Food Stuff

Since January 2016 I have been following the LCHF (Low Carb, High Fat) lifestyle in order to control my Type 2 Diabetes. And it works!

More accurately it is a low carb and moderate protein eating style – I follow Dr. Richard K. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution. If you want to find out more, I highly recommend checking his website out at www.diabetes-book.com. He has provided multiple chapters from the book online, and they are the ones that lay it all out so you can start right away. I printed off the information, then later bought the book and have read it cover to cover, twice.

I have eliminated sugar in all forms, including all fruit, and avoid sugar substitutes. I do occasionally eat food prepared with sugar replacements made at a local bakery that is vegan/paleo/sugar free, but I don’t use them in my own food preparation.

I spend a lot of time creating meals for myself that are fairly easy to throw together and taste really good. I post my successful recipes on this blog.

I also have to deal with allergies or “sensitivities” to certain foods. As you can imagine, I don’t eat out much.

I have always cooked. My mom let me make entire meals at the age of seven without assistance. I made lemon meringue pies from scratch at nine. Immediately after high school I completed a year of Pre-Apprenticeship Chef Training. While in the program I attended an international Grande Salon du Culinaire in Seattle, WA, and won a gold medal in the Gateau category.

I have worked as both a cook and a baker and know my way around an oven and food processor! So, I am pretty decent at making things up as I go.

I ended up in another profession (well, in a couple of different ones – Administration and Make-Up) but never lost the love of cooking nor stopped creating.

I made candy for almost 40 years and that’s what everyone got from us at Christmas. Toffee, caramels, brittles, barks, sugar plums, etc. I used to make hand-dipped and moulded chocolates (including liqueurs) but it was extremely time consuming and required masses of counter space. Also, a high percentage of the liqueuers leaked so I had to eat them – I used the good stuff in them – and usually ended up a little tipsy. I switched to making the candy that you dump and spread or pour as it is way faster to both make, pack and clean up after! And it is delicious! Well… it was, I can’t eat it anymore, but still make it when I can for others.

I had a massive collection of cookbooks that I used for inspiration – many were old enough to be considered antique. Some came from my mom. I think one was her home economics textbook and it has the best sugar cookie recipe in it. I rarely follow recipes exactly. I go looking for things that use specific ingredients to get ideas, then do my own thing. I like books, but Google works too! And it is cheaper than buying more books and takes up a lot less space.

I never met a cheese I didn’t like, so it is a very good thing that I can still eat dairy! Life without cheese wouldn’t be worth living.

I grow my own herbs and as many vegetables as I can get to grow Current herb inventory in the garden is parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, cilantro/coriander, dill, fennel, hot peppers, garlic, chives, and basil. Vegetables are container grown so not as big a selection but I have cucumbers, zucchini/courgettes, two kinds of lettuce, spinach, sweet peppers, white turnips and green onions. The fennel wasn’t good this year at all – was tough and bitter so I’ll try a different variety next year, and the turnips only produced six small ones but they were tasty.

When I was in Alberta (up until 2017) I purchased a share in the local Community Supported Agriculture program every year so got farm fresh vegetables every week during the summer, and fresh locally produced pork too!

Watch for my recipes and experiments, and general information about my low carb/diabetic lifestyle.

My posts about food:

The dog days of summer ended, and I missed it

I’m “normal” now. But don’t worry, I’m still me!

Time for another Low Carb Cookie recipe!

Sesame Cookies – Low Carb

Finally a chance to bake!

Cinnamon Swirl Muffins

How the heck is this allowed?

Dough Balls – sounds unappetizing, but they aren’t too bad

LCHF Naan-Style Flatbread

Easy Ice Cream, literally – it is frozen cream