Grains and near and far plans for the future

the lack of inspiration I've been having, the grains I want to eat, foodstuffs I want to try, how to maintain healthy diet while avoiding sugar, meat and all the grains that aren't great with regards to glycemic index to avoid diabetes and cholesterol issues

I haven't written any solid material on my 'vision' for the diet perfect for my current circumstances, so wanted to throw down a couple of hundred words on the matter. This is to remind myself the importance of eating healthily, that I'm already doing it for the most part, and setting the direction right. Oh and in the future I can refer back to this and remember how well the path had been set, so very intentionally.

To cut the story short, I need to be on low-sugar, low simple-carb diet. Sugar because I'm pre-diabetic and I'm already seeing obvious symptoms of insulin spike after I get quite hungry and eat meals. Oh and hyper-and-hypo glycemia is a tough game to play, and balancing that has been terrible. I'd just rather get it done with. Low on simple carbs because there's also the risk of insulin spike, but also there's cholesterol issues one needs to be careful of, so eating healthy whole grains needs to be a conscious choice. Finally, I've not been eating meat and meat products in a while, and it doesn't fit in with my lifestyle, so that has to be accommodated to. Can't go vegan because it'll be far too many hindrances to run a regular life that way.

So what should I eat then, with all those dietary restrictions, what have I been eating, and how do I get away from the 'boring/un-inspirational' cooking rut I've found myself stuck in for the last several weeks?

First, the goal: I want a diversity in grain / carb options. Right now I've been eating some mixture of oats, buckwheat flour, millet flour, corn, quinoa and rice, and lentils too if they count. I recently bought a 12lb bag of oats to go all-in on them. But that's not necessarily enough. Arriving in the next few weeks will be 12lb of buckwheat groats, 40lb of millet, 20lb of sorgum, and 20lb of rye. I'm also looking at reasonable priced sources of amaranth. These will be my base grains, that I can turn into stews, soups, pancakes, dumplings, 'rice', fritters, and what-have-you.

But life needs to be joyful. Peanut butter has been my friend all these years but perhaps it's time I abandoned the trusty spoonful-for-a-quick-hit fellow, and get into something more interesting and healthier. Enter peanut-butter powder. Yeah, I'll be eating my oats (and other 'sweet' offerings) with the powdered form of the nuts, because it's lower in fat, not terribly expensive and interesting enough to try for at least a few months.

My other friendly fixins for this lifestyle are: raisins (various kinds), nuts (various kinds), and spices (various, with some sugar), and fried onion and garlic, plus whatever interesting offering trader joe's has for trying interesting stuff. Be it tahini, or furikake or what have you.

On to proteins: milk in the form of kefir or yogurt will be important as it's a fun hobby, easy to consume, generally healthy and high in proteins. Eggs are up there as well. Beans, specially chickpeas are my favourite, so they too will remain. Lentils go with everything of course, tofu, and mushroom are other 'legs' of my protein plan. Veggie consumption will happen, but they won't be my primary sources.

For minerals and vitamins: I'll go heavy on onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, radish, various greens, cauliflower, cucumber, various grouts, and so on. The greens are important, because I keep forgetting them and have to make a big pot of soup and eat them all at once.

Fruits: apples, bananas, oranges, mostly. Maybe fun seasonal once will entice me, but they're easy to work with.

These are just the fundamental food groups that I have discussed. In future posts I'll write about how I want to eat actually.

None of what I have written is unrealistic or too out there (unlike what I wrote like 4 years ago where it was mostly aspirational). Still need to confirm the millet and sorghum orders, but after that I'm all set.

Exciting times are ahead! Truly.