neverhomemaker: low glycemic

Showing posts with label low glycemic. Show all posts

Clean Eating Recipes + Guides

>> Tuesday, January 6, 2015

If you’re starting out with healthier eating this year, you’re not alone. Even if you’re an old veteran to eating clean, now is the time to recommit your efforts. (I’m speaking to myself here.) I have collected some of our healthiest recipes and food guides on the site to serve as a resource. So pin or bookmark this page now for easy reference.

Over the years I’ve tried different “detoxes” (I know, but who hasn’t?), and -- surprise -- nothing has ever landed as a long-term fix. Instead, I like focusing on adding in the nutrients versus taking foods away. I focus on all those fresh foods I’m lacking and push out the sugar and excess carbs by feasting on more fruits, vegetables, and proteins in the process.

The key is making food convenient through meal planning, prepping ahead, and making it all delicious. I find freezer cooking particularly helpful this time of year, but you need to find what works for you and your lifestyle. And remember: If you have a “bad” eating day, don’t fret. Just start fresh with your next mouthful.

Last: Check out our tips for Automatic Healthy Eating!

And don't miss last year's 90 healthiest recipes of 2013! Lots of delicious, wholesome foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and beyond. Includes both vegan and vegetarian recipes to please the entire family -- even toddlers!

Like what you just read? Browse more of our posts + recipes on Pinterest. You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

Budget-Friendly Low Glycemic Foods

>> Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Though I won’t be going on some wild post-holiday detox, I’m getting back to the basics this week and eating vegetarian low glycemic foods to come down slowly from all that December sugar. The cool thing with this list is that these foods are triple threats. They’re healthy, inexpensive, and they are also pretty shelf stable, so food waste isn’t a concern. Better on the budget, too.

Add these 5 foods to your weekly grocery list. And consider trying some of the many recipes we have on this site. Back in the day, I posted recipes multiple times a week. More recently, those posts get around half the views of the other stuff I share -- but I think 2015 is the comeback of recipe blogging regardless. I love cooking and baking, and I can’t let pageviews always dictate my content.

Enjoy!

Oats

Oats -- in a variety of forms -- are my breakfast go-to. We have both rolled oats and steel-cut on hand, which we purchased at Aldi on the cheap. Oats contain a special sort of fiber that lowers bad cholesterol levels known as beta-glucan. Plus, they taste great and fill you up so you can get through your day.

Lentils

Quick-cooking lentils are great in a pinch because they contain potassium, calcium, zinc, niacin, and vitamin K. And they're particularly rich in dietary fiber, lean protein, folate, and iron. Surprisingly, I don’t have a lot of recipes featuring lentils on this site -- so I’d like to change that! Usually we just toss them into soups.

Lentil + Quinoa Burgers with baby kale pesto
Stephen’s Healthy Lentil Bowl
Split Pea Miso Soup (use lentils in place of split peas)
Tarka Dhal (with lentils + sweet potatoes)

Chickpeas

There are tons of health benefits you gain from eating chickpeas. They’re high in both fiber and folate. They’re an excellent source of vegetarian protein. They taste delicious prepared in a variety of ways. Heck -- you can even use garbanzos in desserts! No, really. Check out that blondie recipe and tell me what you think.

Beans

Similarly, there’s a wide array of other beans that a packed full of goodness. In fact, each cup of beans contains 15 grams of both protein and fiber. A few months back, I gave you guys an entire week’s worth of dinner ideas that contain beans as their bulk. (Oh, yeah. You can also make some awesome black bean brownies to curb that sweet tooth!)

*** To cook beans, follow these detailed instructions.

Basically, you soak overnight, drain and rinse, then cook atop your stove for a few hours on low heat until you reach your desired texture. You save money on buying cans, as well as consume less sodium and harmful BPA from cans.

Sweet Potatoes

Despite their taste, sweet potatoes are actually lower on the glycemic index than regular potatoes. When I was working my desk job, I’d often bring a scrubbed sweet potato in for lunch. I’d pierce the skin with the tines of a fork and then place it on a microwave safe dish. Cook on high for 5-6 minutes and then top however you like.

What types of recipes would you like to see this year?

Like what you just read? Browse more of our posts + recipes on Pinterest. Chat with us on Twitter or Facebook. And you can always email us with your questions and comments.

Vegetarian Low Glycemic Foods

>> Tuesday, November 18, 2014

So, I guess I should just start by sharing that I’m not eating zero sugar. Still, I had been dealing with some major sugar highs and lows, dizziness, and other weird symptoms from eating too many carbs and sweet things. What started out as a mission to level out my blood sugar quickly turned into a quest for more protein. I have discovered that a lot of the low glycemic foods I am choosing to fill my stomach with are also the ones I need to fill other nutritional gaps in my diet.

What I was eating before, at least on the surface, didn’t seem that horrible to me. Then I started to see how I was relying on bread to make up the bulk of basically every meal -- after have evaluating myself for this same issue multiple times in the past.

I’d begin the day with a homemade bagel, have a sandwich for lunch, and then pasta, pizza, and quesadillas for dinner. Of course, I’d mix in fruits and veggies, too, but bread was still the main filler, the thing I’d go back for seconds of. When the meal was over, I’d snack on chocolate chip cookies and other baked goods. So, more sugary carbs.

I was eating basically everything on this Foods to Avoid list.

It’s easy to see how my blood sugar was rising and falling all day long. I’d reach 2 pm and feel like I needed a nap, but I couldn’t figure out why I was so tired. Obviously, if you’ve been reading here long, you know I’ve experienced this sort of stuff before. But it’s funny how easily you can slip back into bad habits.

