Christmas dinner carb query

[Evergreen]

Hello on this lovely cold day! It’s the first of December and I’m thinking Christmas!

I have a work Christmas do coming up and have the menu. Being reasonably new to carb counting however (and still waiting for the DAFNE course), I’m struggling with eating out.

Would people be able to advice me on how to estimate carbs for the following meal (I’m aware this might be hard as I don’t know how big portions are until I see them)?

Starter: winter spiced sweet potato soup
Main: chicken dinner, pigs in blankets, herb roast potatoes, glazed root vegetables, green beans, thyme gravy
Pudding: chocolate brownie, tangerine compote

Thank you in advance!

 

[Inka]

The soup is probably the hardest to estimate. You’ll have to judge (or ask) whether it’s just sweet potato or is mixed veg plus sweet potato. I’d err on the side of caution in my estimate. Sweet potato is usually more blood sugar friendly than white.

Main - chicken is no carbs,
pigs in blankets depends on the brand and size but probably only 2 or so grams carbs each,
roast potatoes - think eggs. A 2oz potato is roughly the size of a large hen’s egg and has 10g carbs, so measure your potatoes by eye to see how many ‘eggs’ they make, then calculate
Root veg - watch for parsnips as they’re quite carby for veg. I’d ignore carrots, but parsnips are around 18g per 100g raw weight. Why not weigh a parsnip at home so you know the size that is? Watch out for honey glaze (taste and see) but you can normally ignore it if it’s a small quantity.
Green beans - ignore
Thyme - ignore
Gravy - I usually ignore this too, but you could round up to take into account a couple of grams for the gravy

So, potatoes and parsnips will be your main carbs - count them first - then tot up the rest, eg pigs in blankets, and add it on.

Dessert - this will hugely depend where you’re eating (cheaper places tend to have very sugary desserts), but I’d have a taste to gauge sweetness, then take a guess depending on portion size. Again, look at some brownies before you go so you’re ready to eye-up the carbs. Generally, depending on size, I’d be thinking 20-40g carbs for the brownie. I’d probably go with 25/30g though so as to avoid going to low, especially as a larger meal will take longer to be digested. I often ‘save’ a bit of the insulin and bolus with it later if it’s looking like I’m going too high.

Remember, you can always add a little extra insulin later if needed. Better that than to go hypo. I’d inject separately for each course.

 

[Leadinglights]

You don't know when you go out with a large group how long there will be between courses.
We had a Xmas meal booked for 1pm, the starters came at 2pm, main course and 3pm and we still hadn't got pudding at 4pm, some people had to go without having their pud. We were offered complimentary coffee, big deal!!!

 

[Evergreen]

Thank you! That’s a useful starting point. I might get in touch with the venue to ask about the sweet potato soup, but sounds like the main might be fairly ok to estimate which is good (and good practice for actual Christmas!)