Nursing mommy constantly needs to eat, but is short on time to prepare foods--ideas??

[icxcnika]

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Hi,

I'm nursing my big healthy babe, and am slightly underweight. For both of these reasons, I need to pack on the calories, nutrients, and fat!! However, I don't really have a lot of time to prepare stuff to eat during the day, and am quickly running out of ideas for stuff to add to what I already make. What do you wise fellow mamas recommend that I
1.) Keep in the house to make quick snacks with during the day, and
2.) Pre-prepare and stick in the freezer to heat up quickly during the day???

I don't eat any meat, poultry, or eggs (unless the eggs are baked into something). Am open to limited amounts of dairy and fish.

There are only so many pb&j sandwiches, bananas, and cheese sandwiches I can eat!! :

Thank you so much, mamas!!

God bless you,
icxcnika

[Mama Katrina]

Avacados are quick healthy snack that should help you. Not sure on meals.

Slightly underweight? Is the baby gaining or not? Some babies, even BF babies are just SMALL...

[captain optimism]

I am a new mom, not trying to keep my weight up (because I have some to spare!) but still trying not to faint from nursing.

We keep in our fridge: baked tofu (my dh prefers Soy Boy brand) store-bought humus and baba ganouj. You can eat the humus with crackers or bread. If you want it to be less expensive, it's easy to make your own of all of these, but it's faster when time is at a premium to just buy them. (Or if your baby is new, let someone else buy them!)

In our freezer, we have soup that my MIL made (vegetable barley, very bland) pasta sauce that my dh made (tempeh tomato sauce, very spicy!) and applesauce. My MIL makes the best applesauce! We also have Soy Boy brand ravioli, and usually Amy's Macaroni and Soy Cheese. If you don't have an obliging relative to cook for you, you can buy boil in a bag soup. I like Tabachnik soup because there aren't any additives. it's good to have pierogis in the freezer.

The only frozen vegetable I really like is organic green peas, but if you have those on hand, they can add a lot of nutrients really easily. You can throw them in the boiling water with your pasta or ravioli or whatever.

At work I have soy milk and a banana for a snack. Soy milk rocks my world. I didn't use to like it but since my pregnancy I can't live without it!

Nuts have a lot of calories, protein and fat. They are easy to eat with one hand while nursing. Some dried fruits are good, too. Avocados have a lot of fat and good nutrients, but I don't know about calories. You can eat it in a sandwich, or in guacamole, or on a salad. Or in your brown rice, that's a nice treat. You can also put toasted nuts in or on your rice to add nutrients. Sesame seeds also add a lot of nutrients. I like tahini made from toasted sesame seeds on my oatmeal in the morning.

[icxcnika]

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Yay! Thank you, mamas.

Mama Katrina, thank you! I had forgotten about how good avocadoes are for snacks. BTW, I don't think I phrased my original post as clearly as I could have...Babe is big, big big! I'm the skinny one, lol!! :LOL

Thank you too for all your ideas, captain optimism! Mmm, I will try to make some hummus and baba ghanouj, I love both of those!

Please keep the ideas coming, mamas!!

icxcnika

[Erin Pavlina]

I would make the following for myself...

Baked sweet potatoes. You can bake like 5 ahead of time in the oven and stick em in the fridge. Good cold even. Healthy. Add margarine to get some fat if you want.

Hummus and Bread. I love dipping french bread into roasted red pepper hummus. Fast and easy! High in protein and good satiety factor.

Big vat of salad. I would cut up and prepare a few heads of romaine lettuce (high in calcium) and add cucumber (iron), and carrots (Vit. A) and then when I was hungry I would scoop out a bowlful and add avocado (nice fat source) and pour on that dressing (good fat source). Yum!

I'm going to be in this same boat in a few months too so I'm glad you got me thinking about this.

[OhMel]

Granola. Yum. Either store bought or homemade. Many have nuts in them so nice and fatty. (Not so good for not-so-skinny me.)

Also, have you considered oatmeal. I buy the steel cut oats and just boil water and add them before I go to bed. Next morning I heat it up and add some fruit and other goodies (I add nutritional yeast, flax seed oil, black strap molasses, etc.) It is very filling and easy. And you can eat off of it for the rest of the day too.

