Tahini and celery soup

This is one of my all time favourite soups. It's great hot or cold and is packed with veggies.

Ingredients

2 leeks chopped
A head of celery chopped
4 or 5 spring onions chopped
A tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups vegetable stock
Paprika and dill to serve

Fry the leeks in the butter for 2 minutes
Add the celery.
Fry for one more minute
Add the spring onions
Fry for one more minute
Add the soy sauce and stir.
Add the salt and pepper.
Add the tahini and stir.
Slowly add the stock, one spoonful at a time, stirring all the time.

Don't worry if it curdles a little, it'll sort out in the blender.
Once cooked, add the olive oil and lime juice.
Blitz briefly with a hand blender, leaving plenty of chunks.
Serve with paprika and dill.

Pomelo and pistachio salad

Ingredients

1 pomelo
A handful of pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds.
Some lettuce of other salad ingredients
Parsley - leaves only
Feta cheese for crumbling on top - you can also cube it if you prefer - to taste
And for the dressing:
Olive oil,
lime juice,
salt and pepper
Start with 2:1 oil:lime juice and adjust to taste.

Roast in the oven or dry roast on the hob the nuts and seeds.
Add the dressing ingredients to a jar, shake vigorously and taste. Adjust as necessary.
Shred the lettuce (or arrange it beautifully on a plate, if you prefer)
Top with the pomelo which has been peeled and all pith and seeds removed (from a low GI factor, any tropical fruit is going to be higher than most of the other ingredients we use, but sparingly, it is worth it, plus the fibre means that the GL (Glycaemic Load) is lower).
Sprinkle with the nuts and seeds.
Top with the parsley.
Crumble the feta cheese over, then, just before serving, pour over the dressing and serve immediately.
Crumble the feta

Savoury asparagus cheesecake

I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Cheesecake works wonderfully as a savoury dish. This one, loaded up with cheese and asparagus is really tasty.

Ingredients

300 grams cream cheese

50 grams grated cheddar cheese

2 eggs and one egg yolk

100 grams cream

1tablespoon cornflour

15 stems asparagus

1 teaspoon mustard

salt 

pepper

1 - 2 tablespoons butter

a handful of sliced almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds

a handful of almond flour

Around 2 hours before you start cooking, remove the cream cheese from the fridge. You want it to be room temperature.

Cook the asparagus tips and some chopped up pieces of asparagus for around 5 - 10 minutes in boiling water until soft. Drain and put to one side.

Toast the nuts and seeds in a metal tray in the oven (or dry fry them) for about 5 minutes.

Turn the oven down to around 150 C.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the nuts and seeds, together with the almond flour.

The mixture has the right balance of butter and nuts, etc. when it sticks together when pressed, but crumbles when rubbed in between your fingers. Add more butter, or nuts and seeds until this is achieved. 

Press the nut mix into the bottom of a loose based tin with high sides. We used one around 15 cms in diameter.

Mix the cream cheese and the cream together by pressing it against the side of the bowl.

Add the whisked eggs.

Sift and stir in the cornflour.

Stir in the mustard, cheddar, salt and pepper.

Gently add the chopped asparagus.

Arrange a few of the tips on the nut mixture.

Pour on the cheese mixture, gently pressing down till it is even.

Arrange the asparagus tips on top.

Put in the oven for 2 - 3 hours. 

When turning golden on top, switch off the oven and leave till cool. Remove from the pan and keep in the fridge until ready to eat.

This should be eaten cold. Try to resist till then. It's so so good.

