Holiday meals are a time-honored tradition for most families, especially during Thanksgiving. However, finding diabetic-friendly recipes can seem like a challenge. While it is important for everyone to watch portion sizes and limit refined carbohydrates, if you or someone you love is living with diabetes, it is essential.
The good news is that eating healthy over the Holiday season doesn’t mean you have to skip your favorite foods. With a little creativity and a few smart ingredient swaps, you can reduce the amount of sugar, carbohydrates and fat in many recipes and make diabetic meals that everyone can enjoy.
Try these easy ingredient swaps with your own favorite recipes:
- Replace butter or oil with unsweetened applesauce, pureed prunes or mashed bananas
- Swap out white flour with whole wheat flour
- Switch white cane sugar with sucralose or stevia
- Use mashed or riced cauliflower instead of potatoes or rice
There are many diabetes-friendly recipe websites, including www.diabetesfoodhub.org from the American Diabetes Association. Here you will find delicious, low-carbohydrate recipes for Mashed Potatoes with Cauliflower, Spiced Sweet Potato Casserole and our favorite Holiday Pumpkin Pie with Maple-Ginger Crust.
Pumpkin pie is naturally healthier than pecan pie because it is lower in sugar and fat. This pumpkin pie recipe from the ADA is diabetes-friendly because it replaces sugar with a sugar/sucralose blend and uses canned pumpkin puree in place of canned pumpkin pie filling.
Holiday Pumpkin Pie with Maple-Ginger Crust
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1/8 of pie
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 115
Total Fat: 2.5g
Saturated Fat: 0g
Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 135mg
Total Carbohydrate: 22g
Dietary Fiber: 1g
Total Sugars: 11g
Protein: 2g
Ingredients List
Graham cracker crumbs (about 24 cracker squares): 1 ½ cup
Maple syrup: 3 tbsp
Canola oil: 1 tsp
Egg white (lightly beaten): 1
Finely minced crystallized ginger: 1 tsp
Ground ginger (divided use): 1 tsp
Splenda sugar blend: ½ cup
Ground cinnamon: 2 tsp
Ground cloves: ¼ tsp
Salt: ¼ tsp
Eggs: 2
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling): 1 (15-oz) can
Corn starch: 1 tsp
Evaporated skim milk: 1 (12-oz) can
Light whipped topping: ½ cup
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F
- Make the crust: in a bowl, combine the graham-cracker crumbs, maple syrup, oil, egg white, crystallized ginger, and 1/2 tsp of the ground ginger. Press into a 9-inch, nonstick pie pan, to form an even crust. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix together the Splenda, cinnamon, the other ½ tsp of ground ginger, cloves, and salt.
- In another bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla together. Add in the Splenda mixture and stir to combine.
- Add in the pumpkin and stir until the mixture is well blended. Dissolve the corn starch in about 2 to 2 Tbsp. of the evaporated milk. Add the corn starch mixture and the remaining evaporated milk to the pumpkin mixture, and mix until smoth. The mixture will be thin.
- Pour the pumpkin pie filling into the prepared crust. Place the pie on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes at 425° Lower the heat to 350°F, and bake an additional 40 minutes, or until the filling is set when a knife inserted comes out clean.
- Remove the pie from the oven, and let cool for 2 hours before serving. Cut into 8 wedges. Top each slice with 1 tbsp whipped topping right before serving.
Healogics Wound Care Centers® across the United States are dedicated to Diabetes Awareness to share information about the link between diabetes and non-healing wounds. The American Diabetic Association recommends specialist-level foot care for diabetics who smoke or who have histories of prior wounds, loss of feeling, or peripheral arterial disease. The same 2020 ADA report recommends referral to specialized wound care centers for patients with wounds that are chronic, previously treated, antibiotic-resistant or severely infected.1
Healogics helps patients with diabetic foot ulcers and other chronic wounds heal faster. Our highly specialized care includes therapies that aid wound closure, new tissue growth and wound tissue regeneration. These therapies include total contact casting (TCC), negative pressure wound therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
Over the past 20 years, Healogics has helped to heal more than four million wounds. We have partnerships with academic and research-based scientists to consult and analyze, driving collaboration to provide better outcomes for our patients.
Learn more about Diabetes Awareness.
1American Diabetes Association, Microvascular Complications and Foot Care: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes 2020
https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/diacare/43/Supplement_1/S135.full.pdf