How to Eat Well After Baby Arrives

Esther Catherine, just a few days old, with Big Brother Caedmon

Right after having a baby is a critical time to eat well. You're recovering from perhaps the most physically demanding experience of your life, during which you lost sleep, burned a ton of calories, endured pain (or at least very intense pressure, for you hypnpbirthers out there), and PUSHED A BABY OUT OF YOUR BODY. If you've had a c-section, you're recovering from major surgery. Your body needs to heal and be replenished. Your job now is to rest, eat well, and take care of your baby.

(If you're not sure what I mean by eating well, read this: What is "Healthy"?)

If you're breastfeeding, the food you eat is nourishing your baby, too, just as much as it was during pregnancy. The composition of breast milk changes depending on what you eat, and a nourishing diet will also help ensure an adequate supply. As with all stages of parenting, you have to take care of yourself in order to take care of your child!

Ironically, the postpartum period is perhaps one of the most difficult times in life to eat well. If you don't have enough help, it's easy to rely on take-out and convenience foods when you are hungry and don't have the time or energy to cook. And if you DO have help in the form of meals delivered from kind friends, you don't have any say in the nutritional content of those meals. Here are a few tips to help.

Six Tips for Eating Well After the Birth of a Baby

1) Set up a meal registry.  Sites like Meal Baby or Take Them a Meal make it easy to keep track of who is bringing meals when. You send out invitations to people who you think might like to help, and they can sign up for specific dates right there on the site. An added benefit is that you can list preferences and food allergies without having to tell each person individually. If there are certain things your family is not willing to compromise on nutritionally, you can kindly let people know.

2) Stock your freezer.  Having a stash of casseroles, soups, and ready made meal components (like hamburger patties, meatballs, cooked and shredded chicken, soaked and cooked beans) can help out immensely in those first few weeks after baby comes. Putting directions right on the bag or container makes it possible for someone other than the new mommy to pull it out and put it in the oven. I recommend getting started stocking your freezer during your second trimester when you're feeling your best!

3) Adopt an attitude of gratefulness.  Our family has a general rule that we eat what we are served. We are blessed that we don't have any food allergies, so we have the freedom to do this. If we are eating at someone's house or at a potluck, we eat the food and enjoy it, even if it's not something we would eat at home. Gratefulness for someone's hospitality trumps our personal preferences and our desire to eat healthy food all the time. The same goes for meals delivered to our home. We eat them, and enjoy them. And then we make sure to eat real, nourishing food the rest of the time.

4) Rely on simple meals and snacks. Send your husband or your mom to the store to stock up on simple, whole foods that that others can easily prepare for you.  Here are some of my favorites:

• fried eggs with whole grain toast (and plenty of butter)
• oatmeal with maple syrup and butter
• whole milk yogurt with fruit
• fruit smoothies (you can prepare baggies of frozen fruit ahead of time)
• cheese and crackers (I like Ak-Mak for their simple ingredient list)
• hummus and pita (get some feta and olives and you've got a gourmet treat!)
• ice cream (I just happened to make some dark chocolate peppermint ice cream the day before Esther was born. We certainly enjoyed that in those early days!)
• tuna salad (Now is not the time for homemade mayo. How about Greek yogurt and olive oil instead?)

5) Have a back-up plan. If it gets to be dinner time and you're clueless, order take-out. It's okay. Try to choose a restaurant that makes food from scratch and uses local ingredients. Sure, it might not be as healthy as what you make at home, but it's okay to compromise once in awhile. Sometimes you just gotta eat.

6) Finally, keep taking your supplements.  Supplements are not a substitute for good food, but they certainly help ensure that you are getting the nutrients you need, whether your diet is great or not. Here is what I took while I was pregnant. And even though my baby is now on the other side of my uterus, I'm still taking them. When I remember, that is. :)

What tips do you have for eating well after the birth of a baby? What has been your biggest challenge in those first few weeks?

This is part of Monday Mania.

Pregnancy Food Diary: Thirty-Four Weeks

mmmm Stromboli....

Here is a much belated pregnancy food diary for you. I've included a day from a couple weeks ago and one that is more recent.

Monday March 19

Breakfast: 1.5 eggs with potatoes and carrots (leftover from a roast chicken), kale with onion cooked in coconut oil and chicken broth, sourdough biscuit with butter, kombucha.

Snack: Homemade soaked granola bar, apple

Lunch: Leftover Stromboli (soaked whole wheat dough) filled with spinach, nitrate-free pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, mozzarella, and pizza sauce

Snack: Homemade breakfast cereal with raw milk and 1/2 a banana

Dinner: Chicken salad on sprouted bread with butter

Snack: Smoothie (strawberries, banana, yogurt, raw milk), sprouted toast with peanut butter and honey

Servings (recommended in parentheses):

Protein: 4.5 (4)

Eggs: 1.5 (2)

Dairy: 3 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 6 (2)
Refined Grains: 0 (0)
Veggies: 3 (3-4)
Greens: 2 (2)

Fruit: 3 (1)
Citrus: 0 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 3 (4)


Sunday, April 1
Breakfast: Sprouted wheat bagel with butter, 2 eggs fried in coconut oil, 2 pieces of organic nitrate-free bacon, some cheddar cheese, and sauteed spinach. Kombucha.

