8 Week Blood Sugar Diet – Recipe Review

Lamb & Pine Nut Meatballs with Moroccan Salad

It’s been a good day today, the Diabetes nurse confirmed that I’ve lost 10 lb since my diagnosis of being a Diabetic in February and my blood pressure has come back down to a normal range – 2 very positive results! So, I came home from the Doctors inspired to continue with my healthy eating regime and here’s what I made for tonight’s tea:

LAMB MEATBALLS & MOROCCAN SALAD served with 3 varieties of humus from good old M&S

Lamb Meatballs & Moroccan Salad

 

It got a big thumbs up from me and from my hubby who is enjoying the fact that I’m cooking for him – a rare treat!

The recipe came from the 8-week blood sugar diet book – author: Dr Michael Mosley. I can strongly recommend this book for anyone who has been diagnosed with Diabetes – it goes into lots of detail about the science behind the diagnosis and the new trials that have shown that it is possible to reverse the condition by making significant changes to your diet.

For me it’s so far so good – I haven’t quite achieved the 800 calorie per day level of diet but am following the key principle i.e. Massively reducing my carbohydrate intake and the scales are definitely moving in the right (downward) direction!

Recipe (serves 2)

200 g minced lamb

Small onion – finely grated or chopped (I did mine in the blender)

2 garlic cloves – crushed to a paste

50g pine nuts – lightly toasted (I only had almond flakes so used these and they were fine – be careful when toasting them – I burnt the first batch as they literally take less than a minute to brown)

1/2 teaspoon paprika; 1/2 teaspoon cumin (the recipe says to add 1/4 teaspoon of All Spice but I didn’t have any so missed this out)

1 egg white lightly whisked; Small bunch parsley and small bunch mint – finely chopped (I didn’t have much fresh mint so added a bunch of corriander too)

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Method:

Simply mix all the ingredients together and divide into 6 – roll into balls and chill in the fridge. The recipe suggests frying them but when I tried to do this they started to crumble so I popped them into the oven on a baking tray and this worked really well.

Moroccan Salad:

Ingredients:

I changed the recipe slightly to match the contents of my fridge so used as follows:

Mixed baby leaf salad leaves

Small chopped cooked beetroot

2 spring onions – chopped finely

1/2 red pepper & 1/2 yellow pepper – de-seeded and chopped

approximately 2 tablespoons of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

small portion (about the size of a matchbox) of feta cheese

1 tablespoon of sliced almonds (or pine nuts)

Method: Simply mix all salad ingredients together into a bowl and top with the dressing as follows:

Dressing: 1 tsp of olive oil; 1/2 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar; juice of half lemon – mix together and toss into the salad

Result – Mmmm – Tasty!