holiday baking – Divabetic

11/07/2023

Don’t Miss Divabetic’s Gift Guide

This November, we’re sharing gift ideas to help you live life to the fullest in Divabetic’s Gift Guide.

Gift-giving can be stressful, especially when you’re shopping for someone’s wellness and are committed to finding the perfect present. We’ve rounded up our favorites from practical to “just because” for 2023 with exclusive discounts for you to enjoy. You’ll find many options we hope to infuse a little bit of joy or ease into your daily diabetes life. We sourced gift ideas from our community members, including people living with diabetes and professionals who work with people with type 1, type 2, and prediabetes.

Let us know what you think of our suggestions, and feel free to email me with your favorites, too —after all, you’re the expert on what will put a smile on your loved one’s face.

The happy healthcare host, Mr. Divabetic, hosts this free culinary diabetes program with Stacey Harris, The Diabetic Pastry Chef on November 30, 2023 at 3 PM, EST.

During this fun-filled Baking Party on Zoom, The Diabetic Pastry Chef prepares a holiday Sugar-Free Dessert recipe, demonstrates her favorite kitchen tools, and shares expert baking tips for substituting sugar substitutes and alternative flours in recipes.

Win a Splenda Baking Kit! Plus, gifts courtesy of Best-Selling Author Tonya Kappes’s Camper Cozy Mystery and Peak 10 Skin‘s Save My Sole Foot Rescue Cream during Mr. Divabetic’s random drawings. You must be present at our Baking Party to enter our gift drawings to win.

Celebrate National Diabetes Awareness Month with us. Over 150 people have participated in our past Divabetic Baking Parties on Zoom, so don’t miss out!

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The Holidays are full of surprises— especially after Mr. Divabetic gets a new job as the pastry chef at the St. Nicholas Nursing Home nestled in a cozy Christmas Village. But adjusting to life in a Christmas Village is not all sugarplums and candy canes. Especially when a cantankerous resident, a real-life Ebenezer Scrooge, named Mr. Pincher almost dies——shortly after eating one of Max’s peanut butter swirl brownies. Despite all of the ingredients for danger, Mr. Divabetic along with our team of amateur sleuths and his overly protective mother — set out to find the real culprit in the hopes that his name isn’t on a lethal naughty list.

Our story was inspired by Kevin Houdeshell’s tragic true-life story. Thanks to the Houdeshell family for their advocacy efforts on behalf of the Emergency Insulin Act of 2019 and the emergency prescription refill legislation. Known as Kevin’s or Howdy’s Law, it allows pharmacists to dispense an emergency supply of a chronic maintenance medication if the doctor cannot be reached – a common-sense act that could save a life.

Starring Max ‘Mr. Divabetic’ Szadek, USA Best Selling Author Tonya Kappes, Mama Rose Marie, Patricia Addie Gentle, Terri Seidman, MaryAnn Nicolay, Trisha Artman, Catherine Schuller, Chef Robert Lewis, Seveda Williams, and Wendy Radford. Special thanks to the Houdeshell family, and Pharmacist Mandy Reece. Original music by Ivan Hampden Jr., Celine Dion’s vocals courtesy of SONY Music. Produced by Leisa Chester Weir.

In the spirit of Scrooge’s awakening at the end of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, we encourage you to honor Christmas in your heart by living in the Past, The Present, and the Future. Try to embrace the Spirits of all Three and the lessons that they teach.

12/09/2021

Sugar-Free Linzer Torte Recipe by The Diabetic Pastry Chef

The Diabetic Pastry Chef, Stacey Harris, demonstrated how to make her fabulous Sugar-Free Linzer Tortes at last night’s Divabetic Baking Party. Stacey has mastered the art of substituting sugar substitutes and flours in traditional favorites without compromising taste or texture.

Stacey says, ”To cut back on sugar, I started using all-natural substitutes, like agave nectar, and trying erythritol. I also bake with a store-bought blend of sugars that tastes delicious.”

The Diabetic Pastry Chef shares her recipes in a fabulous book so that people with diabetes and others looking for sugar-free treats can make their own lower-carb versions of baked goods at home. The most common thing she hears from customers is, “I don’t even miss the extra sugar!”

Sugar-Free Linzer Tortes Recipe by The Diabetic Pastry Chef

Ingredients
10 tbsp. butter softened
1/3 cup dry sugar substitute
1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup ground almonds or almond flour
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
2 raw egg yolks
2 hardboiled egg yolks
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 (12.75-oz.) jar sugar-free raspberry jam
1 egg white, beaten
sliced almonds for topping

Directions
In a mixing bowl with a mixer at medium speed, combine butter and sugar substitute until fluffy. Add flour, ground almonds, lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, raw egg yolks, boiled egg yolks, and vanilla. Continue to mix until well combined. Chill for at least 1 hour.

