Blood Sugar and Oatmeal Choco-chip cookies

OK, it's been 2 months since my last post.  My blood sugar reading has been pretty stable, today was 104, 7 day average 102 and 30 day average 101.  I had one low reading, low as in way off the norm, of 90.  I took it twice to make sure I didn't mess anything up.  But I think it was because I had a very busy day, very physically busy, and really ate light, including very few carbs, much lower than normal.

I also had two high reading, 126 and 128 about a week apart.  Both of those readings were after eating out.  I think I need to work on making better choices whenever I eat out, but to be honest, i don't like eating salads in most places.  I don't mind a side-salad instead of fries or potatoes, but most of the larger, meal-sized, salads are nearly as bad as most of the rest of the menu.

To help deal with that, I've downloaded a bunch of restaurant menu nutritional information PDF's to my phone and PC. This way I can plan what's better on their menu than take guesses.  Hopefully that will help.

As for cooking, so far I have been keeping things pretty basic.  Grilling meats as opposed to other preparations, lots of greens and salads, and for snacking I've been making batches of oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies that contain about 10-12 carbs each.  So two cookies for a mid-afternoon snack satisfy a little sweet-tooth and don't do much in elevating my blood sugar.  I evaluated a number of recipes and settles on one with minimal white flour and use walnuts and Spenda Brown Sugar blend instead of straight-up brown sugar.  I've estimated the carb count based on several recipes and the best part . . . the whole family likes them, so I make them in large batches and they usually last most of a week.

Ingredients:

• 1 Stick of Crisco Butter Flavor shortening (16 Tbs)
• 4 Tbs of unsalted butter, melted
• 1 Cup and 2 Tbs of Spenda Brown Sugar Blend
• 3 whole eggs
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 1 Cup Unbleached White flour
• 1 Cup Whole Wheat flour
• 4.5 cups of Old-Fashioned Oatmeal
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2.25 tsp baking soda

Recipe:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
2. I melt the butter while beating the shortening on low.  Once it's melted I add it to the bowl of the mixer to combine.
3. Then I add the brown sugar blend and beat on medium until well blended.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla.  Beat on medium until well combined.  I have tried to beat until light and fluffy, incorporating more air, but I haven't seen it make much of a difference.
5. While the liquid ingredients are beating, I combine the oatmeal, white and wheat flour, salt, and baking soda in a separate bowl and mix well.
6. Once the liquid ingredients are ready, I incorporate the dry with the liquid about a quarter cup at a time, on low.  It comes together as a very dry mixture and I usually have to switch to my dough hook to mix.  
7. Once done, I toss in 1.75 cups of chopped walnuts and 12 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Be careful here, the mixer will be working very hard!  You might need to push the mixture back down to get it well mixed.
8. I prep two cookie sheets with parchment.
9. Using a tablespoon scoop, I scoop up a level tablespoon and place on the cookie sheet about 1.5 inches apart.  I get 25 per sheet.  The cookies don't spread a lot.  If you are after more of a flat cookie, up the butter content.
10. Bake one cookie sheet at a time, 7 minutes, then rotate and cook another 7 minutes.  When I pull one out, I put in the next right away.
11. Once out, I pull the whole parchment sheet off onto a cooling rack so they don't keep cooking on the hot sheet.  
12. After rotating, I prep the next sheet.

I get about 125 cookies.  Once cool, I bag them up in two gallon-sized zip lock bags.  Like I said they last between 5 and six days around my house.  Because of my blood sugar, I limit myself to 6 a day, two about 10 AM, two about 3 PM, and if I get munchie after dinner, two more.  So far. so good!

My Favorite Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Courtesy of Alton Brown!

I saw these on his show "Good Eats" and had to try them. I usually use Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips. They have a great flavor. I tried the more traditional Nestles Semi-Sweet but found they just didn't have much flavor. I also tried to go high end with Ghiardelli's Bittersweet Chips, recommended for cookies by America's Test Kitchen. While they were very chocolaty, they were also way to bitter for my tastes. I guess I need sweetening up.

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• Optional 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
  

Hardware:

• A scoop or disher. #20 makes large cookies, smaller scoops make small ones. Adjust cooking time based on cookie size.
  
• Parchment paper
• Baking sheets
• Mixer

Prep and cook:

• Heat oven to 375 F. Don't skimp on giving your oven plenty of time. If you cut this short you might ruin the first batch.
  
• Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat.
• Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
• Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl.
• Add the sugar and brown sugar.
• Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed.
• Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
• Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined.
• Stir in the chocolate chips and optional walnuts.
• Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet, if you are using the large scoop. I usually wind up with 12 -16 per half-sheet pan. My wife likes small cookies.
  
• Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. For medium cookies, 11 minutes. For very small cookies, 6 minutes.
  
• Cool and store in an airtight container. Someone told me they would last several days -- but that never seems to happen around here.
  

A couple of tricks:

• I never cook more than one tray at a time. While two trays, rotated and swapped works in theory, I have never gotten even cooking.
• Parchment paper is a godsend. It also makes it easy to get them off the sheet pan quickly. If you leave them on there too long they keep cooking.
• I usually use two half-sheet pans, alternating between batches. I find better cooking on a cool sheet than putting fresh dough on a hot pan.
• Rule of thumb, if the cookies are completely brown in the oven -- they are overdone. Adjust your next batch accordingly.