Lunch: Pesto baked salmon, roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, broccoli, and mixed greens salad with apple, cashews, dried cranberries, and homemade vinaigrette

Snack: decaf coffee (a special treat!), two raw cookie dough bites, and a homemade protein bar (recipe coming soon)

Dinner: Mexican Rice (from Nourishing Traditions: brown rice cooked with butter, olive oil, chicken broth, onion, and lots of good spices), beans (black and pinto soaked and cooked with garlic, cumin,  oregano, and hot peppers), guacamole, salsa, cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips. A few pieces of mango.

Snacks: two dark Dove chocolates, 1/2 an apple, some water kefir (to wash down my cod liver oil)


Servings (recommended in parentheses):
Protein: 4 (4)
Eggs: 2 (2)

Dairy: 2 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 3 (2)
Refined Grains: 0 (0)
Veggies: 4 (3-4)
Greens: 2 (2)

Fruit: 1.5 (1)
Citrus: 0 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 3 (4)


Are you pregnant? What are you eating lately?

Pregancy Food Diary: Thirty-One Weeks

Here is my pregnancy food diary for Friday, March 9:

Snack: Apple Flax Muffin with butter
Breakfast: two scrambled eggs topped with cheese, cooked in coconut oil. Sauteed potato, carrot, spinach, mushroom, green onion, and garlic cooked in bacon grease. (store bought) whole wheat toast with butter. Kombucha w/organic orange juice, pregnancy tea.
Lunch: leftover salsa chicken & black bean soup, salad with homemade greek dressing, olives, feta, and green onion, whole wheat toast with hummus, goat cheese, and sun dried tomatoes, pregnancy tea.
Snack: a bite of bean fudge, a Strawberry Orange Julius, an apple-flax muffin with butter
Dinner: Date @ Johnny Carinos - white Italian bread with olive oil; salad with house dressing, veggies, and cheese; whole wheat pasta with veggies, chicken, and creamy roasted red pepper sauce.
Dessert: Breyers chocolate ice cream with strawberries and bananas
3 AM snack: a couple bites of bean fudge

How did I do? (recommended amounts in parentheses)

Protein: 4ish (4)

Eggs: 2 (2)

Dairy: 3.5 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 3 (2)
Refined Grains: 1 (0)
Veggies: 4 (3-4)
Greens: 3 (2)

Fruit: 2.5 (1)
Citrus: 1 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 2 (4) 

Notes:
I thought we ate pretty well at Johnny Carinos. We had a lovely date and I didn't feel gross afterwards like I often do after eating out. I don't worry about a little white bread here or there. :) We finished our date at home with some Breyer's ice cream. I love that it only has a few ingredients. Much less junky than most store-bought ice cream!

Unfortunately none of my whole grains were soaked or sprouted or soured. I've been very tired, my husband has been very busy, and I haven't been baking very much. I'm trying to get back into it this week - I have some sourdough cookies and biscuits (from the GNOWFGLINS sourdough e-book) souring right now, and plans to make granola bars from Healthy Snacks To-Go soon!


Three super snacks were consumed on this day: Apple-Flax Muffins, Silky Smooth Bean Fudge, and a Strawberry Orange Julius (recipe coming soon). They are the sort of thing that has been getting me through my extreme hunger!


Are you pregnant? What are you eating to nourish yourself and your baby? What are your biggest challenges?



This is part of Simple Lives Thursday.

Pregnancy Food Diary: 30 Weeks

Welcome back to my pregnancy food diary!

I've been slacking. I didn't write down what I ate last week. It wasn't terrible, but I think I definitely slacked on the protein and vegetables. We've been a bit overwhelmed at our house lately, and the hormones surging through my body are making me very emotional and very tired. I'm trying to stop every once in awhile are marvel at the amazing thing going on inside my body. I'm growing a baby! It still baffles me, as well it should.

So, while it's fresh on my mind and before I go get a (hopefully) good night of sleep, here's what I ate today.

Food Diary for Monday, March 5

Breakfast: One of these "armadillo treats" (scroll down to find the recipe). two eggs scrambled in coconut oil, one Applegate Farms sausage link, two sourdough blueberry pancakes with butter and real maple syrup, kombucha. Later, half a cup of half-caff coffee with cream and honey. (We had a little family date at a coffee shop. It was delightful and much needed quality time together!)

Lunch: Fried rice: soaked brown rice with egg, carrot, peas, mixed greens, scallions, and garlic, topped with Tamari and Peanut Sauce. More kombucha.

Dinner: Tuna salad sandwich on soaked honey oatmeal bread (tuna, homemade mayo, yogurt, mustard, celery, scallions, parsley, and lemon juice).

Snack: The rest of my tuna sandwich (didn't have time to finish it earlier) with avocado. Half a grapefruit. Pregnancy tea.

Another snack: A piece of toast with butter, a glass of milk, and another armadillo treat.

How did I do? (recommended amounts in parentheses)

Protein: 3.5 (4)

Eggs: 3 (2)

Dairy: 1.5 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 4 (2)
Refined Grains: 0 (0)
Veggies: 2 (3-4)
Greens: 1 (2)

Fruit: 1 (1)
Citrus: 1 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 3 (4) 

I definitely could have used another snack in there, and come to think of it I was pretty hungry by the time lunch came around. It is very rare for me to skip my morning snack!

One of my issues lately is nighttime hunger. It seems no matter what or how much I eat before bed, I'm still hungry either before I fall asleep, when I wake up in the night, or early in the morning. I'd love to get more sleep but I usually have to get up at eat sooner than I would like. 


Does anyone have any suggestions for a bedtime snack that might keep me going until morning? (Perhaps this baby is getting started early on needing to eat throughout the night...)


