October is a special month, a brief pause from busy summer activities before we go into hustle and bustle days that bring us to Thanksgiving, Christmas or Hanukkah, and the New Year. It’s cold in the morning and there may be a thin sparkle of frost on the grass when you retrieve the morning paper. This is when we turn to comfort foods, full of character, yet lean in calories and fat so that we adhere to our meal plan, keeping our blood sugars under tight control.
Since we both wear several work "hats"--wife, mother, grandmother, lecturer, fund raiser as well as starting our third cookbook for people with diabetes and writing and publishing this website, we find ourselves turning to one-dish meals that provide a nourishing meal with a minimum of time in the kitchen. We’re sure your days are dizzy, too, with work (and homework), extra-curricular activities, car pools...the list seems endless. You’ll love this first menu that cuts corners to while preparing a memorable meal. Since it makes eight servings, we often fix this for Sunday dinner when the kids come home for a meal or during the week when we have extra mouths to feed.
The casserole smells so wonderful while it’s baking you’re likely to have others wander into the kitchen long before the meal’s ready to serve. Put these extra hands to work, tossing the salad, setting the table, or putting a pot of coffee or tea on to brew and enjoy the conversation that naturally flows. Put the Country Apple Pie in the oven to bake when you sit down to dinner. It’ll be ready when you are. Martha Stewart taught us the method for this pie. She served a similar one the last time we visited her home on Turkey Hill Road in Westport, CT. Granted her pie was richer, but ours is homey and luscious. The recipe works well using spoonable sugar substitute.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
A savory stew simmering on the back of the stove is one of life’s pleasures on a windy, drizzly day. For our second meal, we make a stew using lean veal shoulder that’s been trimmed of all fat and generous amounts of garlic, onion, celery, bell peppers, and tomatoes in a herb-laden broth that melds together for a tender stew with a rich flavor that will receive raves from family. This stew’s special enough for company. We like to serve it with hot grits and steamed cabbage, a starch and vegetable that we often overlook when planning dinner. The combination’s a quite wonderful complement to the flavorful stew. If you’d prefer, you could also serve the stew with caraway noodles and steamed fresh spinach. Dessert is a delightful rendition of broiled oranges. Light the fire and serve this simple, but elegant, supper on a table by the hearth.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
There are certain foods whose taste and aromas bring us back to memories of family warmth, Church suppers, community festivals, ethnic roots, and the security that these recipes imply. Abigail Van Buren, of the "Dear Abby" syndicated column, once told us that she receives more requests for meatloaf recipes than any other food. Meatloaf is truly comfort food at its best. We turn to it when we need a bit of consolation or when we want to bring our families close.
Here we’ve planked the meatloaf with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus (if asparagus is too pricey in your area, substitute fresh green beans) that have been seasoned with balsamic vinegar. We’ve sneaked a bit of extra nutrition into the meatloaf, but your family will never guess--and, we won’t tell if you don’t. For dessert we suggest warm gingerbread, that all-American fall dessert. This wonderful cake is from our James Beard Cookbook Award-winning Joslin Diabetes Gourmet Cookbook, published by Bantam Books. Yes, you can serve this meal to a diabetic and yes, it will fill the house with the aromas of the season, but no, you will not have to worry about breaking your diet.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
The last menu revolves around the favorite of buffets and pot luck dinners, lasagna. This one is a vegetarian lasagna, but you can easily add ground white turkey to the sauce, adding the low fat protein exchanges to you meal. In this dinner we have surreptitiously added carrots and zucchini, for extra vegetable power without sacrificing the legitimate taste of the classic dish. We serve it with a salad with home-made croutons and a dessert of Frozen Gelatin Mousse from our new cookbook The Joslin Diabetes Quick and Easy Cookbook, (Fireside/Simon and Schuster) due out next month. We know this is a bit of a teaser, but then we hope you enjoy this 1950’s update as much as we do.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
