supply (he wasn’t successful).

Spring is here.  I love the colour orange.  That about sums up this one.

In the Sunken Garden at The Butchart Gardens.  Absolutely lovely.

Ferry boats make me happy.  So does that guy standing with me.

My Surly Long Haul Trucker on one of the Islands.  I love cycling (and my blood sugar does too!).

Smile for the Camera…and Raise Money for JDRF!

I received an email earlier this week from Natalie Woods, a photographer (see, those are her photos!), a fellow Victorian and a fellow type 1 diabetic.  To raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Natalie is running a great campaign through her photography business, When Shutters Click.  I made the acquaintance of Natalie through Juvenation, JDRF’s social networking site for young adults.  Since then, we have connected through the usual catalogue of social media outlets: twitter, email, facebook…smoke signal, carrier pigeon, etcetera, etcetera.  Needless to say, when Natalie emailed me asking if I would promote her fundraising initiatives for the upcoming Victoria 2010 TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes I said, “Sure thing!”  So, in Natalie’s own words, here’s what she’s up to:

“I am donating 50% of any portrait session booked by May 31st via When Shutters Click. My portrait sessions start at $75 which includes: client proofing, minor retouching, two 8×10 prints and a CD of images. The price goes up from there depending on the session (family, head shot, couple, wedding, etc.).  I’m also collecting online donations via http://jdrfca.donordrive.com/participant/nwoods.”

If you’re in the Victoria area, drop by Natalie’s website and get ready to smile for the camera for a great cause!

Shhhhh or: The Low that Never Happened.

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting concert-going experience — one that required strong listening skills and a hushed and quiet audience.  A small group had gathered to hear an incredible performance of Morton Feldman’s For Bunita Marcus, a quiet, 70-minute piece for solo piano.  So quiet, in fact, that the performance was preceded by a short talk that urged us (the members of the audience) to be quiet throughout.  The woman who gave the pre-concert welcome informed us that, “we will be starting the concert with five minutes of silence to allow you to settle in and prepare for the performance.  During this time, please remove your jackets, open any breath mints and make yourselves comfortable.  Thank you.”

I leaned towards Daniel and whispered, “I guess a mosh pit is out of the question?”  Sometimes, I crack myself up.

About a minute into this “quiet time,” I started to feel anxious about the possibility of a low blood sugar.  I wasn’t anxious about my blood sugar itself but, instead, was anxious about the unavoidable sounds that come with treating a low.  While everyone around me “settled in,” the familiar sounds of low blood sugar began echoing through my mind:

The ZIIIIIP of my meter case;
The SNAP of the test strip bottle;
The SHUNK of my lancing device; and
The CRINKLING and RIPPING of a granola bar wrapper or the POP of a tube of glucose tablets as I try my hardest to get glucose quickly into my system.

Ricocheting through my imagination, these sounds got louder and more obnoxious with each passing second.  I imagined people glancing, annoyed, in my direction as they tried to concentrate on the music at hand.  I imagined the person behind me tapping my shoulder and, once he had my attention, shaking his head disapprovingly, finger on lips in the universal sign of silence (and apparently this man was Santa Claus — see graphic above).  I even imagined the pianist stopping mid-performance to turn and give me a reproachful look.  Shaking off these unpleasant images and the nightmarish decibels that were haunting my thoughts, I quickly started preparing for the quietest low blood glucose treatment in diabetes history…

First, I did a blood test to gauge the likelihood of a mid-concert drop.  I clocked in around 9mmol/L.  One and a half hours after supper, this was not a bad place to be.  Feeling confident with that reading, I placed my meter beside me, leaving its zippered case open.  Next to this, I placed an opened bottle of glucose tablets and an unwrapped granola bar.  Having thus secured an absence of mid-concert zipping, popping, crinkling and ripping, the only unavoidable sounds that remained would be a quick snap as I opened the test strip vial and an even quicker shunk as I poked my finger.

With my low blood sugar treatment station up, running and open for business, I, like my counterparts, spent the remainder of our “quiet time” removing my jacket and attempting to make myself comfortable on the hard, wooden pew.