Cheese and veggie omelette

One of the reasons that I believe the low GI diet has worked so well for me is that I am almost never hungry and therefore eat small portions of everything. I am eating three meals most days - sometimes two if I really can't face more food, and occasional snacks like almonds. One of the reasons this works so well is that I always, now, have breakfast. On most mornings this is yoghurt with vanilla essence, raspberries and whole or chunks of almonds, as it is quick and easy. On really busy days I'll have almonds, pistachios and walnuts, together with a couple of dried apricots on the go as I've run out of time! This also makes a great standby to keep with me in case of finding myself somewhere with no low GI food, a plastic bag of this in my bag or pocket, means I can keep the blood sugar from dropping too low wherever I am. Other days I'll have eggs - a poached egg over boiled asparagus and scattered with sea salt is fabulous, or omelette. I use to incorporate all the filling into the omelette itself, but now I prefer to have the veggies folded inside the cooked omelette. This one is my particular favourite.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 tablespoon grated cheddar
1 leek
Half courgette
A few cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon butter
Herbs, salt and pepper, to taste.

Clean and chop the leek, courgette and tomatoes. Fry the leek in half the butter for a few minutes. Add the courgette and tomatoes.
While they are cooking, melt the rest of the butter in a small frying pan.
Pour in the whisked eggs and move around the pan a bit until the egg starts to set. At this point turn down the heat to the lowest possible setting and sprinkle over the cheese. Move the raw egg to the sides of the pan to make sure it gets thoroughly cooked.
Add any herbs, salt and pepper to the veggies.
Put the omelette on the plate, pour the veggies on top and fold it over.

Serve immediately.

Jerk sweet potato stew with black beans

If you are eating low GI, but really craving a potato hit, sweet potatoes are (ironically!), the way to go.This stew is packed with flavour and lower carb than it would be with regular potatoes, but the carbs here mean that it is something to eat in moderation.

Jerk seasoning:
1 tablespoon of black pepper corns
1 tablespoon of all spice berries
A knob of peeled and chopped ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
The stalks from a bunch of coriander
4 or 5 spring onions, roughly chopped
Chilli - to taste
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 tablespoon soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice 3 limes

Blitz all the ingredients in a blender until a fragrant but dirty brown liquid.


Rest of stew
1 kg sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
400 grams tomatoes, chopped up
2 red peppers, cooked in oven for one hour, then skin and seeds removed and flesh chopped into bitesized pieces
400 grams black beans - cooked or strained from a tin.
500 ml vegetable stock
1 large onion, chopped finely
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Jerk seasoning (see above)
Leaves from a bunch of coriander

Fry the onion in the vegetable oil until soft
Add the jerk seasoning.
Fry for 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes
Fry for 10 minutes
Add the potatoes and enough stock to all the potatoes to boil.
Boil for 15 minutes

Add the balck beans and peppers.
Cook for a further 5 minutes. Serve with coriander leaves.

Summer eggs

Per person:

1/2 courgette, cut into chunks

handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

2 eggs (very fresh and broken into two small bowls

A few basil leaves

1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

Fry the garlic and the courgettes in the oil for a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes and fry for a couple more minutes

Make a space in the veggies for the eggs.

Pour the eggs into the gaps

Cook over a low heat until the whites are close to set, but the yolk is still runny.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Banana and raspberry smoothie

A great start to a low GI day.

1 small banana
1/2 cup raspberries
either 1/2 cup yoghurt and 1/2 cup iced water
or 1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch nutmeg
Sprig of mint

Blitz all the ingredients in a food processor. Drink.

Eating low GI in Vientiane

I'm so lucky to live in Laos. I love it, and I love the amazing choice of food we have available to us here. From a variety of asian food, to French restaurants to suit every budget, to coffee shops and a myriad of other places opening up daily. I've always loved the amazing foodie choices here.

