Turning the Tide on Lifestyle Diseases: Delicious diabetic-friendly breakfast recipes

Last week we promised to give some recipes of  diabetes-friendly meals.  In fact traditional fare of most traditional societies has always been diabetic friendly.  It is thanks to modern production methods arising from the industrial revolution that has really caused the problem.  So, in essence if we get away from the highly processed foods, and use simple natural foods we should not have a problem.  However our taste buds have been trained to crave sweet, or salty or oily foods, so sometimes we need to prepare foods with more exotic tastes to satisfy our palates.

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I have a friend in Durban who has much experience in preparing plant-based foods for not only her family but also for large gatherings.  I can vouch for the deliciousness of her food.  She has produced a plant-based cook book which is available locally.  May Solomon has graciously supplied some recipes for us to include in this blog.  Obviously your tastes may vary and you can use these as a basis to develop your own recipes.

One of the tips of whole-food cooking is to prepare larger quantities which can then be kept in the fridge to use over a few days, or even frozen.  This kind of diet does require a fair amount of time in the kitchen, so by doing larger batches on the weekends, it saves time during the week when life can be busy.

Some people also have long-standing dislikes for vegetables or natural foods.  It is useful to make a conscious decision to get used to some flavours or textures for the sake of your health.  In fact one of the ways that lifestyle rehabilitation centres do this is to put people onto a water only fast for a few days.  By the end of that your taste receptors as well as your digestive system have been re-booted and (apart from the extreme hunger) you are ready to try anything – and foods taste really quite delicious.  (Hunger is the best sauce).  You will acquire new tastes and find that natural foods have amazing flavours not drowned by excess sugar and oil and salt.  Of course there are also endless variations with all the different spices and herbs.

Every morning I cook up a cupful of rolled oats for my wife and I with a sliver of compressed dry dates for sweetening.

To this I add a sprinkle of various seeds and nuts – linseeds, chia seeds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and then a small helping of natural unsalted cashews and almonds. 

I add soy milk and mix it all up.  On top of that I add a banana, grapes, berries if available, and whatever fruit is in season.  That is a really healthful meal that gives excellent lasting power and is really full of vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, protein, healthy carbs and plenty of fibre.  I have found some inexpensive sources of the main ingredients. (You can contact me personally for the tips).

Here are some of May Solomon’s breakfast recipes.  I will share dinner recipes in the next blog.

Diabetic Friendly Recipes

 BREAKFASTS

Morning Millet Manna

Ingredients

1 cup millet

½ tsp salt

2 cups water

½ cup desiccated coconut

1 cup soya/rice milk powder

1 cup dates, finely chopped

½ cup raisins

1 cup apples, peeled and diced small

1 cup banana slices

2 cups any other fruit, diced small

2 tbsp maple syrup/honey (eventually you may want to cut this out for better diabetic control)

Method

1. Place millet, salt and water in a pot and bring to boil.
2. Turn heat to low and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes. By then most of the water should be absorbed, and the millet should be cooked.
3. Turn off heat, but keep pot on the stove.
4. Add maple syrup/honey and mix well.
5. Add coconut, milk powder, dates, raisins and fruit. Mix well.

To serve:

Place some millet into a cup, and turn over onto your breakfast place.

Garnish with some raw fruit and cashew cream. Enjoy.

Baked Oats

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats)

1 cup desiccated coconut

½ cup soya/rice milk powder

½ cup raisins

1 cup apples, diced small

1 cup pineapple, diced small

½ cup dates, soaked in 1 cup boiling water

2 bananas

2 tsp salt

3 cups cold water

Method

1. Add oats, ½ cup coconut, milk powder, raisins and diced fruit to a large oven dish. Mix well.
2. Place dates, bananas and salt in a blender and blend until smooth.
3. Add as much of the cold water as you can to the date mixture and blend.
4. Allow date mixture to cool completely, and then add to dry ingredients, along with the rest of the cold water. Mix well.
5. Sprinkle the other ½ cup of coconut on top.
6. Bake at 170 degrees for about 45 minutes until golden brown.
7. Enjoy with fruit salad and home-made fruit ice cream.

Polenta Blackcurrent Pudding

Ingredients

1 cup polenta

2 tbsp blackcurrents

1 ½ cups fresh apple juice

1 ½ cups water

1 cup Granny Smith apple, grated

2 tbsp maple syrup/honey

1 cup flaked almonds

2 cups fresh berries or other fruit

Salt to taste

Method

1. Mix water and apple juice. Soak the polenta and blackcurrents in juice and water mix overnight.
2. In the morning, place soaked ingredients in a pot, together with the juice, and add grated apple and salt.
3. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer on low, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and burning.
4. Allow polenta to cook like this for about 15 minutes.
5. If mixture becomes too thick, simply add more water.
6. Serve warm with some milk or cashew cream, a drizzle of maple syrup, some flaked almonds, and a generous helping of berries or other fruit.

Awesome Rawsome

Ingredients

1 cup almonds, soaked overnight and rinsed

1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked overnight and rinsed

½ cup raisins, soaked overnight in ½ cup purified water (keep water)

2 cups raw fruit salad

½ cup cashew cream

¼ cup maple syrup/honey

Method

1. To a blender, add soaked almonds and sunflower seeds, together with the soaking water of the of the raisins. Blend, but not too finely.
2. Add raisins and pulse, just enough to get the raisins coarsely chopped.
3. Place mixture in a mixing bowl and mix well with a spoon.
4. In large stem glasses layer ¼ cup almond mix, then ¼ cup fruit salad.
5. Repeat for another layer.
6. Top with a dollop of cashew cream and a drizzle of honey, and garnish with some brightly coloured fruit like strawberry or kiwi.

Cashew Cream

Ingredients

½ cup cashews, rinsed and soaked in purified water for 4 hours or overnight

¼ cup coconut

1 cup water

1tbsp honey (optional)

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Pinch salt

Method

1. Blend all ingredients together until very smooth
2. Use on any dessert or with breakfast instead of dairy cream.

May’s interests are:  Nutrition, health coaching, cooking, educational philosophy, photography & design, hiking.  Her experience in cooking:  20 Years of vegetarian and vegan cooking, teaching nutrition & cooking for interested groups for the last 10 years. She has had certified training in plant-based cooking.

The name of her book: Garden Recipes for Health & Healing.  If you are interested in information on how to get hold of her book, let me know by contacting my rooms:  0396821414.

To a week filled with delicious and healthful food,

Dave Glass

Dr David Glass graduated from UCT in 1975.  He spent the next 12 years working at a mission hospital in Lesotho, where much of his work involved health education and interventions to improve health, aside from the normal busy clinical work of an under-resourced mission hospital. 

He returned to UCT in 1990 to specialise in obstetrics/gynaecology and then moved to the South Coast where he had the privilege of, amongst other things, ushering 7000 babies into the world.  He no longer delivers babies but is still very clinically active in gynaecology.

An old passion, preventive health care, has now replaced the obstetrics side of his work.  He is eager to share insights he has gathered over the years on how to prevent and reverse so many of the modern scourges of lifestyle – obesity, diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, common cancers, etc.

He is a family man, with a supportive wife, and two grown children, and four beautiful grandchildren. His hobbies include walking, cycling, vegetable gardening, bird-watching, travelling and writing.  He is active in community health outreach and deeply involved in church activities.  He enjoys teaching and sharing information.

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