Summertime Diabetic-Friendly Meal: Shrimp, Broccoli Slaw, and Southwestern Potatoes

Friday, June 8, 2018
Shrimp, Broccoli Slaw, and Southwestern Potatoes

This week we are thrilled and honored to have Shelby Kinnaird, the Diabetic Foodie, join us as a guest blogger. She shares with us a wonderful summertime menu. Enjoy the visual inspiration and the step-by-step she shares to make your meal making...fun, doable and very tasty! Enjoy! And Live vibrant!

What meal says “summer” to you? For me, I can’t think about summer without remembering our annual family trips to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We always stayed at a place directly across from the fishing pier and could easily walk to the beach. My favorite meal to eat out was a shrimp basket – golden fried shrimp, creamy coleslaw, crispy French fries, and those deep-fried nuggets of cornbread heaven known as hushpuppies.

Since I have type 2 diabetes, that meal isn’t happening for me anymore. Or not very often, anyway. Instead of moping about it, let’s create a new, healthier spin. We’ll enjoy the same elements of shrimp, slaw, and potatoes without worrying about sky-high blood sugar afterwards. But how?

Instead of battering and frying the shrimp, we’ll boil it in a zesty combination of apple cider vinegar and Chesapeake-style seafood seasoning (e.g. Old Bay). Instead of using mayonnaise as the base for our coleslaw, we’ll try an Asian-inspired vinaigrette. We’ll also add broccoli slaw and red bell peppers for some variety. Instead of frying our potatoes, we’ll season them with Southwestern spices and roast them until they are crispy. (If you’d like other tips and tricks for meal planning, check out my new book The Pocket Carbohydrate Counter Guide for Diabetes.)

Pocket Carbohydrate Counter Guide

Here’s our revised menu, portion control provided by Livliga. Recipes for the slaw and potatoes may be found on my website, Diabetic Foodie.



Making adjustments like these is one way to continue enjoying your favorite foods after a diabetes diagnosis. Maybe you can’t eat a giant all-you-can-eat platter of fried food anymore, but is that really a bad thing? Your heart doesn’t think so.

How to Get this Meal on the Table


Instead of just throwing recipes at you, I’m going to give you a “recipe for the meal,” meaning I’m going to show you how to get this entire meal on the table quickly. And who doesn’t need help with that?


Recipe for the meal by Shelby Kinnaird


The first thing you need to do is make sure you know where all of the recipes are that you’ll need. You can print them out or view them on a tablet or your phone. (I’m old school and always print them out so I can scribble notes as I cook.)

If you have a second person to help, put one person on slaw and cocktail sauce and the other on shrimp and potatoes.

Here’s the basic plan:

  1. Put the water on to boil for the shrimp
  2. Preheat the oven for the potatoes
  3. Make the slaw
  4. Cook the shrimp
  5. Prep the potatoes and place in the oven
  6. Remove shrimp to a bowl so it can cool a little bit before you try to peel it
  7. Make cocktail sauce
  8. Flip potatoes
  9. Remove potatoes from oven
  10. Eat!

Peel & Eat Shrimp Recipe


Eat Peel Shrimp Served Up on Livliga

Ingredients


  • 8 cups water
  • 2 cups apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons Chesapeake-style seafood seasoning (such as Old Bay)
  • 1 pound shrimp, deveined but with shells still on
  • Cocktail sauce

Directions


  1. Place water, vinegar, and seasoning in a large stockpot. Bring to boil over high heat.
  2. Add shrimp and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, just until they turn opaque and pink. Turn off heat, cover the pot, and let shrimp sit for 5 minutes.
  3. Remove shrimp to bowl and cool.
  4. Peel, dip in cocktail sauce, and eat!
Serves 4

Calories: 80 calories   Fat: 1g   Sat Fat: 0g   Cholesterol: 143mg   Sodium: 1601mg
Carbs: 1g   Fiber: 0g   Sugar: 0g   Protein: 15g

Note: The sodium count is a bit inflated because a lot of the seasoning stays behind in the shrimp water. However, shrimp is inherently high in sodium as are most seafood seasonings. If you’re watching your sodium intake, look for a salt-free or low-sodium seasoning and reduce your portion of shrimp.

