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Postpartum Food Preparation: Practical Matters

Once you are through the first couple of weeks postpartum, you will be establishing the rhythm of life with your new baby. If you have not already done so, now is the time for you and your partner to figure out how to fit the preparation of nourishing meals into your lives. You don't need to measure serving sizes, try a lot of exotic new foods, or follow complicated recipes to do this. And you don't have to follow any specific diet "plans" or do any mathematical calculations to figure out how much to eat of certain foods. You have enough to worry about as it is. All you need to do is work within some general guidelines. We will look at some practical matters concerning how to use and prepare those foods in the easiest and most healthful way.

Kitchen Basics
Set up your kitchen for the greatest possible ease and convenience. In the past, this may have meant having plenty of frozen pizzas and Lean Cuisine meals and a working microwave, but to make the shift to a whole-foods diet, you need a few other gadgets, including the following:

• A blender.
• A small coffee bean or seed grinder.
• A food processor.
• A rice cooker.
• A salad spinner.
• A slow cooker (Crock-Pot).
• Freezer bags, small and large varieties.
• Glass canning jars (Mason jars).
• Reusable plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar brands).

Having all of these items on hand will help you to simplify the processes of cooking and storing healthful food with a minimum of work time in the kitchen.

At the Grocery Store
First, if at all possible, find a grocery in your area that sells organic produce, meats, and dairy products. Be prepared to spend a bit more than you are used to on these staples. Remind yourself that your family's health is worth the extra money. If you have a local farmers' market, shop there for produce. Your baby will love the sights, sounds, and scents of the farmers' market, and later will enjoy the taste of the produce.

If your experience with vegetables has been limited to overcooked broccoli smothered with cheddar cheese sauce and iceberg lettuce salad, you have a whole wonderful new world of tastes waiting for you. When you walk into the market, however, you may find yourself more intimidated than excited. Here is a starter list of vegetables to try. You should have enough vegetables in the house to provide some for each meal. It will take a few weeks of trial and error to figure out how much you need and which varieties taste best to you.

• Artichoke.
• Asparagus.
• Beans (French or green).
• Beets.
• Broccoli.
• Brussels sprouts.
• Butternut or other type of winter squash.
• Cabbage.
• Carrots.
• Cauliflower.
• Celery.
• Chard or kale.
• Corn.
• Eggplant.
• Jicama.
• Leeks.
• Lima beans.
• Mushrooms.
• Onions.
• Peas.
• Potatoes.
• Spinach.
• Sprouts (try alfalfa, broccoli, garbanzo, lentil, mung bean, and other sprouted nuts, beans, and seeds).
• Sweet bell peppers (red, yellow, orange, or green).
• Sweet potatoes or garnet yams.
• Tomatoes.
• Turnips.
• Yellow squash.
• Zucchini.

In addition to fresh vegetables, keep some frozen ones on hand in case you run out of everything else. Frozen spinach is especially handy in a pinch – it can be scrambled into eggs, stirred into a marinara sauce, or steamed and eaten on its own. Many natural food stores now carry frozen organic vegetables.

Choose fruits in season, preferably ones grown near where you live. Apples are one of our favorites. Organic purple grapes, cherries, blueberries, and mangoes are packed with antioxidant nutrients. Organic melons, peaches, and plums are also winners. Many health food markets carry organic bananas. Try some unsweetened organic applesauce for a snack or dessert. Avocado is rich in healthy fats and is great when mashed to make a spread or vegetable dip. Or stuff half an avocado with tuna, celery, and scallions mixed with a little canola mayonnaise for a quick, satisfying meal. (Mashed avocado is also an ideal early food for baby!) Also buy canned beans: black beans, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, and/or white beans. These can be added to rice for a quick meal, or to soups for protein.

Shop for cold-water fish such as salmon, cod, and mackerel. Buy canned sardines or anchovies to keep in the pantry. Canned tuna is all right once weekly, but mercury naturally accumulates in its flesh so it should not be eaten excessively. Plan to eat fish two to three times weekly.

If you like nut butters, try raw almond butter, cashew butter, or sesame butter. We do not recommend peanut butter for nursing mothers. Some data suggest that babies can develop an allergy to peanuts if the mother eats them while breastfeeding.

If you love fruit juice but do not have a juicer at home, buy natural fruit juices without added sugar, flavorings, or corn syrup. If you are nursing, avoid citrus juices. Try papaya, apple, or grape juice instead.

Most health food markets now sell several varieties of boxed broth such as organic chicken, vegetable, and mushroom. Keep a few boxes in your pantry and use for quick soups or for cooking more flavorful whole grains. Check the labels to make sure they contain only ingredients you recognize – and that they don't contain monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is often disguised as hydrolyzed vegetable protein.

