2.06.2012

Pregnancy Food Diary: Twenty Five Weeks + Pregnancy Tea Recipe

Every Monday, I post one day of my pregnancy food diary from the previous week. Go here to see all the previous posts!  

First, here's the recipe for the pregnancy tea I've been drinking. It was adapted from The Natural Pregnancy Book by Avivah Jill Romm. She has a few other herbs added to it, but I chose to keep it simple with the ones that I thought were most important.

I order my herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs. Your local health food store might also carry them. Red Raspberry is known for its uterine-toning capabilities (and I don't know about you, but I want a strong uterus when labor comes around!), and nettle and alfalfa are "blood-builders" according to my midwife. All the herbs are high in minerals like calcium, magnesium, and iron. The spearmint is added for flavor, since the other herbs mostly just taste kind of ....grassy. But with the spearmint in there I actually enjoy drinking it!





Nourishing Pregnancy Tea
 Ingredients:
2 Parts red raspberry leaf
2 parts nettle
1/2 part alfalfa
1/4 part spearmint 

Directions:
Combine All ingredients in bowl, stirring well, and transfer to a glass jar for storage. To brew, use 1/4 c. of the mixture to 4 cups water, let steep 20 minutes covered. I like to drink it iced. Store the leftover brewed tea in the refrigerator to drink whenever you think of it over the next two days. 

Notes:  
I brew mine in one of these inside a the teapot shown above, which holds about a quart. (And I heat my water up in this, the only electric tea kettle I could find without a plastic viewing window!)

I have seen other recipes with similar ingredients in different ratios, so I just estimate by handfuls and don't stress about getting it exact. Also, I have brewed it much longer (like, forgotten about it for hours) and it still tasted fine to me. 

And now the food diary...


Food Diary for Saturday, February 3

Breakfast: Two fried eggs cooked in coconut oil and homemade sourdough toast with butter, kombucha 
Lunch: Leftover majadra (rice, lentils and lots of spiced caramelized onions) with 1/2 a chicken sausage, mixed greens salad with homemade vinaigrette
Snack: Mostly decaf coffee with raw cream, a homemade granola bar, 1/2 an orange
Dinner: Homemade chili with grass-fed beef, kidney beans, homemade broth, tomatoes, and lots of veggies and spices, served over brown rice pasta topped with cheese and sour cream, with a sourdough corn muffin with butter and honey, and mixed greens salad with homemade vinaigrette, cashews, dried cherries, and feta
Snack: smoothie with banana, strawberries, cocoa powder, peanut butter, coconut oil, raw milk and homemade yogurt 

How did I do?
Protein: 4 (4)
Eggs: 2 (2)
Dairy: 2.5 (4) 
Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 4 (2)
Refined Grains: 0 (0)
Veggies: 3.5 (3-4)
Greens: 2 (2)
Fruit: 2 (1)
Citrus: .5 (1)
Probiotic Foods: 4 (4) 

(If you don't know where these numbers come from, visit the introduction to this series.)

This was a pretty good day! Next week, I'm going to TRY to post a my whole week's food diary, just to make sure I'm not picking only my best days to share with you. :)

Now I'm going to go make some pregnancy tea. It's been a few days!

 This is part of Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter Thursday and Simple Lives Thursday.

2 comments:

  1. so thankful to find this. I love green tea and have been looking for a more pregnant friendly tea to drink. Did your midwife tell you how much tea is ok to drink per day?

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  2. Jenn, my midwife just said to be careful with caffeine because it can keep you from sleeping well. I think everyone's body responds to caffeine differently so you have to judge for yourself how much you can or should consume. If I have any, it will be a cup of black tea or half-caf or decaf coffee. But if I want a pick-me-up without the caffeine, I go for rooibos or mate. Or I just drink my pregnancy tea which does seem to give me an energy boost, most likely from all those minerals!

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