Placenta Recipes, Please!!!

[Cartesia]

OK, I was SO totally not going to eat the placenta but the closer I get to birth the more it sounds like a good idea (I'm 38 weeks today....)

My MW just told me two stories about mamas who had amazing experiences with a shift in mood & energy level after eating some placenta. I have had some depression in my past so I am eager to ward off PPD in whatever ways possible.

She said put some in a smoothie. Have any of you tried that? What kind of smoothie? What are some other options?

I'm thinking that my first PP meal will be chicken soup. Would it work to throw some raw placenta in the blender and dump it in the soup?? Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Allison (Mama-to-be to baby Theo, planning HB)

[Raene]

Smoothies...great idea. Keeping the placenta raw gives Mama the most nutrients. Please use strawberries or raspberries b/c the red color might gross you out if you think that it's only red b/c of the placenta. Knowing it's red from the berries helps!
Here's something I found:
Cut the meat away from the membranes with a sharp knife. Discard the membranes.

Placenta smoothie
*placenta
*bag of strawberries
*bag of blueberries
*OJ

Use about 1/3 of placenta, clean the membranes from it and cut it up
into little chunks. Add some OJ and some frozen strawberries----enough, and this is psychological, so that when it turned red it was obviously from the
strawberries & not the placenta. Add the blueberries, more strawberries and more OJ. Tasted like a really strawberry-berry smoothie.

Put the rest in dixie cups & cover them in foil and freeze them. Defrost them on the counter and drink them over the next couple of days.

I made a triple batch and used the whole thing, except for a few bites I ate raw. I got frozen fruit and OJ, so I wouldn't have to worry about it going bad. No, I couldn't taste placenta, at all. It really helped

[Cartesia]

Aaaahhh, red berries....of course, what a smart idea....(placenta? what placenta???)

that's amazing you didn't taste it....

thanks for the suggestion.

any other folks have ideas?

[Changed]

I did that with the smoothie less the blueberries. It was great! I've had NO ppd at all.

[thixle]

Originally Posted by Raene

Placenta smoothie
*placenta
*bag of strawberries
*bag of blueberries
*OJ

No, I couldn't taste placenta, at all. It really helped

This, but the next day I added yogurt and a frozen banana. Much tastier : I have to go chop up the rest of the placenta here in a few minutes because my husband refuses

[MommyofHero]

i'm planning on drinking a smoothie right after birth (i hear that strawberries or peanut butter are good for masking the taste), but as for the rest of the placenta,my midwife is going to dehydrate it, blend it into a powder, and encapsulate it so i can swallow a little every day, like vitamins. you can find good instructions for doing this the easy way online if you do some detailed searches.

[MadameXCupcake]

Have you thought about encapsulating part of it? That way you have the pills to take whenever you feel like it.

[Cartesia]

Yeah, I think I'm gonna eat some if it raw in smoothie right away and then encapsulate the rest.

For some reason I never contemplated that it would be possible to eat it raw without tasting it, so thanks for letting me know!!!

[Desert Diva]

I'm due in 2-3 weeks, so we're close, Cartesia!

I'm anticipating eating a small piece raw as soon as I can, then having about half the placenta cooked into a stew for consumption in the first days. The rest I'll have cut up and frozen, to either cook later or blend into smoothies. I want to be sure to have some to have over time, since I read over and over about women who are still craving it weeks and even months later.

[lalaland42]

I've never had placenta but I am considering having it dried and put in capsules next time.

Does it cook well in stew? I have a somewhat strong gag reflex to stuff so I was afraid to try it in a form where the texture and smell is strong. How about fried up with other stuff like onions?

[Desert Diva]

This will be my first experience, so I don't know how the stew wlll go. I just know that the recipe we will use (and do not have yet) is Ayurvedic, and presumably uses herbs or spices that will help the efficacy and absorbtion of the useful stuff in the placenta.

I'll definitely post more here as I get the information. (Which I hope is soon, as I'm due in less than 3 weeks!)

[Cartesia]

Whoa, an Ayurvedic recipe for placenta??? Who knew...!

I'm up early because I can't seem to make it through a full night without eating, so now my routine is to snack & hang out on the Mothering boards, then go back to bed.

The more I read about nourishing placentas WHILE being so hungry I can't sleep, the more it seems totally reasonable to eat them!

[thixle]

Wanted to add- I swallowed a small chunk raw and it didn't taste like anything, either. Not even salty, just felt slimy.
I think the strawberries in the smoothie helped with texture, too because there were teeny little chunks, almost indistinguishable from the strawberry seeds, except they were kind of chewy instead of crunchy.

Here's a couple of pages i had bookmarked for cooked placenta-http://jamesspratt.org/blog/2007/10/28/placentophagy
http://havingapoo.blogspot.com/2007/...nta-party.html

[barefootpoetry]

For me, the key with the smoothies was to make sure all the ingredients were FROZEN. I made one with fresh fruit and fresh placenta and it was hoooorrible. Divvy up your placenta chunks into Ziploc baggies, and do the same with some frozen strawberries and frozen sliced bananas. (I use maybe 2 cups of strawberries and 1 banana for each smoothie) Toss them all into the blender with a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream, a little milk, and a big squirt of honey. Blendblendblend until it's totally smooth. When the placenta is frozen you literally can't taste it, but when it's raw, you can, and it's not pleasant at all IMO.

From what I have heard, cooking the placenta kills the nutrients in it. Freezing it kills some of them too, but it still retains most of its power from what I've been told.

[Cartesia]

Ooooh, thanks, good to know.
I'll keep it frozen - but I guess then drink hot tea afterwards, right, in terms of the whole staying warm thing?

Thanks everyone! I'll be putting the frozen fruit in little baggies & my doula said she will cut up the placenta & make the smoothie for me.

Yay!
PS I'm 39 weeks, send me ELVs!!

[Changed]

I froze the placenta too. I pureed it raw and then spread it on parchment paper, folded it up and stuck it in baggies. Then I just unfolded the paper and it crumbled into the blender. I used frozen sliced strawberries but thawed those just a little. Good luck and ELV's!

[Desert Diva]

My baby came early--I delivered a perfect 9lb 2oz baby boy on 11/22!

My husband took on the task of preparing a stew from the placenta, and I've been eating it all week. I'll get more specific information from him if anyone wants it, but the short version is this:

He slow-roasted the whole placenta (membranes and other stuff intact for cooking) at a low temperature in the oven. He removed the membranes after it was done, he'd read that it was easier to do this way.

He made me an amazing, delicious stew with napa cabbage (shred this and put it in when serving, don't cook it), sweet red peppers, onions, garlic, green chile, ginger, dong quai, celery, veal stock, curry.

We've kept the cooked placenta separate from the soup, adding it only when we heat it for serving.

It's been amazing and easy to eat. The placenta dissolves in the mouth, it's almost like tofu. It feels like the healthiest thing in the world to eat, and I don't think that I've ever had anything as delicious.

I love knowing that this placenta nourished my baby and is now nourishing me, and will again nourish my baby through my milk.

We also saved a chunk of raw placenta, which I've eaten in small pieces.

For what it's worth, my milk has come in great, my bleeding is tapering off quite nicely, my mood and energy have been better than I was expecting, and all or none of this could be related to eating the placenta. But I'd do it again in a heartbeat.