pregnancy eats

WIAW: Day Off and Date Night

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 8 Comments

What do you eat when you’re not following a routine? Are your eats messed up? Are they healthier? Less healthy?

I find that I eat relatively healthy Monday through Friday when I’m at work. I like to meal plan or at least sometimes prepare my lunches ahead of time. And most of the time, these lunches include plenty of veggies. Other days, however, I’m less inclined to eat my veggies. Why? For me, it’s convenience – they just take time to prepare and when I’m not at work, I’m not usually preparing food. As you can see – today I’m sharing with you  What I Ate Wednesday meals from a day I was out of the office. And yes, I’m still eating a ton of fruit – it’s still a major pregnancy craving.

Breakfast was a smoothie from Restore! I was never into smoothies until pregnancy. Maybe it’s for hydrating or maybe it’s my love of fruit – but I love them now.

Restore smoothie!

Restore smoothie!

And some fruit.

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I took a three-isa mile walk in the afternoon so fueled up right afterwards with some more fruit. This time, a giant bowl and a dollop of whipped cream I had made as well.  See those delicious cherries at the bottom?

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Lunch was a mismatch of food that was in my fridge. Part of B’s leftover sandwich, a tortilla with peanut butter and honey (YUM!) and an assortment of cheese. Because, why not?

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B and I went out for dinner in Little Italy and had a delicious meal. We started with some buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto and then I had the special – a lobster on top of pasta with tomato sauce. SO AMAZINGLY GOOD.

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And for dessert? I passed by the cannoli and instead opted for some ice cream made with liquid nitrogen at Piccadilly. There were so many choices it was hard to decide, but I ultimately went with goat cheese with fig and honey – was so creamy!

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And that was it! A delicious day off and date night 🙂

Some questions for you:

  • When you’re not following a routine do you eat differently?
  • What’s the most interesting flavor of ice cream you have had? AND/OR what flavor would you have had from the list above?

WIAW: Can’t Get Enough Fruit

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

I’ve said it before – but I can NOT get enough fruit during this pregnancy. I don’t know why – but it’s what I constantly crave. Yes, there are other cravings, but a big, heaping bowl of juicy fruit salad? OMG I could eat it every day. And you’ll see that in today’s What I Ate Wednesday. I started AND ended my day with fresh fruit. And today featured some amazingly delicious, super sweet Skylar Rae cherries. Which yes, I also started and ended my day with.
Breakfast was one of my favorite yogurts- Siggis! And of course a ginormous bowl of fruit. These cherries are seriously amazing. I’ve never been one to go out of my way to intentionally buy cherries (they’re not my favorite fruit) but I would definitely buy therm again.
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See how pretty they are! Stemilt sent me a package in the mail and I can’t get enough. Here’s what they told me about them: known as Skylar Rae, this is a brand new type of cherry cultivar and one of only three commercial varieties in the world. It is the sweetest cherry on the market, but has such a sad story! After suffering the loss of their infant daughter, the Toftness family – long time Washington State cherry farmers – discovered the never-before-seen cherry on a single tree growing in their orchard. They felt it was a gift from nature meant to honor their beautiful daughter, whom they chose to name the cherry after.
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And some dried cranberries. So special story behind these cranberries.
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Lunch was leftovers. Leftover baked eggplant stacks- they are one of my favorite meatless dishes. And I added a side salad I got from the salad bar.
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And of course some more fruit. A nectarine this time!
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Snacks included some candy (yay! Another pregnancy craving) and mixed nuts.
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I made dinner for B and me – some deconstructed veggie spring rolls and salmon.

These are the deconstructed spring rolls. It was great to break out my spiralizer!

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And all together.
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For dessert I made some of these black bean chocolate brownie bars. They’re actually breakfast bars but they’re delicious for dessert!
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And surprise, surprise- more fruit. Again- these cherries are SO so good. 20160611_112615

And see- this is how pregnant I am. I don’t often share selfies – especially on WIAW posts – but since I’m talking about preggo cravings ….
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I’d say it was a good, satisfying What I Ate Wednesday. Not bad for a 39 week pregnant chick, huh?

Some questions for you:

  • Do you like cherries? Have you ever had these Skylar Rae cherries?
  • What’s your favorite type of fruit?

Disclaimer: Stemilt sent me some complimentary Skylar Rae cherries, and I loved them. All views are my own. 