Divide chilled dough into 2 pieces. Roll out 1 piece, and fit it into a greased 8×8-in. pan or springform pan. Spread jam over the dough with a spatula.

Roll out and cut strips with the remaining dough to make a lattice top to cover jam. Brush with egg white and sprinkle almonds on top. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes, or until torte is a pale golden color. Cut into squares to serve.

The Diabetic Pastry Chef shares the sweet secrets of her simple-to-use formula that will convert most any recipe into a lower-carb alternative without compromising taste or quality in her book. Now people living with can enjoy Chocolate Truffle Cookies, Blueberry Tartlets, Cream Cheese Cupcakes, Coffee Bread Pudding, and hundreds of others.

Looking for a fun way to socialize without putting your diabetes wellness at risk? Do you need a little help staying on track with your diabetes self-care?

Join the happy healthcare host, Mr. Divabetic for our next free, fun Virtual Valentines-themed Baking Party with our special guest, Stacey Harris aka The Diabetic Pastry Chef on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, 7 – 8:30 PM, EST on Zoom.

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12/08/202112/08/2021

Good Morning Gorgeous By Mary J. Blige

“I wake up every morning and tell myself

Good morning gorgeous

Sometimes you gotta look in the mirror and say

Good Morning Gorgeous”

The Queen of Hip Hop, Mary J. Blige sings these words in her new self-empowering song, “Good Morning Gorgeous”. Do you tell yourself that you are beautiful each day? I bet you don’t, but maybe you should. What would happen if you did? Take a moment to appreciate your curves, the way your body is solid and sure with strength in some places or sensuous with softness in others. End quiet moment you spend appreciating is a gift to you. Good thoughts become good feelings and feeling good on the inside is expressed on the outside, too.

Kind and gentle self-talk has helped Mary J. Blige overcome many obstacles in her life. She is not living with diabetes but she had a rough childhood. Her father, a war veteran who suffered from PTSD, left when she was just a young girl leaving the young Mary and her two siblings in the hands of an alcoholic mother. She was sexually abused by a family friend at the age of five. She turned to alcohol, drugs, and promiscuity to deal with the pain of her experiences.

“We numb ourselves with drugs and alcohol and people and shopping and shit, to cover up what’s really going on inside,” she said in an interview with Self.

Her resilience like her fame has grown over the years.

“People are watching,” she said to Self. “So much painful, embarrassing, public stuff has happened from the time I came out in this music industry. This stuff happens so that we can talk.”

Loving the body that you have and celebrating it makes you want to take care of it better inside and out, and all of that beauty just grows and grows. If you say it and hear it enough times I bet you’ll begin to believe it.

Enjoy Mary J. Blige’s song, “Good Morning, Gorgeous!” We believe in YOU!

Need a boost? Join us tomorrow night for Divabetic’s free Holiday-themed Baking Party with the Diabetic Pastry Chef on Thursday, December 9, 2021, at 7- 7:30 PM. EST.

We will be hosting two raffles during our virtual program. First, we will be giving away a beautiful Splenda Gift Basket filled with different Splenda products for you and your loved ones to enjoy. Then, Divabetic Image & Style Advisor, Catherine Schuller will raffle off a gift from Gem Desire. Catherine is the newest Brand Ambassador for Gem Desire, a curated jewelry brand at affordable prices. You must be present during our virtual program to qualify for the random drawings.

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09/24/202109/24/2021

Divabetic’s Biggest Virtual Program Ever!

Thank you to our special guest Stacey Harris aka ‘The Diabetic Pastry Chef’ for joining us for last night’s Divabetic Zoom program. It was our largest virtual program to date! Over 50 people enjoyed watching Stacey demonstrate her popular Sugar-Free Pumpkin Muffin Recipe, share expert baking tips, and answer questions about making over traditional dessert recipes with less sugar and carbohydrate but still packed with great flavor!

One lucky guest, Fran C. from New York City, won a fantastic Splenda Gift Basket.

Register now for Divabetic’s Holiday Baking Party with the Diabetic Pastry Chef on Thursday, December 9, 2021, at 7 PM, EST.

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Don’t miss Divabetic’s Annual Mystery Podcast, ‘A Christmas Peril’, on Thursday, September 30, 2021, 6 PM, EST.

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