Loved it till I got diabetes. Since then, I'm enjoying eating out a whole lot less. For various reasons.
Firstly, at home, my choices are extensive. I don't really notice the change in food as I try to make sure my fridge and freezer always have a great choice of low GI foods. This means that any time I want a snack, or a meal, I can easily get this without falling back on higher GI choices. Once you eat out, firstly there is a real restriction on which items you can eat (and cafes and coffee shops are more or less a no no for anything other than coffee or tea).
Secondly, even when there are lower GI options I have to check up on it. Is this actually low GI?  I have to ask about lots of the ingredients, and hope that I can trust the answers. Then there is the high maintenance part of this - I don't want to be really fussy about my food, but I really don't have much choice any more. Something that makes a great low GI option when made at home - houmous, can turn into something that no longer ticks the boxes. For a great low fact houmous, use dried, not tinned beans, soak them and cook them. and then mix them with tahini, lemon juice, garlic and lots and lots of olive oil. But tahini is expensive here, so is olive oil, and the good dried beans can be hard to find - the ones in the supermarkets have often gone stale and it's frustrating to spend the many hours necessary to prep them, only to find that they stay as hard little nuggets at the end. (Incidentally, the deli at Cafe Vanille sells them, freshly imported from France). The GI of tinned chick peas is much higher and if the restaurant or cafe uses the liquid from the can instead of olive oil for loosening the texture, then it'll go up even higher. And this is just one example of how something, made at home as low GI can make your blood sugar spike when you eat it out. Other examples are dressings for salads, sauces on meats, desserts that you can make with much less sugar at home, and so on.
Thirdly I no longer have that big an appetite - high fat. low carbs means I feel full most of the time and it seems such a waste to go out and only be able to vaguely push some food around a plate and then ask for a doggie bag to take home.
All that said, I've found I've had remarkable help with finding foods that will help, when I've eaten in restaurants around town.
 My immediate reaction to the diabetes diagnosis was not to tell anyone. This lasted about 30 seconds into the first time I went out. I realised I needed to check what was in some items on the menu and without explaining why, it would be weird. So I 'went public' on it. And people were amazing. With only one exception, people have trusted me to know what I can and can't eat, and have gone out of their way to help. I've had menu substitutions and suggestions, friends who have cooked for me have gone through the options in advance. And people have been wonderfully supportive and kind.
Food in coffee shops is almost all out, but I haven't minded. Because this diet leaves me feeling full all the time, I don't mind someone having a cake that I can't have. Sure I'd love one of those cakes, but at the moment I'm full so I'd want one later - I just make sure that later never comes.
Meat and leaves is a great way to think of the ok foods. So grill houses, like Pimenton are great, some of their meat with asparagus and poached quails eggs, or the non bready tapas - artichoke hearts and anchovies, or pickled beetroot eggs for example are fabulous. The tapas at iBeam is mainly bread, but the vegetable plate, the chicken, the pork belly, and a few other dishes, work well. Tango, like Le Vendome, do a lovely steak, just have it with ratatouille instead of potatoes. And Philippe from Bistro 22 came over to talk to me about exactly what substitutions I would need, before I'd even looked at the menu. You really can't get more help than that!
Of course changing over from no rice or potatoes on the plate is strange at first. It feels like something is missing, but it doesn't take long to stop noticing the starchy side dish. Except in a curry house. Indian food can feel a bit strange without breads or rice, but again, it doesn't take long before it all seems perfectly normal. Again and again people have been happy to help out, the chiilli con carne from Coco was served without rice, the breakfast at O'Grady's came without hash browns and toast, and the platter at Sticky's without the bread. Everyone has been happy to provide a low GI substitute which has been wonderful. Houmous and Tsatsiki instead of mashed potatoes, or some courgettes and other veggies instead of the potato at Blu. Buffets at Acqua are great as they have so much choice that it isn't a problem, even though I pity the person immediately behind me hoping for some of the beef carpaccio!
Parties can be a problem. Often there is nothing or simply meat available. I've learnt now to eat before I go and make sure to have a bag with some almonds in for snacking on whilst drinking.
Talking of drinking, options are definitely less than before and I really miss a gin and tonic. However, red wine, in moderation doesn't seem too bad, and any dry spirits are fine - just a case of how to have them - soda is an okay mixer, but there are only so many glasses of vodka soda I can manage.  As an alternative I'll occasionally have a Bloody Mary. Seamus mixes a great one that doesn't spike my blood sugar too badly.
Asian food can be more difficult because most of it is designed to be eaten with rice and sticky rice is one of the very worst. Barbecued fish and meat are great, but it can be hard to find much to eat with it. I haven't eaten any Chinese food since the diabetes diagnosis as all my favourites are now no goes and I struggle to think of anything that would be alright. I was delighted when I realised that the glass noodles are generally made from mung beans so relatively low GI and therefore a great option for a noodle dish.
It's easier to eat at home, but it's nice to have some choices out. And, as I've said, people have been so lovely and understanding, going out of their way to help. It's another reason why it is so wonderful to live in this amazing city.

