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casseroles?

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B

bev

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Hi all!

I was just wondering how you all make casseroles etc and carb count?

I used to make loads of casseroles and stews etc and beef in brown ale etc but i dont know where to start with the carbs - if you cook potatoes with it which i do - you dont know exactly how many have 'melted' into the sauces etc! Alex used to love these foods - but i havent made any since his diagnosis as i cant work it all out exactly!
Any advice or ideas for something similar and easy to work out would be appreciated! Thanks. Bev
 
bev said:
Hi all!

I was just wondering how you all make casseroles etc and carb count?

I used to make loads of casseroles and stews etc and beef in brown ale etc but i dont know where to start with the carbs - if you cook potatoes with it which i do - you dont know exactly how many have 'melted' into the sauces etc! Alex used to love these foods - but i havent made any since his diagnosis as i cant work it all out exactly!
Any advice or ideas for something similar and easy to work out would be appreciated! Thanks. Bev
Click to expand...

I think the best you can do with things like this is either to serve the carbs seperately (I cook casseroles without the potatoes, then have a serving with mash or baked potato), or estimate from the carbs you are putting in to get a general 'ballpark' figure, then it's trial and error I'm afraid. Might be worth taking a look at some of those ready meals for their carb content and then trying to relate that to your home-cooked version.
 
Assuming you know the total amount of all ingredients (basically just potatoes and flour in dumplings and perhaps bread to mop up sauce / gravy, unless there's any other possibilities I haven't considered?) that contain carbohydrate, you can just estimate the proportion of the total that you give to Alex - and work out the carbohydrate content of his portion that way. It's a bit hit and miss, of course, but OK. But it is more difficult with children, where doses and body weights are smaller, and especially in early days / honeymoon phase, so don't worry too much. I guess it all depends on personal taste - I must admit I like the texture of casseroled potatoes and root vegetables in general .
 
Bev, the simple solution is to cook Alex's in a sep dish.
My Mum always did this for me. This way We always knew what was in the stew/casarole. Mum did the same with sweets/puddings too. This way I had the same meals as everyone else but my puds were made with artificial sweetener to keep the carb content down.
 
Thanks!
Sue, i have thought about doing his food seperately but for some reason Alex seems unhappy about it and says ' why do i have to be different from everyone'? I know what he means - so i have sort of chosen not to make any things like this - but i need to think about all of us - not just Alex.
I havent used sweeteners yet - so i dont understand what the idea of them is- do they just give you the sweetness without the sugar highs? Do they taste the same as sugar? Is it the 'canderal' stuff in jars? Thanks. Bev
 
bev said:
Thanks!
Sue, i have thought about doing his food seperately but for some reason Alex seems unhappy about it and says ' why do i have to be different from everyone'? I know what he means - so i have sort of chosen not to make any things like this - but i need to think about all of us - not just Alex.
I havent used sweeteners yet - so i dont understand what the idea of them is- do they just give you the sweetness without the sugar highs? Do they taste the same as sugar? Is it the 'canderal' stuff in jars? Thanks. Bev
Click to expand...

Hi Bev, when I was diagnosed the in sweetener was sorbital 😱 none of the others had been invented then. it just gave the sweetness without the carbs.
I use Splenda now.
SPLENDA, is not recognised by the body or broken down for energy, so it has no effect on insulin or blood glucose levels.
http://www.splenda.co.uk/index.html have a look at the splenda site.
I made the ginger breadmen and they are yummy.
The brown splenda is 1/2 brown sugar though so do count the carbs of half the amount used.

Regarding the food issues with Alex, you will have to put your foot down over it. The household can not and must not revolve around him.
If he notices you have cooked a main meal in sep dishes point out its the only way to get the carbs right. But it's exactly the same as everyone elses.
Puddings are simple to fix just make individual puddings for everyone and make sure you remember which is alex's lol.
 
Bev - I still think my suggestion is worth a try, so that Alex CAN eat from the same saucepan, not just the same ingredients as everyone else. Actually, the opposite happened when I was first diagnosed - moved back after a year overseas to parents' home, where a semi-housetrained 19 year old cousin, with very fussy food habits was living - he wouldn't eat, pasta, cheese, anything spicy etc, and Dad wouldn't eat anything spicy, either, which consdirably limited Mum & me. Best meal during that period was when a friend, a woman doctor who'd grown up in Pakistan, brought some curry round for me and Mum! I think in the long run, Alex will have the easiest and most fun diet if he eats / drinks the same as everyone else, within a couple of limits eg no sugary drinks except with meals.
 
when i cook a casserole i add the potatoes to the sauce/mix and cook it all together. i estimate the amount of carbs in the meal by taking into account the amount of spuds and flour i use also i tend to add a little more to the carb content than there actually is but seen as alex is probably still in the honeymoon period it may be better to underestimate and give a top up dose later on 🙂
 
Scales

Hi

If you make the same sort of casseroles each time ie add the same ingredients and have a repetoire (sorry couldn't think of another word😛) then you could do with getting some decent scales that can help you out with this. I have Salter scales, I'll find a link for you if you want (just ask). They were very expensive (?67) but worth every penny. For example I make a lasagne from a recipe book (rubbish cook!). With these scales you can just programme in all the total ingredients indiviually with the values etc and add it as lasagne in the scales. From now on, if I use that same recipe for Lasagne (which I no doubt will), then I just weigh out my daughter's portion from onto her plate already on the scales and press the button for lasagne and hey presto there is the carb count.

They are fantastic and I need to do another one with pearl barley in it as I am always doing stews with that and no potatoes as the barley is the carb and my daughter loves it. So far I have carb counted wrong so I need to add the recipe into the scales and I won't get it wrong again.

Hope that helps a bit.
Adrienne :D
 
Thanks all!

Adrienne,
Thanks for that information -on the subject of the scales i think i read somewhere on this site that they are sometimes inacurate? I dont know why. But then if you have found that they work well - could you give me details of them?
Many thanks. Bev
 
Scales

Hi Bev

No problem. If you add the details in yourself then they are only as accurate as the details you have put in so in theory should be spot on.

If you weigh an apple for example and use the scales carb value then yes it could be different because not all apple types are the same! I put in all the cereals from the packet details that my daughter has and so they are accurate etc etc.

These are the ones I use :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salter-1450...r_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1235387242&sr=8-1

You need the whole link.

They are called Salter 1450 electronic nutri scales. I can't praise them enough and infact many of my friends now use the same ones. If you find some foods not that accurate then you can tweak them so that in future they are fine. They are expensive but the best scales I've bought. It did take me a while to get used to them and experiment though.

Adrienne 🙂
 
Adrienne,
Many thanks for the link - they look very good - i will get some - did you buy any of the books inthe offer? Bev
 
Hi

No I didn't buy these books. I use the following two books :

This is my favourite as easy and in alphabetical order (it is only 1p now, bargain) :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carbohydrat...ation-Authority/dp/1853918032/ref=pd_sim_b_79

This one is small to carry around with you but I find some of the things bizarre ie medium banana is 22 cho. What is a medium banana? Your medium could be different to my medium and if on MDI and pumping, you need to get it right, which is why I prefer the book above but this Collins Gem is a great little book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carb-Counter-Carbohydrates-Everyday-Collins/dp/0007176015/ref=pd_sim_kh_2

Adrienne 🙂
 
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