Diabetic Diet Menu - Vegetarian Dinner and Dessert Ideas

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Theoretically, dinner should be a light meal, as it's the meal we eat before putting our bodies on hiatus instead of burning calories off properly. Our appetites, however, usually soar during this time. It's the time we get to sit down, relax and indulge ourselves. For busy working people, dinner is the only meal they can enjoy with no rush. A lot of people also love dining out as a way to pamper themselves or socialize with friends. Although the idea of luxurious dinner is so enticing, diabetics who are trying to lose weight and control their blood sugar levels should be extra cautious about dinner planning.

Eating adequate amount of breakfast and lunch is a healthy way to curb your hunger during dinner. Having a small soup or salad before dinner is a practical strategy to miniaturize your appetite for the main course. Portion control isn't the only important thing, though. You have to watch what you put into your mouth as well. These vegetarian dinner menus offer you scrumptious dishes that will help stabilize your blood sugar and cut down saturated fat from meat. Unlike diet menus on most websites, mine are a bit more adventurous. You will find a variety of cuisines from a fancy sandwich and creative pasta to more exotic dishes like French au gratin and low-fat Thai curry. After a good meal, diabetics can please themselves with yummy desserts just like non-diabetic people. And just so you know, diabetic desserts are not necessarily inferior in terms of taste quality. Just because they're considered healthy doesn't mean you have to sacrifice the taste.

• Spinach pasta with pesto
• Green salad with light vinaigrette dressing
• Warm or iced chamomile tea
• For dessert: one baked apple with cinnamon and brown sugar

Compared to regular pasta, spinach noodles are higher in dietary fiber and protein, and lower in carbohydrates and fat. Fiber in the noodles helps you prevent blood sugar spikes, and the low calorie content won't make you risk weight gain as long as you don't eat too much of these green noodles. Chamomile tea is great for night time, as it's a herbal nerve relaxant that promotes a peaceful sleep. Some people even call it "sleepy tea." As for your dessert, try to use brown sugar sparingly. Apples already contain natural sweetness. Not so much sugar is necessary.

• Tofu Au Gratin
• Clear mushroom soup
• Warm or iced green tea
• For dessert: one scoop of sugar-free sorbet

Instead of making traditional potato au gratin loaded with carbohydrates, substitute the potatoes with cubed firm tofu that will nourish your body with protein. Avoid extra calories by skipping grated parmesan cheese. You may replace the mushroom soup with another kind of clear soup if you like. Make sure it is vegetable-broth-based soup, not cream of mushroom or cream of broccoli, which is more plentiful in calories and fat. Green tea is in fact a beneficial beverage diabetics should drink regularly, not only at dinner time but throughout the day. Many research studies have found that it can improve blood sugar control and prevent weight gain by speeding up your metabolism.

• Thai tofu zucchini curry
• A small bowl of brown rice
• Mango lassi
• For dessert: sugar-free gelatin made with fresh fruits (aka jello salad)

The Thai curry recipe that I link to isn't really a vegetarian recipe, though we can make it vegetarian simply by substituting 1 1/2 tablespoons of fish sauce with 1 teaspoon of salt. To keep it low in calories, use light coconut milk instead of regular one, or just reduce the amount of coconut milk and add about 1/3 - 1/2 cup of vegetable broth to it. This will make your curry more watery, though it won't ruin the taste. In addition, diabetics should say farewell to white rice forever and switch to healthier choices like brown rice and barley that are packed with complex carbs. Mango lassi is a South-Asian yogurt drink, both tasty and diabetic-friendly. When you order a mango lassi in a restaurant, make sure they don't add sugar to it. Mango should make it sweet enough already. Extra amount of sugar will only lower the health quality of this nutritious drink.

• A zucchini-mushroom sandwich
• One small cup of vegetable and barley soup
• A cup of warm or iced ginger tea
• For dessert: a little slice of vegan cheesecake

What are the special ingredients that make my vegetarian sandwich more palatable and nutritious than regular sandwiches? Aromatic roasted vegetables with olive oil and red wine vinegar. Plus, a small cup of vegetable and barley soup will nicely complement your dinner. "Barley is the new rice." Have you ever heard that? It's even more diabetic-friendly than brown rice due to its three-time higher fiber content. Foods rich in fiber take longer to be converted into glucose and get absorbed into the bloodstream. The ginseng tea aides in digestion so you won't have to worry about feeling bloated after the meal. As for the vegan cheesecake, although it's lower in calories compared to a regular cheesecake, it still contains a lot of sugar. So let me say this one more time and hopefully you'll recite it in your head like a diabetes diet mantra: Have only a LITTLE slice!