Cooking

As someone who is a self-taught, at-home cook, what has amazed me over the years of learning new recipes is just how simple a lot of things actually are. Crème brûlée? Piece of cake. Schnitzel? No problem. Cheesecake? Easy peesy. I feel like everyone should know how to cook at least a few things, but I feel it’s especially important for diabetics to know how to cook and to think about what they’re putting in their body. I didn’t really start cooking for myself until my junior year of college. It was a steep learning curve for me in terms of both technical cooking skills and understanding how to make healthy food. As a teenager, I never paid attention to calories because I never had to! I used to play year-round sports so I was never worried about gaining weight, and, honestly, I used to not care so much about trying to achieve that perfect A1c. I would eat pretty much any and everything and not worry about the consequences.

Nowadays I’m much more aware of what I eat and what’s in the food I eat. Since I’m on a pump, I can be pretty flexible with what I eat. I generally try to avoid really carb-rich foods as much as possible and eat lots of vegetables, but for the most part I’ll eat anything. The caveat of this approach to food is to remember “all things in moderation.” I think it’s completely acceptable to have part of a candy bar, drink juices, eat pasta, etc., so long as it’s small portions and few and far between. Just remember to balance out your small treats with a relatively steady stream of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, etc. A good rule of thumb I learned in nutrition class a few years ago is to try to keep your intake of “empty calories” (AKA bad-for-you crap junk food) to a maximum of 300 calories per day.

I personally use Pinterest as my online form of a cookbook and collect all my recipes there. I like Pinterest because I can access my favorite recipes no matter where I am, whether I’m on my laptop or someone else’s. You can also add a “Pin It” button to your internet browser’s toolbar to save things from other websites to your Pinterest boards. Below are some of my favorite healthy recipes that I consistently make over and over again at home. I also love browsing Budget Bytes for ideas.

1. The Garden Grazer’s Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro Dressing
2. Easy Lo Mein from Damn Delicious
3. Roasted Pumpkin (or butternut squash) Soup from Martha Stewart
4. The Minimalist Baker’s Buddha Bowls
5. And finally, One Pan Balsamic Chicken and Veggies from Cooking Classy

No matter where you are on your road to becoming an at-home gourmand, remember that cooking is something you just have to experiment with. Don’t let recipes intimidate you, start with relatively easy things and progress from there. And with anything in life, cooking will only get better with practice, so practice away!