If you're pregnant, I hope you're feeling well and eating well, and taking good care of yourself and that beautiful baby growing inside you! Pregnancy can be a trying time, for sure, but it is also miraculous and beautiful. To quote my midwife, Gestate happily!

Pregnancy Food Diary: Twenty Eight Weeks + Supplements

Oops....this was supposed to be posted on Monday, like every edition of my Pregnancy Food Diary. Sometimes life happens. And that's ok. :)

Third Trimester, baby! It sort of feels crazy that it's here already, but it also feels crazy that it didn't come sooner. I'm feeling so large already! I think baby's been having a growth spurt, because I've been starving!

Here's what I ate last Thursday.

Breakfast: baked oatmeal with butter and milk, hard boiled egg, decaf coffee with cream
Snack: a banana (in the car while shopping)
Lunch: leftover Best Darn Lentils, roast beef (cooked by my wonderful mother-in-law and left here after they visited...thanks!) in a corn tortilla with cheese, salsa, sour cream, and avocado
Snack: Plain yogurt with blueberries and honey
Dinner: slow-cooked Ziti, big salad with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, feta cheese, toasted almonds, and dried cherries
Snack: 2 pieces of freshly baked Honey Oatmeal Bread with lots of butter. :)

Servings (recommended amount is in parentheses): 

Protein: 3.5 (4)

Eggs: 1.5 (2)

Dairy: 3 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 4 (2)
Refined Grains: 0 (0)
Veggies: 2 (3-4)
Greens: 1 (2)

Fruit: 1 (1)
Citrus: 0 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 3 (4)

I fell short in almost every food group. (Except grains and butter!) But amazingly, I felt great! I think it's because I ate often and I ate enough.  

Now, as promised long ago, these are the supplements I take when I'm pregnant.

1. New Chapter Perfect Prenatal
I like the idea of getting all my nutrients from food, but I also know that just because I'm eating well doesn't mean I'm necessarily getting everything I need. A whole food vitamin seems to be a good compromise. New Chapter's prenatal vitamin is also pro-biotic, which leads me to believe that my body is absorbing more of what I'm taking in. Also, since it's food based, it can be taken on an empty stomach and won't make you queazy. These vitamins are a little pricey, but I love knowing that my body can actually use the nutrients! You can save money by using Subscribe & Save on amazon.com.

2. Blue Ice Fermented Cod Liver Oil 
You can read more about our experiences with this super food here. It is the number one recommended supplement by the Weston A. Price foundation. (Who are they?) It provides fat soluble vitamins A and D and important fatty acids. I usually take it in painless capsule form right now, though once in a while I brave the fishy taste and take the liquid (only because it's cheaper, and you have to take a LOT of capsules to get the same amount you'd be taking of the liquid).


3. Pregnancy Tea
A couple weeks ago I posted my recipe for Pregnancy Tea, which tones the uterus and helps support your growing blood supply. I'm coming down with a cold right now, and my midwife recommended adding honey and lemon to the tea to soothe my throat. It adds flavor and feels great!

4. Elderberry Syrup
I take this off and on through the winter months - pregnant or not - to boost my immune system. I'm taking extra right now to help fight this bug. 

5. Vitamin C and Echinacea
Earlier this pregnancy I had a cold that just wouldn't go away. My midwife recommended taking vitamin C and Echinacea, and sure enough, that kicked it. The immune system has to work harder during pregnancy,  and these two supplements give it a little boost. I take the vitamin C capsules whenever I think I may have been exposed to something (which is often, since I teach dance and am around kids with sniffly noses all the time), and I take the echinacea only when I start to feel something coming on. You are not supposed to take echinacea for more than two weeks at a time, because it becomes ineffective.


6. Magnesium Oil
I've recently starting using magnesium oil, at the recommendation of Anne Marie of cheeseslave.com. I'm hoping this will help with the muscle cramps and aches I've been getting occasionally, as well as help relieve stress. It's quite frugal when you make your own using magnesium flakes.


Update! I almost forgot!
7. Floradix Iron + Herbs
I've been taking this on and off this pregnancy, and I do find that when I take it consistently I have more energy. I did not have my iron levels tested this pregnancy, but I have been low in the past, and I'd much rather take this easily-absorbed, food-based supplement than those nasty iron pills! It is pricey, but it is hard for me to get enough iron from food and since it makes me feel better, it's worth it!


What supplements do you take while you're pregnant?

This is part of Fight Back Friday.

Pregnancy Food Diary: Twenty-Seven Weeks

For this week's installment of my Pregnancy Food Diary, I'm sharing with you one good day and one bad day.

The bad day was not bad because I ate junk food. It was bad because I didn't listen to my body enough, and I didn't eat enough. And during pregnancy (and breastfeeding) if I don't eat enough it's hard to catch up. I ran errands which took longer than I thought they would, and by the time I got home I was so hungry that I had painful gas bubbles (this happens to me when my stomach is empty) and then had to eat quickly before going to teach dance classes in the evening. Not cool.

So here's the bad day:

Breakfast: Two pieces of quiche with bacon and spinach, kombucha
Lunch: Haitian bean sauce over soaked cornmeal, mashed sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon, salad with homemade creamy Italian dressing and avocado
Snack: Dry Ezekial cereal (starving, on my way home from the store)
Dinner: A little bit of leftover mac and cheese with greens and hot dogs, more Ezekial cereal with milk and banana
Snack: Yogurt with homemade granola

I had a couple little bits of meat, but I don't think it was enough. I'm learning that some meat every day, or a couple times a day, is a very good thing for me. My dinner was heavy on the grains and diary, but not much other protein. I also missed my morning snack which I think set off a chain reaction of hunger throughout the day. Here's the breakdown in servings (recommended amounts are in ():

Protein: 3 (4)

Eggs: 1 (2)

Dairy: 2.5 (4) 

Butter: 2 (3)
Whole Grains: 4 (2)
Refined Grains: 0 (0)
Veggies: 3 (3-4)
Greens: 2 (2)

Fruit: 1 (1)
Citrus: 0 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 4 (4) 

So I was short on protein,  eggs, dairy, and butter. And I felt awful.

