I've been pretty rubbish at blogging about what I've been eating during my pregnancy so far. There are a couple of reasons for this, the main one being that I spent about the first 16 weeks in and out of hospital and not eating much at all. Hyperemesis, is not pleasurable. I however turned out to be one of the lucky ones and recovered from this - many people suffer throughout their pregnancy. For more information have a look here.
It took me a little while after that to get my appetite back and actually WANT to eat food. With all that baby in there sometimes smaller 'snack meals' more often are better than a large one. Here are some ideas on what I've been having;
- Porridge with dried fruit and nuts (almonds are great for calcium)
- Whole meal toast with Omega enriched vegan margarine and sliced avocado
- Various amounts of dates, nuts, omega enriched seed mixes
- Plenty of enriched soya products - soya milk, yoghurts etc
- Fresh fruit salads
- Plenty of calcium & protein enriched tofu products - used on pizzas, with pasta, as a snack, in tofu scramble - you could even use silken tofu in a milkshake if you liked
- Grains - brown rice with seitan based curries, brown pasta with tomato sauce
- Baked potatoes - a really simple one but good for you. I eat mine with baked beans and a bit of omega oil drizzled on top
- Hummus and falafal - in pittas or ciabatta with lots of salad and tomatoes
- Chickpea and avocado salads
- Lentil based soups with whole meal bread
- 'Nooch' sauce based meals such as mac n cheese (fortified nutritional yeast is rich in B12)
- Popcorn with sprinkled nutritional yeast topping
That's obviously not a complete list, but I hope it gives you some idea as to the things I've been trying to incorporate into my diet. Nobody is perfect - ideally I'd like to get a bit more fruit and vegetables in there somewhere. I've also been taking a vegan prenatal vitamin made by Deva at the recommendation of my midwife.
This is a table (from Viva!) showing what and how much a pregnant vegan should be aiming to eat each day;
For more information on nutrient requirements you can download a PDF of Viva!'s 'Mother and Baby Guide' here.
If anybody else has great meal or snack ideas I'd love to hear them :)