Over the next 70 minutes, we were treated to an incredible (and — who’d have guessed it?! — quiet) performance of one of Morton Feldman’s last works.  Thankfully, my blood sugar cooperated and, despite my preparation (or maybe because of it!), I did not have to subject any attentive listeners to a disruptive display of zipping, popping, shunking or any of the other sounds associated with low blood sugar.  Thanks, diabetes.  You were a real pal to cooperate like that.

For the next three days, however, I carried an opened granola bar around in my purse — a crumby reminder of the lengths I’ll go to to treat a low that never happens.

February Sun

Before we got too far into March, I wanted to share this photo of the Jack cat soaking up some early springtime sun.  Kinda makes you wish you were a cat, doesn’t it?

Smash. Crack. Dex.

I went to the store. I bought a big bottle of Organic Wheat Free Reduced Sodium Tamari Soy Sauce (try saying that ten times fast!).  When I got home, I put the big bottle of soy sauce in the fridge door.  When Daniel came home, he opened the fridge door.  But apparently, our fridge didn’t want its door opened.  It told us so by expelling the contents of said door all over our kitchen floor.  Smash.  Amongst these contents was — you guessed it — the big bottle of soy sauce.  Did I mention that the bottle was glass?  It was.  And, unfortunately, the big, glass bottle of soy sauce wasn’t structurally sound.  It hit the floor and cracked clean in two.  Clean in two, I tell you.  Crack.  Its dark contents spread across the linoleum and made our apartment smell like fermented legumes (not a popular home-selling smell).  But, all was not lost!  Daniel, channeling his inner major league shortstop, snatched the broken bottle by its neck and, as if to toast the occasion, raised his arm high, preserving the remaining soy sauce in its crude, shiv-like goblet.  But victory was not yet ours.  We had still to find a new vessel for our (now sorely depleted) supply of soy sauce.  And Daniel proved the hero again!  Quick on his feet in this time of need, he told me to grab the empty bottle of Dex 4 glucose tablets that sat on our pantry shelf.  I was swift to the task and returned to the tamari-drenched scene with Dex bottle and funnel in hand.  Within minutes, the surviving soy sauce was safely held within its ingenious receptacle.  Daniel and I swabbed the decks (as it were) and our soy-flooded adventure came to a close.

I’ll Do the Math

Remember back in the fall when Scott K. Johnson and George Simmons created “Lunch with George & Scott” for TuDiabetes’s Making Sense of Diabetes video contest?  (If you don’t remember, I suggest you follow the link above and take 1 minute and 27 seconds of your day to watch this cinematic masterpiece.  Go on.  I’ll wait.)  As Scott and George shared grilled cheese sandwiches across cyberspace, they drove home the point that, “when living with diabetes, taste never comes without stowaway math problems and questions.”

I couldn’t help but be reminded of this unavoidable truth of life with diabetes when I read over a recent instant messaging conversation between my husband and myself.  I was working on my laptop at the local library when a message popped up from Daniel, offering to bring me lunch (what a nice guy, eh?).  Instead of simply replying, “Yes! That would be lovely!” the following conversation is what ensued:

Funny thing is, it wasn’t until I retrospectively considered our conversation that I realized it reads a bit bizarre.  What kind of weirdo asks her husband to weigh her potato chips before packing her lunch?  Oh diabetes, you make me do some strange, strange things — like pile BBQ chips onto a kitchen scale and, calculator in hand, frantically pound out some basic equations before indulging in their smoky, sweet and spicy goodness.

Gluten-Free Detective Agency

This post has been in the works for quite some time.  Over the last few months, I’ve been on a serious “gluten-free detective spree,” calling the customer care departments at dozens of food companies to determine the likelihood of their products being cross-contaminated with gluten.  I was diagnosed with celiac disease almost exactly a year ago (I wrote a heartfelt account of my diagnosis last August) and, since that first day, I have learned A LOT about the gluten-free lifestyle.

For me, the biggest challenge (and annoyance) has had to do with the fact that products (yes, all products), unless they sport a gluten-free stamp of approval, can not be trusted without some legwork.  Before consuming any packaged or processed food, it is important that I personally speak with a customer care representative and receive a satisfactory response about the risk of cross-contamination in their facilities.  Of course, as much as I love grooving to telephone-hold music, it is a huge help when companies post this information online (isn’t that what web sites are for?!).

