Tales from Low Blood Sugar

No, I didn't cheat, I swear!  I have no idea what led to my insane blood sugar crash last night that I'm still reeling from this morning after a brown rice wrap with 2 fried eggs, 2.5 turkey bacon slices, spinach and a slice of white american cheese....  You'd think all that protein would have fixed me up, but it's now 10:45 and I still have a headache and that empty nauseated feeling.  Blech.  I didn't have any sugar yesterday, aside from a white peach, but I don't usually count fruit in the "sugar" category - natural sweet, yes, "sugar," no.  The only thing I can think is that I got really hungry at my ultrasound, which lasted over an hour because of this uncooperative little miracle, and didn't ever really catch up.  Either that, or, like my dad and my sister, somehow fish sends my blood sugar tanking within an hour...  We had baked tilapia and collard greens for dinner last night, and about an hour later, I felt cranky, sluggish and headache-y, just like when I cheat and eat ice cream.  Except without the yumminess of ice cream.  I need to look into this more.

At any rate, here is my recipe for the collards, which I thoroughly enjoy making often.  They are vegetarian, unlike most recipes for collard greens, which call for a ham bone (ick).  We're not really ham people here, so the likelihood of us having a ham bone at any given time is slim-to-none.

(side note: I neglected to take a photo of the full pan before I devoured my portion of collards - this is what was leftover after Matt & I both ate some!)


Vegetarian Collard Greens (adapted from the Food Network)

1 T olive oil
1 T butter *see note
1/4 - 1/2 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
dash of crushed red pepper flakes (I overdid it a bit with this one tonight!!  SPICY!)
1 lb collard greens, washed & torn into bite size pieces (I tend to throw out the thicker part of the stalks) - you could probably also use frozen chopped collards if you can find them
1-2 c vegetable stock, depending on how soup-like you want your final product
1 piece dried kombu (seaweed, optional)
salt & pepper to taste

In a large pot over medium heat, heat oil and butter. Saute the onions until slightly softened, about 2 minutes, then add the red pepper flakes and garlic, cook another minute. Add collard greens and cook another minute. Add the vegetable stock & kombu, cover and bring to a simmer. Cook until greens are tender, about 40 minutes. Remove kombu & season with salt and pepper before serving.

*note: If you are vegan/dairy-free, feel free to add another 1 T of olive oil or other cooking fat instead of butter.  It's just for flavor and doesn't matter at all.

You can also top them with chopped tomatoes at the end, but I find that it doesn't really add all that much to the recipe, especially when tomatoes aren't in season.  This recipe also stores/reheats well, so it's great if you want to add more greens to your diet but are too busy to prep them during the week.

I also experimented with our ice cream maker for the first time (no, I did not use sugar, in case you're wondering if that's the connection to my sugar crash!) - more on that later!