Hungarian Scrambled Eggs

I love the way I was shown to make scrambled egg by my Hungarian step-father, since I detest overcooked egg. This method uses the heat of the vegetables to cook the egg, not the stove top. The result is tasty but light.

Ingredients

Selection of veggies: courgette, capsicum, onion, mushroom

One egg

Seasoning

Directions

Prepare the vegetables and cook until tender. Remove the pan from the stove. Add the egg. Move the egg through the vegetable mixture until you see that the temperature has dropped enough to stop the egg cooking. Put back on the heat only enough to warm through again and continue moving mixture. Continue removing and heating sequence until egg is just cooked. Season and serve.

Serves 1

Yum.

What did I eat today?

This isn't necessarily an average day, but is typical of what I am trying to achieve. Plenty of protein and low GI veggies, low fat dairy, limited fruit and gluten and minimal fat. This is deliberately restrictive as my goal is recover from Diabetes, which requires weightloss. And to have a food plan that stabilises my blood sugars at the same time.

Breakfast

Instant Apple Cinnamon porridge sachet made up with 1/2 cup trim milk and then mixed with a couple of spoonfuls of low fat unsweetened yoghurt.

Lunch
Half a serve of chilli beef and veggies, no noddles or rice from the Chinese at the food court.  I paid an extra 20c to have it served on a plate and have a takeaways container as well and I split the meal before I ate it. The remainder is still sitting in the fridge at work for the weekend. Whoops!

Afternoon Tea

A good few Peckish crackers - Salt and Vinegar. I love these ones though probably the Chilli are better and I love that they are gluten free.

Dinner
Veggies (sliced mushrooms, capsicum and onion) laid over the base of a square baking tin and topped with an egg then baked in the oven and served with a little oyster sauce and sprouts.

1/4 tin of drained Fruit Salad in Natural Juice.

Fluids

One glass of diet lift in the morning.

One small bottle of coke zero with lunch.

A couple of glasses of water and a couple of cups of instant coffee with trim milk no sugar - I never had sugar in coffee so this is just a personal choice

Snacks/Other

Two Shrewsbury biscuits before dinner - hey they did have magic in the middle!

A fish oil capsule and a glucose stabilising tablet from the health shop.

As I posted another time, this time is working for me because I am seeing food as helpful or not helpful now. So even though someone else may be eating something "delicious", I don't feel deprived.

This is a new feeling as I have always wanted to eat everything and probably been thinking about lunch the moment I finished breakfast. Now I don't even really think about food until I am ready for it.

Choosing to severely restrict my options is helping I think. It means that when I get home, I am thinking which of 100g steak, 100g chicken or an egg I will have tonight, and not the thousands of other choices I could be having.

I do find evenings difficult still though. I prowl for food while reminding myself why I am doing this. When this works, I go to bed happy.

Beef Salad in 12 minutes or less

I've been fascinated for a while now about how different fruits and veggies are processed by the body.

Especially how the pancreas deals with them, since many are low in carbohydrate and high in fibre.

And some even have no discernible effect on blood sugars: courgette, cucumber, green beens. Mushroom, capsicum, brocolli. Tomatoes, celery, onions.

A typical meal for me at the moment is a plate of veggies with some protein.

Ingredients
100g Steak or Chicken Breast
4 Button mushrooms
1/2 a Courgette
1/4 of a Capsicum
1/2 a stalk of Celery
Coriander
Garlic, Ginger, Cracked Pepper, Chilli Flakes
Lemon Juice, Vinegar

Directions
Usually I prepare (maybe a shake of lemon pepper and a spray of oil) and start cooking the steak or chicken.While that sizzles on the hob, I chop up my veggies: sliced mushrooms and celery. Maybe a handful of cabbage. Or small amount of chopped onion or spring onion. When the meat is cooked, I put it out to rest and put the veggies into the same pan. Stir over a high heat for a few moments then put in 1/4 cup of water. I often add a splash of lemon juice and/or vinegar and/or a twist of cracked pepper too ... top with coriander. Slice the rested meat and serve warm over the stirfry.

Serves 1

But some play foul of that rule, for example pumpkin and parsnip are both high GI.