Garlic butter

 This keeps well in the freezer - you can even fill an ice cube tray though I prefer to make a sausage shape and slice it. It's worth making extra and then you have it whenever you want.

 

The ingredients for this are butter, garlic - ideally roasted in advance to bring out the sweetness, parsley, salt and pepper. You can vary these for interest - maybe add cumin or mustard seeds, some nutmeg or ground cardomom, swap the parsley for coriander or rosemary or thyme, add extra pepper and some chilli, some sundried tomatoes, capers or olives, maybe.

The proportions are very much an individual taste.

 

The butter shouldn't be too cold.

 

Mix all the ingredients together in a bag.

  

Squash together till it's well mixed.

 

Put on some cling film.

Roll tightly.

 Put in the fridge for 2 hours. Slice into rounds to use now or freeze for later. Alternatively, freeze the whole 'sausage'.

Berry smoothie

A great low GI way to start a day. We made a few variations on the theme

1 The sweetener
Half small banana (not too ripe - the riper it is, the higher the GI)
or
1 teaspoon honey
or
1 teaspoon soft brown sugar
or 
Vanilla essence - it doesn't actually sweeten it, but because vanilla is such a savory taste, it seems to do so.

2 The fruit
Berries
Berries are reasonably low GI so we experimented with variety of berries

The liquid
We tried milk, almond milk, yoghurt and cream, plus variations on them. Hazlenut milk works well too. The milk and the almond milk were better with the banana, the others with the honey, etc.

We blended the ingredients, sometimes adding mint leaves, or chopped almonds.


The fruit:
A handful of raspberries


2

Stir fried cauliflower

This is filling and a great, tasty alternative to potatoes.

1 cauliflower broken into florets
4 spring onions, chopped,
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 onion, chopped finely
2 tablespoons sliced almonds, dry fried
A handful of chopped parsley
2 tablespoons oil

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or a wok. Cook the regular onions over a medium heat until transparent.. Add the spices and cook for a further minute. Add the cauliflower and toss with the spiced onions. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring all the time.
Add the rest of the ingredients and toss everything together for one more minute.
It's ready to go.

Lamb shanks with butter bean mash

Ingredients
Lamb shanks
2 tins butter beans
Four tablespoons olive oil
3 roasted cloves of garlic (chop and saute some garlic if you don't have time to roast any, but while the lamb is cooking, throw a few bulbs on another shelf for about an hour, and then remove the skin and store the cloves in olive oil for delicious ready to use cloves that will last for ever, and stunning garlicky olive oil that adds another dimension to salad dressings)
2 spring onions, chopped.
Salt and pepper

Drain and wash the butterbeans and remove the skins (this is hassly, but does make for a much smoother mash). Add the garlic and make into a paste using a blender or a hand blender or a potato masher or a pestle and mortar.
Mix in three tablespoons olive oil.
Add the salt, pepper and most of the onions.
To serve, drizzle the rest of the olive oil and sprinkle over the onions.
Delicious hot or cold.

Lamb shanks

Lamb shanks are so easy to prepare. As long as you give them a long time in the oven, then it's hard to go wrong. I cook them for around 2 - 3 hours for fall apart, tender and delicious lamb.

