Sweet potato travels to Scandinavia, Italy and India!

For christmas I'm sharing a few super simple but delicious tips on my favorite carb; the Sweet Potato. I LOVE sweet potatoes! It works beautifully as mash, chips, baked, boiled, and so many more ways. 

Here is "Sweet Potato In 3 Ways":

Nro. 1 Italy

• Use small potatoes. Bigger are hard to handll since they are extremely hard and will cook slower.
• Brush the skin under water until all dirt is gone 
• Lay the potatoes on a baking tray and spray with 1kcal spray and season with salt, pepper and garlic 
• Baby carrots are a lovely side to this, seasoned with rosemary 
• Bake for 30 minutes in 200c 

• When the sweet potatoes are ready, make a deep-ish cut to them. The potato should be lovely and soft inside. 
• Fill with ricotta, parma ham and fresh basil leaves. 
• You can pimp your own italian sweet potato according to your own taste! Mozzarella, different cold meats, pesto etc :) 

Nro. 2 Scandinavia

• For cooking the sweet potatoes same as before! 
• Cold smoked salmon (or as grave lax)
• Quark or cottage cheese
• Lactose free version: soy yoghurt with diced cucumber, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic 
• Sprinkle parsley on top

No. 3 India

For cooking the sweet potatoes same as before!

Soy raita: soy yoghurt with diced cucumber, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic 

Oriental vegetable mix (frozen), fry on a pan

Courgette chips (bake in the oven or in the pan; pan is faster) 

Season with paprika, mild chili powder and cayenne pepper 

What Does A Diabetic And Fitness Enthusiastic Eat? THIS! (you might be surprised!)

Chicken, mashed sweet potato and salad

So I'm going home to Finland for christmas, and my mum and sister where asking me for my food preferences. I then decided to actually make this into a blog post, since I get  a lot of people asking me what do I eat, and what i can't eat (due to diabetes). Also I would like to shaek off some those conceptions people have about diabetes and execrise, like "you can't eat anything sweet", or "no treats". 

Lately I've made a notion that my diet asctually is a lot like the paleo diet. A lot of protein (MEAT! yum!), good fats (nuts etc) and vegetables. For carbs my favorites are sweet potato and barley!  

I'm also suffering from lactose intolerance of some level. I'm not sure how common this in Ireland/UK/Mainland Europe, but in Finland it is quite common. ALready after eating dairy for a few days I'm like a bloatred gassy balloon, and just generally feeling really bad! And in Irelanf you can't get ANY lactoce free products. For some reason I can eat a little bit of feta and ricotta cheese, but only very rarely. Most annoyed I am about cottage cheese and quark. They are so incredibly nutritious, healthy and good source of protein! If I could I would eat them every day and my body would be feeling much better :( Luckily i'll be soon in Finland again and stuff myself with quark again :D 

Here is my wee list! These are the things I always have in my press and that I buy weekly:  

FRIDGE

• Almond milk (unsweetened)
• Soy yoghurt (OR lactose free natural yoghurt)
• Soya single 
• (Cottage cheese)
• (Unsweetened quark)
• Egg whites
• Juice (in case of low blood sugar)
• Weight watchers dairy spread 
• Alpro soy vanilla custard
• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• Blueberries

Stuff for breakfast :) This is gonna be, surprise, pan cakes!

PROTEIN

• Pepperoni sausage (German Salami Company)
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Lean bacon
• Salmon
• Lean beef

Salmon, mashed peas, feta and salad

VEGGIES

• Spinach
• Cherry tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Scallion
• Carrot
• onions (regular, red, shalot)
• Avocado (every fortnight app.)

Rye bread, egg, salmon, spinach and cucumber

NUTS

• Peanut butter
• Hazelnut butter
• Cashew butter
• Pine nuts

Fruit bowl with cashew chocolate mousse

COOKING & BAKING

• Fruit syrup / Maple syrup / Agave
• Stevia
• Coconut sugar
• Coconut oil
• 1 kcal spray
• Almond flour
• Dessicated coconut
• Corn flour
• Cocoa powder
• Baking powder
• Vanilla
• Spelt four
• Rye flour

I made these amaxing finds at the polish shop! it's boil in a bag barley and buckwheat! And one package costs 79 cents!!

BREAD & PORRIDGE

• Sour rye crisp bread (Finncrisp)
• Ryvita 
• Rye Bread 
• Oat flakes
• Rye flakes
• 4 grain flakes

I absolutely love sweet potato! Could eat it all day long. 

CARBS (FOR MEALS)

• Barley
• Buckwheat
• Slim pasta
• Potato 
• Sweet potato

SNACKS

• Apple
• Banana
• Nakd bars

So I think from these ingredients you're able to cook quite a few different wholesome and tasty meals :) I'm getting hungry again just reading this list!  

Uskolliset paisto-toverini

Näitä patukoita löytyy monissa eri mauissa, omat suosikkini ovat appelsiini-suklaa, kaakao ja tämä uusi kaakao crunch. Sopii tosi hyvin diabeetikolle, ei paljon hiilareita ja nekin aika pitkäkestoisia. 

Munakas on hyvä "pikaruoka", tässä on aika tuhti versio jossa lohta, fetaa, pinaattia ja hummusta