Now here's the good day:

Breakfast: two eggs, a couple slices of bacon, and some broccoli, sourdough toast with butter, kombucha, half an orange
Snack: soaked cornmeal mush with butter, maple syrup, raw milk, flax seed, and banana
Lunch: quesadilla (cheese on a sprouted flour tortilla) with bean sauce and sour cream
Snack: krautburger (ground beef, cabbage, and onion), sourdough toast with butter, pregnancy tea
Dinner: Salsa chicken and black bean soup, guacamole, tortilla chips
Dessert: impossible sourdough brownie, raspberry sauce, vanilla ice cream
Snack: More brownie with raspberry sauce and a glass of milk

In servings: 

Protein: 4.5 (4)

Eggs: 3 (2)

Dairy: 3 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 5 (2)
Refined Grains: 0 (0)
Veggies: 4 (3-4)
Greens: 1 (2)

Fruit: 2 (1)
Citrus: 1 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 4 (4)

Notice that it looks a lot more like a bunch of small meals instead of three meals and snacks. I've been finding that my schedule teaching dance around dinner time works a lot better if I eat several small meals instead of scarfing a lot of food before I teach, or waiting until afterwards and being starving. This day was not a day that I was teaching dance, but I think my body does better on several smaller meals anyway. If I have several meals, instead of "meals" and "snacks" I tend to eat more protein and never reach the point of painful hunger. It has also helped with my insatiable hunger at night. There have been so many nights this pregnancy in which I lie down to go to sleep, only to hear my stomach rumble! (We've talked about putting a mini-fridge in our bedroom.) It is so frustrating! So I am trying to eat a good bedtime snack or mini-meal to keep that from happening.

Now I'm off to have second breakfast!

This is part of Monday Mania,  Real Food Wednesday, and Healthy2Day Wednesday.

Pregnancy Food Diary: Twenty-Six Weeks

Get ready. This week's installment of my Pregnancy Food Diary is epic. I'm sharing with you EVERYTHING that I ate last week, Monday through Sunday. If you don't want to read it all feel free to just click on the links for recipes or more information.

Since I'm sharing so many days of food with you, I left out the number of servings for each food group. Instead, I'd like to point out a few things you might notice if you read what I ate.

What you'll notice about my diet...

1. I eat a lot of eggs. We went through four dozen eggs last week. That's a lot, even for us. Fried eggs, eggs in oatmeal, quiche, eggs Benedict, egg salad...we love our eggs. And our eggs love us back. They are an inexpensive source of complete animal protein, and full of nutrients important for a growing baby, such as choline.

2. I don't skimp on fat. You know I'm not afraid of fat. Especially saturated fats like pastured butter and unrefined coconut oil. Read this if you think I'm crazy. Here's a snippet:

"Human beings have been consuming saturated fats from animals products, milk products and the tropical oils for thousands of years; it is the advent of modern processed vegetable oil that is associated with the epidemic of modern degenerative disease, not the consumption of saturated fats."

3. I've been getting in two or three servings of leafy greens every day! That was one of my food goals a few weeks ago. Having salad greens washed and ready to eat, along with homemade salad dressing, makes that a lot easier. I also put store-bought frozen spinach (the kind that's not in a giant block) into my smoothies sometimes. And I try to throw greens in anywhere else I can. I colored all my greens green so you can easily see how I fit them in. :)

4. I eat a lot of whole grains, but they are almost all soaked, sprouted, or soured.  I've been encouraged lately by Anne Marie of Cheeseslave.com that grains are not as bad as some people say. She has seen improvement in her health since increasing her grain intake. But grains need special preparation to be nutritious, and eating too many unsoaked, sprouted, or soured whole grains can cause nutrient deficiencies. You'll see a lot of references to sourdough bread any other baked goods made with sourdough. I've provided the link to the recipe if one exists for free online, but some recipes are only found in the GNOWFGLINS sourdough e-course or e-book.

Here goes...

Monday
Breakfast: soaked steel cut oatmeal with an egg, butter, raw milk, cinnamon, coconut, flax seed, raisins, and maple syrup
Lunch: a little tuna on homemade sunflower and flaxseed crackers, leftover chili over brown rice pasta, a sourdough corn muffin with honey and butter, mixed green salad with hard boiled egg, avocado, cheddar cheese, toasted almonds, and homemade vinaigrette
Snack: a multigrain bagel with cream cheese and decaf coffee with half-and-half (I went to a coffee shop for a little me-time)
Dinner: homemade pizza on sourdough crust with homemade sauce, lots of veggies, and cheese, mixed greens salad with homemade dressing
Snack: fruit smoothie containing banana, blueberries, spinach, yogurt, cottage cheese, and raw milk

