The Ramblings of a Pregnant Woman

Every since I first got pregnant, its been tough to eat. First, it was tough to eat anything. Then I started eating specific things for days upon days (first it was strawberries, then tangerines, then cream of wheat and so on). Eventually, I began to add more variety into my meals, but pretty much stuck to apples, cheddar cheese sticks, pickles, and toast with. butter and jam. About a month ago, I was able to eat pretty much anything, except chicken (which made me feel super sick and sometimes throw up.) About two weeks later, I began to be able to eat chicken and for about a week I was blissfully eating whatever I felt like eating and eating LOTS of it.
Well - that has all changed, again. I guess that's just kind of what pregnancy is about. Changes. Your tummy changes. Your marriage changes. Your role changes. Your energy level changes. Your doctor changes. Your way of life changes. Your food changes. Your Mother's Day status changes. Your husband changes. And so on and so on and so on. The past week, I've been feeling pretty gross and haven't been eating all that great. Usually that means I don't eat much of anything. I haven't really ever craved any super fatty or junk foods. I've had the occasional ice cream craving, and the occasional donut craving but that's about it. Since we don't have donuts in the house and rarely have ice cream, it hasn't been hard to not indulge.
The main thing that I've realized has been making me feel crummy again is meat. Not just chicken meat anymore, although I think chicken makes me extra sick and the other meats just a bit. When I was able to eat meat, it was pretty easy to get the full amount of protein my midwife wanted me to get - a whopping 60 to 90 grams a day. That's a lot of protein people! Now, without meat, its much harder to find ways to get all that protein, plus all the other important nutrients my baby and I need. So, I've been doing a ton of research and asking questions about how I can get all the nutrients I need without eating meat.
One of the FABULOUS resources I have (got it for Christmas last year from a dear friend) is this book by Shoshanna Easling. This book is FULL of great recipes for food, lotions, and everything else you need to have a natural pregnancy and birth. She also has  DVD series that goes with it that I've been working through. I LOVE this woman and what she has to offer!

 Just to be clear, I'm not TRYING to avoid meat, I try to cook it at least once a week to see if maybe I can have it again, but generally it doesn't turn out well. However, last night, I made a meatloaf and although I was feeling super sick before we ate and wasn't sure if I could even eat, I had about a fourth of a cantaloupe and that gave me enough of whatever I needed to stomach the meatloaf. HURRAY!
But - pretty much across the board, I need to find foods I can eat and that fit the bill for getting enough protein and other nutrients I need. So - hang on tight, here we go.
First off, I eat a TON of yogurt. I try to find whole fat yogurt but its NO WHERE except Trader Joe's. I haven't been able to get there so haven't been able to pick up whole milk yogurt. So - I go for the 2% which is better than 0%. I need that fat!!
I also eat cheese on EVERYTHING. I haven't been able to do much besides cheddar cheese, but I'm fine with at least having one type of cheese I can easily eat.
I eat a TON of eggs. I try to do a big 3 egg omelet every day - if not for breakfast than for lunch. I usually fry up some onions, spinach, potatoes, parsley and garlic in coconut oil and when those are all fried and ready, I dump in my milk and eggs and cook those up.  When the eggs are almost done, I dump in a big handful of cheese and mix it up. Oh my goodness - AMAZING! I haven't been able to take a picture of this since I always eat it before I remember that I should take a picture.
I also picked up some sliced ham this week. I'm hoping to do a big ham and cheese sandwich with some spinach, olives, tomato, pickles and whatever else I can cram in there.
I also have been doing coconut quinoa for breakfast when I feel well enough to cook it. OH MY GOODNESS - this is an absolutely amazing breakfast. Sometimes I am so nauseous I just need to eat corn flakes with milk and honey, but I love it when I can make some fresh quinoa.
Basically, I put my quinoa, coconut milk (full fat canned coconut milk) honey and water in a pot and cook it up until its done.

I love cooking with coconut milk. I can't get fresh coconuts here off palm trees but this is the closest I've found to getting that taste.
Once the quinoa is done (usually takes about 25 minutes or so) I fluff it all up and that right there is good enough to eat on its own! But, I'm not done yet!
I always add in some type of fruit - usually LOTS of it. Today I added in bananas, blueberries and strawberries. Then, I added in some walnuts. Usually I would add in almonds but I'm out for now. Then I top the whole thing with some delicious organic whole milk and chow away!
Yum. Just seeing that picture makes me want more! Since quinoa is such a super grain and really high in protein, I also am planning on making some salads with it - maybe some type of greek salad? I'm thinking some feta cheese, olives, bacon... and whatever else. Is bacon greek?
That sounds super delicious too......................