[Mama Katrina]

icxcnika, Maybe I missed read you post LOL!!! My ds just went in for his 12 month check and was 21.5 pounds and 29 inches, not HUGE, but not small either. Normally I am about skinny too, still am just about 10 pound over normal for me due to meds and bad snacking.

Oh, I normally keep a granola bar in my purse or bag at all times. But I haven't found a nice "healthy" one that I like (ok, so I buy the store bought Brown sugar ones!)

[sarasprings]

Dh always made me a bowl of fruit and yogurt in the morning and I could quickly add granola. Also, tomato soup with cheese was one of my favorites while I was holding a soundly sleeping baby.

Oh, and I used to buy organic pop-tart-like things with cheese and tomato sauce in them. Very easy to eat. Actually, I ate those the most freqently because I could easily put them in the toaster oven and eat them with a sleeping baby in one arm.

[EnviroBecca]

Raisins! High in iron and very easy to eat.

Canned apricots are more nutritious than most other canned fruits. Pineapple (in juice, not syrup) is good too.

I like to cook a big vat of rice and put the leftovers in the fridge for reheating. If I don't have something else to top the rice, I use a little butter and seaweed sprinkles. You can get several varieties of these sprinkles at Asian grocery stores; the ones I like best are called norigoma furikake and have sesame seeds in with the seaweed. Other varieties have dried egg or fish flakes. They all have significant protein.

I also like to keep tofu sitting in a sealed dish of marinade in my fridge. It keeps for a week or so and gets more flavorful with time.

Make a dip to eat w/raw veggies. I usually mix dried minced onion, dill, and black pepper into yogurt.

Make your own frozen burritos! There are 2 recipes for them in my cookbook

[HollyBearsMom]

Here are things that I always had in the house when I was nursing for quick easy snacks or meals that I could eat with one hand! I tried to cook often and eat well but sometimes that just didn't happen so these were my standby's.

1> Hummus. I would buy the "family size" containers in 2-3 different flavors to keep thing interesting. You can dip anything into easily. I loved to dip pretzels, veggies and toasted pita wedges.

2> Veggie Burgers. Again I kept on hand all different flavors. My favorite was spicy blackbean topped w/ cheese and salsa wrapped in a soft tortilla. What was even better was that I figured out you can heat them up in your toaster.

3> Avacados. I ate these all thru my pregancy too and now they are my sons favorite. What I ate for breakfast everyday was avacado and sharp cheddar on toasted whole grain bread. And, if the avacados got too soft I just mashed them up w/ salsa for an easy guacamole.

4> Amy's Organic Pizzas. These are quick easy and much more healthy than regular frozen pizzas. I loved the spinach one.

Lastly try to pick up a few different nut butters like almond or cashew. Sure makes a good old PBJ taste better!

[cathe]

Smoothies are also a quick healthy snack (if you make them yourself). Add tofu for protein, almond butter or tahini for fat and calcium, kale for vitamins, minerals and greens increase your milk supply and make it richer), use juice or milk as base and add fresh or frozen fruit - espcially frozen bananas to give it a creamy texture.

[jenkf]

Nut butter sandwiches with banana! Make 'em up and put 'em in the fridge. Also good to take with you if you're going out - nothing to spoil. I use whole grain bread, almond butter, and banana, and add honey on top of the banana (might want to leave the honey out - I didn't start eating it again until dd was over 1 year). Nuts and nut butters are nutritious and filling, and will help you get some fat into your diet. (You didn't say if you were vegetarian/vegan or not - maybe making some rolled up sandwiches with chicken and veggies to keep in the fridge).

[icxcnika]

Thank you!! :-)

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Yay! Thank you mamas for all your great suggestions. I went to the store today and picked up fixings for hummus, the big salad, and other things too. :-)

We are all very appreciative here!

Happy snacking and God bless you,
icxcnika

[MamaMonica]

I am also slightly underwieght from nursing and trying to keep the weight on and energy up... I eat whole bags of nuts.... and dried fruit.

Big bowl of oatmal for brakfast....

[cathe]

Adding nuts and seeds, whole or ground to your oatmeal is a great way to get extra minerals and healthy fats.

[1jooj]

Soy nuts come in some fun flavors--I have BBQ and regular in our house right now. Adding my YES to the nuts suggestions...

And getting some different breads can help too. Waffles are good--you just pop them in the toaster.