Tuesday
Breakfast: soaked steel cut oatmeal with an egg, butter, raw milk, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Vanilla Rooibos with raw milk and honey
Lunch: open face sandwiches on homemade sourdough bread with ham, cheese, and fried eggs. Mixed greens salad with homemade vinaigrette, almonds and feta
Snack: Decaf coffee with rice milk (at a friends house)
Dinner: white bean and vegetable soup (I added cabbage and kale), sourdough bread with butter
Snack: fruit smoothie with frozen banana, peanut butter, carob power, yogurt, cottage cheese, raw milk, and coconut oil

Wednesday
Breakfast: Two scrambled eggs with scallions and cheese, sourdough english muffin with butter, kombucha, homemade yogurt with homemade peach sauce
Lunch: Egg salad with homemade mayonnaise, buttered sourdough english muffin, mixed greens
Snack: Homemade granola bar with raw milk, half a grapefruit
Dinner:  Leftover white bean and vegetable soup, sourdough bread with butter, mixed greens salad with avocado and creamy italian dressing (from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

Snack: sourdough bread with peanut butter and honey, milk, a few bites of cheese 

Thursday
Breakfast: French Toast Fritatta cooked in coconut oil, topped with butter and maple syrup, milk, half an orange, pregnancy tea
Lunch: Egg salad, sourdough toast, white bean and veggie soup, kombucha
Snack: Half-caff coffee (1/2 a cup) with whole milk, impossible sourdough brownie
Dinner: Creamy Lemon Pepper Chicken, Golden Carrot Bake, mixed greens salad with creamy Italian dressing
Dessert: impossible sourdough brownie, milk

Friday 
(woke up starving at 3 AM, whole family couldn't fall back to sleep at 5 AM, so I made breakfast and then we all went back to bed for a couple hours)

Breakfast: Eggs Benedict with ham and greens on a buttered sourdough english muffin, kombucha
Snack: Sourdough toast with peanut butter and homemade jam, black tea with milk and honey, several green olives stuffed with garlic
Lunch: leftover chicken and rice, steamed broccoli, homemade applesauce
Snack: Raw milk and two pieces of the impossible sourdough brownie, a few bites of apple
Dinner: a burrito from Qdoba - steak, beans, fajita veggies, pico de gallo, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole
Snack: Rice Pudding (very lightly sweetened)

Saturday
Breakfast: one fried egg with Hollandaise sauce and greens on sprouted toast with butter, kombucha, vanilla rooibos with milk, rice pudding 
Snack: cinnamon scone from a local bakery (a treat from the chiropractor's office), glass of raw milk
Lunch: grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cottage cheese, apple slices
Dinner: Shepherd's Pie, salad with almonds, carrot, and vinaigrette, homemade sourdough bread with butter
Dessert: vanilla ice cream with local strawberries
Snack: Raw milk with impossible sourdough brownie

Sunday
Breakfast: French toast on sprouted bread, cooked in coconut oil, with butter, maple syrup, and banana. Half-caff coffee with raw cream.
Lunch: Homemade Mac & Cheese with kale and hot dogs, salad with carrot, almonds, apple, and vinaigrette
Snack: kombucha, rice pudding, raw milk 
Dinner: Quiche with sourdough crust filled with spinach, bacon, and cheese
Snack: Plain yogurt with a bit of maple syrup 
 
Now you know what I REALLY eat. Is it perfect? No. But I'm doing the best I can on a limited budget and a tight schedule to fill this always-hungry stomach of mine and grow a healthy baby. In the end, I have to trust God for the health of my child, but I might as well eat the best I can, since I have to eat either way. :)

Are you pregnant? What are you eating to nourish yourself and your growing baby?

This is part of Monday Mania, Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, and Fight Back Friday.

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.

Pregnancy Food Diary: Twenty Four Weeks

If you're new to this series, go here to read the introduction and prior posts!

Food Diary from Wednesday, January 25

Breakfast: 1.5 eggs with onion, ham, and broccoli cooked in butter and coconut oil, one piece of part-whole grain bread with butter, kombucha, black tea with raw milk and honey
Snack: a banana

Lunch: brown rice pasta with canned salmon, homemade tomato sauce, spinach, broccoli, olive oil and parmesan, salad with feta, olives, and homemade vinaigrette, small piece of part-whole grain toast with butter, pregnancy tea
Snack: Chai Teeccino with cream, soaked zucchini bread with butter
Dinner: pinto beans refried in palm shortening, quesadillas made with corn tortillas and cheese, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and tortilla chips
Snack: Homemade yogurt with homemade peach jam, zucchini bread with butter

How did I do?
(the recommended # of servings of each food is in parentheses)

Protein:  4 (4)

Eggs: 1.5 (2)

Dairy: 3 (4) 

Butter: 5 (3)
Whole Grains: 4 (2)
Refined Grains: 1 (0)
Veggies: 4 (3-4)
Greens: 2 (2)

Fruit: 1.5 (1)
Citrus: 0 (1)

Probiotic Foods: 4 (4) 


Note: I'm changing that last category from "fermented foods" to "probiotic foods", because there are foods - like raw milk - that are not fermented or cultured yet contain beneficial bacteria and enzymes that aid in digestion. I don't just want to eat food, I want to digest it!


What counts as a Probiotic Food?
From the food diary above, I am counting kombucha, raw milk, sour cream, and yogurt as probiotic. Other examples are kefir, raw cheese, and lacto-fermented fruits, vegetables, and condiments.

Are you pregnant? What are you eating to nourish yourself and your baby? What do you wish you were eating more or less of?

This is part of Monday Mania.

Pregnancy Food Diary: Twenty-Three Weeks (Travel Edition)

If you missed it, go here for the link to all the posts in my Pregnancy Food Diary Series!

