Wednesday, January 4, 2017

What to Expect: Eating Well When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff | Book Review

What to Expect: Eating Well When You're Expecting
This was a really dense book- waaaay more than just a cookbook.  The first two thirds of the book is tons of nutritional advice for eating during pregnancy and postpartum.  There's advice for how much to eat of different "super foods," and charts that you can duplicate to track your own eating.  It felt overwhelming to me, personally.  Especially during the first trimester, when I was so sick.  It kinda became a survival thing for me.... if egg sandwiches were all I could stomach, I ate egg sandwiches three times a day.  (I did that a couple of times.  And tons of pretzels.  And no kale.)  But if you have the time to track what you eat, this book would be super helpful.  It's laid out in a common sense way, with an index and appendices that make navigating easy.  And there was also advice for the gluten intolerant and vegetarian/vegan expectant moms!  It's hard to say whether I'd recommend this.  It's just not for everyone.  I did try some of the recipes included in the book, and have reviewed them below.

Recipes I Tried:
Lemon Carrots with Rosemary:  Recipe worked as written, for the most part (had to cook the carrots a little longer than stated, but not bad), but it just wasn't to our tastes.

That's Italian Green Beans:  I found this dish to be too watery.  Not a fan of soggy green beans.

Turkey Bolognese Sauce:  Meh.  VERY chunky.  Hubby thought it was ok; I wasn't a fan.  (And that's really saying something- I'm a very adventurous eater.)

Whole Wheat Penne With Chicken and Skillet Tomato Sauce:  Good.  Not the simplest dish to make (involves chopping multiple vegetables), but not so labor-intensive I wouldn't make it again.  Tastes good, too.

Alotta Broccoli With Chicken and Penne:  Kind of bland, but I "punched it up" by adding some extra grated Parmesan.  It is also true to it's name: it has a LOT of broccoli in the original recipe.  I decreased the amount of broccoli and increased the amount of chicken.  I love broccoli, but I'm nursing now and if I eat too many dark green veggies Little One gets gassy.

Quinoa Pearls with Wild Mushrooms:  I thought this one was delicious; the hubby did not.  Turns out he's not into the texture of quinoa.  His opinion didn't change when I told him how good quinoa was for him.  But it was actually easy to make, but looked "fancy."  I like that.  Keeping this recipe in my back pocket for entertaining or pot lucks!

Spicy Mushroom Rice:  I thought this one was fantastic too; the hubby said it was "ok."  I'm definitely adding it to our regular rotation of recipes because I thought I thought it was so yummy and because it was super easy.

*I own my copy of What to Expect: Eating Well When You're Expecting.

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