The tomatoling has grown bigger over the last few days
and it’s been joined by another little tomatoling!
1 tomato, 2 tomato
Diabetes diagnosis + 1 month
4 weeks since my diagnosis and with a couple exceptions, fasting blood glucose has been near 100 for the past week.
It’s been a bit of a trial adjusting to this low carb lifestyle, but I’m slowly figuring out what things I can and can’t/shouldn’t eat.
High fiber foods are not so bad. The Caribbean Jerk sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings not so good. Most fruits are ok, which is good.
Discovered yesterday that coffee is not so good for my blood glucose levels (BGL). The borscht/beet soup I made wasn’t too bad on BGL though. That’s good because there’s still a lot left and I’d hate to have to get rid of it.
Started the second week of working out at the gym, because I’m told exercise is good for blood glucose control. Going pretty well so far. Been doing a little cardio and mostly strength training. Yesterday was 30 minutes on the stationary bike and back/arms workout. Going to start adding in more cardio workouts this week. Just doesn’t feel like a proper workout unless my heart is racing and I’m breathing hard at the end.
Adventures in borscht
I’ve been getting lots of beets in my Ambrose Farm CSA share, and I got tired of pickling them. They’re pretty good roasted in the oven and tossed into salads, but thought I’d try something different.
Borscht came to mind so I dug up a simple looking recipe from Food Network to try.
Had 4 beets left so I tossed them, some potatoes and a carrot (also all from Ambrose Farm) in some olive oil, sprinkled with salt and threw them on the grill to roast over indirect heat at low. The thermometer on the grill says it’s around 350°F. I also covered them with a foil pan to keep the heat in and help them roast faster.
The beets, potatoes and carrot hot off the grill
Once the beets cooled down a little, a little rubbing took the skins right off.
Cut up the beets and assemble the rest of the ingredients.
Onions, garlic and carrot were sauteed. I think I should have picked a different colour carrot. Didn’t really matter in the end anyway.
Add the chicken stock, let it simmer a bit and then in went the beets. The recipe called for blending, but my blender is kind of small, so I thought the food processor could puree things.
I ended up with finely chopped beets. Fail.
Then I thought I’d try the stick blender. It worked out a little better, although it still wasn’t very pureed.
In the end I ended up using the blender anyway doing it in about 3 batches. Now I have borscht! Tasted pretty good too with a dollop of sour cream. A little on the onion-y side though.
Tomatoling
One of the little tomato flowers has turned into a little tomato-ling!
BarcampCHS 3 planning
Planning for the next Barcamp CHS is kicking off with a meeting 6PM on June 22 in Room 219 of the JC Long building at College of Charleston.
If you’re interested in helping out with this year’s event, stop on by!