Even under the best of circumstances it can be challenging to prepare regular, nutritious pregnancy foods for every meal. Add the fatigue of pregnancy, the possibility of morning sickness and a growing baby restricting room in your stomach and it can be overwhelming to try and get a meal ready. Here are some pregnancy foods that offer great nutrition, easy preparation and a bit of comfort too.
Breakfast of Champions
Oatmeal is a comfort food for many people, especially during the cold weather. Additionally, it is packed with lots of fiber, complex carbohydrates and iron. You can’t beat that combination.
Since you want to eat steel cut oats rather than steamed and rolled oats, you might think it takes at least 30 minutes to make, and if you use traditional steel cut oats it does. However, you can find quick cooking steel cut oats that are just cut more finely; cooking time–5 minutes.
Now, let’s boost the nutrients in that oatmeal. Throw on some berries, a banana, a spoonful of raw, organic almond butter, some cinnamon, nutmeg or honey; different days, different ways. Oatmeal is remarkably versatile. If you are interested in a protein boost, throw in an egg or two while the oatmeal is simmering, it tastes better than you might think.
Lunchtime Luxuries
Not every lunch needs to be a rushed affair, especially if you preplan. Start out by making extras of your protein portions when you make dinner. When having fish cook an extra fillet or two, do the same with chicken or even steak. Set them in the fridge for lunches.
If you like a salad for lunch make sure to pack it full of dark leafy greens and add all sorts of other veggies that contain good nutrients; red and green peppers, cherry tomatoes, broccoli florets, avocado, lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and a good dose of pepper. Add one of your extra proteins and you have a great lunch.
Don’t like salads? The meat is the hardest thing to get ready anyway. Stick it in your container, add half a leftover sweet potato and grab some fruit. You are ready to go.
The key is to stop thinking of lunch as a sandwich, an apple and a cookie.
Then the possibilities just open up for you!
Dinner is the Hardest
For many women who work, the idea of preparing a whole meal when they get home after work is just too much. That is why you keep certain ideas for those nights.
Stock your fridge with plenty of organic whole eggs, sprouted grain tortillas and easy to sauté veggies. Heat your tortillas in the oven while you scramble a couple of eggs with peppers, onions and spinach. Wrap the mixture in your tortilla and you have a meal in minutes.
You can also shred a chicken breast, add the same veggies and a bit of organic salsa and you have meal that is more dinner-like. Tortillas are a great way to make a quick and healthy meal.
Preplanning Helps
I know it is a drag, but it is also true that if you plan ahead you don’t have to do as much work on the days when you are already busy working out of the house. Whenever you have a few hours on the weekend, cut up veggies and lettuce, hard boil some eggs, grill up some chicken breasts and fish fillets and plan a couple of crock pot meals.
All this preparation may take a couple of hours, but they save you just as much time during the week when you don’t necessarily have the time or energy to start a meal from scratch.
It may not look like much is going on from the outside, but pregnancy requires a lot of energy from a woman. Baby yourself a bit when you can, and enjoy your pregnancy foods, maybe some of them will become regulars on the menu.