I was talking to a friend of mine and she is needing some advice. She is pregnant with her first and is trying to eat well etc. At her work she has no access to a fridge or microwave and doesn’t have time to leave for lunch. Anybody have advice for meals she can pack that are healthy?
Salad, egg/chicken salad sandwiches, a thermos of soup, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, fruit and veggies, crackers and cheese, just cheese, dried nuts, etc.
-
- A basic bean salad…garbanzo, black beans, and kidney beans (or any combo really) chopped onions and peppers, balsamic and oil.
-
- Oatmeal! I lived on oatmeal first trimester…quick and filling, add nuts and dried fruit
-
- Hummus and veg/pita
-
- Some good protein bars are helpful when you barely have time to eat…just make sure she’s getting more filling varieties (no 100 calorie bars).
A lot of normal sandwiches, salads, etc will be fine out of the fridge for a morning, but I understand if shes extra cautious right now!
You can freeze yogurts overnight and let them thaw through the morning.
When I was pregnant, this is what I usually packed in my lunchbox (I couldn’t eat a whole lot at once, so I snacked throughout the day): yogurt & granola (for morning snack), peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, cheese & crackers, veggies with dip, fruit. I put an ice pack in my lunchbox, but nothing in there really needed to be refrigerated except for cheese, but that can sit out for awhile without spoiling, and the yogurt, but I ate that in the morning. You can buy little single-serving cups of veggie dip/salad dressing that don’t need to be refrigerated until opened. Really, most things are totally fine in an insulated lunch box with a ice pack, the question is what you’re willing to eat cold. Oh, and hummus with veggies and pita chips is also a great lunch (filling with protein and fiber), I ate that a lot after baby was born and I needed something quick I could eat with one hand, but I didn’t take it to work because some hummus is so garlicky. I couldn’t handle my own garlic-breath while prego.
Oh, another thing I ate a lot of while pregnant was Fiber [name]One[/name] bars. They make granola bars and ones that are like brownies. You can never have too much fiber when you’re pregnant!
Jerky, hard-boiled eggs, nuts and seeds, carrot and cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, fruit. She can pack a frozen drink bottle to keep things cold or put things in a thermos to keep them warm. I would take things like casseroles (leftovers from dinner) in a thermos too.
If she decides to eat fiber bars, please make sure she knows that, while they’re good, to not go from eating none to eating more than two a day. It can cause issues… 