WIAW: Rhubarb Crisp and Ice Cream

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

Happy What I Ate Wednesday party people! Hopefully you’re enjoying a great week and it’s feeling more and more like summer where you are (if you’re in one of those places that’s lucky enough to enjoy seasons and in North America … BIG if I know). It’s finally feeling warm again here and it’s only fitting that on this WIAW I had a rhubarb crisp dessert with ice cream. Because that just SCREAMS summer, doesn’t it?

Yes, I had other food too. The day started with a smoothie slash smoothie bowl.

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And a snack- a cut up apple.20160519_135402

Lunch was breakfast! Or brunch I suppose? Egg whites, lentils, spinach and a veggie burger. VERY satisfying.

But I also had some toast and a peach. We had no more nectarines and I really wanted something juicy. 20160519_131642

Some Swedish Fish for a snack! When was the last time you had these bad boys? It had been YEARS and someone brought them in for a meeting we had in the office. They were so good!20160519_134935

For dinner, I had plans to go out with a coworker who was celebrating her 20th anniversary at our office. We were also celebrating my future bebe 🙂

We went to Spice, one of my favorite local places. I had an amazing goal cheese tomato salad, flat brea and we split this rhubarb crisp. With ice cream. 20160519_183520 20160519_190556 20160519_194758

I got home around 8 and normally would have gotten ready for bed, but had to play catch up with some work things. I was up until around midnight, so it called for a midnight snack – some homemade granola!

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Don’t worry – I ate it before midnight so it still counts as my Thursday, right? And that was my What I Ate Wednesday eats.

 

Some questions for you:

  • Is it still called brunch if you already had breakfast? Or is it just breakfast for lunch then?
  • When was the last time you had Swedish Fish?

WIAW: Every Day Should End With Ice Cream

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 9 Comments

It’s Wednesday, it’s Wednesday … woopwoop! Which means it is a day for sharing eats and seeing what other people eat. Yup, I love What I Ate Wednesday and all the foodporn that it results in!

Here are y eats from earlier in the week – a pretty boring weekday. But on a non-boring note, spoiler alert – the day DID end with some ice cream!

The day started with some of my favorite overnight oats. Same as last week but no yogurt this time – just oats, almond milk, banana, honey and some peanut butter. So delicious.

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I had an apple and some nuts as well for a mid-morning snack.

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Lunch was a mishmash of random things. I had plans to eat lunch out with coworkers at a new BBQ place (which would have made for a WAY more interesting WIAW post), but I ended up getting pulled into a few meetings and having to work through lunch. Luckily I had a random assortment of food at my desk – leftover tabbouleh and baba from Friday night, carrots, plus a sweet potato (half with honey and cinnamon) and half an avocado. YUM! It hit the spot.

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I had some assorted hard candy for snacks that afternoon. Per usual.

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And a pear. Because pregnant Melissa LOVES FRUIT.

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B and I had our hospital tour after work that night. We got a quick tour of where I’ll be giving birth – wow. Somewhat made things a little more real to us! Anyway, that meant a late but quick dinner was needed – so we stopped off and had dinner at The Soupermarket.  I had their jambalaya soup, some amazing bread and B and I split the Market Greens salad.

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And I pulled the whole “I’m pregnant and want ice cream” and we stopped off at Sweet Moses on the way home. B got a root beer float and I got some salted caramel ice cream with toffee topping. SO GOOD. But I was stuffed!

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I tend to get VERY full during pregnancy – I’m well into the third trimester now and after some meals I just can’t get comfortable. That was the case after the ice cream. But so worth it! A perfect way to end my What I Ate Wednesday day.

 

Some questions for you:

  • Do you need dessert every night? What do you have?
  • How much fruit do you eat on a daily basis? I eat fruit at least 2x a day. 

WIAW: Glucose Test Day

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

I am happy to share some good news on this What I Ate Wednesday – I passed my glucose test!! For those of you that know me, I had failed (:() the first time, which meant Monday morning I had to go back for a several blood test with blood taken once every four hours and an even more sugary drink! SO, this WIAW is dedicated to all the mamas out there and will showcase my day of eats during my glucose test day.

Breakfast was nothing. You have to fast before the test. Unless you count the super sugary orange drink as breakfast?

