Category: Diabetic

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

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Peanut Butter Granola Bars

  • Servings: 16 Servings
  • Difficulty: Easy
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A snack bar that is good, chewy, and healthy. A square was enough to fill that gap and felt like a sweet treat. (Vegan option below)

Ingredients

  • 2-1/2 cups of old fashioned oats
  • ¾ cup of peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup of honey or maple syrup. (both work well but the honey holds the bars together better)
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 45 grams of protein powder (I used chocolate)
  • 1 tbsp of mini chocolate chips
  • 1 tbsp of sliced almonds
  • 1 tbsp of chia seeds
  • 2 tbsp of pumpkin seeds

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. (if your peanut butter is solid at room temperature, heat it in microwave for 10-15 seconds before adding to the mix).
  3. Line a 9×9 inch baking dish or pan with parchment paper. (this makes it easier to remove your bars from the dish)
  4. Transfer the mixture to the prepared dish and press firmly the mixture into the pan in an even layer. (the firmer you press the better the bars will stick together)
  5. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the centre is baked through and the edges are just starting to brown. (start checking at 14 minutes as all ovens are a little different)
  6. Place on a cooling rack and let cool completely before cutting into 16 squares with a very sharp knife..

Nutrition Per Cookie

  • Calories 171
  • Fat 7.7 g
  • Sugar 7.4 g
  • Carbohydrates 20.5 g
  • Protein 7.6 g
  • Fibre 2.5 g

Here are a few notes to help make this for different dietary needs

• You can use peanut free seed butter. You can use any nut or seed butter as long as you make sure it is at a drizzly consistently.

• Instead of eggs you can replace them with flax eggs. To make enough flax egg to replace the 2 eggs, mix 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed with 5 tbsp of water and let set for 5-10 minutes before adding to the recipe.

• You can omit the protein powder but that will alter the protein nutritional content. You can use unflavoured protein powder or any flavour you wish. If you omit the protein powder, increase the rolled oats by ½ cup.

As you can see there are a lot of possible variations on this recipe. Change the seeds, add nuts, less seeds more chocolate chips, no chocolate chips but chopped peanuts instead. We could go on and on but I’d rather stop and let you have fun and make it your own.

Sugar Free Sweet Ice Tea

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Sugar Free Sweet Ice Tea

  • Servings: 6 Servings
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Nothing says summer quite like sweet ice tea. To a diabetic or someone that is watching their calorie intake, this one is off their list. A standard sweet ice tea is 30 grams of sugar per 8 ounce glass. Here is a version that you can have without the guilt.

Ingredients

  • 8 bags of black tea
  • 4 cups of boiling water
  • 2 cups of cold water
  • 2/3 cup of Splenda
  • 1/3 cup of Stevia blend (heaping)
  • 1/8 tsp of baking soda

Directions

  1. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil.
  2. Take off the heat and add the 8 tea bags and stir.
  3. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
  4. Removed the tea bags, squeeze gently.
  5. Add 1/8 tsp of baking soda and stir
  6. Add the Splenda and Stevia and stir until completely dissolved.
  7. Add the 2 cups of cold water and stir.
  8. Put in fridge to finish cooling.

Nutrition Per Cookie

  • Calories 12
  • Fat 0 g
  • Sugar 0 g
  • Carbohydrates 12 g
  • Protein 0 g
  • Fibre 0 g

Is this identical to southern sweet ice tea, no. But it is a good second cousin to it. The stevia cuts the after taste of the Splenda. You can still enjoy the flavour without worrying about the sugar content.

You can dress it up with lemon, orange slices, mint, or any combination that you like. After all, what good is a recipe if you can’t have fun and make it your own.

Oatmeal Muffins

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Oatmeal Muffins

  • Servings: 12 Muffins
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Who doesn’t like muffins? I know I do but when I look at the calories on the store bought or coffee shop muffins, I have to do a hard pass. I came across this recipe and thought how bad can this be? Well to my great surprise, they are quite tasty.

Ingredients

  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup of skim milk
  • ¼ cup of unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1-1/3 cup of all purpose flour (I use unbleached white flour)
  • ¾ cup of oatmeal
  • 1/3 cup of stevia blend
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ cup of unsweetened dried cranberries
  • ¼ cup of chopped walnuts

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a muffin tin or put liners in pan.
  2. In a large bowl beat together the eggs, milk and apple sauce.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, oatmeal, stevia, baking powder and salt.
  4. If you are adding fruit and nuts, lightly coat with about 1 tablespoon of flour so they won’t stick to the bottom of the muffin or batter.
  5. Gently stir the flour and fruit mixtures into the egg batter until combined, do not overmix the batter so your muffins will stay light and fluffy.
  6. Fill muffins tins about 2/3 of the way up.
  7. Bake at 400 for about 8 minutes then lower your oven temperature to 350 and bake for another 8 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean.
  8. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition Per Cookie

  • Calories 116
  • Fat 2.7 g
  • Sugar 3.8 g
  • Carbohydrates 26.9 g
  • Protein 4.51 g
  • Fibre 1.43 g

You can store these at room temperature covered for 3-4 days. You can also freeze them in a freezer bag for up to one month. You can thaw them on a wire rack or reheat the frozen muffin in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.

