Good Book on Simple Meals for Breastfeeding Mom?

Hi,
My husband and I subscribe to a service called cooksaid (cooksaid.com) that provides an email each Friday with 5 healthy and quick meal ideas for the following week. The service also includes a grocery list so that you do not need to try and figure out exactly what you need to buy each week. Most of the meals are made in 30 minutes or less and the variety has been terrific. The other nice part about the service is that it breaks down the grocery list and the meals into preparation for two people or for four. We subscribed for a years worth of menus for $25.00, a great deal! If you go on the website you can request a sample menu for free and they will send it to you this Friday. I can't say enough about this service, we have loved it.
ps. the service was created by two women who are nutritionist (info on website) and mothers, so they know the challenges of preparing healthy meals in little time.
C.

Hi E.,

I have 3 children (7 yrs, 5 yrs, 10 months). Here's my two-cents worth:

1. The Martha Stewart "Everyday Food" magazine is great. Quick easy meals
2. Before the baby, freeze meals. When you cook - double up and freeze some.
3. When people ask how they can help - tell them to bring you dinner. Ask good friends to freeze ahead for you too.
4. Ask a good friend to organize a friends circle to cook for you. I do this for my friends - where we all do 1 or two meals and it usually gets the mom through the first month.
5. When all else fails - order in!

Good luck! Enjoy!
K.

Your freezer will become your best friedn if you make meals to freeze in there. Ilike the idea about the places that allow you to put stuff together to put in the freezer. Also have friends make you dinner if they askif there is something they can do. a nice cassorole for the freezer. I know if i had another baby meals to put in the freezer would be the best gift i could get. Also foodnetwork.com has some of the 30 minute meals recipes.. Good luck and enjoy your baby when he arrives :)

I highly recommend "Saving Dinner" by Leanne Ely, you can check out her website at http://www.savingdinner.com. The book is about $10.50 on Amazon and 1 year(!) of recipes organized by season. Each chapter has one week of recipes, followed by a shopping list for all ingredients, followed by the very simple recipes, including "do ahead" tips. Her website also offers a Menu Mailer program which gets rave reviews and is definitely worth looking into... same format as the book only it comes in the mail or you can get email versions too.

Also, if your budget allows, I highly recommend doing a quarterly or bi-annual stint at some place like "Let's Dish" or "Dish & Dine"... places that allow you to prep food on-site and then you go home and pop it in the freezer. The 12 meal plan works out to $2.75 per serving or something, so it's truly a bargain compared to dining out and a real time saver for new parents. Friends & I bought a 12 meal plan for another friend who had twins last August (we prepped and delivered it), and she said it was the best baby shower gift she ever got!

My favorite trick for the early AM feeding was to stash Odwalla bars in my nightstand and chow down after the baby was done nursing, then go back to sleep for an hour or get up, depending on the time (6am vs 7am). Super good for you, pretty tasty, and a real energy booster when you've got no get-up-and-go. Expensive, sure, but well worth it for the "every other day" treat. Also good as a replacement snack for when you're hungry again and dinner was an hour ago but you still have an hour or two before bed. (never good to eat a meal w/in 2 hours of going to bed--adds on the pounds).

Good luck!
N.

http://www.verybestbaby.com/CoolTools/RecipeFinder.aspx

I always look at this website. I know its a formula website but the meals are prepared and ready in 30 minutes (well most) and are mostly healthy - it is up to you to select what you want to cook (obviously) and replace certain ingredients to make them more nutritious.

I like it because it gave great ideas - made them easy and then you stil have the option to throw your own spin on them.

As far as a diet when you are breastfeeding, you should follow the same rules of pregnancy, watch your fish. When breastfeeding you are burning so many calories that you need to take in a high amount as well. You need to drink a lot of water.

Before you deliver - I would have a "baking day". Make a couple casseroles and things like stuffed shells .... then freeze them. It will save you and your partner some time when you first come home, neither of you will really want to stop and cook a meal.

Sometimes after you have a baby - friends/ family will ask if they can get you anything - request a dinner. Have them make spaghetti for you or a casserole, etc.

I too always had a breakfast bar & a bottle of water near by. SOmetimes you dont know how long you will be sitting there nursing and its always good to have something near by! Before i had my daughter I bought things that were smaller in portions b/c I ate frequently but in small amounts (probably b/c when I was pregnant my daughter was sitting on my stomach!). Things similar to hot pockets.... easy & fast to cook or heat up.

My daughter is a toddler now and she "needs" to eat by 5:15 pm - has been that way since she was born (funny, huh?). We get home at 4:45 pm to 5:00 pm.... so I am used to making quick meals the second we get home... and now she likes to be on my hip and "help" stir. So I have to be fast!

Good luck & congrats on the baby.