I also am doing more with chia seeds.

These have more iron in them per serving than spinach does - so sign me up! I often dump some chia seeds in with a smoothie and I actually want to make what's called Chia Seed Jam! I have a bunch of frozen berries that I want to use and we'll see if I can make some good jam :) I also might try to make some type of coconut pudding with the chia seeds - because I am SO IN LOVE with coconut right now.

I also made three loaves of gluten free oat flour bread. I absolutely LOVE this bread. I didn't plan very well when I was mixing it up because the recipe called for 12 eggs (I tripled the recipe). I only had four. So here I was with a big bowl of sticky gooey uncooked bread that I couldn't just leave to go buy more eggs (which wouldn't work anyways since I don't have a car) and I didn't want to waste all the ingredients (oat flour, xanthan gum, rice flour, tapioca starch, yeast, olive oil, ground flax seeds and honey) so I decided to just run with it.
Here's my freshly ground oat flour. If you want to make certified gluten free oat flour, you need to use the certified gluten free oats. I just use regular old fashioned oats and they don't bug me. Just toss your oats in the blender and blend away until you get a powder that resembles flour!

Since I already had put flax seeds into the mix, I decided to use a flax seed egg substitute. So, I measured out the right amount of flax seeds needed for 8 eggs (a whole cup) and instead of measuring out the water, I just poured water in until the flax seeds were covered, and then I dumped the whole mixture into my dough and stirred away. It was pretty thick, so I added more water and kept stirring. Eventually I had the right consistency and dumped the bread into the waiting coconut oil greased bread pans. Then I had to let them rise for an hour.

Here are the three loaves of oat bread ready to get put in the oven. I made slits across the tops of the loaves just to be fancy.


Then I baked them for about an hour and out popped delicious looking loaves of bread. I was a bit nervous because of the lack of eggs and measuring of the flax/water egg replacement, but upon buttering and honeying a slice of warm bread, I changed my mind. Super delicious!

Remember those organic apples I got from Aldi that ended up being really mealy, bruised and gross? Well, instead of throwing the whole 2 pounds away, I decided to make applesauce with it.
All the skinned and cored apples....
All the apple skins and cores....



















So, I peeled, cored, and cut all the apples and threw them in a pot with a bit of water and turned the heat to medium, put a lid on and let them cook for about 40 minutes. Once they were super mushy, I turned off the heat and just let them sit for awhile so they'd absorb some of the water, and then I mashed them up with a potato masher. I didn't add any sugar, lemon juice or cinnamon, but you easily could at any time! Easy, homemade, fresh, organic applesauce!

Like I mentioned earlier, I made meatloaf last night - but as you may or may not know, meatloaf usually is made with eggs. Well - I was still out of eggs so I had to substitute something. I ended up putting about half a cup of applesauce into the meatloaf, along with some of my oat flour bread as crumbs and Michael told me that it was the best meatloaf I had ever made. I bet it was because everything I used was homemade and fresh!



Lastly, I bought some Psyllium Husk powder for FIBER. It also works as a binder instead of xanthan gum or guar gum. I've never baked with it before, but I am excited to try. I am planning on adding some of the powder to my smoothies for an extra fiber boost as well.

Lastly, besides all this cooking I've been doing, I've also been sewing (reusable diaper wipes) and been crocheting little purses.



This purse I made into a little backpack with a draw string top and a button closure. Of the two I made, this one is my favorite. Even though you can't tell, I lined the inside of the purse with a white thick material so that anything small that was put into the purse wouldn't fall out one of the crochet holes by accident.
The second purse I made was a basic square with a shoulder strap. I attached a pompom to the fold over flap and used a Velcro closure. I guess I didn't take a front picture of this one, huh? This one is also lined with the thick white material.

Next on my list to crochet is a baby blanket - but I want to crochet squares and then sew them together like a quilt! I am so excited to start on that one!

So there you have it, the ramblings of a pregnant woman....