I was generally surprised that I didn’t taste the stevia. You can use Splenda which is a little sweeter but some people say they can taste the Splenda.

You can change the fruit, nut, decorate it if you feel like it. This version is great for all diabetes but feel free to have fun and make it your own.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

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Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

  • Servings: 20 cookies
  • Difficulty: Easy
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A young lady I know, who is dating a young pre-diabetic young chef, wanted to make him a treat. She scoured the internet to find a recipe that she could make that would be tasty and diabetic friendly. She came up with this great recipe. Hope you enjoy. I tried it and let me say that it will go into office pot lucks and even as a treat at home.

Ingredients

  • 1-1/4 cups of old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup of white flour
  • 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp of salt
  • 4 tbsp of melted light margarine
  • 1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup of maple syrup
  • 1 tsp of vanilla
  • 1/2 cup of unsweetened chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together oats, flours, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and set aside.
  3. In a smaller bowl, mix together melted margarine, peanut butter, maple syrup and vanilla until well combined.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, folding in the chocolate chips last.
  5. Using a small cookie scoop, drop 1inch cookie dough balls onto a prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten the tops with the back of a spoon or use your fingers, making sure the cookies are still intact. You should end up with about 20 small cookies.
  6. Bake cookies for about 12 minutes. They will look very soft but will firm up as they cool. Keep them on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.

Nutrition Per Cookie

  • Calories 79
  • Fat 3.3 g
  • Sugar 5.1 g
  • Carbohydrates 8 g
  • Protein 2.1 g
  • Fibre 1.3 g

This was recipe was so easy it was sinful not to try making it. The original recipe called for coconut oil but neither young lady or I like that so she used butter and I used margarine. The calorie and fat content are what I used. If you don’t mind a denser cookie, you could use only whole wheat flour. It would be even healther and if even better for the diabetic as it will not spike your sugars. But being half and half is not a bad option.

If you don’t or can’t find sugar free chocolate chips, they sell sugar free chocolate bars, which is what I had and I just chopped it up and put that in. Just as decadent. You can also use chunky peanut butter. You can add some nuts and reduce the chocolate for a variation. This is when you can have fun and make it your own. If you do, please give us feedback on your version.

Blueberry Cornbread Muffins

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Blueberry Cornbread Muffins

  • Servings: 12 Servings
  • Difficulty: Easy
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These blueberry cornbread muffins are made with healthy options like honey and blueberries. And who can’t use more muffin recipes that are healthy and just delicious

Ingredients

  • 1 c all purpose flour (I use unbleached white flour)
  • 1 c cornmeal
  • ½ tsp of salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp lemon zest
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 c milk (I used no fat protein Lantancia milk)
  • ¼ c olive oil
  • ¼ c honey
  • 1 c blueberries

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a muffin tin or put liners in pan.
  2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, salt, baking power and lemon zest. Whisk until the ingredients are evenly distributed.
  3. Combine the egg, milk, olive oil and honey in a second bowl, then whisk until smooth.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just barely combined.
  5. Add the blueberries and fold in using a rubber spatula
  6. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups.
  7. Put in oven and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  8. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition Per Serving, 1 regular sized muffin

  • Calories 162
  • Fat 1 g
  • Sugar 7 g
  • Carbohydrates 23 g
  • Protein 3 g
  • Fibre 2 g

If you don’t have lemon zest available, you can substitute ½ tsp lemon extract or 2 tbsp of lemon juice. Both whole wheat flour and gluten free flour work well for these muffins.

If using whole wheat, increase the honey to 1/3 cup. To use frozen blueberries, defrost in a colander under cool running water, shake to remove as much moisture as possible, then pat dry with paper towels before adding to the batter. You can add some raw sugar for a little crunch.

These are great at room temperature or you can heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. If you change the recipe while having fun and making it your own, let me know. I’m always willing to try new things.

