Ways A Dairy-Free, Hypoglycemic Stays Cool in the Summer

Welcome to Rhode Island summer. Down pouring, switching between raining and hardcore raining, day in and day out. Next week? Down to the 60’s, cloudy, some sun, a few showers now and again. The weekend? Hot. Hot and humid.

Gotta love summer.

One of my favorite parts of summer as a kid?

Ice cream.

(Okay, well it was one of my favorite parts of the other four seasons as well…But it’s a staple for summer.)

Not being able to eat ice cream is kind of a downer. I don’t just avoid it for the dairy (it’s a big reason though); I also stay away from it because of the sugar. In my opinion I don’t need to eat something that high in calories and fat and then 15 minutes later need to eat MORE to keep my blood sugar up. The sugar is the reason I don’t eat many substitutes, like almond milk or coconut milk ice cream. They’re really good if you get the right brands, but I run into the same issue because of the sugar.

So the Peanut Butter Queen (as I’ve been dubbed around here) went to work finding other ways to cool down. Frozen steak on the back works pretty well too, but it’s not as filling. (The Boy thought he’d try being funny at a Memorial Day cookout.)

1. Sorbet.

Preferably homemade sorbet or a decent store bought brand so you’re not taking in more ingredients than you need. But even with this, I have to deal with the sugar issues. Silly hypoglycemia.

Mango and peanut butter is my favorite.

2. Veggie Salads.

Cold vegetable salads are a great way to keep cool. They tend to have the exact opposite of sugary foods. Being full of fiber they keep you pretty full. Also, since you’re not cooking it at all, the veggies retain all of their nutrients. I usually dress it with just it with peanut butter, but I’m sure there are many other acceptable alternatives.

3. Fruit.

Fresh fruit and peanut butter are a match to be rivaled. My favorites are strawberries and raspberries. For anyone who loves chocolate and berries, try these with Dark Chocolate Dreams stuffed inside. SO GOOD. For strawberries, just core them, and fill them with whatever peanut butter you want.

4. Frozen Peas.

People think this particular dish is especially weird. I’m so sure why though. Frozen peas and peanut butter. (Or just frozen peas). I have yet to do it, but frozen grapes (as I’ve heard) are also quite tasty. I used to chow down on frozen peas when I was a baby, so I figured why not.

5. Cucumber.

There are two ways you can cool off with cucumber. A classic way and a Hannah way. The classic way is to slice it (peeled or not, your choice) and then soak it in vinegar with salt and pepper. The Hannah way, slice it and top it each slice with peanut butter. Either is acceptable and quite yummy.

These are pretty much my five favorite ways of staying cool (and healthy) during the summer time. I could probably think up more, but in all honesty, I just don’t want to. Plus, if it’s five it makes a nice alliteration with favorite.

Thank God for Peanut Butter

The other night I was at Pyro’s. Him, his mother, a couple friends, and myself were sitting around and making conversation. One of them mentioned how remarkable it was that with all my food allergies (intolerances, whatever you want to call it - I can’t eat a lot of stuff) that I could still eat peanut butter. She had a point by saying that peanuts are one of most prevalent food allergies. 

It got me thinking. 

A lot of rough times have hit around here lately. But I sure am thankful I have peanut butter.

It sounds silly; it may sound a little vain. 

But first off, of all the things I can eat, peanut butter is one darn tasty food. 

Second, peanuts and peanut butter are quite nutritious. 

Third, throughout all my issues with food (physically and mentally) peanut butter got to stay. 

It helped me a lot physically. Brought me vital nutrients, it helped keep my weight up when there wasn’t much I could or wanted to eat. 

Peanut butter is a small pleasure (okay, that I may have exploded a bit) in the grand scheme of things.

I take my food very seriously, and sometimes people around me don’t understand why. My mom would sometimes ask me why I wondered so much about what I was going to eat, or if I’d be able to eat what I wanted. Why I thought so much and planned out every meal, to make every meal count. 

Some of that might have been the mental struggle I faced towards food (and still do now and then). However, besides that, I think what it came down to is actually quite simple. There was a time where each food seemed like an enemy in the way my body reacted to it. Until my body began to get on a more healthy level, the foods that I could eat, that weren’t trouble for my system to digest, were things to celebrate. Each meal that I could eat without either my brain or my stomach bothering me afterwards was a reward. I still get that thrill now when I find new foods (good tasting new foods) that I can eat without issues from my body. 

