Healthy Eating (cont’d)
Image courtesy of smitten kitchen
It’s cold here. I’m not saying that to complain; I’m saying it to provide context about why I stayed inside and read all day yesterday. (I’ll detail more of my reading insights in later posts!)
I mainly read pregnancy books. We still have a while before we want to start trying to conceive, but I love planning. I want to best prepare my body for conception, and I want to deal with the stressful stuff (like deciding between home birth or a birthing center) as much as possible now.
I picked up Healthy Eating During Pregnancy at the library yesterday (yes, I braved the cold in order to get free books). There wasn’t a whole lot of new advice (since I’ve been reading a lot of books about pre-conception nutrition), but it was good to get re-inspired about conscious eating.
I need to keep up the following habits:
- Taking a daily pre-natal vitamin and Omega-3 supplement
- Avoiding caffeine
- Abstaining from things like smoking, drinking, and doing drugs
- Exercising consistently
- Balancing my diet with grains, protein, calcium, fruits, and vegetables
Specifically, it got me thinking more about protein. As a vegetarian, I struggle to get the recommended amount. I think I should incorporate more legumes and grains into my diet. Right now, I eat a lot of pasta and cheese. With that in mind, here are our meals for the week:
6 Comments
Kelsey
I have to laugh b/c you may be the only other person I've met who loves to plan as much as me! We are not planning on a baby for a few years but I have always been drawn to reading parenting and pregnancy books, I know it will be an amazing process so I find myself pseudo-planning already. I feel like it sounds silly to most people to plan so far in advance but it just makes me feel better!
On the vegetarian front, we use bocca or morning star veggie crumbles probably once a week. Mixed into a recipe they are quite delicious and provide protein. We've also been doing wheat berries lately, they are yummy with just salt and pepper so pretty easy to gobble up some protein.
Molly
Chickpea-Quinoa Pilaf (Vegan, from Veganomicon)
54 min | 12 min prep
Serves 4-6
-2 Tbs olive oil
-1 small yellow onion, chopped finely
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-1/2 tsp ground cumin
-1 Tbs coriander seed, crushed
-Fresh ground pepper to taste
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 Tbs tomato paste
-1 cup quinoa (rinsed)
-1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained + rinsed
-2 cups veggie broth
In a small stockpot over med. heat, saute the onions in olive oil for ~7 min. Add garlic and saute 2 min. Add tomato paste, coriander, cumin, black pepper, and salt; saute for another minute. Add quinoa and saute for 2 min. Add chickpeas and broth; cover and bring to boil. Once boiling, lower heat to simmer, cover, and cook ~18 min (or until water is absorbed). Stir occasionally. Fluff with fork and serve.
Great protein and great on tortillas!
Kelsey
Also, I love love love the Moosewood Cookbooks, they are vegetarian and I'd highly recommend them for getting some new vegetarian ideas.
Anonymous
This makes me laugh because I'm the same way. My cousin recently found out she was pregnant and called me lamenting all the food she can no longer eat and I kind of rattle off a basic list (soft cheese, deli meat, sushi, caffeine?) and she was SHOCKED that I knew that seeing as I don't plan to have kids for another few years. But someone like me is shocked she didn't know seeing as she is actually a few months pregnant…I'm such an over planner in that way. I love reading parenting books, pregnancy books…all of it! 🙂
On the food front — do you ever read 101cookbooks.com? She is a vegetarian really focused on whole foods and balanced eating. Tons of great recipe inspiration! If you don't already read it, check it out.
Also — have you finished Elegance of the Hedgehog? I started it this weekend because (I finally got it from the library as it had been on hold for MONTHS!) and I'm about 100 pages in and finding it kind of hard to get into. Tell me it gets better? 🙂
saracotner
Oh no! I need to remove Hedgehog from my sidebar. I had to abandon it. It just took way too much work for me to process it…I will update my sidebar with my most recent nightstand companions. And thanks for the 101cookbooks lead!
To Kelsey: I'll have to give wheat berries a try!
To Molly: Thanks for the recipe. So sweet!
Anonymous
Does your pre-natal vitamin include DHA? Does your pre-natal planning say to take that as well as the Omega 3 or is that overkill?