Healthy Banana Muffins

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Healthy Banana Muffins

  • Servings: 12 Servings
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Muffins, who doesn’t like muffins? If I go anywhere near a donut shop, I’m walking out with a muffin. Even their healthier versions are still so high in sugar and fat thus making it not a great choice. And I’m sorry, but there are only so many bran muffins a girl can have. So here, a low fat, low sugar muffin that tastes great and you won’t feel guilty having.

Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp of unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1/3 cup of honey
  • 1 cup of mashed ripe bananas, about 3 medium
  • 1/4 cup of low fat milk, I used Lantancia high protein fat free.
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp of baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1-1/2 cups of flour (I used unbleached white flour)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a muffin tin or put liners in pan.
  2. In a large bowl, put apple sauce, honey, mashed bananas, milk and vanilla in bowl and whisk to combine.
  3. Add the eggs and whisk thoroughly.
  4. Spinkle the cinnamon, baking soda and salt over the wet ingredients. Until well combined.
  5. Add the flour to the bowl and stir with a large spoon or spatula until just combined. Be careful to not overmix.
  6. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, about 2/3 but if you use a thick silicon liner like I do, then it’s almost full.
  7. Bake for 20-25 min or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre. Mini muffins will take about 10-12 minutes.
  8. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes, then put them on cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition Per Serving, 1 regular sized muffin

  • Calories 144
  • Fat 5 g
  • Sugar 10 g
  • Carbohydrates 23 g
  • Protein 3 g
  • Fibre 2 g

Lots of little extras here. You can make 12 regular sized muffins or 36 mini muffins. To store them, put in airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days or 4-5 in fridge. They also freeze well. Once completely cooled, then you can put them in an airtight zip-top bag for up to 3 months. Thaw and serve at room temperature. It was suggested that if you put the muffins diagonally on the cooling rack, they reach room temperature quicker.

And now for the having fun part, you can add chopped nuts, chocolate chips, fresh or frozen blueberries, I swapped the butter for apple sauce but you can use 4 tbsp of butter for a richer taste.

You can make it with wheat flour but this will make them healthier oh and a little heavier. Gluten free use 1:1 gluten free flour blend for the flour. You can make this egg free by using 2 tbsp of flaxseed meal and 5 tbsp of water. Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes before adding to the wet ingredients. (I’ve never tried it but I hear it works). The riper your bananas, the sweeter it is. It is also a little higher in sugars and glucides.

So as you see, you can have fun and make these your own.

Hard Boiled Eggs

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Hard Boiled Eggs

  • Servings: 6 Eggs
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Maybe it’s just me, but I have struggled over the years making hard boiled eggs. Too cooked, under cooked, can’t peel them without removing at least half the white off the egg. Can I say, quite frustrating.

I will not take credit for this but it really really worked. I went looking at America’s Test Kitchen https://www.americastestkitchen.com and found the method below. I’ve used their recipes before so why not try this one. It worked the first time out. Thank you.

Healthy snacks that are good and leave you satiated are few and far between. Here is one I found.

Ingredients

  • 6 large eggs
  • Water and ice

Directions

  1. Put about 1inch of water in sauce pan and bring to boil.
  2. Put 6 large eggs into a steamer basket and put in pot.
  3. Cover and reduce heat to medium and cook for 13 minutes.
  4. Put 2 cups of water and 2 cups of ice cubes in a large bowl.
  5. Submerge the eggs in the ice water for at least 15 minutes.

Nutritional facts per serving

  • Calories 78
  • Fat 5 g
  • Sugar 0.6 g
  • Carbohydrates 0.6 g
  • Protein 6 g
  • Fibre 0 g

Did that sound easy enough? It is and it works. The trick is to only take your eggs out of the fridge when you are about to put them in the steam. Putting cold eggs in the steam prevents the proteins in the egg white to fuse with the surrounding membrane making it possible to peel nicely.

Doing it this way causes the eggs to form a solid gel that shrinks and pulls away from the membrane. I’ve even doubled the recipe and it worked. Just make sure that your eggs are covered when you put them in the ice water. You don’t even need to peel them right away.

Trust me, making hard boiled eggs, going forward, will be easy. Think of all the things you can do to them at Easter time. You can really have fun and make them your own.

Chia Pudding

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Chia Pudding

  • Servings: 1 Serving
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Healthy snacks that are good and leave you satiated are few and far between. Here is one I found.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp of chia seeds
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1/2 cup of milk of choice (I used almond milk)
  • Strawberries or other fruits for toppings

Directions

  1. Pour all ingredients into a 500 ml or 2 cup mason jar and mix well.
  2. Let settle for 2-3 minutes and then mix again very well until you see no clumping.
  3. Cover the jar and store in fridge overnight or for at least 2 hours.
  4. When you are ready to eat it, top with your favorite fruit and enjoy cold.