This is what I ate last Saturday. I was out of town, staying with my parents after returning from a trip to visit family in California. I wasn't at home with all my normal foods, but I did what I could. :) (Man was I missing the kombucha and raw milk!)

Food diary for Saturday, January 21

Breakfast: Organic plain fat-free yogurt mixed with Daisy sour cream (to simulate whole milk yogurt in its absence), with honey, blueberries, and homemade granola (I had packed some from home), half a cup of coffee with half-and-half.

Lunch (we went out to a breakfast-all-day place): Eggs Benedict with spinach and bacon on an english muffin with hash browns, some crepes with lingon berries (we split these 5 ways and everyone had a taste. What a delicious treat!), a bit of freshly squeezed orange juice

Snack: whole-grain toast with natural peanut butter and honey, yerba chai with half and half, piece of cheese

Dinner: chicken with homemade peanut sauce, carrots, and broccoli over whole wheat pasta

Snack: part-whole-grain pumpkin bread (made with coconut oil and sucanat - thanks Mom!)

How did I do?
(the recommended # of servings of each food is in parentheses)

Protein:  3.5 (4)

Eggs: 2 (2)

Dairy: 3 (4) 

Butter: 1 (3)
Whole Grains: 3.5 (2)
Refined Grains: 1.5 (0)
Veggies: 3 (3-4)
Greens: 1 (2)

Fruit: 1.5 (1)
Citrus: 0.5 (1)

Fermented Foods: 1 (3)


More about this day...
It's hard to find fermented foods on vacation. All I managed was a little yogurt.

I'm counting freshly squeezed orange juice as a half a serving of fruit. Whole fruit is always better than juice, but I couldn't pass up the freshly squeezed stuff! When you do drink juice, it's important to have it with plenty of fat and protein to keep your blood sugar from spiking. I'm hoping the Hollandaise sauce on my eggs was made with real butter... :)

I've been craving green veggies like crazy, so I was grateful for the spinach on my eggs and the broccoli in the dinner my parents made!

How am I doing on my goals?
I was out of town all week, so I didn't do too great on some of these goals.

1) Get to bed earlier. 
With the exception of travel days, I didn't do too bad on this. But I'm hoping to get into more of a routine now that I'm back home!


2) Take supplements throughout the day. 
I've mentioned before that I have trouble remembering to take my vitamins except at bedtime. I'm working on taking them with each meal, instead of all at once. I'm getting better! Soon I'll share with you what supplements I take during pregnancy.

3) Drink pregnancy tea.
Two cups yesterday! Recipe coming soon!


4) Make (almost) all grains soaked, sprouted, or soured.
My Grandma did have some sprouted bread with flaxseed that I tried to eat whenever I had bread, and I packed granola from home, but other than that my grains were either whole and not soaked or sprouted, or refined. And how can you pass up your German Grandmother's stollen!?


5) Eat those greens!
I tried to find greens even on travel days: I had a mixed green salad with my burger (from a sustainable Burger place at the San Francisco airport...gotta love California!), and I ordered spinach on my pizza at O'Hare (it was either pizza or McDonalds when we arrived hungry at 9 PM). I was pleasantly surprised that it was absolutely loaded with spinach!


Are you pregnant? What are you eating to nourish yourself and your baby? And how do you manage to eat well while traveling?

This is part of Monday Mania, Simple Lives Thursday, and Fight Back Friday.

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Pregnancy Food Diary: Twenty-Two Weeks

Here is what I ate last Thursday:

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, bacon, sourdough toast with butter, Earl Grey tea with raw cream and honey, kombucha

Snack: half cheese stick (the toddler at the first half), a few slices of an orange

Lunch: a baked potato topped with white bean and chicken chili, sour cream, and cheese, salad with lettuce, onion, cranberries and walnuts with homemade balsamic vinaigrette

Snack: half of a homemade cinnamon roll (definitely made with real butter!), glass of milk, decaf coffee with milk

Dinner: Clam and Oyster Chowder, sourdough corn muffins with butter and honey

Snack: apple, half a "honey wheat" bagel with cream cheese


How did I do?
(the recommended # of servings of each food is in parentheses)

Protein:  3.5 (4)

Eggs: 2 (2)

Dairy: 4 (4) 

Butter: 3 (3)
Whole Grains: 2 (2)
Refined Grains: 1.5 (0)
Veggies: 3 (3-4)
Greens: 1 (2)

Fruit: 1.5 (1)

Citrus: 0.5 (1) 

Fermented Foods: 2 (3) (kombucha and sour cream)

It's hard to know what a serving is. Mostly I just guess.

More about this day...

--I was going to make a salad for dinner but ran out of energy. It would have been nice if I'd pre-washed my lettuce.

--Our good friend brought over the most delicious cinnamon rolls. I've been enjoying them immensely, though trying not to eat them all at once. Caedmon and I shared one after he woke up from his nap as a "special treat." Caedmon kept saying "more...treat" as I was giving him bites. :)

--I put "honey wheat"in quotes because that was a store-bought pseudo-whole-grain bagel that was supposed to be a treat for Steven while I'm gone. (I'm in California right now visiting my Grandma!) But we accidentally ate them all before I left. Mostly him, but I definitely indulged. Bagels have been in my top five favorite foods (along with cinnamon rolls) since childhood. Some things never change.

--Clam and Oyster chowder is a nutritional powerhouse, so I don't feel so bad about my shortfalls on
this day! Clams are the highest source of iron you can find, and oysters are the highest source of zinc!  I don't really like oysters (at least the canned variety, I've never had fresh) but even I can put up with them in this delicious soup.