This time around, the dizziness has prompted me to seriously reevaluate the situation. I noticed I’d actually get lightheaded a little while after a sugar-heavy meal. When I swapped foods, I’ve been without this awful symptom every since, even with the occasional treat.

Here’s some of the foods I’ve been enjoying:

Cottage cheese
Greek yogurt
Eggs
Tofu
Fish*
Nuts
Homemade peanut butter
Avocados
Barley
Ezekiel Bread
Lentils
Beans
Almond milk
Berries
But usually vegetables over fruits

PROTEIN

Notice anything about this list?

Yeah. Me, too. A lot of these foods are also vegetarian protein sources. In all the bread I was eating before, I calculated that I was maybe getting half my protein requirement . . . at most. (I’m using this scale, which says I should get around 75-80 grams each day.) Now? I’m not having trouble meeting that mark almost every single day.

* You also notice fish. I've been a vegetarian for a long time. I have absolutely no desire to eat fish from a craving or taste perspective. In fact, it’s like taking medicine for me right now. I experimented with cooking it for dinner last week to see if it might be a good protein to add to the mix (Stephen eats fish). I’m still not sold, but I will likely try it a few more times because when I had finished the meal -- we cooked tilapia in foil pockets with a mix of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, lemon, and herbs atop some cauliflower rice with sautéed kale on the side -- I did feel pretty great. Clear-headed.

DAY’S MENU

That being said, I have easily been able to meet protein requirements eating totally vegetarian and also low sugar, which is great. Here’s a sample of what I ate yesterday.

BREAKFAST

Steel-cut oats with pumpkin

1/2 cup Greek yogurt in the mix

2 tablespoons homemade peanut butter

25 grams protein

LUNCH

2 eggs scrambled with 1 ounce of cheese mixed in

2 slices Ezekiel bread

1 avocado (spread on the toast)

Carrots

Strawberries

30 grams protein

SNACK

1 cup soy milk with protein powder

20 grams protein

DINNER

Roasted butternut squash + portabella mushrooms

Homemade miso-tahini dressing

Homemade WW naan bread (Greek yogurt in recipe)

1 serving tofu

20 grams protein

For the day, that’s around 95 grams of protein. I mean, wow. I seriously doubt I was getting anywhere close to that in the past. And I didn’t feel tired or foggy-headed all day long. I did have a dessert with some sugar -- 2 tablespoons of cookie butter from Trader Joe’s. Otherwise, I think I did really well keeping the sugar low.

And why do I care so much about the protein? It keeps me fuller for longer. It helps curb the cravings.

This post ended up being a bit less organized than I had intended, but I hope it is helpful to you. I think it’s easy as a vegetarian to get caught up in a carb rut, especially this time of year. During the spring and summer months, I eat a ton more fresh produce from the market, and as the temperatures drop -- the offerings dwindle and I’m lured more by comfort foods and treats!

If you have questions and thoughts, I’d love to hear ‘em!

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

Lowering the Glycemic Load

>> Monday, November 17, 2014

So, I brought up in my Weekend Things post that I’m experimenting with eating a diet lower in those high glycemic foods. What’s this all about? Well, if you’ve been reading here long enough, you know I have a regular battle with sugar. And not just sugar, but all those carb-liscious foods that have the power to overwhelm even the strongest of body systems.

As you can imagine, I found myself extremely sluggish and exhausted lately. I took a look around . . . and I realized that with some of the stress I’ve been dealing with in recent months, my diet had gone nuts. This happens to the best of us. Get busy, have stress, feel emotion -- eat ALL the sugars. I was to the point a couple weeks ago when I felt like I needed to lay down basically all day long. Pathetic, I know. I’d do my work from my comfortable chair, do the bare minimum of daily tasks, find time to get in a run, and then collapse into bed in a total crash.

I don’t like sharing this kind of stuff about myself, especially since in the past I’ve received comments like “you’re an adult, just stop it already!” And despite how it may seem, I actually KNOW all the “right” things to do to eat to fuel my body in a healthy way. Like, I could teach a class on the subject. But the whole “do as I say, not as I do” applies much too aptly in this situation. To those of you who have fought this battle and won, I admire you. I want to be you.

I routinely fall into that trap that many vegetarians sink into of needing ENERGY. So, the simplest place our bodies know to hunt for it is in carbohydrate-rich foods. Sugars. Those foods that give some major boosts initially and an even bigger crash in the afterglow. So many vegetarians (and people in general) fall into this trap because these are the foods of convenience. Even if they seem healthy on the surface. They also make us more hungry, so we eat more of them, and the cycle continues.

Instead of trying some major overhaul or detox or diet, I’m just working on changing my fridge first and foremost. It’s when I stock certain foods that I start to rely on them more heavily. I’ve found protein -- in its many vegetarian sources -- to be an incredible help in this regard. And I ~~think~~ know a lot of my issues stem from a lack of overall protein. Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, beans, tofu, nut butters, soy milk, etc. And I’ve started to slowly reach for these foods before I stuff my face with more delicious bagels to see if they can quell that hungry beast inside of me.

Tomorrow I’ll share what my favorite low glycemic foods are these days. How I’m combining them to made more nutritionally sound meals. I may even toss in a daily food diary later in the week for good measure. Every time I try to overhaul my diet, it works for a few weeks or months and then I’m back on the sugar again. Obviously this season is a hard one to avoid all sugars, so I’m not going to cut them out entirely. I’m focusing my efforts on my main meals, and so far it’s been helping to curb my cravings so that just one or two cookies satisfies me versus a landslide of treats.

Only time will tell. But the energy and clear head I get when I eat less sugar is certainly worth the continued struggle. I wish I had more will-power, but at least I’m trying to clean up my ways!

Again.

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!