I'm a type 1 diabetic and I would highly recommend an insulin pump if that is an option insurance wise. This will also make her life easier as she enters the age of hormones where she may have different insulin needs on different times of the month and allow more freedom during the teenage years when rebellion on the strictness of a regular regime often happens. It will also allow to be very precise in the amounts she takes and she can have a little of whatever she'd like as long as she can count the carbs, which she would be close to be able to handle age wise. It is the closest I've come to living a fairly normal life as far as not being on a schedule which just wasn't working for me and also having freedom in eating options. How does she react to carbs? Ie how much does her bloodsugar rise per 1 gram of average glycemic carb? As for snacks - lower sugar high fiber fruits such as granny smith apples of smaller size work pretty well for me without having to add insulin if I'm on the lower side, however I do have a pump so I do usually add some (Processed sugar free foods work too, but I really don't like them myself, but a 9 year old might if mom doesn't mind the processed part. A handful of popcorn would work too, buying the air-popped stuff or air-pop yourself to avoid things to affect cholesterol. The problem with popcorn for me is I like to have more than a handful so do need insulin when I eat it, but not as much due to the lower glycemic index. Look at the lower glycemic index foods and test and see what works for you. You might want to try adding salsa, or other low carb things for dipping veggies in for making them different too. Do a mix of things, but include smaller amounts of higher carb foods. I create a trailmix with nuts, popcorn, and a toasted higher fiber cereal similar to a home made chex thing, but have it heavier on the nuts to reduce the carb content.

Hi Christine, Sorry to hear about your friend. I am mom to a T1 son who was diagnosed at age 3, now 11. There are no good cook books, but I do think Cooking Light is a great resource. Two important things: I urge you to tell you friend to get diagnosed by an endocrinologist specializing in Diabetes. Many times doctors without a lot of experience with the disease will see an adult with high BGs and call it T2, because T2 used to be called "Adult Onset" and T1 used to be called "Juvenile". The diseases are actually very different as T1 is an auto immune disease(frequently triggered by Strep, though this is still a suspected and not proven link) and T2 is not. T1 is the inability to make insulin, T2 is typified by insulin resistance and they must be treated differently. There is also a Type 1.5 AKA as LADA (Latent Autoimmmune Diabetes of Adults) which is very frequently misdiagnosed as T2 and must be treated differently than T2. An accurate diagnosis is not based on Blood GLucose numbers alone, there would have been other blood tests, to measure GAD antibodies, and Serum Insulin levels(a type 2 would have had sky high insulin levels, a type one negligible). Secondly, cooking for a diabetic is often thought of as low carb cooking, but it is not. Low fat is also very important. Frequently upon diagnosis, your insurance will cover at least one visit to a Registered Dietician. This would be a great thing for your friend to take advantage of.

I don't know about the handles. I vaguely recall concluding, when I started buying woks, that the loop handled ones were more authentic, but I can't recall why I thought that. In Asia, woks are general purpose, used as much for simmering and braising as for high heat stir frying. If you have limited metal working tools, the easiest shape to make is a hammered round bowl. It's in the US that we associate woks solely with high heat. And living quarters including kitchens are small. So long handles might be inconvenient. Assuming the wok is to be used for high heat stir frying, the ideal material will depend on the heat source. If the burner is very strong, then the traditional thin steel wok is fine. If the burner is not so strong, then I think a cast iron wok is better because it stores more heat to better resist cooling down when food is added. A cast iron wok can have a round inside bottom while having a flat outside bottom for convenience. Last thought on woks - I don't recall any recipes in that Japanese cookbook that actually require a wok.

Although fish boils are very popular around the lake here, I have yet to get to one, it's on my bucket list. I have done salmon or tuna on the grill, frozen fish would be the best thing I could get where I live right now, and considering how expensive it is, not any particular incentive to serve it for entertaining, although I have. And I also love enchiladas and baked ziti or any other type of pasta, but in the summer I like to take full advantage of the grill. I did the kebabs two years ago for a porch party and it was easy peasy to prepare ahead of time and marinate, and easy to serve. Also easy for picky eaters to avoid something they didn't like from the selection. I think I did some type of rice pilaf in an insulated serving dish and I think I made it ahead and reheated. Now I have an instapot which I would use as to avoid heating up the kitchen. I can't remember what I did for sides . . . but I made a whole round two layer frosted cake for dessert (chocolate with almond coconut frosting) served up on my crystal cake stand, and almost no one ate a slice . . . I get so frustrated at how all my friends never eat desserts anymore. I mean I get it, I don't either, which is why I always want to make some nice fancy dessert that I never get to eat when I entertain, for special. And then I end up with a ton of it left over . . . A friend brought fruit salad and that was what folks ate, it was good too. I had a friend over a couple of weeks ago and we just loved noshing on guacamole, hummus and spinach dip on the porch with some store bought sangria. So easy as I bought everything at the deli. But it could also be home made in advance too. Pita and corn chips. I always make some type of chopped salad in the summer, marinating the veggies a bit ahead of time and then serving them over fresh chopped lettuce. So many great combinations. One of my favorites is home grown tomatoes, crumbled bacon, diced avocados over lettuce with whatever else seems good. Or just the tomatoes and other veggies with a green goddess dressing. If you want to stick with a bit of a Mexican vibe, yellow rice with peas makes a tasty and colorful entry. In fact, that may have been what I served last time. It's just rice with tumeric added, and whatever seasonings you like . . . peas optional, just for the color constrast. Could use red onions or red peppers too. Here's an unusual potato salad I like to make in summer for my lighter Mexican meals. I tasted it from the deli at Wegman's once and fell in love with it. I also sometimes make sweet potato salad but find a lot of my friends don't like it even though it looks pretty. If you par boil sweet potatoes they are nice on the grill though. Latin Red Potato and Corn Salad - Recipe from Wegman's Edited to add that I forgot to mention another dish that is always well received, a southwestern black bean and corn salad. Here's a link to one recipe. I'm not sure if it is exactly like the one I got from Annie on CF years ago, but very similar if not exactly the same. https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/all-purpose-southwestern-corn-black-bean-salad