4th Trimester Meal Prep
Here is a complete guide to my Holistic Postpartum Items to accompany this blog post!
Even before I took my incredible postpartum training I got my hands on an amazing resource for anyone and everyone who knows someone that is pregnant or is pregnant.
The First Forty Days - This book is something that I send to almost every woman I know that is pregnant (if I feel they are open to actually reading it) because it is so amazing. This book is essentially a 4th-trimester cookbook but it offers so much wisdom on the 4th trimester as well. I remember reading it for the first time and getting 10 pages in and just crying because of how much information I wish I had when I was pregnant with Evie, and how I did not nourish myself after birth as I should have.
Going into this pregnancy I told my husband that I am prioritizing postpartum planning and care above all else. Meal preparations fell in this category and I knew exactly where to go for my 4th-trimester menu!
I sat down and flipped through the recipes and found what I not only found appetizing now, but what I also felt would be most nourishing for me in the future - which says a lot since I have never been a fan of soups.
These are the recipes I started with:
Beef Bone Broth
Chicken Bone Broth
Quinoa, Lentils, & Greens Soup
Chicken, Red Dates, & Ginger Soup
Postpartum Egg-Drop Soup with Liver & Greens
Seaweed Soup
Hearty Sausage Stew
I also know that I have a sweet tooth so I needed to have some cleaner and full of fat options for snacks and sweets so we made these as well:
Peanut Butter, Black Sesame, Coconut & Chocolate Granola
Gooey Chocolate Brownies
Chocolate Mousse
These meals will all be enjoyed after it has been reheated stove top (no microwaving) and everything at room temperature or warmer to ease digestion and replenish heat to my body after birth.
After I chose the recipes, I started a spreadsheet of the ingredients that every recipe called for so I could have a master shopping list. No joke this took close to three hours of organizing and price checking where would be the most cost-effective and best quality ingredients to purchase.
I ended up breaking it down to the following:
Whole Foods
Thrive Market - for all our pantry staples
Force of Nature - for pasture-raised, grass-fed / finished meats
Grove Ladder Farm - a local chicken farmer
Amazon for a few specialty items since a few local stores were still closed due to COVID
I bought these containers (50pk 12oz) for soups (50pk 8oz) for the desserts since it’s a smaller serving. You can also do this loaf pan if you are going to have larger servings (ie the whole family will eat these meals).
One of the biggest keys to postpartum care mentioned not only in The First Forty Days but also the INNATE Traditions’ training I am currently finishing up is COMMUNITY. All of these recipes were made with either my mom or my grandma. My mom came over the first day and we spent a solid 8 hours in the kitchen making all the bone broths and as many of the stews and soups as we could. We were both intentional with our conversation and attitudes while doing this since I will have an emotional connection to these meals when I enjoy them (fondly looking back at the time I spent with her making them).
Note - All of these recipes have a 3-month freezer life if stored properly so I could have saved my hips a little by not waiting until 37 weeks to stand in the kitchen barefoot on hard tile for 8 hours. That night was ROUGH.
That evening I started a second batch of broths but I did it in the crockpots overnight.
The next morning my grandma came over to help with another round of stews, soups, and sweets. We spent a little over 4 hours in the kitchen and prepped everything we possibly could have that will be stored in the deep freezer in the garage and my freezer in the house.
The granola was a recipe that has a two-week shelf life so we’re snacking on that now, but can easily make another few batches over the next couple of weeks. I grew up cooking in commercial and household kitchens with both my grandmother and mom so it was incredibly cathartic to cook and bake with them for the purpose of healing and nourishing my body during my 4th trimester.
I WILL ALWAYS LOOK BACK ON THIS TIME OF THEM POURING INTO THIS CHAPTER OF MY LIFE AND FEEL ETERNALLY GRATEFUL.
FINAL COUNTS:
Total Money Spent - $500
Thrive - $290
Grove Ladder (local farmer) - $30
Force of Nature - $160
Whole Foods - $20 (in addition to our regular weekly shopping)
83 Freezer Meals
60 Individual Bone Broth Servings
20 Brownies
3 Large Mason Jars FILLED with Granola
THIS BROUGHT MY TOTAL TO APPROXIMATELY $3-4 PER MEAL
I also have enough meat from both Grove Ladder & Force of Nature to make all the soups and stews all over again, plus a slew of fresh congees and bowl recipes from the cookbook that would not do well reheated (I’m looking at you Ginger Fried Rice). I have enough pantry items to make another two batches of granola and chocolate mousse, Mexican Ceremonial Hot Chocolate, Ginger Lemonade, and a few teas and infusions I want to try - that said I know my final price per meal will still drop drastically compared to what I have listed. Until all the ingredients are used I will not be able to get more specific than what I have listed.
My takeaway - All the time it took organizing, price checking, shopping, and finally cooking / baking, and packaging up meals that I know what quality of ingredients and the reason behind the healing modalities of each ingredient it was 100% worth doing and did not make sense for me not to! When I look back at my 4th-trimester meals with Evie, I made one lasagna, one freezer tray of spaghetti, a couple of loaves of banana bread, and recall eating to-go / drive-thru food almost daily for the first few weeks and I have no doubt it attributed to how I felt.
I can not wait to reap the benefits of this - physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Which recipe would you serve up for yourself first?