For the past twelve years at our Divabetic live events, on our podcasts and inner blog we’ve been promoting a ‘New Attitude’ about living with diabetes to help you ‘Keep Your House A Home’ by learning to prevent a diabetes health-related complication from occurring. Now we’re sharing our decade’s worth of our ‘diva brand of diabetes outreach’ advice and suggestions with you so that you won’t have to avoid the holidays in order to take charge of our diabetes.
Our Divabetic Mother’s Day Celebration embraces an Old Hollywood aesthetic to encourage you to shine the spotlight on you and your diabetes health!
Sure, it can be difficult at times to enjoy the holidays when you’re living with diabetes especially if you feel like you can’t enjoy the foods your actually preparing for your family and friends! Why not take the opportunity this Mother’s Day to change your mindset as well as your family’s about what healthy tastes like?
One of our favorite experts,‘The Decadent Diabetic’ aka Chef Ward Alper shares this Oscar worthy menu for a Diabetic Mother’s Day Celebration. The Decadent Diabetic’s menu includes Cucumber Soup, Smoked Salmon & Brie Omelet, Roasted Asparagus and Tart A Citron. Below is Chef’s Ward Alper’s recipe for Catalina Cucumber Soup. (We will be posting one recipe each day throughout the upcoming week).
Catalina Cucumber Soup Recipe by the Decadent Diabetic
(4 8 ounce servings, Net carbohydrates: 6 per serving)
Ingredients:
1 medium to large sweet onion Sliced (thick or thin, your choice)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil or butter
2-4 cloves crushed and chopped garlic (depends on how much you love garlic)
1 – big stalk of celery, roughly chopped
Black pepper to taste
Salt to taste
2 Tablespoons flour
1 ½ quarts Low sodium chicken broth
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons fresh dill (1 if you use dried)
3- large Cucumbers
3-4 heaping tablespoons sour cream
Chef Ward Alper’s Preparation:
Note: No need to finely chop any of the vegetables in this recipe. They will all be blended smooth at the end.
Peel the cucumbers and using the tip of a teaspoon, remove all of the seeds from the cucumbers Chop roughly.
In a good sized soup pot sauté onion in olive oil or butter until soft but not brown. Add salt and pepper about one minute into the process.
Add garlic and flour. Cook for one minute or so. Slowly add the chicken broth stirring so as not to have lumps. Add the juice and zest of the lemon.
Add ½ of the cucumbers to the broth. Simmer for 15-20 minutes on low heat. Remove from heat, let cool, and then add the remaining portions of the cucumbers, reserving some if you wish for garnish. Using an immersion blender, whip the soup until smooth.
Add the sour cream. Blend to combine.
Note: Quickest if you have an immersion blender stick, but it works in a processor. Just do it in small batches.
Let cool in the refrigerator overnight!
While your soup’s cooling why not turn up the heat with a touch of Old Hollywood glamour?
Spokesmodel, Author and Diabetes Advocate Doris Hobbs (‘Rich In Love’) beautifully captures the essence of Old Hollywood in this vintage ensemble.
“A type 1 diabetic since 2014, I follow the strength of my father who has been living with type 1 diabetes since the age of two. His determination to take control of the illness has shaped my mission,” says Doris.
Doris is living proof that living with type 1 diabetes doesn’t have dim your dazzle!
She adds, “We, as a society, have a tendency of suppressing our fears, as mastering those can be difficult and takes large amounts of will and courage to look in the mirror and say, “I will succeed; I can do this!”
You don’t need to be a red carpet Old Hollywood bombshell to harness the power of black clothing because it matches everything! It’s great for mixing and matching, for layering or for helping your ‘Revenge’ red lips standout.
MAKE UP TIP: Grab a lipstick brush and your favorite shade of red to apply a gorgeous red lip, completing the Old Hollywood glam look. To clean up the edges and define your lips, dip a concealer brush into just a pinch of concealer and outline your lips, paying particular attention to the corners and the cupid’s bow for extra crisp definition.
The key to achieving a classic, glamorous Old Hollywood look and style of entertaining lies in the details. We all know that the little details that make the ordinary become extraordinary can be daunting! But the first detail to achieving the glamorous life of your favorite Old Hollywood actress, Loretta Young, Grace Kelly or Norma Shear is focusing on you and your diabetes health!
Prioritize means “to put in order of importance”. And as a busy mom, grandmother and/or daughter with diabetes you must continually do this over and over again, making choices based on the priorities you have built. If you aren’t clear on your priorities I believe you will continually run into trouble trying to balance everything. Do you know what your priorities are for yourself and your diabetes health? Are you living your daily life with those in mind? I think a great way to get an handle on what those priorities are is to take a walk outside alone without your iPhone. Take a minute to smell the Spring flowers and when you get back from your walk, sit down and make a list.
Susan Weiner MS, RDN, CDE, CDN, co-author of ‘The Complete Diabetes Organizer: Your Guide to A Less Stressful and Manageable Life’ offers this advice to help you in the kitchen to organize your diabetes life!
“ If you’re not organized, you can’t find what you need to cook anything, says Susan. “A for meal preparation. That means instead of stuffing certain items in your cupboard or fridge just because you found a space where it fits, organize by use instead. Group similar items together and keep healthy snacks in plain view.”
Do you have a few empty make-up bags from a give-away or promotion?
Susan suggests “to stay organized, use a medium-size makeup bag for blood glucose-checking supplies and a different one for fast-acting sources of carbs, such as glucose tablets. Keep your supplies close to you in style!”
Speaking of giveaways, pampering gifts like products from PEAK 10 SKIN® are always a great treat to any Mom…at any age! Whether it’s your daughter, sister, daughter-in-law, wife or your Mother, women love things that make them feel pampered and special. PEAK 10 SKIN® have a couple different gift sets that we put together with Mom’s in mind, but they will also custom design a gift for the Mom’s in your life. For custom gifts, simply call or email us. Beautiful gift wrap available , too! Remember, all of products are professional spa quality and are paraben FREE, gluten FREE, cruelty FREE!
PEAK 10 SKIN® is offering this Special 30% Discount Offer to our Divabetic community (use the Divabetic coupon code: divabetic (all lowercase))
Don’t forget to use your coupon code: B2B (40% off)
PEAK 10 SKIN® recently repackaged the new SOOTHE hand cream in a pot for ease of use. The product was too thick to come out of the tube with ease. It comes in 2 sizes; 2oz/$18 and 4oz/$28. These could be perfect gifts as well. These prices are BEFORE your discount is applied.
Making a Mani/Pedi kit of SAVE MY SOLE & SOOTHE hand cream would be fabulous! If you get the 2oz of each, that would be a $36 retail/$21.60 for you!