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Living your best life with diabetes. Toby Smithson provides professional guidance with personal experience.

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Diabetes and Nutrition

Overnight Oats Recipe That Won’t Spike Your Blood Sugar

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Oats are a great way to start the day – healthy food that keeps you feeling full (remember the “sticks to your ribs” ad?). But the carbs in this healthy food can send blood sugar levels higher, and that can make for a disappointing morning. This overnight oats recipe has proven in my experiments (on myself) to keep blood glucose steady, and if that’s not enough – it’s chocolate.

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Finally… A Diabetes-Friendly Overnight Oats Recipe

I bet you have experienced looking for a recipe at one time or another but not really finding a certain recipe that is diabetes-friendly. Well, that happened to me when I was searching for a diabetes-friendly overnight oats recipe. I even checked diabetes-specific websites like the American Diabetes Association, but I still didn’t find a recipe that fit my preferences.

Just a note here to some of you who reached out for plant-based and/or foods that you can prepare ahead of time…This overnight oats recipe fits both of those “asks.”

Oh, and for those of you who are chocolate fans, like me, I developed this recipe so it would have a chocolatey taste AND most important for all of us who manage our diabetes. I’ve checked this recipe out against my Dexcom continuous glucose monitor and this recipe keeps my blood sugar steady. Yes, I’m eating oats, but not spiking my blood sugar.

Be Sure To Check Out – Diabetes Question- Can I Eat Oatmeal? and 3 Tricky Foods That Spike Blood Sugar

The Recipe

The Ingredients (which are easy to keep as staples in your kitchen) are:

  • 1 cup steel-cut oats (as an extra tip here, check the nutrition facts panel for the number of carbs and fiber per serving, as they vary. I found a 4-5 gram difference when I put some labels side by side at the grocery store)
  • 2 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons stevia naturals
  • 1 packet vanilla protein powder (I chose a protein powder that had 25 grams of protein with only 2 grams of carb per packet)
  • 1 ½ cup vanilla plant-based milk (I used Ripple non-dairy milk because it contains 8 grams of protein and less than 1 gram of carb per 1 cup serving)

The Instructions

1 – Place all of the dry ingredients into a large enough bowl to hold 4 servings. And stir.

2 – Pour the plant-based milk over the dry ingredients and stir again.

3 – Cover the bowl and place it in your refrigerator overnight. 

The overnight oats will be ready to place in your cereal bowl the next morning.

Our Servings Breakdown

This recipe makes 4 servings, and each serving is:

29 grams of carbohydrate; 4 grams of fiber; 14 grams of protein; 4 grams fat; 211 calories.

I love this recipe because it has a chocolate flavor and has a cold and chewy mouthfeel that is different than my cooked oatmeal.

Let me know your favorite breakfasts in the comments below.

Until next time, cheers to your health.

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10 Best Foods for Diabetes – Pantry Edition

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

A great first step to eating healthier is having healthier foods and ingredients stocked and ready for action. Here are my top 10 pantry items for building a diabetes-friendly eating habit.

This is part 2 in my series of answering one of our viewer’s requests for suggestions on preparing quick snacks and meals ahead of time. In today’s episode, I’m going to give you my recommendations for what to have stocked in your pantry or kitchen cabinets. I want to make sure this is not overwhelming so in a future episode, I will go over my top picks for the foods to keep in stock in your refrigerator and freezer.

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Best Foods for Diabetes

Ready?

Keep in Your Food Pantry/Kitchen Cabinet:

  • Canned vegetables, no added salt for those with high blood pressure, and canned fruit no sugar added
  • Oatmeal (whole grain oats and/or steel-cut oats)
  • Canned beans
  • Whole-grain crackers
  • Popcorn
  • Olive oil and cooking spray
  • Spices (cinnamon, garlic powder, onion powder, fresh ground pepper, vanilla)
  • Canned or packaged fish like tuna or salmon – show tuna creations
  • And for those who take diabetes medications that may drop your blood sugar below 70 or if your blood sugar tends to drop below 70, we must add some fast-acting carb sources to our pantry list. Such as a juice box, hard candy, smarties, honey, regular sugar, I’ve been using squeeze applesauce as a quick way to get carbs into my system when I’m low.

Be Sure To Check Out – Diabetes Snacks For a Month (Part 1)

Planning and Preparing – Staple Items

As you can start to see, when we have some of these staple items on hand, it will be easier to prepare quick snacks or meals. Make sure to scroll through all the recipes I have on video and if we missed an ingredient, add it to your shopping list.

There are a number of other staple items that have a fairly long shelf life. Like chia seeds, cocoa powder, low-calorie sweeteners, polenta, and tomato sauce. I’m mentioning these items to include if you are a fan of my chia pudding recipe or low carb peanut butter cookies OR Have you tried the polenta lasagna recipe yet? It’s delicious and makes 8 servings so you can have leftovers for several meals during the week. Polenta has a fairly long shelf life too.

Be Sure To Check Out – Chocolate Chia Pudding, Diabetes-Friendly Peanut Butter Cookies, and Polenta Lasagna

Planning and preparing are my keys to successful diabetes management. I also find it easier for grocery shopping if I have my list of go to’s.

Hope this is helpful. Do you have any staple items that weren’t on my list? Please share below.

Until next time, cheers to your health.

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Best Foods To Stock in Your Refrigerator for People With Diabetes

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Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Having healthier food on hand is the easiest way to eat healthier. Here’s my list for your refrigerator/ freezer.

This is part 3 in my series of answering one of our viewer’s requests for suggestions on preparing quick snacks and meals ahead of time. So let’s get started and talk about what the best foods are to stock in your refrigerator for people with diabetes.

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What Foods Should You Have Stocked?

In today’s episode, I’m going to give you my recommendations for what specific foods to have stocked in your refrigerator and freezer.

Ready?

Be Sure To Check Out – Diabetes Snacks For a Month (Part 1) and 10 Best Foods for Diabetes- Pantry Edition (Part 2)

My Top Picks:

Many of your protein food sources will be in the refrigerator or freezer…

Dairy Milk or plant-based milk; Cheese; Eggs; Tempeh for plant-based eaters and Plant-based protein crumbles; Skinless chicken or lean turkey or lean beef; Whole grain bread  And…

Many fruits and vegetables will be stored in your fridge or freezer…

Apples, oranges, melon, kiwi, peaches, berries…just to name a few.

And vegetables

Like salad greens, tomatoes, bell peppers, and carrots. Please note, I’m just naming a few of the vegetable choices. Frozen vegetables and frozen fruits are handy so you always have produce available for your meals.

Be Sure To Check Out – Fruits and Veggies, good anytime

You Will Be Prepared

By having these foods in your refrigerator and freezer combined with the top 10 pantry food items, you will be prepared for cooking up a quick snack or meal.

Do you have some “must-have” foods in your kitchen that I forgot to mention? Let me know in the comments section below.

Until next time, cheers to your health.

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