For 4 people:
4 lamb shanks
2 onions roughly chopped
A handful of frozen cranberries
A cup of red wine
Salt and pepper
Vegetable stock (make plenty and keep it warm to allow you to keep topping up the liquid and keep the meat moist as it cooks
Other options (some of these are not low GI):
orange juice
black tea
cranberry juice
Pepsi (I know but really good!)
apricots, chopped
rosemary
Vinegar (a little rubbed on if you don't want to use red wine or orange juice - helps to tenderise the meat)

Put the shanks in an oven proof dish where they fit fairly snuggly but aren't crammed together.
Pour over the wine 
Cover your hands in salt and pepper and rub this all over the meat.
Add the cranberries and onions and enough stock that they are mostly covered and cook at around 200 degrees C for around 2 - 3 hours, turning regularly and topping up the liquid as required. They are ready when the meat is falling off the bone and they are starting to caramalise.

Baked veggie breakfast

For this you will either need a pan that can go on the stove and in the oven, or you could transfer into an oven proof dish before baking.

Per person -

a handful of mushrooms, peeled and chopped

a teaspoon of butter (garlicky if you prefer)

4 roast, peeled, and chopped tomatoes

a handful of spinach

one egg

Preheat the oven to around 200 C,

Saute the mushrooms in the butter.

Steam the spinach for around 2 minutes, then chop it.

Move the mushrooms to the centre of the pan.

Arrange the tomatoes around the outside.

Make a hole in the middle of the mushrooms and add the spinach.

Break a fresh egg into a small bowl.

Make a dip in the spinach and pour in the egg.

Put in the oven for around 10 minutes till the egg is cooked.

Serve immediately.

Smoky pepper chilli

12 ripe tomatoes

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 green pepper

8 shallots

6 chilli peppers

6 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons paprika

2 tins kidney beans

3 tablespoons vegetable stock

sour cream or yoghurt for dressing

Chopped spring onions for dressing

Remove the stem and seeds from the peppers and cut into chunks

Thread all the vegetables on to skewers and barbecue until starting to blacken

 Add the rest of the ingredients, except the kidney beans, to a pan and cook for 20 minutes until the flavours are mingled.

Add the kidney beans and stir gently for a further five minutes.

Serve with sour cream and spring onions

Roasted tomato and red pepper soup

This soup is great warm, even better cold. Serve with either basil oil, cucumber 'croutons', slices of spring onions, basil leaves, sour cream, or yoghurt (or a mixture of the lot!).

2 red peppers

1 kg ripe tomatoes

A handful of basil leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1 onion (optional)

2 - 5 tablespoons vegetable stock to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

yoghurt/cream - optional

garnish

In a medium oven, roast the peppers (whole), tomatoes (with the top removed) and the garlic (whole unpeeled cloves) at a medium temperature for around 1 - 2 hours until they start to caramelise. Also the onion, if you are using one.

Once cooked, peel and deseed the peppers and chop them up roughly.

Chop the tomatoes into quarters.

Remove the skin from the garlic and chop up.

If using an onion, peel and quarter it.

Cook for a few minutes.

Blend with a hand blender.

Add yoghurt, cream or stock to taste.

Season.

Serve either hot or cold with garnish of your choice.

Living and eating with diabetes

It's been a strange journey, this last 7 months, knowing I had diabetes. There have been lots of ups and down as I've worked on keeping my blood sugar steady. Some predictable issues, others that have taken me by surprise. When I first was diagnosed I didn't really take it in. I just researched and researched how to eat and what to do differently to turn my life around.

My initial decision was that I had to find a way of eating that would work for me, not just long term, but forever. No point in denying myself completely the tastes I most craved, and with such a sweet tooth, that was going to be desserts. But, I had to change. If I carried on eating in the same way as before, I was severely restricting my life expectancy.

It turned out that the diagnosis of diabetes was one of the good things that has happened to me. Obviously not good in the sense that no-one actually wants to have diabetes, but it gave me the shakeup I needed to get my life together a bit more.