As I’m sure you can imagine, it’s easy to sometimes get lazy and not follow through on verifying the “gluten status” of each and every item that comes home with me from the grocery store.  “Plain yogurt? That has to be safe!”  “This oil should be fine, right?”  No and no!  After getting ‘inexplicably’ sick too many times, I’ve been making a concerted effort to 1) purchase as many certified gluten-free products as possible, and 2) personally contact food companies if their product is not labelled “gluten-free.”

The following information is by no means comprehensive.  It is, however, a way for me to keep straight all the bits and pieces of information I’ve been spending my time gathering.  In posting this list here, I hope it will help somebody else.  And, if any of you have any suggestions about great gluten-free products I’d love to hear them!

One last thing: Please always keep in mind that ingredients, as well as processing and packaging facilities, can easily change.  That being said, the following information was true as of December 2009-February 2010.

SAFE PRODUCTS (GLUTEN-FREE)

Boursin cheeses? Gluten-free. Huzzah! (If you haven’t tried it, Boursin with Mary’s Crackers is absolutely heavenly.)

Canada Corn Starch is gluten-free.  It is made a dedicated area of the facility and the representative with whom I spoke assured me that there is no risk of cross-contamination with gluten-containing grains.

Crosby’s Fancy Molasses is gluten-free.  This is a good thing because I was loving these ginger cookies over the holidays.

E.D. Smith 100% Pure Pumpkin is gluten-free (not to be confused with E.D. Smith Pumpkin Pie Filling which contains wheat flour).  An E.D. Smith representative informed me over the phone that these two products are made in separate facilities and, therefore, the 100% Pure Pumpkin is trustworthy.

Most Island Farms products are gluten-free.  Despite this, the company “can not 100% guarantee that no cross-contamination occurs during ingredient storage.”  From my personal experience however, I have never gotten sick from Island Farms milk, sour cream, whipped cream or cottage cheese.  I have provided the Island Farms gluten-containing product list (various flavours of ice cream) below…on the subject of ice cream, I stick to Chapman’s since it’s got that lovely gluten-free symbol on its box.

I called Kraft Canada to ask about Baker’s Chocolate and was told that Kraft does not “hide” any ingredients in labelling.  Therefore, if a product contains (or may contain) wheat, barley, rye or oats, it will be listed on the label.

I was assured that all Olympic yogurt products are made in a gluten-free facility and are, therefore, safe.

Saugeen Country yogurt is also safe.

All Sun Rype products are gluten-free (which is great since I can’t travel without a plentiful supply of Fruit to Go).

Yoplait Source Stirred yogurt is gluten-free (and fat-free and sugar-free and aspartame-free).  Despite the fact that Yoplait also makes Yoplait Source Muesli (which is not gluten-free), a Yoplait representative informed me that there is no risk of cross-contamination.  They make their yogurt in a safe environment and, then, some of it is shipped to a different facility to be topped with its muesli dome.

NOT SAFE PRODUCTS (CONTAINING GLUTEN)

Astro Balkan Style Natural Yogurt is not safe.  I called the company and, while I wasn’t given a definitive answer about the presence of gluten in their facility, I was told that they recommend, “all persons with gluten allergies should avoid their products at the present time.”  Astro, Lactantia, Beatrice and Black Diamond are all owned by Parmalat.  Until I get around to calling Parmalat directly, I’m avoiding all four of these companies.

The following Island Farms Ice Cream flavours contain gluten:
-Bear Foot Brownie
-Brownies On The Moon
-Bubble Gum Burst
-Butter Pecan *(Country Cream brand)
-Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
-Cookies ‘n’ Cream
-Mixed Berry Trifle
-Nanaimo Bar
-Vanilla Plus Lemon Meringue
-Vanilla Plus Butter Tarte
-Gingerbread Cookie Dough

Liberté Créme Fraiche is not gluten-free (I found this out the hard way).  It is packaged on the same line as Liberté Six Grains yogurt (which contains oats, wheat, barely and rye).  I’m not sure about other Liberté products but I’ve avoided them all since learning about the créme fraiche.

Spectrum culinary and essential oils share common filler equipment with their wheat germ oil. (I could not, for the life of me, figure out why rice and veggies were making me sick every time we’d eat stir fry.  It was a major revelation when I realized it was the peanut oil we were using!)