What I went through (and still go through) with food seems major in my life and to my close circle of friends. I guess, in a way it is. But then I have to remember the fact that I do still have food to be thankful for. Also, there are foods I can eat. I have a friend, I haven’t actually seen her in a while, but we talk over Facebook or Twitter now and then. She’s often in and out of the hospital for stomach problems; her diet is much more restricted than mine, and her reactions much more severe. But she finds strength in God and her family and friends, she continues on. My friend is someone for those with food issues to look up to. 

I cherish my food. I am lucky to live in a part of the world where I can find food to fit my diet, and I am grateful. 

Especially for peanut butter.

Making Yogurt Hannah-Friendly

So I went through this weird phase when I was little.

(Okay, I went through a lot of weird phases, but this one was probably particularly annoying to my parents.)

So Delicious yogurt, peanut butter, and Triscuit Thin Crisps

For a long time I wouldn’t, well couldn’t, eat yogurt out of one of the large containers. Don’t ask me how this happened or why my brain decided to outlaw the big (and cheaper) containers of yogurt, but it did.

Same yogurt, same brand, same amount, couldn’t do it. It HAD to be one of the small containers.

These days, I pretty much stick to my small containers because my local grocery store (and most others around here) only sell Hannah-friendly yogurt in small containers. I mainly eat So Delicious coconut milk yogurt. I didn’t think I’d like it because I absolutely cannot stand coconut, but my taste buds have gone through so many changes over the past couple of years that I’ve actually fallen in love with it.

I rarely even miss Greek Yogurt (my favorite).

There are three reasons I do not eat just yogurt.

1. Hannah-friendly yogurt is expensive.

2. Hannah-friendly yogurt comes in small containers and is at large risk of being eaten way too quickly.

3. Yogurt tends to have a lot of sugar, plus it's easily digestible. Two things that are not good for hypoglycemics.

So because of these reasons I like to make the most out of it when I get it.

First:

During my snooping around the Internet for various recipes and mixtures, I stumbled upon different parfaits. Thinking that a normal parfait just wouldn’t do, I mixed my own.

The ingredients: Your yogurt of choice (I tend to use mango or raspberry), peanut butter, and your favorite bowl. (In my opinion, a meal is never complete, without the perfect dish.)

Pour yogurt in bowl.

Add peanut butter.

Stir. Enjoy.

Second:

Yogurt and Cereal. (Plus any additives you like. Fruit, peanut butter, etc.)

For the most part, I do a combination of stuff. Yogurt, peanut butter, and cereal. What I’ve found this does, is make those little itty-bitty containers of yogurt, last so much longer. It’s also better for me because of the sugars in yogurt. With more stuff to digest my blood sugar doesn’t spike or drop as quickly as it would with just yogurt.

Yogurt, Cheerios, and peanut butter

Last night I made a dinner out of it. I started with mango yogurt and mixed in some PB2 (powdered peanut butter). If you try this, make sure to thoroughly mix it for two reasons. One, so that all the PB2 gets incorporated and you don’t have little clumps of it. Two, the longer this duo is stirred, the thicker it gets. PB2 is supposed to be combined with water to create a lower calorie peanut butter. But I read somewhere that it imparts great peanut flavor (that it does). Since when added to water it was supposed to thicken up, I figured it would act the same in yogurt (that it does). Next I added my homemade crunchy peanut butter. Then I topped it with some cereal. Last night’s choice was Honey Bunches of Oats Honey Roasted. Of course the last step is to stir it all up (without crushing the cereal of course).

What’s my favorite thing to do with yogurt though? My third option:

I’ll call it…Mock Greek Yogurt? Or insert whatever other witty title you can come with (I’m never good with the titles).

It starts out pretty much the same as the mixture above. However, for this, leave it in the fridge in an air tight container for as long as you possibly can. (I usually do overnight. But I put it in the afternoon before, and eat it for lunch the next day.)

Take your yogurt; mix in 2 tablespoons of PB2 (blend thoroughly). Drop a spoonful of peanut butter and stir that in. I prefer crunchy to give it some varying textures. Leave it in the fridge.

I haven’t had Greek yogurt in a while…But I can almost guarantee it’s almost the exact texture. It’s light, while still having some bulk to it.

