Your Life

Frustration over Diabetic Diet Turned into a Zest for Creative Cooking

Rosemarie D’Ginto and her husband, Greg, live in South Carolina, where they enjoy taking care of their furry family, including a dog with special needs. Rosemarie also loves to garden and make relishes and jellies. Greg’s hobby is wood turning, and he supports canine cancer research with a part of his sales.

Please note that the following advice does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The information in this article is intended as general information only. Please consult your physician for specific advice.

Diabetes doesn’t just affect the person who has it. Diabetes changes the lives of everyone in the family. Whoever does most of the cooking has to consider many things before cooking dinner every night.

I can’t tell you the number of diabetes education classes we have attended. A diabetes education nurse once said, “Greg, this is all about you,” and I came unglued. Really, this is about us, our family.

I didn’t want to learn to cook new, different kinds of meals. But in addition to my husband’s diabetes, my family has a history of heart issues, and I certainly don’t want to drop dead because of hardened arteries. So I do not cook with salt, unless a recipe has to have it. By playing with different spices, vinegars, etc., I’ve learned to make almost everything I cook taste great. Rarely have we sat down for dinner and hated what we’re eating.

The classes discussed reading and learning about labels. Occasionally we’ll want potato chips or canned baked beans at the neighborhood cookout, but otherwise we buy very few items that have a label.

So many of our friends and family think a “home cooked meal” is one made from a box or bag. While a bag of frozen veggies would be a good choice when fresh veggies aren’t in season, I always tell my friends to shop the perimeter of the grocery stores.

Most grocery chains have the produce, meats and bakery toward the walls of the store, while the aisles contain dry goods, canned goods and frozen foods. It is just as quick to cook fresh veggies as it is to pop in a packaged dinner. And I’m a huge condiment fan. I love flavored oils and vinegars and salt-free spices. Those once bland veggies now have tons of flavor!

My husband used to be a huge meat eater. But over the years, it became harder to keep the pounds off. Now we eat a lot of chicken, and we love fish. Once in a blue moon, we’ll share an 8-ounce steak just to satisfy that craving.

We never were big potato people, but both coming from large Italian families, we loved our pasta. When my husband discovered he was diabetic, it took years to learn which foods spiked his sugar levels. Pasta was one of them. We changed to a healthier brand of pasta, and now he can even have a second small helping without worrying.

Diabetics should be watching their total food intake. As the wife of a diabetic, I had to learn that he could have a certain number of carbs each day, and I had to learn how each food affected his sugar levels. Regular boxed pasta would spike his sugar levels hours after he ate. Regular rice, cooked in a rice cooker, would slightly elevate his sugars about two hours after he ate, but jasmine rice didn’t change anything.

I also learned to balance his total number of calories for the day between three meals and two snacks and to balance the proteins with the fats, again, so his sugars would not spike. It was a long and exhausting process.

We started our first garden in 2005 and absolutely love growing fresh veggies. Our new favorite dish is cauliflower and yellow squash mashed “potatoes,” made with cooked cauliflower and seeded squash and finely diced raw onions prepared in a blender. It tastes pretty darn good and even can pass as lumpy potatoes. We do use a bit of unsalted butter to give it that creamy flavor.

Many times I use a spray oil product on veggies, season with tons of herbs and roast them on the grill. I serve the veggies over jasmine rice, with fresh tomatoes seeded and topped with grated Romano and fresh mozzarella cheeses and chopped fresh basil on the side and a salad. Yum!

You’d be amazed what can be done with fresh veggies and herbs. I love growing basil. At the end of the season, I chop the leaves, put them in ice cube trays, cover with water and freeze. Using those frozen cubes gets me through until the next year’s garden.

As a result of my husband’s diabetes, I discovered that I love to cook creatively, and I have had friends rave when they come over for lunch or dinner.