Food and Nutrition Friday: Safe Low Carb/Keto Sweeteners for Diabetes

Yes, we can still eat sweets and desserts!

Moderation with sweets and desserts is the key. Enjoy them in small amounts at once so you can fill your plate with other nutritious foods. Limit other carbs to compensate for the sweets. Seek your doctor’s advice for adjusting your diet to avoid consuming too much sugar.

Try replacing sugar with an alternative sweetener. This is a diabetes hack I’ve been using for years.

I don’t eat a lot of sweets, but when I do, I prefer ice cream, cheesecake, apple pie, and key lime pie. I am still able to eat all of these foods by changing the sweetener type. Before I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I used to substitute natural, no-added-sugar applesauce in many of my recipes. Nowadays, I use monk fruit and occasionally stevia.

The sugar replacements have less calories and less or no carbohydrates, so they are great as an alternative to process sugar. I’ve compiled a short guide to sugar replacements and sweeteners that are great for people with diabetes.

We should be able to eat great tasty food, too!

Until Next Time,

The Genetic Diabetic

Download the guide here:Download

Low-Carb Granola

Tasty, low-carb granola without the guilt!

Looking for tasty granola that’s not loaded with sugar? If you don’t have an allergy or intolerance to nuts, this simple recipe is a fantastic alternative to original granola!

I’ve discovered this recipe in an online diabetes support group. I’ve decided to make some using what I had at the time. It was absolutely amazing! It was like eating a candy bar. I had to stop myself from eating the entire batch in one sitting. All you need is a few key ingredients and you’ll have the perfect complement to any meal or snack!

Try it for yourself and share a picture in the comments!

Until Next Time.

The Genetic Diabetic

Mason Jar Ice Cream

Make delicious, low-carb, homemade ice cream in 3 hours!

Key Lime Ice Cream with Shortbread Cookie Crumble

Have you been craving for ice cream, but diabetes is in the way?

I have good news for you:

You can still enjoy ice cream without guilt!

Since my diagnosis, I’ve been able to enjoy homemade, low carb ice cream and maintain in range blood sugar levels.

This is a recipe that I’ve found posted on one of my online diabetes support groups. A major pro is that you don’t need to use an ice cream machine to make it. All you need is 3-4 ingredients, a mason jar or a Tupperware container and your hands!

The ice cream takes five minutes to make, at least three hours to freeze and the finished product tastes better than any ice cream on the market! You can create amazing flavors using this recipe, including chocolate, butter pecan, strawberry cheesecake, peanut butter and key lime. You can also make a low-carb ice cream sandwich using homemade low-carb cookies. The possibilities are endless!

Try it for yourself and share pictures of your creation below!

Until Next Time,

The Genetic Diabetic

Butter Chicken (Keto Edition)

A keto spin on an Indian-favorite dish

Before I was diagnosed, my husband and I used to have Indian nights at home. My husband would pick up some take out from our favorite Indian restaurant and after the kids went to bed, we would just enjoy some quality time while chowing down on some tandoori chicken, butter chicken and naan bread. It was definitely one of the highlights of the month.

However, once I was diagnosed with diabetes, those nights immediately stopped. After a couple of months without our Indian nights, I was able to find a recipe that’s easy to make a rich taste that’s so comforting that it’s hard to believe that the entire dish is less than 15 grams of carbohydrates. This recipe has revived our special nights.

Try it for yourself and share a picture of your creation in the comments below!

Until Next Time,

The Genetic Diabetic

Four Ingredient Egg Noodles

A simple traditional egg noodle alternative

One of the first noodle alternatives I’ve tried when I started my lower-carb journey was zucchini noodles (also known as “zoodles”). Now don’t get me wrong: zoodles are decent, but I got bored with that pretty quickly. I started missing traditional noodles and I had not discovered spaghetti squash, palm hearts or shirataki noodles yet. However, searching through Pinterest led me to a recipe from Resolution Eats for Low Carb Egg Noodles. Even though I could no longer eat gluten in any form, I was excited to try this recipe. So I created my revised recipe it turned out amazingly well!

It’s not the same as your traditional noodles, but it is a wonderful alternative if you’re a fan of egg noodles. All you need is four ingredients: eggs, cream cheese, salt and pepper. That’s it! Once it’s done, you can mix the noodles with your favorite pasta sauce. The noodles take on the flavor of the sauce and do not have that scrambled egg taste at all.

Check out the recipe below, try it yourself and let me know what you think!

Until Next Time,

The Genetic Diabetic

Zapples!

A keto and allergy-friendly alternative to apples

Before I went on my keto journey, I used to eat apples on a regular basis. I loved them as is, fried or baked. I loved apple pie so much that I once requested an apple pie instead of an actual cake for my birthday. I also loved to eat natural applesauce. I used it as a sugar alternative and added it into pancakes and other baked goods because it was lower in sugar than traditional sugar.

One of my favorite family traditions was our annual trip to the mountains to go apple picking. We would go early in the day, pick apples and end our trip eating delicious apple cider doughnuts, drinking apple cider and purchasing the orchard’s famous apple butter. We looked forward to that every year! However, when I got diagnosed and decided to do a keto plan, I had to give up apples. That meant no more apple pies, apple cider doughnuts, apple fritters, apple cider or fried apples. Eliminating apples from my diet was very difficult for me. In fact, I had constant cravings for fried apples, but at the time I couldn’t find anything that could fulfill my cravings.

However, one day, while looking for new keto recipes to try, I stumbled on an interesting recipe for a keto-apple alternative with an unusual key ingredient….

Zucchini!

Yep, you’ve read it correctly. Did you know that zucchini squash is one of a few veggies that can be made into the perfect apple substitute? A cup of zucchini only has 3.5 grams of carbohydrates, while a cup of apples have 15 grams of carbohydrates. In addition, zucchini provides a good source of riboflavin, manganese and vitamins B6 and C.

One of my favorite ways to eat zucchini is to make mock fried apples by cooking them with apple pie spices. This beautiful creation is what I call zapples! Zapples are amazing for breakfast or as a keto-friendly dessert. If you have an allergy to apples, then this would be a perfect allergy-friendly alternative. Check out the recipe below, give it a try and let me know how your creation turned out in the comments. Happy cooking!

Until Next Time,

The Genetic Diabetic