How am I doing on my goals?
Last week I posted a few wellness goals. So here's how I've done in the last week:


1) Get to bed earlier. 

I'm writing this at 11 PM, so clearly I'm not doing the best on going to bed early. But I've been traveling and that messes everything up. I'll try to get into a better rhythm when I return home!

2) Take supplements throughout the day.
I'm doing better with this but not ideal. I'm so forgetful! I always remember right before I go to bed.

3) Drink pregnancy tea.
I only made it once in the last week. Oops. But I made 4 cups and drank it over two days.

4) Make (almost) all grains soaked, sprouted, or soured.
I baked bread, naan (recipe coming later this week!), corn muffins, apple crisp, and quiche last week. And they were all soaked our soured. Yay! I also made soaked oatmeal and ate whole wheat sourdough bread from Trader Joe's. So I think my only exceptions have been the bagels and cinnamon rolls. :)

5) Eat those greens!
I have had some really good days of 2-3 servings of greens, and days like today with none. I'm trying to be more consistent!


If you are pregnant, what are you eating? I'd love to hear about it!

Pregnancy Food Diary: Twenty One Weeks

Welcome to the first installment of my Pregnancy Food Diary! Every Monday, I'm going to tell you what I ate one day the the previous week. I'm intentionally not choosing my best day to share with you. This day wasn't terrible, but it wasn't ideal either. I'm a real person, too!

Wednesday, January 4 

Breakfast: French Toast Frittata, Yerba Chai with raw milk
Lunch: Pinto beans, quesadilla (cheese on a whole wheat tortilla), guacamole, organic blue corn chips, salsa, kombucha
Dinner: Beef stew, whole grain bread with butter
Dinner #2: Brown rice pasta with cream sauce and broccoli
Snack: Homemade yogurt with homemade peach jam, sprouted toast with almond butter

(I ate my first dinner at 4:45 before going to teach, and my second dinner after I got home at 7:30. I was still quite hungry afterwards, so I had a couple snacks before bed.)

Servings (with recommended amt. in parenthesis):

Protein: 4 (4)

Eggs: 1.5 (2)

Dairy: 2.5 (4) 

Butter: 2 (3)
Grains: 4 (2)
Veggies: 2(3-4)
Greens: 0 (2)

Fruit: 0.5 (1)

Citrus: 0 (1) 

And I'm adding an additional category: 

Fermented Foods: 2 (3)

Truthfully, I didn't feel too great on this day. I slept in til 9:30, had a headache, and didn't get anything done all morning. The day did get progressively better, though. I attribute it to two things: first, I've been having half-caff coffee most mornings, but I didn't on Wednesday. Second, I didn't get quite enough protein early in the day. I'm still working on figuring out what my body needs. I've been working on doing a few things each day to increase my chances of feeling better.

Wellness Goals

1) Get to bed earlier.
Caedmon hasn't been sleeping very well. Thankfully daddy has been doing most of the nighttime duty these days because he has a lighter schedule for a couple weeks. But nights have not been very restful around here. We're working on getting Caedmon to bed earlier, and I'm working on getting myself to bed earlier too. I'm hoping that will help Caedmon and I rise at a more decent hour.

2) Take supplements throughout the day.
I often forget to take my vitamins until bedtime. Better than not at all, but I know it would be better for me if I took them throughout the day. My prenatal vitamins require three a day, which makes it easy to take one per meal, if I remember. I'm also taking three cod liver oil capsules per day (I know I could take more than this, but it is expensive!), so on a good day I take one per meal of those, too. My iron supplement is two times per day, ideally 30 minutes before a meal. I'm aiming to take that while I cook breakfast and again while I cook dinner.

3) Drink pregnancy tea.
I have a homemade pregnancy tea that I've been drinking sporadically (I'll post the recipe soon). Now that I'm over halfway to my due date, I'm going to try to get more serious about this. It is high in minerals, it helps tone the uterus for labor, and I always feel better when I drink it.

4) Make (almost) all grains soaked, sprouted, or soured.
The holidays and pregnancy fatigue have gotten me out of the habit of baking my own bread. Most of the time we eat sourdough or sprouted bread from Trader Joes, but not always. I also haven't been soaking things like rice or oatmeal 100% of the time. I'm pretty relaxed about it, but I know eating my whole grains properly prepared means more nutrients for my baby and myself.

5) Eat those greens!
This is the hardest category for me to keep up with, probably because it takes a little bit of extra work. I do best when I eat some cooked greens in the morning and then a salad with lunch or dinner. A couple days ago I washed and cut up a bunch of Swiss chard so I could saute it easily in the morning.  Throwing some frozen spinach into eggs or soup is also an easy option.

I'll be sure to let you know how I'm doing!

This is part of Monday Mania.

My Pregnancy Food Diary: Introduction

(source)

Eating well during pregnancy is hard.

Before I got pregnant with my first child, I thought it was a no-brainer. Of course I'd want to eat as healthfully as possible and avoid the junk that wouldn't nourish his growing body or mine. But it's not always that simple. You're tired, nauseous, achy, and dealing with the demands of normal life on top of being pregnant. You may want to eat well, but it's a different thing entirely to follow through on that desire. Though I've eaten mostly well during both my pregnancies, I confess to a few frozen pizzas, a couple trips to Subway, and one excursion to fulfill an intense fried chicken craving. During my first trimester of both pregnancies, there have been a couple stretches during which I ate little more than french toast and crackers and cheese. Not exactly a diverse diet of super foods. :)

I make much better food choices when I do two things: 1) plan meals ahead of time, and 2) write down what I've actually eaten.