I feel daft for this now, but I genuinely thought I understood how diets work, cut back on calories, cut back on fat, eat lots of salads and you should lose weight. I also knew that although I didn't move as much as I should, I also didn't eat that much. Friends who spent any time with me were genuinely shocked by what I ate - about the same as them, maybe less, and yet I was freak show fat.

A lovely friend gave me some pointers to get me on to the low Glycaemic Index (GI) diet to cut my sugars. I knew we were always being told to eat whole-wheat bread, rather than white, and the same with pasta, but I'd thought that was simply a fibre thing. I genuinely hadn't picked up on the links with sugar. I don't really know why now - the advice is out there, but then so is a lot of junk advice that goes on gut instinct or fashions from celebrities and a great deal of this is either utter nonsense or at best, not ideal.

This was different. The big culprits for high GI food are rice, flour, sugar, cooked root veggies, fruit juice and tropical fruit. I decided I could totally (or as near as didn’t really count) cut out the most of these. I’ve had one spoonful of rice when a curry was just too hot one evening, one spring roll wrapped in rice paper and one serving of laap which has dry fried rice powder as one of the ingredients. Of course each ingredient can’t be taken alone. I knew that if I really really wanted rice, then basmati was the one to go for, and if I ate it with a really oily curry, then this would go a long way towards preventing the sugars being absorbed.

It’s confusing and I leap around, thinking I’ve understood the whole concept of low GI one minute, then realising I’ve got something wrong the next. It doesn’t help that anyone can write a blog – me for example, on what low GI food is and just because it’s out there, doesn’t mean they’ve got it right. It’s complex. Processing food changes its GI, so steel cut oats have a lower GI than rolled oats, which have a lower GI than quick cook oats. If you take whole grains and grind them into powder, removing a lot of their chewiness along the way, that seems to massively increase their GI. And then there is the Glycaemic Load (GL) of a food. This takes account of fibre so is considered a better indicator. Many fruits and vegetables with a high GI have a medium or even low GL, making them okay to eat.

How you prepare food makes an impact. Pasta is lowest GI when it’s skinny – like spaghetti, and cooked al-dente. The more you cook it, the higher the GI. As I’ve said, fat slows down the absorption of the sugar into the blood, so if you really want a potato, French fries are better, from a GI standpoint, than a baked potato.

But there is also the added confusion that the impact of a certain food is different from one person to the next. For me flour is a problem. I have had very little flour, a sliver of cake, maybe three or four times, a couple of chicken nuggets coated in breadcrumbs when I was testing a recipe before making them with some kids on a cooking course, and a whole-wheat chapatti for my daal once. I was hopeful that the oils in the daal, and the fact that the chapatti was made with whole-wheat flour would minimise the impact it would have. My blood sugar peaked to its highest since I was first diagnosed. Chapattis were back off my list of foods I can try out. And so was daal. I love daal. It’s low GI. But it just isn’t right without chapattis.

I’ve had about three or four potatoes in the last 7 months. And I’ve savoured every mouthful as I’ve eaten them. I do miss potatoes.

Fruit juices are out. This is ok. Pepsi and Coke are out. This doesn’t bother me either. Beer is out. No problem. Wine is okay, in moderation. That’s great. Vodka, gin, whiskey, brandy, tequila are all fine.  Now that would be good except what I want is a gin and tonic. And tonic is out. Even the sugar free one. Not that you can get hold of sugar free tonic in the obscure part of the world where I live. Seems that it is almost as bad as the sugar loaded stuff for insulin production. I haven’t looked into it in too much depth; just put it into the box of things I can no longer eat. Vodka soda is alright, but there are only so many bubbles you can drink before becoming uncomfortable, or worse. And vodka soda just isn’t gin and tonic. I’ll occasionally go for a bloody Mary. Whizzed up tomatoes, vodka, a grind of pepper, lemon juice and chilli to taste, decorated with celery. It’s not low GI, but it isn’t too bad. My blood sugar doesn’t spike too badly.

