my pregnancy eats!

i have had no desire to blog lately though i continue to take photos of food and continue to read other people's blogs! sigh!
but thought maybe i should start a post on things i love to eat while pregnant. i had braced myself for comments like "oh, you will crave eggs and steak" and whatever during this new phase of my life, but i haven't gotten those! (i must surround myself with great people! hehe) i did get one comment at work that was "you eat so many vegetables, your kid is going to come out only wanting to eat candy!" which i thought was a little ignorant even as a joke and i replied, "not if she doesn't know what that is!" but i think being vegan is becoming more and more common these days and in general, most people seem to want to eat more vegetables and real foods so i don't think vegan is as confusing to people anymore, maybe?
i still can't believe that i have someone growing inside me (and somehow the 3D ultrasound and the kicking hasn't helped me make the connection either!) and that i will get to meet her by the end of this year! i can't wait to introduce her to so many things and watch her explore and figure out what she likes!
anyways! typically i have had smoothies for breakfast but i can't say i have a routine for breakfast anymore. sometimes i have cereal or toast or even dinner leftovers! this morning, however i returned to a green smoothie!

this one (serving 2) contains:
- 1 quince
- 1 pear
- mini handful of baby kale
- about 2 shots of BrainOn
- about 1.5 cups filtered water
- about 1.5 cups frozen mango
- 1 frozen banana

i added my daily liquid iron supplement to it (i generally have my iron with orange juice during my work morning break) and i'm set! super yum.

i just finished roasting some butternut squash (and currently eating the roasted seeds that roast just a wee bit faster! yum!) for lunch.

at work, i almost ALWAYS have a salad. nothing different than pre-pregnancy. i never look forward to anything as much as salad! on days that i haven't felt like chopping somehow or market shopping, i hope that it's wednesday, thursday, or friday and that i can get to christina's food cart, culver city salads. her salads are glorious!

i got a cuppow dressing cup for mason jars which makes mason jar salads all that more exciting to eat out of. i have never minded so much having dressing on the salad during transport and pre-lunch but it's still fun to add it and mix it in at lunch.


 
 hemp seeds are always a great addition to salads!
 
 i was craving corn (organic, duh!) and added some tao cafe raw burger to the top of my salad and oh goodness, it was the most delicious thing ever!
  
a delicious garden-fresh potato salad my mom made for me this summer - all backyard or CSA box ingredients except the pickles. YUM!
 
yesterday, i bought some sprouted grain wraps (i eat gluten on occasion now, mostly out of curiosity, though it is always organic, whole and/or sprouted) and plopped some collard green, kale, red cabbage, and carrot on top and then drizzled a dressing that i generally have some version of on my salads lately: sprouted chickpea miso, apple cider vinegar, flax oil, nutritional yeast. SO YUMMY!

dinner is generally a warm grain and bean/legume with steamed veg. paul has been amazing at cooking up something for when i get home around 4:30. such a treat!

so basically with this growing a baby deal and being vegan, i feel extra justified in getting any and every veg and fruit (especially seasonal ones at the farmers market) and i continue buying/ingesting organic food. i am taking a prenatal vitamin and iron supplement daily, but other than that ritual, i'm just trying to eat as many different things as possible and the least processed foods as possible. which is not anything new for me.

(i love trying new-to-me things at the farmers market, like these "mini watermelons", er, sour mexican gherkins, which are really like sour bite-sized cucumbers! so refreshing!)
i can't get over how easy pregnancy has been and how awesome i feel and how excited i am about the little growing inside me! part of me wants her to stay inside as long as possible as i'm thinking this is going to be the easiest part. but i hope that paul and i will continue to celebrate and marvel in every step of her growing up.
and i'm confident we will.

whoa, where is the time going? (plus... a green smoothie)

so, i have many unfinished posts on this thing. what is my excuse? i just had a mostly slower pace for a couple months! now as fall gets ready to start, i am de-cluttering and getting things back in gear. but back to excuses.... i'm going to blame my lack of blogging on baby brain! paul and i are expecting "the little" in december! i'm happy to say that so far pregnancy has been glorious and i have escaped first trimester with minor nausea (that was eliminated with eating) and extreme exhaustion that had me basically comatose after work or napping on the couch so that i would have the energy to go brush my teeth before bed!
second trimester has felt a lot more energetic and i'm hoping this keeps up as i'm heading into my final trimester.
i'm getting myself ready for the unwanted advice and touching that seems inevitable but i feel lucky to have only had one comment of concern about my vegan lifestyle (ie "did you hear about the vegan couple whose baby died?") and i feel really great about my diet and exercise right now! i haven't had any strange cravings. i guess the most surprising to me is that i don't want to eat coconut milk ice cream and raw chocolate as much as i usually do! and i haven't had the same urgency to go to starbucks for my unsweetened soy green tea latte as i have in busy work months. veggie brown rice sushi has been my meal of choice when i'm hungry but can't think of anything i want and in general, i'm really enjoying hunting down new vegetables and fruits to try at the farmers market and eating different grains and beans and legumes. ethiopian food has come up as a dinner craving a couple times though i don't feel like that's specific to pregnancy!
i'm taking vegan prenatal vitamins and while i was taking separate folic acid tablets, i (coincidentally?) did not feel like making my morning green smoothie! too much green leafies?
anyways, i'm finished the bottle and i feel like the folic acid in my prenatal and my food is more than sufficient and i've regained my green smoothie tendencies! hurrah! i'm taking daily iron (spatone liquid iron is my fave) and generally that is just with orange juice or a ginger/orange/frozen banana smoothie but sometimes it ends up in a green smoothie.
i made a green smoothie tonight to get some drinks in the freezer for some mid-morning energy boosts in the next couple work days and it was a nice one so i figured i should post it!

ingredients:
-about 1.5 cups filtered water
-one nub of ginger
-the tops of about 4 purple carrots
-a few sprigs of parsley
-about half or more of the tops of a bunch of radishes
-one peach
-one pear
-about 1 cup of orange juice

i got everything from the farmers market except the ginger and orange juice. maybe that's why it was so especially delicious!
anyways! i'm so excited to meet the little! but also really enjoying this time that she's been hanging out inside me. i can feel her moving around now and it's fun to feel her movements especially when me or paul are talking. i haven't had any food aversions so far and figure this means she is going to be super happy and excited to eat fruits and veggies like us! (and green smoothies, of course!)
hope your september is off to a great start and you are still enjoying farmers market goodies! i'm relieved to know ours goes into october as i was worried this was the last month!