If you enjoy bread, go for those made from whole, sprouted grains, such as Ezekiel bread (also sometimes called Bible bread or fasting bread). This type of bread rarely contains preservatives, so keep it in the freezer. Manna bread is a good, dense whole-grain bread. Some artisan bakeries still make traditional breads from rye, sourdough, and whole wheat flour. If you are lucky enough to have one of these bakeries in your town, you can indulge in their breads once in a while. You can also try mochi, a chewy rice bread that you bake in the oven and cut into squares – look in the refrigerated section of your health food market. Corn tortillas or whole-wheat chapatis, a type of Indian bread, are good bread alternatives. If you are sensitive to gluten, you can try gluten-free breads made from rice flour and nuts. You should be able to find these in your health food market. Toast them for better texture and flavor.

Stock up on brown rice, quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah), and barley in the bulk section. If you are feeling adventurous, try amaranth, millet, or kasha (roasted buckwheat).

Keep a container of miso in your refrigerator. This can be used to add flavor to soups and stews, and it makes a great broth – simply boil water, turn off the heat, stir in miso, and add chopped scallions, strips of kombu seaweed (which is great in other soups, too – find it at an Asian grocery or in your health food market), and small cubes of tofu.

If you don't already have them, purchase a variety of spices and herbs. Some of the basics are basil, cayenne pepper, curry powder, dill, dry mustard, garlic powder, herbs de Provence (a mixture of several herbs that is delicious in omelets, on fish, and in soups), rosemary, sage, and thyme. Chopped or minced fresh garlic that comes in a jar is a valuable time-saver, as are chopped basil and pesto (a mixture of basil, garlic, olive oil, and pine nuts). When you shop for any type of condiment (or any processed foods), check the label first to make sure it does not contain dyes, flavor enhancers such as MSG, or artificial preservatives. Keep prepared salsas and organic sauces, marinades, and condiments in your kitchen to quickly add zing to meat and egg dishes.

Get yourself a supply of a few different salad dressings – a vinaigrette, a creamy ranch, caesar, or bleu cheese dressing, and a tahini-based dressing (but make sure to choose brands that are not made with hydrogenated oils). At the dairy case, choose one or two varieties of organic cheese if you like to eat cheeses. Feta and aged cheddar are so flavorful that you don't need to use much to spice things up.

Other staples to purchase include organic butter or ghee (clarified butter), organic plain yogurt, maple syrup, honey, and rice milk.

Tips for Speeding Food Preparation
Two or three times a week, take an hour's time to prepare foods for easy cooking. Hand baby over to Dad and cook, chop, dice, and store some basics (or have Dad handle the kitchen chores):

• Hard-boil a half-dozen eggs, peel off the shells, and store them in a plastic container.

• Wash and cut up raw vegetables such as beets, bell peppers, carrots, celery, cucumber, jicama, and radishes, and store them in plastic containers in the refrigerator. These are great for snacks or for quick salad preparation.

• Wash and remove the ribs and stems from chard, collards, kale, spinach, and/or other greens. Keep these in airtight plastic bags in the fridge. Then, when you want to add cooked greens to a meal, you can pour them right into your stir-fry pan with a few tablespoons of water, a dash of olive oil, some tamari, and as much garlic as you like, and allow the greens to cook until soft.

• Cut up leeks, onions, scallions, yellow squash, and/or zucchini and store the pieces in plastic containers for steaming, stir-frying, or use in soups. You can freeze most vegetables.

• If you like winter squash, cut them in half, scoop out any seeds, and roast face up in a baking pan filled a half-inch up with water, in a 425°F oven for about an hour. You can chop up apples or nuts to put in the middle. Then you can either scoop the flesh out of the skin and eat it right away, store the cooked squash in an airtight plastic container to eat later, or blend it with vegetable or chicken broth to make soup.

• Keep your salad spinner filled with washed baby greens, Boston (Bibb) lettuce, or romaine.

• Cook asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, and/or garnet yams ahead of time and keep them in the refrigerator for a cold meal or snack. (You may not be able to imagine eating baked yams without marshmallows – but try them split open hot with a pat of butter or some olive oil, some prepared garlic right out of the jar, and a dash of soy sauce inside.) Chilled steamed vegetables are great in salads.

• Divide fresh fish into 3-ounce portions – about the size of a deck of cards. Freeze individual portions wrapped in wax paper and sealed in airtight plastic bags. (Fish must be frozen in sealed airtight containers or it will go bad.) You can later move them into the refrigerator on the morning of the day you plan to have fish for dinner, or quick-thaw an individual portion in a bowl of warm water for an hour before you cook it. Freeze boneless chicken breasts in individual portions as well, or roast a whole free-range chicken and keep in the refrigerator. You can pull some meat from it to add to salads or soups, or to make a sandwich.

• Keep whole grains in glass canning jars with easy-to-read labels. Also keep nuts and seeds in clearly labeled glass jars. Toasted pumpkinseeds or walnuts are especially good additions to salad, and both are rich sources of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). You can toast them in a dry skillet over low heat, stirring often until you can smell the toastiness or the seeds begin to pop. Or spread them on a baking sheet and toast them in a preheated 250°F oven for about ten minutes.

With these basic preparations done, cooking meals will be easier and quicker.