Eating out has also had its challenges. When I was first diagnosed, I had planned to keep the diagnosis to myself. This lasted until just before I ordered something for the first time. I couldn’t order normally any longer. I didn’t want food cooked with hidden sugar. I didn’t want rice – and living in Asia that can be challenging. I didn’t want cooked root veggies, or sweet corn or anything particularly sweet. A chef told me he’d prepared something especially for me – it was a total carb fest. I couldn’t eat it. Instantly I realised that the only way I was going to be able to make it through this complete lifestyle change was by telling people and by getting help.

I asked the waiter to give me a simple olive oil dressing on the salad and could I change the dauphine gratinoise for some green veggies? They paused for a moment and I blurted out that I’d been diagnosed with diabetes and couldn’t eat these things any longer. Of course, no problem. In fact restauranteurs have been wonderful. Offering alternatives, or piling on extra of the ‘allowed’ items. But eating out has lost a lot of its charms. I don’t want to be the fussy one with a list of food items I can’t do. And if I cook at home, that won’t happen.

Because I teach cooking, I simply changed a lot of the courses to low GI food. This means that I always have plenty of low GI food easily available. I think this is crucial. Without this I’d have been very tempted to have some toast or a sandwich. So easy and quick to fix. So I do my best to always make sure there is easy food around at all times that is good for me. Most of the time, as well as the leftovers, there is homemade hummus and crudités in the fridge. It’s important that it is homemade as so many shop bought varieties come laden with hidden sugar which somewhat defeats the purpose. There are normally other dips too. Jeows (the smoky, spicy dips from Laos), baba ganoush, nut dips and so on for easy and quick snacks or to accompany a salad, with some cold meats which are also normally in the fridge. I make sure I have plenty of eggs, cheese, fresh veggies in the fridge too as these can be used quickly and easily. I’ve found certain items sneak into my meals a great deal more since changing my eating habits. Limes, capers, and olives all add great flavour. Vanilla essence, cinnamon and nutmeg all lift a dish – yoghurt with vanilla essence seems much sweeter, apples stewed with cinnamon and nutmeg have a much better depth of flavour that helps round off the dessert. Cardamom and turmeric all feature much more, as do cloves and all spice.

Very soon after starting, I found food tasted sweeter than before as my taste buds adjusted to the new flavours. One of my favourite desserts now is cardamom and vanilla panna cotta, made with either no sweetener, or the tiniest touch of honey or brown sugar (generally if I’ve made them for others who aren’t eating a low sugar diet). Berries are great too. Most mornings I’ll grab a handful of frozen berries, some roasted nuts and some thick yoghurt and it leaves me full for hours.

I’ve got into some new habits. If I’m not exactly sure when I’ll next be able to eat, I’ll make sure I have a bag with almonds in, popped in a pocket. If food is delayed, or not low GI, I can just snack on these without spiking my blood sugar.

But aside from the food, there have been a number of other unexpected side effects of diabetes and the subsequent weight loss. I’ve currently lost a little over 30 kilos (or 70 pounds) and it’s impacting in all sorts of ways. 
One of the most remarkable is the amazing support I've had from people all around me. I've had such wonderful help and positive feedback from some amazing people who have really helped me in my journey. It has made a huge difference.
Another is my sleep. I’m generally losing about 0.8 kilos a week and my body shape is changing. I can’t lie the same way as before so I toss and turn every night, trying to get comfortable. I can’t sit still for long any more. If I do, my legs will go to sleep. I guess this is the impact of circulation that is a symptom of diabetes. It goes properly to sleep too. I can’t put my weight on it until it comes back (complete with pins and needles, which isn’t great when it’s every day).