I discovered the second one while spending a week recording everything I ate on a worksheet provided by my (amazing) midwife. It included a handy checklist at the bottom of each day to help you make sure you're getting enough of various foods. I realized that I was eating a lot better just because I knew I'd be writing down what I ate!

So I'm going to start sharing my food diary with you. My goal is to post each Monday with the foods I've eaten one day during the prior week. It will motivate me to make good choices about what I eat, and it will motivate you to eat well, pregnant or not!

Every week I'll let you know how I'm doing according to these guidelines given to me by my midwife. Here are the recommended number of servings of various foods:

Protein: 4

Eggs: 2

Dairy: 4 

Butter: 3
Grains: 2
Veggies: 3-4
Greens: 2

Fruit: 1

Citrus: 1

Here is what I like about these numbers:

1. They show the importance of protein and healthy fat during pregnancy.

2. They emphasize nutrient dense foods, like eggs, dairy, butter, vegetables, greens, and citrus.

3. They do not over-emphasize the role of grains in the diet, which should be eaten in moderation even if whole and properly prepared. 

4. They keep fruit in balance, which, though nutritious, is high in natural sugars and should be eaten in moderation.

Those might be different than recommendations you've seen elsewhere for what to eat during pregnancy. And that's precisely why I like them. At my first visit to the OB with my first pregnancy, the nurse practitioner handed me a food pyramid and told me all I needed to do was add a little more calcium to my diet (but definitely not by consuming raw milk!). Of course there was no mention of avoiding processed foods, trans fats, refined vegetable oils, or white flour and sugar, and including nutrient dense animal foods and vegetables into my diet. But I've learned a few things along the way about what is important to eat and avoid. And I'm excited to share them with you! I'm still learning and I'd love to hear from you about what you think it's important to eat (or not eat) during pregnancy.

What do you think about these dietary recommendations? Would you add or change anything based on your knowledge of nutrition during pregnancy?

On Monday I'll post the first entry in my food diary, along with some info about why I'm eating what I'm eating. See you then!

This is part of Fight Back Friday.

Four Good Reasons For My Blogging Break

Can you guess which member of our family made this mess?
This is pretty indicative of the state of our lives for the last few months.

I haven't blogged since September 7. But now I'm back! I hope that's good news to someone. :) It's good news to me, because I love sharing what's going on in my kitchen with people, and helping them learn to cook healthy food for their families. It's one of my favorite things!

But here's why I've been strangely silent for almost two months:

Four Good Reasons For My Blogging Break (which just ended)

1. No internet. Yeah, that'll do it. Ok, I sort of had internet, if you count a very weak signal from the neighboring college campus. But using it involved clicking "turn airport off" and "turn airport on" countless times, and then reading unhappy messages like "searching for wireless networks" and "invalid password" (even though it wasn't) and "connection timeout." Totally not worth it for anything more than checking email once in awhile. But after 10 weeks of waiting for AT&T to get their act together, we have working internet again!

2. Husband taking the laptop to class.  It's difficult to blog when your husband has the computer most of the day on most days, even if the mysterious Spirits of the Internet are being kind for once. We do have a desktop, but the toddler likes to climb on my lap while I use it and push buttons. No Go.

3. General Busyness. Between having a husband in seminary, raising a toddler, teaching dance three nights a week, and cooking for our CSA pick-ups, I have barely have time to cook dinner, let alone blog about it. But that perhaps could have been overcome, had it not been for number 4....

4. I'm pregnant! Yay! We are certainly excited, but that doesn't mean I'm bouncing off the walls. I'm beginning my second trimester and I've just. been. so. tired. I think the nausea is mostly behind me, but I'm still can't-get-off-the-couch-tired many days. So I've had to simplify. I haven't been baking everything from scratch like I usually do, or soaking nuts, or soaking grains much of the time, or even planning meals.  For many weeks, meal planning made me nauseous. Until last week or so, I'd been relying on a day-by-day sort of living in which I ask myself that morning, "What sounds good to eat today?" Usually it's only one thing, like cheesy rice with broccoli, or fried eggs with toast, or indian butter chicken. So that's what we go with. And such last-minute meal-making is not very conducive to blogging, especially when I'm running off to teach and I can't find the camera and it's too dark to take a good picture...you get the idea. It wasn't working.

But I'm hoping several things will help me get this blog back into some kind of groove:

--having working internet again (woohoo!)

--my CSA cooking commitment ending for the season

--the end of the first trimester and a hope of renewed energy

--the toddler suddenly taking awesome afternoon naps most days (he has never been a "good sleeper").

That sounds promising to me. I'm hopeful. :)

Here are some things that are in the works for the coming weeks:

--real food snacks for toddlers (and pregnant mothers of toddlers!)

--my pregnancy food diary (including supplements)

--balancing real life with real food, including some thoughts on a Sabbath for your kitchen (and therefore a Sabbath for you!)

--delicious, seasonal, real food recipes using things like squash, greens, and everybody's favorite...root vegetables! (I'm partial to the rutabaga, myself.)
--informative posts about why we eat the way we do, and why you should too! :)

I have no idea what frequency of posts is gonna look like. We're gonna play it by ear and stay balanced. It will help if I start seeing less of that picture at the top of the post, and more of this (did I mention that dirty dishes have been the cause of several meltdowns so far this pregnancy?):

clean dishes!

more clean dishes!

I'm glad to be back!