During my first trimester, breakfast was the most important meal of my day. I needed to eat something right away or face nausea well into the night. The foods I craved were things I loved to eat growing up and in college which included scrambled eggs, bagels with cream cheese, Greek yogurt with granola and English muffins with peanut butter and jelly!

These sound like normal foods, right? What was I even eating before?

Well, my breakfasts used to include protein pancakes, chia pudding, green smoothies, green juice, or even just a banana. I was not big on breakfast because I wasn’t too hungry. I would eat larger dinners and come morning, I was rarely starving.

I enter my third trimester on Sunday and while I have no morning sickness, I still try to eat a good breakfast. I’m still into the English Muffins with peanut butter and jelly. I still love my scrambled eggs but I’ve been drinking a lot more smoothies as they are easy to make when I’m running out the door.

I visited the farmers market in Copley Square yesterday to pick up some foods to make green smoothies and juice at home including apples, kale, and beets. I miss my fresh pressed juice! As I mentioned before, the dietitian at MGH said to avoid it if it is bottled off site. I haven’t made juice at home in a while as I prefer to have it delivered via The Ripe Stuff but I’m going to attempt it again this week.

This morning, I made myself a giant green monster smoothie with kale, avocado, frozen pineapple, Vega protein powder and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. I don’t know what it is about a couple of tablespoons of avocado but they make every smoothie better in my opinion. It was the greenest smoothie I’ve made in a long time.

Avocado is also good for the baby so it’s a win-win. Avocado not only has heart healthy fats but also folic acid to help develop Little Fit’s brain, reduce risk of preeclampsia and help prevent other developmental impairments, and heart defects.

Lunches

My lunches haven’t changed too much since getting pregnant but I am eating a lot more carbs as I’ve mentioned. Last week, I again bought sliced turkey at Whole Foods to use in my Ezekial wraps. This time, I admit I didn’t heat up the turkey in my microwave. I saw them slice it at the deli and trust my local Whole Foods. The last serving I used was for a panini and I felt much better about that. I just used Swiss cheese, dijon mustard, lettuce, pickles and turkey.

I’m still a sucker for the salads at Blue Glass Cafe. I can’t get enough of their “health bar.” I always go for the same options too, marinated mushrooms, beets, pickled onions, croutons, roasted cauliflower, roasted Brussels sprouts, grilled chicken, olives, feta, hummus and a little balsamic vinaigrette. So good. I’ll try to make it pretty next time for a better picture.

Beets are another folic acid food great for pregnancy that are also high in fiber which help your digestive system stay as regular as possible – which is hard to do during your prenatal experience.

Often after lunch, especially if I workout between breakfast and lunch, I’ll still be hungry and have some popcorn on the side or an apple. If I want something sweet, I’ll grab a treat like a cookie at a near by bakery, dried mango or trail mix.

Dinner

This week I made a semi homemade Eggplant Parmesan for dinner. It was the best I’ve ever made and I can’t hardly take any credit. I used three ingredients all bought at Trader Joe’s: frozen eggplant cutlets, organic mozzarella cheese, and organic marinara sauce.

I preheated the oven to 425F and baked the eggplant on a cookie sheet for 12 minutes. Then I layered the eggplant in a baking dish, topped with sauce and then added the cheese. I baked it in the oven at 425 until the cheese looked like this. I think it was about 12-15 minutes.  I did add a little sauce to the bottom of the pan as well.

It came out amazing and we enjoyed it with my #1 pregnancy food, Caesar salad. I would highly recommend making this. It made enough for 4 people but naturally we only have a small serving leftover. While this may not be the lowest calorie dinner, it is loaded with calcium and fiber. The cheese has some protein in it as well.

Last night, we also had grilled chicken Caesar salads and Sunday I made a quesadilla. I guess some of my meals have changed but really it just appears that I’m hungover all the time on paper as these are also all my go-to hangover meals.

I am nervous about my glucose screening next Friday. I’ve mentioned before that my mother had gestational diabetes with me and my siblings. My sister did not have it so I’m hoping like her, I do not either. All it will entail to my knowledge is me cutting back on my sugar a lot which I totally down play on this blog and my baby will be at risk to be one large guy leading to a challenging labor. My sister was almost 10 lbs, I was almost 9 lbs and my brother was 7.5 at a month early!

I have heard that a lot of women fail the glucose test but do not have gestational diabetes. Failing means, you need to go back for a 3 hours instead of the original 1 hour test to determine your risk.

Did you have gestational diabetes or fail your initial screening?