Here are some terrific recipes to help you eat when your expecting in style! They’re from the great book, Feed the Belly: The Pregnant Mom’s Healthy Eating Guide by Frances Largeman-Roth, RD.
Mornin’ Sunshine Parfait
I love parfaits because they are ridiculously easy to make, but they’re pretty enough and girly enough to feel like a special treat. I like making them for weekend guests, or just for myself when I need a little pick-me-up. You’ll need parfait glasses or wine glasses for serving.
Prep: 5 minutes
Makes 4 servings
Baby Bonus: It tastes like you’re having dessert for breakfast, but it has a healthy 13 g of protein to build Baby’s muscles.
Momma Must-Have: Cool, creamy, and delightful. An easy way to entertain for brunch if the in-laws happen to visit.
1½ cups fresh berries, preferably a mix of blueberries,
raspberries, and blackberries
2 cups low-fat Greek yogurt
½ cup Hippie-Chick Granola or your favorite granola
4 teaspoons honey
1. Place about 1 tablespoon of berries in the bottoms of 4 glasses
(enough to cover bottom of glass). Then, spoon about ¼ cup of
the yogurt into each glass. Top with a little of the granola.
2. Repeat layering the fruit and yogurt. Drizzle 1 teaspoon honey
over the yogurt layer, and top each parfait with the remaining
granola. Grab a spoon and dig in!
Calories 202; Fat 4 g (Sat 1 g, Mono 0 g, Poly 0 g); Cholesterol 5 mg; Protein 13 g;
Carbohydrate 29 g; Sugars 20 g; Fiber 3 g; Iron 1 mg; Sodium 46 mg; Calcium 93 mg
Hippie-Chick Granola
This packed-full-of-goodies granola is wickedly tasty, but has all the goodness you’d expect from your local health food co-op. It’s great as a topper for less tasty cereal, and it’s perfect for adding a bit of crunch to yogurt or ice cream. Pack some up for on-the-go treats in snack-size zip-lock bags.
Prep: 8 minutes
Cook: 23 minutes
Makes 6 cups of granola (12 1/3-cup servings)
Momma Must-Have: Skip the high-fructose corn syrup, tropical
oils, and preservatives that you’ll find in many commercial brands
of granola. This one gives you 3 g fiber per serving, plus heart healthy almonds and pumpkin seeds.
½ cup oat bran flakes
2 cups old-fashioned oats
¼ cup slivered almonds
¼ cup roasted pumpkin seeds
¼ cup dried currants or raisins
¼ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried tart cherries
¼ cup flax seeds
½ cup honey
1/3 cup (5 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a baking sheet or jelly roll pan with
cooking spray; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the bran flakes, oats, almonds,
pumpkin seeds, currants, cranberries, cherries, and flax seeds.
Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine the honey and melted butter, and pour over the oat and fruit mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined.
4. Spread mixture onto the prepared pan, and bake for 23 minutes or until golden. Cool on the pan, and break into pieces
with a spatula. Store in an airtight container (I like a glass jar)
for up to a week.
Calories 228; Fat 10 g (Sat 4 g, Mono 1 g, Poly 0 g); Cholesterol 13 mg; Protein 5 g;
Carbohydrate 30 g; Sugars 16 g; Fiber 3 g; Iron 1 mg; Sodium 7 mg; Calcium 22 mg;
Folate 3 mcg; Beta-Carotene 104 mcg; Potassium 21 mg
Love That Bump Lemonade
Many women told me that they couldn’t get enough lemonade during their pregnancies, so I wanted to develop a lemonade recipe that was easy and not overly sugary. First, you’ve got to use fresh lemon juice: the concentrate just doesn’t cut it. Then you’ve got to sweeten it. This one’s made with agave nectar, which I find really delicious. If you prefer sugar, heat the same amount of natural sugar with a cup of water on the stove until you get a syrup. This “simple syrup” then gets mixed with the
lemon juice and water.
Prep: 10 minutes
Makes 8 8-ounce servings
Momma Must-Have: This tart beverage may just help nix your
morning sickness—at least for a while.
8 ounces fresh lemon juice (about 5 lemons)
½ cup agave nectar
64 ounces of cold water (8 cups)
Mint sprigs (optional)
1. After you’ve juiced all the lemons, set them aside. Place the agave in a heatproof container, and microwave it for 30 seconds. It should be nice and liquidy. If not, put it back in for another 10 seconds (don’t do it for a full minute, or else it will get scalding hot).
2. Whisk the warm agave nectar into the lemon juice. At this point, you can use the honey-agave mixture as a concentrate, making aserving at a time and keeping the rest in a covered container in the fridge. Add ¼ cup of the concentrate to either cold water and ice for lemonade—sparkling water is a nice twist—or hot water for a soothing lemony beverage. Or you can add it to a big pitcher (filled up the rest of the way with the cold water), add a mint sprig (optional), and pour yourself a refreshing glass.
Calories 71; Fat 0 g (Sat 0 g, Mono 0 g, Poly 0 g); Cholesterol 0 mg; Protein 0 g;
Carbohydrate 20 g; Sugars 17 g; Fiber 0 g; Iron 0 mg; Sodium 1 mg; Calcium 10 mg;
Folate 7 mcg; Vitamin C 14 mg
What are your favorite pregnancy recipes? Do share!!
