Gestational Diabetes Meal Plan #1 – Featuring English Muffin Pizza and Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet
My all-time favorite breakfast is grits and eggs. (With pancakes coming in at a close second.)
My grandmother would serve grits with eggs over easy, cheese toast and sausage or bacon. Ahh, wonderful memories. But high in calories and prep time.
A package of Quaker Oats Quick Grits and an egg make this breakfast a fast and hardy meal. And if you have the time, you can whip up the longer, slower cooking version of grits on the stove top.
Peaches and non-fat Greek yogurt for a mid-morning snack are a low-fat, high protein pairing. Choose peaches in 100% juice, extra light syrup or sugar free. You can add a teaspoon of Splenda if you want to give it a sweeter taste. Cut down on the carbs by having 1/2 cup yogurt instead of a full cup.
English Muffin Pizza is on today’s lunch menu. I used whole-wheat English muffins for added fiber and goodness. Be sure to choose a salad dressing that’s low in sodium, such as Ken’s Steak House Lite Sweet Vidalia Onion or Newman’s Own Lite Raspberry and Walnut. Both contain only 120 mg sodium per 2 tablespoon serving, whereas many salad dressings are loaded with over 300 mg sodium per serving.
Popcorn is a filling and quick mid-afternoon snack. Three cups of popcorn (100 calories) with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese combines a protein and carb choice.
Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet is for dinner and serves 4. This recipe is slightly different from the TipHero video version which includes cumin and cilantro, but does not include garlic.
The photos below show my effort at making the recipe. I didn’t have fresh garlic, so I crushed 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic and soaked it in 1/2 teaspoon water until soft. And my finished product is missing the pretty parsley garnish of the written recipe and the cilantro from the video. (I don’t care much for cilantro. Sorry, cilantro lovers.)
Lean turkey and the sweet potatoes give this dish a lightness and sweetness that I thoroughly enjoyed. I plan on making this dish again.
Before-Bed Snack: 1/2 banana and almonds, about 12.
Use the nutritional information here as a guide and approximation. Your actual values may differ depending on specific brands and measurements. Also you may decide to make other changes, such as lower sodium choices, higher or lower fat content or changes due to allergies or taste preferences.
Use this plan to create something that fits your needs.
Review the gestational diabetes meal planning guidelines for additional help and tips.
Targeted carbohydrates are in parentheses. They were carb goals, but the actual values may be lower or higher.
Feel free to set different meal and snack carbohydrate goals depending on your nutritional needs and the advice of your health care provider.
Total nutrition for this meal plan: 1709 calories, 171 carbs, 75 g fat, 107 g protein, 2346 mg sodium, 58 g sugars, 15 g fiber.
Make any changes you want to mold this plan to fit your needs. Use it as an example and an idea springboard.
Breakfast (15g)
Grits, cooked, 1/2 cup with 1 tsp butter added
Egg, whole, fried using cooking spray
Nutrition: 211 calories, 22 g carbs, 10 g fat, 8 g protein, 381 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
Mid-Morning Snack (30g)
Peaches, canned, extra light syrup, 1/2 cup
Yogurt, Greek, plain, nonfat, 1 cup
Nutrition: 196 calories, 25 g carbs, 0 g fat, 24 g protein, 116 mg sodium, 19 g sugars, 1 g fiber
Lunch (45g)
Mini Pizzas (2)
Garden Salad:
Lettuce, 1 cup
Tomato, 4 slices
Cucumber, 10 slices
Green Onion, 1 stalk
Salad Dressing, low-fat, low-sodium, 2 tablespoons
Melon, cubes, 1/2 cup
Nutrition: 425 calories, 43 g carbs, 20 g fat, 22 g protein, 834 g sodium, 15 g sugars, 5 g fiber
Mid-Afternoon Snack (15g)
Popcorn, 100 calories, 3 cups
Parmesan Cheese, grated, 2 tablespoons
Nutrition: 142 calories, 20 g carbs, 7 g fat, 7 g protein, 460 mg sodium, 0 g sugars, 4 g fiber
Dinner (45g)
Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet
(Makes 4 servings)
Milk, reduced fat, 2%, 1 cup
Dinner roll, small
Nutrition per serving: 590 calories, 45 g carbs, 29 g fat, 42 g protein, 443 mg sodium, 18 g sugars, 1 g fiber
Before-Bed Snack (15g)
Banana, small, 1/2
Almonds, dry roasted, about 12
Nutrition: 145 calories, 16 g carbs, 8 g fat, 5 g protein, 111 mg sodium, 7 g sugars, 3 g fiber
Have you started planning your meals yet? What successes have you had? What techniques are you using to help keep your blood sugar in check?