Diabetes: Menu Planning
Healthy Swaps
The Ultimate Guide to Having Your Cake and Eating It Too
With the right ingredient swapping, you can indulge in most of your favorite foods without suffering the consequences. Each month we’ll add more Healthy Swaps, which will deliver user-friendly tips and tricks to transform a high-carb indulgence into a healthy dish that won’t send your sugar soaring.
1 - Mashed Potatoes.
To have comforting, creamy, mashed potatoes without chalking up 35 grams of carbs in a one-cup serving, try this half and half strategy. Use half the amount of potatoes you want for your dish. A medium potato contains about 33 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fiber per cup. Then use an equal amount of either turnips (about 8 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fiber per cup), rutabaga (about 15 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fiber per cup), cauliflower (about 3 grams of carbs and 2 grams of fiber per cup) or some combination of the three. Boil or microwave the potatoes and vegetables, and mash these up together. Add a mixture of one-half softened butter and one-half healthy, trans-free, vegetable oil spread. Then, warm some cream or half-and-half in the microwave, and beat in until smooth. Salt and pepper to taste. For extra flavor, add minced garlic (raw or gently cooked) to the butter mixture, or mix in some grated parmesan, romano, or asiago cheese.
2 - Crunchy Coating
Some things just aren’t the same without a crunchy crust around them, but a coating made with flour or bread crumbs can turn a healthy dish into a high-carb no-no. With a little creativity, you can have your crunch and stay in the healthy eating zone. Great, flavorful substitutions for bread crumbs abound –– nuts, seeds, and (unsweetened) whole grain cereal flakes all can be chopped (or crushed up in a plastic storage bag) and used to coat fish filets, chicken, shrimp, veggies or anything else you’d normally pair with bread crumbs.
For crab cakes, meat balls and the like, try mixing up a paste of baking powder and beaten egg to use as a binder instead of bread crumbs and egg. (Extra hint: When making crab cakes, use real crabmeat; the imitation crab usually contains sugar.)
3 - Root Beer Float
If you’re vigilant about your sugar intake, one old-fashioned treat that you would never even consider is a root beer float. Sugary soda with a giant scoop of ice cream? No way. Well, here’s a way. You can use diet root beer cream soda or cola if that’s all you’ve got on hand. Otherwise, buy some sugar-free, flavored syrup and mix it with seltzer water. (Make sure the seltzer is new; don’t use it if it’s even just a tiny bit flat). These syrups are sold in dozens of flavors, so you can experiment with vanilla, cola, cherry, grape, coconut, caramel, etc. Add one scoop of no-sugar added or low-carb ice cream (don’t forget to look at carbs, calories and fat when comparing varieties). Depending on the ice cream you choose, you can end up savoring this nostalgic indulgence while taking in only 140 calories and 6 grams of carbs (the stats from one-half cup of Edy’s Carb Benefit Vanilla Bean).
4 – French Fries
Using sweet potatoes or the crunchy vegetable called jicama (pronounced hik’-a-ma), you can enjoy crisp, salty fries now and then without the worry. And since white potatoes can raise blood sugar more rapidly than even table sugar, you’re wise to move them onto your “don’t go there” list.
Peel sweet potatoes, and then slice them up lengthwise like steak fries. Toss gently with extra virgin olive oil and seasonings of your choice, then bake at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes on each side. Jicama can be sliced thin (like matchsticks) and made either in the oven the same way (cut the time in half) or fried in a pan with a high-heat oil such as canola oil, grapeseed oil or refined sesame oil. You can also slice jicama super-thin like potato chips. Experiment with different spices on your fries, such as onion or garlic salt, paprika, or taco seasoning.
5 – Chocolate Coated Confections
Do you love Goobers® and Raisinets®? Strawberries dipped in chocolate? Chocolate covered macadamia nuts? With all the latest news on the health benefits of dark chocolate (and the advent of Splenda), these delicious confections need not be relegated to the “good old days” list. Cover antioxidant-rich berries such as blueberries, blackberries or raspberries with a coating of high-quality, unsweetened chocolate – and you’ve nearly got a health food! (Stick to a small handful, of course, and monitor your own reaction.)
Place your fruit or nuts in the freezer for 30 minutes. Melt a good-quality, unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler, whisking in a bit of cream, hot water, and Splenda to taste. Remove your fruit or nuts from the freezer, dip them in the chocolate (using a fork, slotted spoon, or tongs), and spread them out on wax paper to harden. Pour into a zip lock back and take your homemade candy to the movies.
6 – Turkey Wrap
You’ve probably heard about the trick of rolling sliced lunch meats and cheese inside a lettuce leaf, and these little roll-ups do make for quick and tasty snacks. Also, large, dark green or red lettuce leaves are a great substitute for a burrito-size, white flour tortilla –– which delivers about 60, nutritionally empty grams of carbohydrate. Another option is choosing a low carb wrap, which will likely be made with soy or whole grain flour. You can take your wrap one step further on the health meter while also making something a bit more substantial, by doing more than rolling up a few slices of turkey. Lunch meats are notoriously high in sodium, and they also contain nitrites or nitrates, preservatives that are potentially carcinogenic.
7 – Cauliflower Mac & Cheese
Cauliflower is a great substitute for white noodles and white rice, because of its color, versatile texture, and because cauliflower is a member of that ultra-healthy family of cruciferous veggies. People who consume the most of these types of vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, and kale) have lower rates of several kinds of cancer, and laboratory tests have shown that certain compounds in cruciferous vegetables actually stop the growth of many types of cancer cells.
One way to use cauliflower is to steam or boil it, chop it roughly, and then substitute it for half the macaroni in your favorite reduced-fat mac and cheese recipe. Another option is to make a roasted cauliflower casserole, leaving out the pasta all together. Chop cauliflower into chunks, and arrange in a baking dish. Add two to three cloves of garlic, minced. Drizzle with olive oil, and squeeze a lemon over the pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Bake in a 400-degree F oven for 20 minutes or until the tops are browned. Remove and sprinkle generously with grated parmesan.
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Reviewed by Susan Weiner, R.D., M.S., C.D.E., C.D.N. 3/08