Healthier Holiday Dessert Recipe

I got this from a diabetes website I checked out. It sounded real good and I decided to make it as a treat for the Thanksgiving get together last week. It got awesome reviews and it was so fun to make with the boys. I highly recommend it to anyone! It's like an apple shortbread.

Caramel Apple Cookie Bites

Ingredients:

Filling: 1/3 cup chopped unpeeled apple 1/3 cup evaporated milk 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Dough: 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups all-purpose flour
Topping: 1 package (14 ounces) caramels 2/3 cup evaporated milk Green toothpicks 1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix together apple, milk, sugar, and walnuts in a pot. Cook over medium heat until thick. Let rest.
3. Using electric beaters, mix together butter, confectioners' sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in egg, vanilla, and salt. Slowly add flour in and mix until fully combined.
4. Form mixture into 1-inch spheres. Compress dough with the palm of your hand. Spoon 1/4 teaspoon of apple mixture onto the center of each piece of dough. Fold dough in half and form into balls.
5. Move balls to a greased pan and bake 12 to 15 minutes, dough should be golden. Let cool on wire racks.
6. Pour caramels and milk in a pot and heat over low heat until liquefied. Poke a toothpick into each ball and coat each with caramel mixture. Roll in nuts and let cool. Dip some in chocolate too. Or use bananas as the filling.

Nutritional Information:
Per Serving— Calories: 292 Carbohydrates: 39g Protein: 6g Total Fat: 13g Saturated Fat: 6g Cholesterol: 31mg Fiber: 1g Sodium: 157mg

Diabetes Funny

I thought this was really funny about life as a diabetic:

Bear Fingers – When a finger has been tested to the point of exhaustion and it needs to be rested or "hibernated."

Bouncing – When your bloodsugar drops so low overnight that your living kicks in some glucagons, causing you to bounce from low to high.

Born Again Diabetic – When a person with diabetes fosters a new-found interest in taking care of their health after years of negligence and denial.

Carbonese - The ability to determine the number of carbs in a given food based on the total carbs and the serving size (coined by a 6-year-old child with diabetes who is fluent in Carbonese and can eyeball the carbs without her mother's input).

Clocking In – Another term for "bloodsugar reading." Synonyms include "ringing in" and "reading at."

Daylight Savings Time – See also "Time to Change the Lancet".

Dead Strips – Used blood glucose meter strips found in random spots, i.e. under the seat of your car, on the floor at the gym, in a shoe, in a small gray kitten named Siah's mouth.

Diabetic PMS – When the blood sugar rockets up for no apparent reason for the 2-3 days prior to the start of a woman's cycle. Men may also experience this in a sympathetic mode.

Dotties – When you prick your finger, squeeze, and about five holes show up with blood. See also "Bloody Constellation."

Gusher – When you prick your finger, squeeze, and end up assaulted by your own bloodstream. May also be found when you remove an infusion set.

Hooking – When your pump tubing snags the doorknob and almost rips out.

Interstate BG Checks – Where upon the person with diabetes (while barreling down the interstate above the speed limit) juggles the steering wheel, BG meter, test strip, lancet and a target finger. Commonly occurs in the dark.
I didn't feel when I was driving home from my interview, so I performed an interstate BG check and almost hit a moose.

Larry Bird – Boston Celtic's basketball legend, jersey no. 33. Serves as cardio workout goal time inspiration for many people with diabetes. Often found at the punchline of my sad little quips.
Working out at the gym, I made sure to do Larry Bird on the treadmill.

Low Bowl – The bowl in the kitchen of a person with diabetes filled to the rim with 5-15g fast acting carb treats. Miniature versions are often found in diaper bags for "On The Go" lows.

Nabs – Crackers with peanut butter spread between them. Typically used to follow up glucose tabs in the treatment of a low bloodsugar. Names derived from the Latin "Nabisco", the maker of the most popular peanut butter crackers. Most people with diabetes learn about nabs at diabetes camp.

Officially Scary – Applies to situations, numbers, etc. Defined as any statistic that stretches the perimeters of safety.
While at the gym, I checked at the 33 minute mark and noted that I was at the Officially Scary Number of 37 mg/dl (2.06 mmol/l)!

Panicky Diabetic Syndrome – The use of more than five test strips in a 55-minute period because you aren't confident that your bloodsugar is coming up or down.. Often accompanied by a Rage or Serial Bolus.

Random Bolus – The method of bolusing at random and mildly calculated intervals, i.e. realizing that you may have under-bolused for a meal and opt to course in a unit or two to cover bases.

Rage Bolus – The act of suffering from a high bloodsugar for an extended period of time or for an unknown reason and the retaliatory insulin dose. Oftentimes results in a low bloodsugar.

Real People Sick – The differentiation between bloodsugar issues and the common cold. Phrase slips out most often when the person with diabetes admits to not feeling well and must specify that it is not bloodsugar related.

Regan-Rage – Term comes from the little girl in The Exorcist. Describes the behavior some people with diabetes exhibit when having a low bloodsugar. Regan-rage behaviors include swearing, screaming, spitting of juice, and stretching body parts in unnatural ways.
*Does not include levitating. If your diabetic friend/partner/child should levitate, it is probably not caused by low bloodsugar.

