Ethnic Dishes in Linda Gassenheimer’s The 12-Week Diabetes Cookbook

Linda Gassenheimer, author of The 12-Week Diabetes Cookbook published by The American Diabetes Association is a James Beard Award-Winning Author, radio host, and syndicated columnist.  Her sub-title says it all: Your super Simple Plan for Organizing, Budgeting, and Cooking Amazing Dinners.  And just from her professional history and associations, and equally from her helpful and no-nonsense demeanor – with a sense of humor – you can’t help but trust her word implicitly from the get-go.  And Linda will tell you what she doesn’t know, too!

Her latest work has been for the American Diabetes Association.  Linda Gassenheimer, author of 7 cookbooks, each on a different topic, are published by the American Diabetes Association.  It is part of the Association’s ongoing project of solving the global epidemic of diabetes which is a vital subject for our nation’s health.

Appropriately one of the main themes of the book is incorporating carbs, previously thought to be “no-no’s” into ethnic food dishes.  The concept is also motivational and instructional for further exploration.

The friendly, petite lady is very vocal about eating healthy, and she has devised as many ways as possible to make it easy for the home cook.  Her book is filled with the simplest ways for cooks in the kitchen to save time and still create family-friendly meals. Author Gassenheimer does all the research and work on the recipes, such as precise measurements and cost analysis.  You can tell from her wide-spread career that she is as organized as one can get.  This author has even measured out the salt for you!

And Linda has put those skills into research and homework to save the home cook time.   The 12-Week Diabetes Cookbook is a “no-brainer blueprint” in her words.   Gassenheimer includes everything you need to for 12 weeks of diabetes-friendly dinners – shopping lists, cost breakdowns and tips for prep.

What should we be eating?  Gassenheimer suggests making healthy foods interesting by adding international flavors.  Below is her Five-Spice chicken with Chinese Noodles.  Low in carbs, healthy broccoli and scallions are key.

Below is Lasagna Soup to be served with a Spinach Salad.  The idea is that everyone loves lasagna and here you can have it in wheat noodle form (there is a new white fiber noodle out as well) and still cut down on the carbs.

One of Linda’s tips is to carefully dress salads with oil.  A little goes a long way, and she showed just how far a tablespoon would go in this arugula salad.

Gassenheimer also inspired us to do our own research on raw versus cooked vegetables after reading about her raw spinach salad.  And this is what we found.

Cooking vegetables can make the cell walls less rigid, which makes it easier to absorb certain nutrients and digest food better. Compared to raw carrots, cooked carrots, for example, have more beta-carotene, an antioxidant that can be converted to vitamin A and improves bone, eye, and reproductive systems. These 7 cooked vegetables are better than raw.