can’t believe it’s already Sunday! If you guys couldn’t tell already, but I use my Sundays to typically plan out my weeks – and this includes what I’m going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The first two are usually the easiest to plan since I’m kind of a creature of habit and will eat the roughly the same thing for these two meals. Dinner can get tricky since I’m not making something just for myself, but I’m also making something for Nick.
In comes Cooksmarts! I’ve briefly touched on this service in a few other posts, but essentially Cooksmarts takes the guessing out of what to make for dinner for the entire week. Every Thursday, the website is updated with a weekly meal plan. This meal plan will then feed into a grocery list and even what you can prep on Sunday. One feature I particularly like is that you can vary the serving size (if you’re having 2-8 people over for dinner) and even dietary needs like Paleo! This has been extremely helpful when it comes to planning my Whole30 compliant meals. Even though Paleo does include some natural sugars like honey, I’ve been able to easily modify here and there to make sure it fits in with the program. Other diets they cater to are Gluten Free and Vegetarian. They’ve even added a MyFitnessPal button for those tracking their nutrition closely.
Now, what if you don’t like what’s on the list for the week? No problem – go scan through the archives and find a week that tickles your fancy a little bit more.
Nick and I usually make 3 out of 4 meals for the week for 4 servings. This gives us the option to dig through any leftovers for lunches/weekend meals. And Nick usually eats a little more than a serving since he can.
Cooksmarts is a subscription service, so it does cost some money. It’s $21 for three months which really isn’t that much when you think about how many things you get with it. They even have other flexible options of billing – monthly and yearly. However, I will say that there was a little hiatus I took from utilizing the service and was bummed when they automatically billed me after not even using it. I guess that’s partially my fault, but I hate automated billing – I wish they had a friendly reminder that they’re about to charge my card!
Oh and how are the meals? They’re absolutely delicious and most are somewhat easy to prepare. Some do take a bit of preparation and organization, so they’re not completely effortless. A nice feature though is that if you aren’t a cook and don’t even know how to dice an onion, Jess (the founder) will teach you! They have videos showing step by step how to do it. I’ll be honest, I had no idea how to cut fennel before this.
The service has actually expanded my cooking repertoire. Prior to subscribing, I pretty much stuck to casseroles, stir-frys, lame protein + vegetable combinations (think salmon and green beans….boring) and maybe tacos. I’ve now experimented with a lot of different Asian flavors like Korean and Vietnamese, Cajun, Indian and other American favorites that I would have never attempted before. However, I have found that not every grocery store will have all of the ingredients on the list, so sometimes I’ve had to improvise. Things like fish sauce and rice paper wrappers aren’t stocked regularly in my Trader Joes, so I’ve had to make extra trips to conventional big-name stores to find some ingredients.
1. UNDERSTAND YOUR CARBOHYDRATES
The 3 main types of carbs are sugars, starches, and fibers. Sugars are generally simple carbs that are quickly digested, starches are complex carbs that take longer for the body to break down, and fibers are indigestible carbs.
Keep in mind that simple carbs aren’t always “bad” and complex carbs aren’t always “better” for someone with diabetes. The effect of a simple or complex carbohydrate on blood sugar levels is accurately understood through glycemic index ranking.
2. HAVE A GLYCEMIC INDEX CHART HANDY
Although studies show that the amount of carbs in a food you eat is the best predictor blood glucose response, checking the glycemic index (GI) of a food is always a good idea. The GI ranks carbohydrates based on both the increase in blood glucose levels and the speed in which they rise after eating a particular food. Here are the GI rules:
- Low = 0-55
- Medium = 56-69
- High = 70+
A quick GI check is especially helpful if you are at the grocery store or eating out and can’t count carbs. Here are two convenient GI search engines – Diet Grail and Glycemic Index.