(I’m actually starting to crave some right now…)

Maybe I'll create a new yogurt concoction tonight for dinner. 

Freaky Friday Moment At Its Finest

At this point in my life, I’m comfortable with the idea of coming off as weird. I’ve always been a little off, collecting rubber ducks, dead beetles, pencil shavings; you know the typical stuff. By 19 almost 20, it’s about time I just accept it and embrace it. It’s who I am, who God made me to be, and if God did this to me…Well, I’m not one to argue (with God at least).

So when I go to a friend’s house for dinner or go out to eat, I’m prepared for having to request special foods or not being able to eat the majority of what’s on the menu. Once, when out to lunch with my boyfriend and his family, I ordered The Goat Cheese Salad, without the goat cheese.

Yea, talk about trying to make a good first impression.

So I’ve learned to just not bother getting embarrassed anymore. Sure a few blushes sneak by now and then, but mostly I just learn to find the hilarity in it all. Might as well, right? Everyone else does.

So when I was watching an episode of my newest TV addiction, Heartland, I was hit with a feeling of that familiar hilarity but also one of massive insecurity. Why? Why should a TV show about a loving family living on a Canadian ranch induce such a rush of emotion?

They had guests. One particular guest, I could relate to all too well.

The family and friends were sitting down to dinner and the one particular woman asked if something was organic, when the answer came back “no” I listened to a habitual conversation I get to have. This time, however, I heard it from the other side. The grandfather began asking the woman why she hadn’t touched much of her food. She simply replied, “I’m allergic” when asked to what, her friend stated, “Everything.”

From here the woman started on her own list, “Dairy, white sugar, and gluten-free. Everything I eat has to be organic.”

Sound familiar?

I’m not completely gluten-free but usually that is the easiest choice. But this woman sounded so…strange, so needy, so peculiar, so sheltered. Like she was living in a box. It didn’t help when she said, “Oh it’s okay, I just eat a lot of vitamins.”

“Oh dear God, is that what I sound like?” I thought.

My best friend, I’ll call him Buds, lives in NY. When spring break of my freshmen year hit, I decided to go visit him for the week.

He had come to visit me a few times, but I had never had the time or money to make the trek there. When I did, of course I was excited, but nervous as well.

For days and days before I went I stayed up planning what I would pack to do, what books I’d bring to read, what clothes to wear, but also…What in the world was I going to eat?

Obviously, I wasn’t going to ask him to buy all my usual food, and I sure wasn’t going to eat out for every meal.

So I did what I knew how to do. I packed my own food.

Each breakfast was carefully measured by bowl then placed in separate plastic baggies. Lots of food bars were packed for snacks and random blood sugar drops. A jar of my homemade peanut butter was made in preparation then cautiously kept cool in my lunchbox.

This alone would have been enough to earn me a couple jokes from my friend. But the cake topper was when I asked if he could take me to the store so I could pick up a loaf of 100% Whole Wheat bread for my peanut butter sandwiches.

He was nice enough to not say much about me asking except for a few “Hannah needs her special bread” comments. Yet as we walked through the bread isle, I didn’t get off so easy.

There were a lot of “What about this bread?” “No, I can’t eat that either.” With a reply of, “Wow, that’s depressing.” Also, “Ohh this bread is soooo good! Too bad you can’t have any.” It doesn’t sound so bad, until you realize this went on for a good ten - fifteen minutes until I found bread I could comfortably ingest.

Luckily, these were just jokes. As are most of the bad comments I hear about what I can and cannot eat.

Sort of like when The Boy's brother asked, "What's it like to be broken?" Or his dad's comment when eating the gluten-free pizza that was ordered for me. He took a couple bites and when he was told it was gluten-free he stated in a matter-of-fact-way, "Oh, no wonder it tastes like crap." 

I don't so much mind the negativity when it comes. I usually find it just as hilarious as every one else (though I can feel the room sort of gasp when someone says something negative, then relax as I start laughing).

So as I watched the TV characters' reaction, their negative commentary and strange looks actually made me smile. Finally I was able to see how a lot of people view my lifestyle. I was also extremely grateful. How lucky am I to have friends and family who DON’T react like that?

Talk about weird moments.

Most days I can shove off the embarrassment of always having to ask for modifications, exclusions, or a completely different menu. It’s become a natural custom for me and I try not to think much of it anymore.

But oh wow, I hope that’s not what I sound like.