What to have for lunch ... Paleo + diabetes

My biggest conundrum is what to eat for breakfast, lunch and snacks in order to keep my blood sugar from not dropping too low during the day with my meds. 

Once I make a big dinner, I have that left over for other meals, but I need to have more things prepared that I can grab and throw together when I'm starving. Which I am a lot of the time.

Today, I was in a lot of knee pain and not moving too quickly after running some errands, it was later in the day, so I had to find something quick . . .  with protein and veggies. 

I still had some of my veggie soup left that I made.  I hadn't blogged the making of the soup, since it was the first week of, during detox from grains, sugar, processed foods & bad crap.

This is what I did for the soup though, and you can use any vegetables you have in your house. . 

i put some olive oil in a big pot on the stove. 

Then I cut up veggies that i had in the house, all pretty chunky
fresh green beans
golden beets, peeled and sliced
Crimini mushrooms sliced
red onion sliced
yellow summer squash
broccoli flowerets
and sautéed them for maybe 5 minutes or so

i would have added a can of organic diced tomatoes, but all i had was a small can of tomatoe sauce and one box of Trader Joe's vegetable broth so I added that then let it simmer covered until it was done.

S&P, fresh grated garlic and a ton of SPIKE which is a seasoning.

For lunch, I had one leftover turkey meatball from the other day, so I chopped that up and put it into the soup and heated it up on the stove.  Voila!  Hearty, healthy, Paleo lunch.

Paleo modified Turkey Sausage Meatballs

Before Cooking

After Cooking

I decided to go on a modified Paleo diet working with some friends on a specific program that we will start after the first of the year.  I started the elimination of the 'bad' foods on my own, the day before Christmas, because I decided that detox'ing from sugar, grains & processed foods would be good to do on my own.

My cousin Judi gave me the basis for this recipe. She is the one that said to use the mushrooms chopped fine.  She was right!

Last night a made Paleo modified Turkey Meatballs. I call them modified as I don't think they are strict paleo.  They were fabulous.   In order to not forget what I did, because I don't cook with recipes, I'm going to document it here.

1 pound ground turkey
1 pound ground hot italian sausage
2 eggs
1/4 cup ground almond meal
4 oz. finely chopped crimini mushrooms
1/2 red onion finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves grated
salt, pepper,
Dean & Deluca Spices greek oregano & cumin

Made fairly large meatballs then placed them on a piece of parchment paper schmeared with olive oil and baked them at 425 for about 45 minutes. They got a wonderful crust on them and tasted fantastic.  Ate them with some red sauce.  Now that I know this recipe works, I would maybe serve them with some spaghetti squash.

I had some sauce, but if I didn't, I think I might have made this:

Cindy’s Quick Sauce

• 1 tablespoon olive Oil
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 (12-ounce) can of tomato sauce
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
• 1 can of tomato paste and hot water
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
2. Stir in the tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper (add red pepper flakes if you decide to use). Bring to a boil.
3. Add in your can of tomato paste and fill can with hot water and using a spool scrape all of the paste. Stir until tomato paste has dissolved, cover and lower to simmer.
4. Add the meatballs to the pot and let them do their magic!

OR put the whole thing in a crockpot on low for 8 hours and do it that way!