Healthy Comfort Recipes: Diabetes-friendly

While we’ve all felt guilty of having moments where we emotionally eat, it doesn’t have to be something we try to avoid when managing our diabetes.  

We’ve put together a few of our favourite diabetes friendly recipes that are healthy alternatives to enjoy some of your favourite comfort foods during emotional times. Enjoy!!!

Homemade sweet potato fries are the perfect snack! By baking them instead of deep frying them you are missing out on all the grease but not sacrificing the flavour. Sweet potatoes are jam packed with fibre, vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin A. Orange are purple sweet potatoes are high in antioxidants and contain both soluble and insoluble fibre, promoting a healthy gut.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

• 100g peeled sweet potatoes
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 ° C
2. Toss sweet potato with olive oil and cayenne pepper
3. Spread evenly over a baking tray lined with baking pepper
4. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until tender

Nutrition Info:

Per Serve: 476 kJ, carbohydrates 14g, protein 2g, total fat 5g (sat. fat 1g), fibre 3g, sodium 17mg, carb exchanges 1 

 

Check out this veggie loaded lunch! Great for those chilly days. 

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 800 g chicken thigh fillet (cubed)
• 1-1.5L of chicken stock
• ½ cup of water (optional)
• 400g carrot (diced)
• 400g zucchini (diced)
• 400g celery (diced)
• 2 brown onions (diced)
• 180g ginger (grated)
• ½ bunch of parsley (finely chopped)
• Spring onion (to garnish)
• Salt and pepper (to season)
• Olive oil (to cook)
• Rice noodles or cauliflower rice (as desired)

Nutritional information:

Around 150 calories per serving (not including cauliflower rice/rice noodles):

• High protein
• Anti-inflammatory 
• Immune system boosting
• High vitamin A

METHOD:

1. Fry chicken on medium-high heat in some olive oil in deep pot until slightly golden. Remove from pot.
2. Brown carrots, onion, zucchini and celery (in this order). Add chicken back to pot once vegetable medley is soft.
3. After 2 minutes of cooking the ingredients altogether on the medium-high heat, add in the chicken stock (if you like it really soupy add the full 1.5L), water (optional) and grated ginger.
4. Keep on a low simmer for 1 hour, stirring the pot every 5-10 minutes.
5. Just before serving, stir in the spring onion and parsley.
6. Serve with the veggie/chicken soup with cooked rice noodles or cauliflower rice.

Tip: If possible, use fresh chicken to cook this recipe - using thawed raw chicken with make the chicken taste dry. 

This quick and easy ice-cream recipe is low GI and minimal sugar! This healthy ice-cream recipe contains fibre thanks to the banana. Making it perfect for people living with diabetes as they are absorbed slowly and cause a gradual increase in blood sugar. We recommend serving it with either sliced banana or strawberries.

Try it out for yourself or follow along with Andi as she makes hew own ice-cream using the very same recipe! 

 

 

Preparation Time: 2 minutes

Cooking Time: 3 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

• 1 frozen banana
• 2 teaspoon of cocoa powder

Method:

1. Place banana and cocoa powder in a blender
2. Blend until smooth
3. Taste and add more cocoa powder to taste
4. Serve and eat immediately!