Healthy "fast" food for nursing mamas?

[jenniet]

My dh is opening a new business and although we believe this will bring great benefits in the long term, for the next three months I will practically be a single mama with a three year old and a nursing one year old. The three year old has a gluten intolerance so we eat gluten-free (well, except for when the kids are asleep and I break into the junk food )

Anyway, what do you eat when you really have very little time to cook meals but you still want to eat fairly healthy? I find myself skipping breakfast and eating chocolate all day.

[kavamamakava]

Soups are easy to do one handed if you chop veggies ahead of time and store them in the fridge. I ate luna bars when I needed a quick energy boost when nursing my two. But for gluten-free, I shop at Asian grocery stores and buy maifun and saifun noodles because they are made out of rice and mung beans. I use them to make quick noodle stirfry or noodle soup. I also have a rice cooker so I can fill it up and press the button and walk off.
Granola, trail mix, lots of fresh fruit for snacking... For the little guy, you can make small fruit and cheese trays ahead of time so s/he can have a prepared snack in the fridge.

[wife&mommy]

I use the crockpot. Or make big batches of things ahead of time (soups, meats, cut up vegs, easy to grab fruit, etc) so that they are ready to go in the fridge when needed. Just gotta plan and think ahead and it helps a lot!

[SollysMom]

Rice cooker for sure. I've even taken to doing one-pot meals in the rice cooker so I can take <5 minutes to put in the ingredients, then leave it until it's done. For example, you can do rice/quinoa and lentils in the rice cooker (with a 1:2 ratio of solid : water) with whatever seasonings you want, and even add some veggies. This is another rice-cooker recipe of mine that is yummy.

[elisheva]

I keep nuts (almonds, cashews) and sunflower seeds handy. My kids eat tons of bananas and apples (an apple corer/slicer is a necessity in my house). Yogurt. I could live on cottage cheese if it weren't so expensive. We often do a quick stir-fry supper - sauteed veggies seasoned as you like with or without meat over quinoa. I do a veggie quinoa "mac and cheese" - cook the quinoa and add the veggies near the end to steam (I love broccoli and red pepper but basically use whatever I have handy) and mix in butter, cheese, a little milk. For supper the other night I made a pot of rice noodles in chicken broth and garnished with some greens and sauteed tofu and carrots - the base would be the broth (we use a mix without msg) and noodles then add in whatever you like.

[Honey693]

Homemade Larabars make a great snack or breakfast. I can't stand plain dates, but in those recipes they're great. If you google it you can come up with tons of recipes for the basic bar and it's variations.

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by wife&mommy

I use the crockpot. Or make big batches of things ahead of time (soups, meats, cut up vegs, easy to grab fruit, etc) so that they are ready to go in the fridge when needed. Just gotta plan and think ahead and it helps a lot!

This. You can make chilis and soups and whatnot and freeze them in individual servings to thaw later.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by Honey693

Homemade Larabars make a great snack or breakfast.

Oh, my - the first two times I read this, I read it as "Homemade Labradors" and was thinking "WTF??".

Batches of hard-boiled eggs, so you can keep them in the fridge. Cut up veggies whenever you get a chance, so they're available to snack on.Raw nuts. Some fruit (easy stuff like apples and bananas - nothing that requires lots of peeling or chopping). Plain yogurt.

umm....let me think. I'm having trouble with this right now, and have been convincing myself that dark chocolate is health food...which I do believe it is, in small quantities. However, I don't think 4 squares is a small quantity.

[jenniet]

These are all fantastic ideas! Thank you so much. I am making a shopping list right now. We are new to gluten-free living and I am embarrassed to admit I didn't realize you could make other grains, like quinoa, in a rice cooker. Why didn't I think of that?