Sunday Snack - Hot Dogs

Alright so there's nothing healthy about a hot dog but for the time being I didn't have any gourmet or nitrate free hot dogs, there wasn't a ton of money until pay day, and I was really hungry!

Doing a search about if a diabetic is allowed to have a hot dog or not can feel confusing. Important matters when it comes to eating hot dogs:

The fact that what you just ate can turn into sugars that will spike your insulin
Can you eat the bun?
What condiments are okay?

You may be able to avoid your body metabolizing your hot dog or hot dogs as sugar by checking your levels first. I didn't have anything to do this but keep very, very, very, close eye on what I was eating throughout the day.

A hot dog cooked on a grill or a grill pan is preferable over one that's been cooked in a pan (like mine was) because of the extra oils you're now just adding on.

When it comes to hot dog buns, basically the answer is no. If you're going to eat just one like so many people urge then it seems eating half of the bun is permissible. There was no way I was going to eat only one hot dog.

You should generally steer clear of ketchup because it contains high fructose corn syrup, which will of course leave you with an insulin problem. Mayonnaise is another sugary danger to you. If you really feel you really must have ketchup or mayo - go very, very light on it! 

Mustard is a great condiment to use and you can load up on veggies that haven't been sauteed. Grilled veggies would be okay but you need to steer clear of the oils that in the end would rob your veggies of extra vitamins you need anyway.

The relish you see here was made by me, not pre-packaged.

How to solve the bun issue? I peeled leaves of red cabbage off and did my best to keep them as whole as possible and used those as a bun.

How was it? Not the same as if I were allowed to eat a bun but still pretty good.

Pickled Red Cabbage

Who would have known that by making some pickled Vietnamese vegetables that I would have found myself bitten by the pickling bug? The only answer I can come up for this is, those of you who have or do pickle or can things knew it.

I did what I could to find a recipe that called for sea salt instead of kosher (because I ran out of kosher salt). I decided to settle on this one.

First, I mixed up the apple cider vinegar, sugar, sea salt (I told you I was out of kosher salt) and let it sit.

I cut my red cabbage in half

and washed it in a bowl once everything was cut how I wanted it.

I stuffed as much of the red cabbage as I dared into the jar I had available.

And poured the liquid over it.

I didn't shake it up every fifteen minutes on the dot or anything, I just periodically went into the kitchen and shook up the jar while I let it sit out on the counter. Here's what it looked like when I put it in the fridge for the night.

I had red cabbage left from the half that I'd cut up so I put it in a container to be used for a roasted red pepper and red cabbage salad for lunch during a planned play date for the next day.

For the moment I'm just waiting to crack into my pickled red cabbage.