Roasted Veggie Hummus, thai curry paste - made this last year and it was a huge success! It is a great low sodium alternative to store bought paste that adds tons of flavor to veggies!

My grandmother is in the same boat. (and she's an old, stubborn German lady who will not touch anything she deems "weird" or "foreign"--- IE: The worst person to try to experiement with).

Surprisingly, though; I've had really great success with every recipe I've tried from Ani Phyo's "Raw Food Desserts". Namely the chocolate cake (who's frosting, incidentally makes an excellent and healthy chocolate pudding). That cake is probably the richest and most decadent dessert I've ever tried (bar none), without actually being decadent. I've also had great success with "The Joy of Gluten Free, Sugar Free Baking" (sorry, the author escapes me just now), for when I want to make stuff that's more akin to what she grew up with (like bundt cake or cookies).

I'm new at this, gestational diabetes here. Looking forward to suggestions, and I'll throw in that I've found a small square of Trader Joe's dark chocolate (the good, hard, rich almost bitter stuff by the register - forget the percentage) lowers my blood sugar and satisfies the sweets craving. Woe is the pregnant woman who can't dig into Ben and Jerry's...

Something with dark chocolate and high protein content (nuts, etc) will probably be a good treat.

penzey's high fat cocoa + a sweetener+ (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, or nutmeg) = diy cocoa mix just needing water

a blend of non-salt herbs and spices for cooking? I discovered Chinese Five spice on meats for really amazing salt-free flavor.

Nuts are high fiber and can be high protein, but they are also high calorie and high fat. They can also add more sodium. Among diabetics, "Your mileage may vary" means their bodies can and do handle different foods differently than other diabetics.

mimee25:
Check locally for diabetic education if it wasn't offered to you. You are eating not only for your immediate health and your baby's, but also for your health in 20 more years and your adult child's health. You'll both have added risk factors for type 2.

Cheese.

A nice piece of Parmesano Reggiano is an exceptional gift and will last a good while. Adds wonderful depth in small quantities.

At Kroger's the other day, I found a four ounce cone of 1000 day old gouda cut into little chunks. Would make a nice gift and provide a tasty snack while everyone else is eating cookies.

I was chatting with the cashier at Costco yesterday and he said that his diabetic FIL was advised to eat a spoonful of peanut butter before bed every night on the theory that it stabilizes blood sugar. I'm sure it varies with the person but I was interested because I'm looking for a Christmas gift for an overseas brother with diabetes. My brother is living in a developing country so I could just send him two giant jars of storebought peanut butter and that would be an awesome gift for him, but for your inlaws maybe you could make some sort of fancy nut butter or roasted and spiced nut mix.

I just made these for teacher gifts. I think you could omit the sugar no problem:

http://www.thefarmersnest.com/2012/12/warm-mixed-nuts-with-rosemary-recipe.html

Yum!

a carb is a carb is a carb. It's all about portion control. Granted, beans are a slower digesting carb than say a Milky Way. However, diabetics _can_ have regular sugar. They just can't have that much. My Ritter Sports bars last me about a week because I have one square at a time. So, I'd say send them some of their favorite goodies. If they've had the diabetics education AND they are following it, they'll know how much they can have of the goodiesl I'd be so miserable if I couldn't have chocolate or the occasional cookie or piece of cake.

Great question. I can think of a few things - homemade nut butters (macadamia, almond, hazelnut), very dark chocolate (85% or higher), grain-free/sugar free baked goods such as cookies. There are recipes out there!

Another practical gift that I would enjoy receiving is one of the better, more expensive sugar alternatives (erythritol, xylitol, monk fruit, stevia).

I do beg to differ on Margi's point. As a diabetic, the amount of regular sugar or even grain-based carbs I can have is so minimal that it takes the joy out of consuming it. Some people might not mind eating a single square of a Ritter Sport bar. Personally I would rather not have to constantly think about having to limit myself because I insist on eating high-carb foods that my body has trouble metabolizing. I have discovered many delicious, sugar-free options that don't force me to constantly impose strict portion control on myself. It allows me to feel really free again with my diet, rather than restricted.

Go ahead and make a delicious chocolate cake (rich and creamy); but bake it in a pint-sized mason jar and label it as a serving size of 2. Cutting down on the size of the serving is an easy way to still have your cake and eat it too. So - thimble sized cookies, or brownie bites, pie pops (please don't use the canned pie fillings), and other baked good recipes should all work.

By the way - making them soups, stews, chili, etc - all from scratch is a great idea too. There's just not that many healthy, low-sodium and low-carb options in ready-made food. A roasted root vegetable casserole (use root vegetables instead of potatoes or rice), or any other from scratch meal (where you concentrate on fibre and protein rather than carbs and fat) is a great gift.

Just wanted to throw in that stews and chilis are a good idea, but maybe be kind and include a list of ingredients. A good friend of mine gave me a delicious pot of turkey stew, but it threw my numbers way off. I asked for the recipe partly to get a better idea of why it spiked my sugar - turns out she used a LOT of flour for thickening, which I didn't consider. Duh, a roux, should have known, though I never would have estimated as high a number as what she used. Not sure if experienced diabetics wouldn't need this, but as a newbie - I'd love it.

Also Dreamfields pasta is expensive but great for diabetics, if you're making a gift basket you could include some!