Guest Blogger Bio

Shelby Kinnaird is the Founder and Publisher of Diabetic Foodie, a website featuring recipes and tips for people with diabetes. Her motto is “a diabetes diagnosis is not a dietary death sentence.” Shelby is also the author of The Pocket Carbohydrate Counter Guide for Diabetes: Simple Nutritional Strategies to Lower Your Blood Sugar. A passionate diabetes advocate, Shelby runs two support groups in Richmond, VA.

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Update & Check in for 2018 Healthy Lifestyle Goals

Friday, June 1, 2018
Part of making goals successful is checking in on them to see how you are doing with them. The other thing that is important to do is to adjuct goals when they aren't working. If they are goals that are important to you they should never be abandoned, they may just need to be reworked to work for you and in your current life situation. With my 6 month 2018 annual goals check in I found all these things to be true. Here is how I am doing and how I have succeeded as well as how I have had to modify my goals.



1. What goals can I embrace to better practice healthy habits?


Update: I am doing very well with this goal. I have discovered Cooking Light Diet that provides weekly menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The recipes are included and it also prepares a grocery list! I am loving it!


2. What have I learned or experienced previously that was unexpected and fun in helping me practice healthy habits? Being included in Fitbit challenges.



Update: I got off to a bang with this one. I even started a couple of weekly challenges and invited others to join! Then I found out I have a chronic problem with my knees so I have had to switch my workout routine. I am now swimming 3 times a weekly at the YMCA. I love it! And I have adjusted my daily step goals to accommodate my knees so I’ll still be able to participate in some Fitbit challenges, just not as avidly.

3. What do I want to do more of? Walk the dogs.


Update: I am not doing so well on this goal…I have found it is really hard to make the time to walk the dogs after work. It is on my calendar, I just am always busy with work or feeling too booped to fit in a walk before preparing dinner. They do get an occasional walk....just not every day. I am hoping with the longer days of summer I will find more time and ease into walking the dogs more regularly. I haven’t given up!

As for the kayaking…we were supposed to have out first adventure during Mother’s Day weekend. Unfortunately it was a cold, rainy weekend. It has been rescheduled so all three fun times are ahead on on the calendar.


4. What habit do I want as my highest priority and how can I support it? Eating just the right amount of food.


Update: Overall I am doing well with focusing on being mindful and using the tools to help me.

I am measuring out my food and when at home I am being consistent about my meal and snack times.

I could do better with my water intake. I do use my Yeti thermos consistently so I can be intentional about how much water and tea I am drinking.

My journaling is very simple. I use the 5 minute journal app. It helps me to focus on the reasons I am grateful and goals to make each day great.

Something new I have discovered to help me pace my eating and enjoy my meals more is that I am putting my fork down between bites so I can fully chew and swallow before I take another bite. I really am enjoying my meals more and find that this technique is not that hard to be consistent with. I am much more present.

5. Where does losing weight fit into my priorities? Absolutely… but not by being on a “diet.” I want to do it by eating right and living a healthy lifestyle.


Update: I am doing really well with this goal. I have lost nearly 20 pounds since the beginning of the year. It does prove that if you focus on a healthy lifestyle…consistently…and mindfully, it does pay off!

6. My accountability. Make it public. It is right here in print!

http://blog.livligahome.com/2018/01/new-year-healthier-me-reboota-shift-in.html
Update: Well I guess I am holding true to this commitment! I have given you my honest mid-year update. And the Barrier Busters are being posted weekly for all of us to reflect on and hopefully be motivated by.

Next...How are you doing with your healthy lifestyle goals? What do you need to tweak and/or reboot? Now is the time to do your own check in!


Enjoy! And as always, Live Vibrant!


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