I can’t let myself become over-tired or over-heated any longer. I have no idea why. Maybe it’s the diabetes, maybe the weight loss, maybe something else, but if I do, I physically react.  Either I start to feel very unwell, very quickly or I get very dizzy, sweaty and my lips start to lose colour and have no choice but to sit down. I’m writing this having left a birthday party early because I was just too hot and had had a very tiring week. I would have become unpleasantly ill, had I stayed. It’s a real shame when it impacts on being with friends, of course. I also get dizzy easily if I have a blood sugar spike, but happily this doesn't happen too often.
Oestrogen is fat soluable, so as I've lost weight, my hormones have been on a roller-coaster. I now try not to laugh too much at something; it flips into tears, full on desperate body racking tears stream down my face, leaving me emotionally exhausted and everyone around me confused and unsure what to do. It took me by complete surprise the first couple of times and since then I try to keep more stable. This doesn't always work, of course.

Then there are the other normal results of losing the weight too, of course. My knees don’t hurt all the time. I have energy that I hadn’t had for a long time, and I feel like I have got my spark back. I didn’t plan or try to lose weight. It was all just a side effect of changing how I ate to manage the diabetes. A wonderful, life changing side effect and the reason why it really feels like diabetes probably saved my life, certainly gave me my life back, and has given me a new energy for living. This is why receiving the diagnosis of diabetes is probably one of the good things that has happened to me.

The journey so far - my brother and me a few days before the diagnosis

And seven months later.There is still a long way to go, but definitely on the right track.

Roasted fruit with nuts and vanilla yoghurt

We made this two ways:

Ingredients 

A selection of fruit

We used:

Plums,

Pears,

Apples,

Bananas

A selection of nuts and seeds

We used:

Sliced almonds,

Pistachios

Pumpkin seeds

Then for method one:

Lime juice and honey, mixed together

For method two:

butter with cinnamon and nutmeg, mixed together

For the yoghurt:

Natural yoghurt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence

Roast the nuts and seeds in a warm oven (or dry fry them) for around five minutes,

Peel and slice the fruit.

Coat it in the lime juice and honey or the spiced butter and roast in a warm oven  (around 200 C) for about 20 minutes until it's starting to caramalise.

Arrange on a plate.

Mix the yoghurt and vanilla essence and pour over the fruit.

Sprinkle with the nuts and seeds and serve.

Walnut, goats cheese and avocado salad

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped

1 teaspoon honey

Salt and pepper to taste

For the salad

A generous handful of walnuts

200 grams feta cheese, chopped into centimetre cubes

One avocado, cut into chunks

one head lettuce, ripped up

Optional

pea shoots

olives

capers

one apple, peeled and chopped

coriander

spring onions

Mix all the dressing ingredients in a small jar.

Put the walnuts in the oven to toast for around five minutes (or dry fry them, if you prefer)

Toss all the salad ingredients together apart from the walnuts, avocado and feta cheese.

Sprinkle the remaining ingredients over (gently)

Pour the dressing over and eat immediately.

Steamed fish with okra and tomato stew

Seven months on from my diabetes diagnosis, I can genuinely say that I believe that getting diabetes was probably one of the better things that has happened to me. I was on a ridiculous path and getting the shock of being diagnosed with diabetes seems to have given me the shock I needed. 

So far I've lost 34 kilos (long way still to go but this is a great start!), feel more energetic - losing 34 kilos does that to a girl!, and I've got my spark back. It feels great. Of course it would have been better to have happened without getting diabetes, but I guess that wasn't to be. 

In the few months since the diagnosis, I've eaten virtually no flour, rice, cooked root veggies, sweetcorn, pumpkin, fruit juice, mixers, or tropical fruit. Some of these are low GL, though high GI, but as I've not been having them, I'm more than happy to continue leaving them out of what I eat, after all - I'm losing an average of over 0.8 kilos a week at present and that suits me just fine.

This dish is lovely. A lot of low GI food is high fat, which helps keep hunger at bay, but this is low fat, low carb, and hits all the right buttons. Just cook the okra for at least 20 minutes or it will be weird and slimy!

First make the tomato and okra stew.

Steam the fish fillets over boiling water for around 10 - 15 minutes, depending on how thick they are.

Serve with chopped spring onions sprinkled over.