And sweet corn is a really good example. On a cob, boiled and eaten from the cob, corn is really good for you and low GI, but taken off the cob makes them higher GI.

Varieties and preparation change this too. Old floury potatoes can be high GI and new potatoes low GI. Boiled kumara has a lower GI then baked kumara.

In the meantime, I am enjoying a food plan of all the veggies that will benefit my blood sugars. Which is the goal. And who doesn't have 12 minutes or less to create a delicious healthy meal?

Another conscious decision I have made is to limit my intake of veggies as part of my plan. And it's working ... this morning's weight was 89.0kg. Yay.

Kiwifruit and Yoghurt for Breakfast

On most mornings since I have been following my food plan, I have been have been having low fat unsweetened yoghurt and fruit for breakfast. The quantity of yoghurt I have been eating is about four good spoonfuls over one serve of fruit.

I am happy with a chopped-up kiwifruit or some mango or paw paw. My friends prefer the yoghurt sweetened with sugar substitute.

Clearwater's Organic Dairy Yoghurt

Comes as several choices including the fabulous Cream Top Yoghurt, but they also have a low fat unsweetened version that they claim is milk and culture and nothing else. This yoghurt is mildly acidic and quite loosely textured. The Clearwater's website has some fantastic recipes using their products as well.

Cyclops Organic Low Fat Greek Yoghurt

This one is a lot thicker and and a lot more acidic. I really like the texture of greek yoghurt, but I know that my friends prefer it whisked a bit to smooth and loosen the texture.

Biofarm Low Fat Yoghurt

I haven't tried this one yet so I am not sure about the sugar content as low fat does not necessary mean low sugar, so I'll update this post when I know. Their website looks like it has a nice selection of recipes too.

EasiYo Low Fat Yoghurt

Has a range of low fat and low sugar choices. The Berry version has 7g of sugar per 100g, and you could sweeten to task with a substitute. I don't have an EasiYo maker at home, but think I need to borrow one and try these out.

DeWinkyl Natural Unsweetened Yoghurt

This is a mild yoghurt with a firmer texture than the Clearwater's but not as firm as the Greek.

Recently I bought a six-pack of a new dairy dessert range and discovered that these pots had a ridiculous amount of sugar and fat. Maybe okay occasionally for the kids, but I am finally beginning to realise that some foods may as well be poison to me.

Jenny recommends a smoothie with banana, low fat milk and protein powder. Yoghurt, berries and low fat milk would make a great smoothie too.

Other ways you could have this breakfast could be flavoured with cinnamon, grated apple and sugar substitute to taste or with mango microwaved with a bit of water and mashed, then stirred through the yoghurt.

Remember that low fat dairy has been shown to help reduce the risk of all sorts of bad stuff and may help carry fat away from the body. And a protein-rich breakfast will reduce your hunger. Low fat yoghurt is also low GI, which means you won't be spiking your blood sugars, which will help stabilise your blood sugars for the day. And did I mention the calcium in the yoghurt and the fibre in the kiwi?

So get some today.

Protein Reduces Hunger

Researchers don't really know why yet, but it makes sense to me that Protein reduces Hunger given our original diet as humans. We were designed to work most effectively on the foods that would have been most available back then.

Online reading suggests there are no dangers with a high protein diet unless you have kidney disease. And that based on existing research, we should be aiming for around 120gms a day total, so you need to decide if my plan fits your circumstances for yourself. Please they always say you should see your doctor to be on the safe side ...

So what is an appropriate serving size for protein? Well it changes depending on the item, for example Peanut Butter would be 2 Tablespoons vs a piece of Chicken Breast the size of a deck of cards.

I am eating protein with every meal and making sure that I eat three meals a day.

I have started with just a few options:

100g Lean Chicken

100g Lean Beef

100g Lean Fish

60g Low fat Cheese (Ricotta, Cottage)

60g Low fat Yoghurt

1 egg

maybe a few walnuts at some stage ... VNess has reminded me how fantastic nuts are ...

I am not particularly fond of shellfish - blurk - but Mussels, Oysters, Prawn etc all seem a fantastic choice for someone who is.

Image: vitasamb2001 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net