Serial Bolus – Administering bolus upon bolus to bring a bloodsugar down. Often likened to a Rage Bolus, but usually follows the course of multiple hours vs. one huge crank up.

Sleep-Eating – The act of rising from a sound sleep, proceeding to the kitchen and eating anything you can find. A person with diabetes often wakes up while in the process of sleep-eating without being able to figure out how they got to the kitchen or why there is ice cream all over their fingers and face.
Last night, my boyfriend found me sleep-eating again; when he was able to rouse me, I was mortified to find I had eaten a ½ gallon of chocolate ice cream.

Sugar Reaper – A night time hypo that nearly kills you.
I had a visit from the Sugar Reaper last night, which explains the bags under my eyes and the juice stains around my mouth.

S.W.A.G. Bolus – Scientific, Wild Assed Guess bolus. This is where you use more instinct than data to bolus an unexpected or uncalculated meal.

Time to Change the Lancet – Defined as any time when you change the batteries in your smoke detector, reset your clocks, or when the lancet starts to rust

Twilight Zone High – A high with no rational cause.
Despite the fact that I had not eaten anything sweet or missed any insulin, I clocked in at a Twilight Zone High of 330 mg/dl (18.33 mmol/l).

Source: Excerpted and adapted from the blog Six Until Me, authored by dLife columnist Kerri Morrone

Diabetes Damnit Mellius

So I finally got an appointment with an Endocrinologist! His name is Dr Jacobson and I hear he's amazing. It's time to sever ties with my internal medicine dr. They have just been so laid back about my diabetes. How am I supposed to take it seriously and hard core if they don't? Maybe not cut them off altogether. They've taken care of me for 6 years. But I need someone to attack this freaken disease.

I've been fighting with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia for about a month about getting refill strips for my Ascensia Contour Glucose Meter. They won. They won't pay for it because they don't have a contract with Bayer or something. I have to stick with Accu Chek. Good news is Accu Chek sent me a brand new meter, the Aviva. It's much better than the Active that I've been using.

I tried it out after clinicals on Thursday. I figured I'd be kinda low. I ate at 4 am, 12 pm, and here it was 5 pm. My bs was like 96. Very very good. I was happy. I had supper and checked my post-meal bs, which should be around 100-120ish and it was almost 400!! I was so upset. They say that with blood sugars that high you shouldn't really exercise to burn off the extra blood sugar because your system is already stressed to the extreme. But they said if you don't have insulin around, you should just drink alot of water to flush it out. So I laid down, took it easy, and had alot of water. I've got several vials of insulin in the refrigerator but they're expired. Damn.
I've been pretty elevated since then. I guess my blood sugars run really high now. And I found out what I thought was a good a1c (7.2) is actually not good at all. Alot of insulin dependent diabetics find themselves around 5 or 6. I'm upset, but it's time to attack this shit. This endo has a reputation of being pretty tough. Good. I need that. I really see him putting me back on insulin. I hate insulin, but especially with the new pumps out there it sounds like it'll be just what I need. I just want to feel better. I'm tired of being tired. I'm tired of feeling like I just got ran over by a semi. I want the good blood sugars, I want my kidneys to always work good, and I want to live forever. I don't want to die. I want to be there for my kids and husband forever.

I'm serious about this and I pray to God he helps me through this strong as hell!

I'm going for one hell of a walk...

Baby Crave

Ok, I'm about out of my mind. I SO can't wait to have another baby! I laid down last night to relax and ended up falling asleep. My stomach was hurting and it's like I still felt it in my sleep and incorporated it into my dream. I dreamt that I was laying in bed and my stomach hurt. I reached down to rub it and it was hard and round, like I was 5 months pregnant or something. Then it's like I walked in to the bathroom that's next to our bed to take a pregnancy test and it was positive right away. But I was shocked & scared.

Our plan is to have a baby AFTER I graduate. As bad as I want another baby I'm so scared. I don't know if things are too bad with my diabetes. I had alot of serious complications with my last pregnancy and Colin & I were lucky to come out ok. I know if I get pregnant again I'm likely to repeat those complications.

But this is my plan:
1) Start now with an endocrinologist who will help me take real strict care of the diabetes and get settled on a steady medication and food plan.
2) Get started on a healthy exercise routine. Right now I'm just doing alot of walking, but maybe add more to it. I'd like to get back into dancing.
3) If I need to be back on insulin, so be it. But before I get pregnant I'm going on a pump! I used to inject SO much insulin SO often that I was begging the dr to put me on a pump. That way if I needed more insulin, all I had to do was push a button. Also more convenient being away from home alot. But the dr I had at the time wasn't real familiar with pumps.So I'm hoping that I can get my a1c down (it's at 7.1 now-not cool) and start on a strict medication schedule. In a year I should be in prime shape for a baby! And pray it's a girl.

I've received word from a few people that my doctor will probably discourage me from getting pregnant (and a few said they wouldn't), but I'm motivated to make this work. I just need some words on encouragement!

Feel free to email me with any motivating words!