Nutritional facts per serving

  • Calories 155
  • Fat 9 g
  • Sugar 6 g
  • Carbohydrates 16 g
  • Protein 5 g
  • Fibre 9 g

This is a great snack that you can make up to a week in advance. So you make them on Sunday night and you have desserts or snacks for your lunches all week. It is very versatile. You feel for strawberries one day, the next you put in some cinnamon and vanilla and top it with apples, and so on. If you don’t like almond milk, you can substitute to any milk you like. Same with the sweetener. (Nutritional values are based on honey and almond milk) I would recommend a topping as it is very bland on it’s own.

Let you imagination soar, have fun and make it your own.

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

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Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

  • Servings: 12 Muffins
  • Difficulty: Easy
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I was looking for a muffin recipe that would be healthy and filling. A good go to snack for diabetics. This is what I came up with.

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1/2 cup of maple syrup or honey (I used honey)
  • 2 eggs at room temperature
  • 1/4 cup of milk of choice (I used almond milk)
  • 1 cup of pumpkin puree
  • 2 tsps of pumpkin spice blend
  • 1 tsp of baking soda
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1-3/4 cup of whole wheat flour
  • 1/3 cup of old fashioned oats, plus more to sprinkle on top
  • 2 tsp of raw sugar for a sweet crunch (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 and grease muffin tin or use liners (I used silicon liners).
  2. In a large bowl, beat the apple sauce and honey together with a whisk.
  3. Add the eggs and beat well.
  4. Add the pumpkin puree, milk, pumpkin spice blend, baking soda, vanilla extract and salt.
  5. Add the flour and oats to the bowl and mix with a large spoon, just until combined, a few lumps are ok.
  6. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with about a tablespoon of oats followed by a light sprinkle of raw sugar if you like.
  7. Bake for 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
  8. Place on cooling rack and let cool for a couple of hours. They taste better for some reason.

Nutritional facts per serving

  • Calories 131
  • Fat 2.3 g
  • Sugar 9.5 g
  • Carbohydrates 25.7 g
  • Protein 3.4 g
  • Fibre 3.2 g

You have a few options, if you don’t have apple sauce, or prefer not to use apple sauce, you can sub for extra virgin olive oil. You can make this recipe vegan – use maple syrup, flax eggs and non-dairy milk. You can do some add-ins like chocolate chips, chopped nuts or dried cranberries or even crystallized ginger. You would do this at the stage where you combine wet and dry ingredients.

Pumpkin spice, not everyone has some premade, if you don’t it goes like this. (1 tsp of ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice or cloves). You can also substitute the flour to white all purpose flour which makes this lighter and less dense.

As you see there are so many options for you, all you have to do is let your imagination go, have fun and make it your own.

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

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Crustless Pumpkin Pie

  • Servings: 8 servings
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Who says pumpkin pie is only good at Thanksgiving. Well not I, that is for sure. The only thing that has stopped me in the past, is the calories and sugar content. Well, well, well, I found a recipe in the Canadian Diabetes book that reduced the calories dramatically and quite a bit of the sugar. It is still a treat.

Ingredients

  • 1 14oz can of pumpkin puree
  • ½ cup of sugar
  • ½ tsp of salt
  • ½ tsp of ground ginger
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp of ground nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp of ground cloves
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 13 oz can evaporated skim milk

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, sugar, salt, and spices.
  2. Stir in the slightly beaten eggs and mix well.
  3. Add the evaporated milk (shake can before opening) and stir until smooth.
  4. Pour into a lightly greased glass pie plate (this recipe works best in a glass pie plate instead of metal)
  5. Bake in preheat oven of 400 for about 40 minutes or until knife inserted near the center of the pie comes out clean.
  6. Let cool and serve.

Nutritional facts per serving

  • Calories 107
  • Fat 1.3 g
  • Sugar 19.3 g
  • Carbohydrates 21.1 g
  • Protein 5.1 g
  • Fibre 0.5 g

Make sure to use pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling or the spices will be way off. I made mine with homemade pumpkin puree which is thinner so my pie was a little wet. But ohhh, the taste. Cutting the pie in 8 pieces is a nice size. You almost don’t notice that there is no crust. It would be nice but it is not necessary and when you think it would double the calories and add an extra 6 sugars if you are using graham cracker crust, I say no crust please.

To be honest even the pie crust I have on this blog, Sebreena’s pie crust, would add a little less sugar than the graham cracker crust but still adds about 75 calories. This is a great alternative if you are really looking to cut down on the fat, calories and sugar but still crave that sweet taste. I found the spice mixture better than pumpkin pie spice mix but here is where you have fun and make it your own.