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I don’t know if you can see on there, but that 10 oz beverage contains 100 g. of sugar. 100 grams! You have to drink that within 5 minutes and then see what happens. Seriously. The nurses and people around me were waiting to see if I fainted, vomited, etc. and thankfully I didn’t. Oh, and then they take your blood every hour to see your glucose level rates.

Again, I passed! And as soon as the test was over – I had to grab lunch. It was past noon and I hadn’t eaten since 4 pm the day before. My stomach was off from the beverage, but I ordered some of my favorite Lebanese food, Aladdin’s! I ordered the vegetable soup, some pita and hummus and a baba ganoush vegetable wrap. I was only able to eat half the wrap and a few pieces of pita and half the soup – but it was good!

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I knew I’d be working late, so I grabbed a small snack to tide me over until dinner. Since I hadn’t had any Easter candy, I grabbed a few jelly beans and about 1/3 of a banana.

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By the evening, I was starving and feeling MUCH better after the test, so B made me dinner while /i was working. Friday I had gotten a package from Modern Table Meals of lentil pasta. B cooked some of that along with some pesto I had made and broccoli and chicken (not pictured) and that was our dinner.

 

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I REALLY liked the lentil pasta, as did B. His direct words were “This is way better than whole wheat pasta.” So they should take that as a compliment. Their mixed lentil penne is so good – higher in protein and lower in carbs than traditional pasta, too.

And for dessert? I have been loving just some ricotta cheese in a bowl. It tastes so good to me and since I’d already had a bazillion (Exaggeration) grams of sugar in that drink, I decided that a lower sugar dessert was probably safer 🙂

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Some questions for you:

  • Pregnant people/moms – have you had adverse results to the infamous glucose test?
  • Ricotta cheese – yay or nay?
  • Favorite easter candy?

WIAW: Friday Lenten Eats

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

Happy Wednesday!  You’ve made it – you’re halfway through the week. And some of you lucky dogs are more than halfway if you have Friday off … not me.

I may not have Friday off, but I’m celebrating – because it’s What I Ate Wednesday! The day for sharing a checking out a random day of eats (and spying on all of your food too…because I love seeing what everyone eats).

For breakfast, I had some fruit salad and nuts and a little yogurt on top of the fruit salad. I still can’t get enough fruit and Siggi’s. That’s probably the theme of this pregnancy – fruit, Siggi’s and dessert.

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For a snack before lunch, I had a handful of mixed nuts. Wow, look at all that salt!?20160318_115909

Lunch was a mishmash. I had some roasted veggies, tofu and a barley salad. And then some leftover black bean soup from Panera that I hadn’t finished for dinner the night before. I don’t eat meat on Fridays during Lent and this was the perfect filling meatless meal!20160318_130533

A mid-afternoon snack included an apple.20160318_132502

AND of course some peanut M&Ms. 20160318_144723

For dinner, B and I had plans to have Dave and Anson over – they were going to help us with our baby registry and B was going to make fish for a Lenten Friday meal. While he cooked the meal, we snacked on some cheeses and bread (bread not pictured). 20160318_184831

And our dinner – SO delicious. Mashed cauliflower with some gruyere, asparagus and shallots and scallops. My apartment still smells fro the scallops but they were SO GOOD.20160318_194633

And dessert? Some of these Bailey’s St. Patrick’s Day themed cupcakes! And maybe a Samoa or two (unphotographed).

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That was a delicious Friday!

Some questions for you:

  • Do you go meatfree once a week? What’s your favorite meatless meal?
  • What’s your favorite afternoon snack? Sweet/salty combos – nuts and fruit or even peanut M&Ms!

WIAW: Two Workouts, No Sleep

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

Do you ever get insomnia? I don’t typically have trouble sleeping, but Sunday evening I woke up at 3 a.m. and could not get back to sleep. I tossed and turned for quite some time, until I gave up. I got up, clean (somewhat) the kitchen, finished some laundry, cleaned up my closet a little, did some work and then decided to get in a little workout. It’s amazing how much you can get done between 3:30 and 8 a.m.! (And I hope I never have that again. It’s also amazing how tired you can be during the day when you get stuff done for those 5 hours instead of sleeping)

Anyway, onto my Monday. I hadn’t originally planned to work out in the morning because I had a short run after work planned for the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon, but I ended up getting in a short run before work and a walk. And then was hungry most of the day.

