Dx today vegetarian, on a low budget and don’t want to starve!

[LucysLostSister]

Yes, that particular recipe suggests 2 types of sausage, but adapting the amounts of sauce and veg would do much the same I think.

These muffin melts contain tuna, but, again, could be swapped around for veggie proteins or veg. I guess one consideration is the mount of water a veg will release when cooked. Squeezed, cooked spinach would work though.

Hearty Spicy Tuna Cups are the Perfect Keto Meal

What a genius way to use a can of tuna in the pantry!

hip2keto.com

It takes time to work out a plan, and I am certainly not your best guide because I enjoy my meat. You'll get there.

Yea learning curve isn’t it?

I wonder if that suggestion of yours is similar to this?

Easy egg muffins

Make these mini egg muffins for an easy breakfast or lunch with the kids. Add chopped ham, bacon or smoked salmon, if you fancy

www.bbcgoodfood.com

Which I am keen to try but having trouble getting eggs at the moment! The current situation with tomatoes, peppers - and apparently courgettes - means my plans to make a ratatouille batch cook are on the shelf for the moment.

 

[LucysLostSister]

Then the days of the cheesy vegetable bake as the only vegetarian option on the menu!

Have a look at A Pinch of Nom.
They have good vegetarian recipes.
Some are more complicated than others, some can be made easier with a few easy tweaks.
The biggest thing I've took away is the suggestions on how to cut fat and calories, which carry across to a lot of other situations.

Vegetarian Archives - Pinch Of Nom

Recipes that are all suitable for vegetarian diets including Salt and Pepper Chips, Vegan Chilli and Vegan Campfire Stew. From Pinch of Nom.

pinchofnom.com

As to eating out, I suspect unless you are have a set menu in a restaurant, as AndBreathe says, and can order things like the Avocado salads, it's always going to be a problem when you low carb.
Meat can make it easier, but I never found that worked for me either. It takes planning, and studying the menu in advance to check they have got an option, or it's salad again, and there is the risk it becomes the same old restaurant, the same old foods as well, and I am just too spontaneous for that.

When I resolved to beat my diabetes, I preferred to keep carbs on the menu if I could, and I can still nip into anywhere, and eat whatever is on offer, especially for a snack and a coffee out.
The toastie (and salad!) was in a small bar, at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon. That could have been ordered as cheese, and would have been more filling than just the salad, but even that would have to have been a negotiation, as it came on the plate, not a side option.
Nowhere else open, definitely no restaurants in the dead times on Sundays, (well, apart from Greggs), so it was either go hungry, drive into another town and hope, or just go home.
It's also more sociable if we are meeting people, then it doesn't have to be a meal every time we meet friends, a coffee shop is open to us.

It's worth considering if you can keep a balance of some carbs, not everyone goes ultra low, some of us balance our whole lifestyle, not just focus solely on BG.

When the cheesy vegetable bakes came in I was relieved! Before that it had been dubious omelettes and watery microwave vegetable lasagnes which decades later still make me nauseous at the thought of eating one

I will look at pinch of nom, happy to tweak recipes do that all the time.

Eating out is looking like being very tricky, and as you say it’s not because I’m super keen to eat out but it’s very much part of my social life which was hard one and supports my Mh.

Whether I have to go low carb or very low carb I guess I’ll know better after dr appointment which I am frankly dreading as I fear I’m going to have an argument on my hands with yet another gp who doesn’t listen to me, so done with that yet no choice but to deal with.

Of course my health is important, but that’s all aspects of my health and that very much inc Mh because if that goes down the tubes so does my self care anyway which will be a huge problem with the diabetes even though it’s more not eating than eating as when v anxious I can’t eat.

 

[42istheanswer]

Yea learning curve isn’t it?

I wonder if that suggestion of yours is similar to this?

Easy egg muffins

Make these mini egg muffins for an easy breakfast or lunch with the kids. Add chopped ham, bacon or smoked salmon, if you fancy

www.bbcgoodfood.com

Which I am keen to try but having trouble getting eggs at the moment! The current situation with tomatoes, peppers - and apparently courgettes - means my plans to make a ratatouille batch cook are on the shelf for the moment.

I usually add a little more milk than that, but yes make very similar things for breakfast most days. (I know you said you have some restrictions on ability to go out, which is why I didn't mention the Olio food waste prevention app sooner, but there have been quite a lot of eggs on that near me recently for collection from volunteers - it seems most of the local Icelands over-ordered with pancake day!)

 

[LucysLostSister]

Thanks

Just headed into town now after drs appointment which was not really super helpful on diabetes side of things. He’s basically leaving if all to nurse.

Not eaten yet today as was so anxious about drs appointment.

Low carb as previously discussed not easy to find don’t know where to start

 

[42istheanswer]

Thanks

Just headed into town now after drs appointment which was not really super helpful on diabetes side of things. He’s basically leaving if all to nurse.

Not eaten yet today as was so anxious about drs appointment.

Low carb as previously discussed not easy to find don’t know where to start

You may find you don't need to go "low carb" as in specifically under 130g per day, and that just reducing your carb intake as you have already done may be enough for you to reduce insulin resistance and for your liver and pancreas to communicate better again.

Did you decide to check blood glucose before and 2 hours after some meals? I can't remember if you did or not. But that can help to make personal decisions about how much carbohydrates your body can cope with each meal, and whether that varies based on the type of higher carbohydrate food you're having some of (some people find bread has less of an effect than pasta, or vice versa, others find no appreciable difference apart from quantity of carbs), whether it varies on proportion of calories at that meal from carbs versus fat/protein etc.

I found quite early on in my journey that I can have a bit more carbs if I have a bit more fat at a meal, e.g. cheese, nuts (or higher fat meat as I'm not vegetarian myself) as the 2 hour post meal blood glucose reading would not peak as much. Protein had less of a balancing effect on that for me. (I have also lost weight which I needed to lose, partly to just generally be more healthy and partly in the hope of remission).

 

[LucysLostSister]

Yea I raised the subject of a glucose meter with dr and he agreed given how high numbers were & so important to get them down as quickly as poss a meter would be a good idea & he’s going to inc that in letter to nurse along with other info. Will see what happens next week I guess

 

[LucysLostSister]

Saw nurse today, got meter, still yet to learn how to work that. Did a practice run in surgery and result was I think around 15 and I’d not had a big meal but perhaps too carb based a couple hours earlier.

Glucose meter will help me see which dietary adjustments work for me and which don’t.

I’ve got get it under 10 she said.

I’m already getting really fed up mostly have same things to eat, she’s also referred me to dietician will see if that helps at all.