The Happy Diabetic’s Iowa- Style Apricot and Onion Pork Chops Recipe

Several years ago, I met Chef Robert Lewis, aka the Happy Diabetic, at a Taking Control Of Your Diabetes (TCOYD) Expo. His upbeat attitude and friendly demeanor drew me to him immediately as he showed a captive audience how to make healthy meals at home. He has appeared on numerous Divabetic podcasts, including this year’s Divabetic Mysteries: A Christmas Peril.

Chef Robert was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after a vacation in Colorado in 1998. When he was traveling back home, he felt super tired and sluggish, very thirsty, and had to urinate at almost every rest stop. Chef Robert knew something was wrong. He just wasn’t sure exactly what it was. So a few weeks later, he visited his doctor, and that’s when he was diagnosed with diabetes.

” I was in denial for at least six months, and things were not going well for me,” he said in an interview with Beyond Type 2 diabetes. “Once I took ownership in it, really, then some amazing things started to happen – I started to focus. I was able to seek out people with the right information. And I just slowly started making some lifestyle changes.”

From there, Chef Robert started attending diabetes education classes and putting his culinary degree to work, creating recipes that tasted good and were actually healthy.

He adds, “I started creating some recipes and worked with some really good dietitians who helped me with some of the nutritional components.”

Iowa- Style Apricot and Onion Pork Chops Recipe By The Happy Diabetic

Ingredients

4 5oz 1/4 inch bone-in pork chops

1/s cup of whole dried apricots and or apples peeled and sliced

1/2 cup of sliced white or yellow onions

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoon chopped garlic

pinch of rosemary

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the sauté pan. Place 1 T olive oil in the pan and heat to medium. Place the seasoned pork chops (seasoned with salt and pepper) and cook for 2-3 min. Add the garlic, onions and the whole dried apricots and or apples peeled and sliced. cook of 4-6 minutes covered. spoon the apples and or apricots and onions over the pork chops. Cook covered until the internal temp is between 155-165 degrees.

Serves 4

Nutrition Information: Cal: 290, Total fat:12.67g, Total Carbs: 29.83, Protein: 17.29

We’re talking about how to get over the fear and anxiety about speaking publically about your diabetes and related health issues (including depression and sleep apnea) with musical inspiration from Carly Simon.

Grammy winner Carly Simon has recorded over 30 albums, won two Grammies, and an Academy Award. Carly Simon managed to accomplish her dreams by overcoming severe stuttering and painful migraines to achieve her success. When I was a young child,” Carly Simon has revealed, “I had a stammer. And the only time it went away was when I sang. One day, my mother said to me, ‘Don’t speak it, sing it.’ And that’s what I did.”

Leading advocates share their journeys and tools that help them: FreeStyle Libre 2 App, CPAP machines, and a new line of baked good mixes, TruEats.

The FreeStyle Libre system measures glucose levels through a small sensor applied to the back of your upper arm. It provides real-time glucose readings for up to 10 days, both day and night.

Sleep Apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. If you snore loudly and feel tired even after a full night’s sleep, you might have sleep apnea.

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is a common treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. A CPAP machine uses a hose and mask or nosepiece to deliver constant and steady air pressure.

TruEats Baking Mixes have 1g of Sugar or Less + Complex (Good) Carbs for great-tasting, steady energy that’s diabetic friendly. Guests include Marten Carlson, Alysse Dalessandro Santiago, Surinder and Daven Kumar, and Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES.

October’s Divabetic podcast features music from Carly Simon’s Coming Around Again album courtesy of SONY Music.