A Day on a Diabetes Educator’s Plate

I have a young family and we all follow a mostly vegetarian diet (we eat dairy, eggs and the occasional seafood), so planning meals which are nutritionally balanced is important. We also eat a lot of variety to make sure we all get a wide range of nutrients from the food we eat.

Breakfast

I started my day with the perfect winter breakfast- oatmeal with a sprinkle of pepitas and dried fruit.

Lunch

Lunch time was Mexican! For our protein, I use pinto beans which I mix with low G.I. (i.e. breaks down slowly) sweet potato and wild red rice.  This is topped with all the different vegetables I could find- tomato, red onion, cabbage, mushrooms and capsicum. Finally, it wouldn’t be Mexican without a generous helping of guacamole and a sprinkle of cheese. Oh and of course, my personal favourite: Hot sauce!

Dinner

We eat dinner together served family style. This means that the meal is put in the centre of the table and everyone helps themselves. This gives the kids some autonomy over their food choices. At this meal we had a delicious mushroom pasta (there seems to be a mushroom pasta theme running in the staff in this clinic- see the dietitian’s day on a plate!). We served the pasta with a colourful salad.