I had an early meeting on the road and didn’t end up have time for my usual breakfast at my desk. So, I had a chocolate protein shake.

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And when I got to the office I had some snacks. Apple and cashews.

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Lunchtime was some meal prep I had made over the weekend. Roasted veggies – cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, turnips, carrots and a veggie burger. I seriously can’t get enough of this lunch.

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And snacks included a pear, some fruit salad and my favorite Siggi’s.20160314_173350 20160314_144116

Oh yeah  – and a cup of peanut M&Ms a few hours before my run. For fuel….right?20160314_152148

Then it was time for the run! 3.8 miles before a t-storm hit. They had free beer after the run, but I obviously did not partake.

it may look like I have a beer belly - but it's just a nearly 7 month pregger baby bump!

it may look like I have a beer belly – but it’s just a nearly 7 month pregger baby bump!

We grabbed some soup from Soupermarket for dinner – I got their special – Thai Peanut Chicken. And that hunk of bread. LOOK AT THAT BREAD.20160314_195141

AND for dessert? B and I shared this almond croissant from a new bakery that just opened downtown, Bloom. Not only was the pastry fabulous, but Bloom has a great business model – per their website, it’s a “business with a heart. We bake to provide jobs for low-income and disadvantaged adults in Greater Cleveland.”

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Anyway, those were my What I Ate Wednesday eats. Another delicious day.

With the two short runs (honestly the two short runs equaled a normal pre-pregnancy run for me), I ended up with 20,000+ steps, more than I typically get on the average Monday.

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Some questions for you:

  • Do you ever get insomnia? What do you do?
  • Do you prefer morning or afternoon workouts? Morning all the day! The only way I got out there that evening was because it was a group run.  

Foods Not In My Routine

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

For today’s What I Ate Wednesday post, I’m bringing you something NEW. That’s right – not a normal, typical routine day (egg whites for breakfast, lunch in the office and then dinner likely at home); instead, this is a non-routine eating day. It included both lunch and dinner out, due to dr’s appointments and travel. Aren’t you so excited? (yes that may be sarcasm…unless you really are excited? Then good for you!)

In the morning I started my day with a pretty good run. I haven’t had many of those lately but I was able to get in 5.75 miles pretty much nonstop on the treadmill.

After the run, for breakfast I was craving some fruit. And nut butter (as I mentioned last week, I have a rotation of around 4-5 nut butters in my pantry right now). I’ve eaten more fruit and nut butter during my pregnancy than I typically eat and this day was no different. As I was making breakfast and some tea, I enjoyed a hard boiled egg white. I made myself a fruit salad and had some nut butter on it and on the side. A spoonful of natural peanut butter and natural sunflower seed butter was perfect.

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In the afternoon, I had a doctor’s appointment, (I’ve come to realize that I now have a lot of these!) so I grabbed some food while I was out. Aladdin’s V9 soup (their amazing vegetable soup) with feta on top, plus some pita and hummus. SO good. I love Aladdin’s hummus!

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I had some snacks in the afternoon back at the office – an apple, a sweet/salty bar and some unsalted cashews throughout the afternoon. I knew we’d be eating a late dinner – likely at the airport, as I had a flight to Philly for a conference that evening.

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Welp, plans changed. My flight to Philly was cancelled and then as I was at the airport, the next flight out got put on a delay and would ultimately mean I’d miss my connecting flight and be stuck in Charlotte overnight. Since my conference was the next day, I didn’t want to chance getting stuck in Charlotte and not making it, so I made the ultimate decision to drive. It was already pretty late by the time I got on the road (7:30ish), so dinner wasn’t until around 8:30 and at a rest stop on the high way. The rest stop had McDonald’s and a pizza place. I was craving something warm, sweet and comforting – and ultimately I ended up with a fruit/yogurt parfait and an oatmeal from McDonald’s. Surprisingly, both hit the spot.

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That was it! Not a typically eating day for me, that’s for sure, but it did the job. And I made it to Philly safe and sound, around 3:30 a.m. I may have had a few bites of an apple and a chocolate covered peanutty bar sometime after midnight, but let’s say those count for the next day … right?

 

Some questions for you:

  • Are you a lucky traveler? Or do you typically have travel woes/issues?
  • Do you have a typical rest stop/on-the-road meal?