what did you choose?

Filed Under Pregnancy and Birthing, Tips & Tricks | December 17, 2009

Amongst all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it’s also a time of reflection and appreciation. For us it’s been a big year as we gave birth to our newest newsletter, yoyobelly! Add that to belly’s big sister, yoyomama, and we’ve had lots of growth and juggling and possibly even a titch of sibling rivalry.

What do we appreciate? You – our smart, funny, inquiring and inspiring readers. Being able to accompany you along your journey into motherhood is something pretty special.

And what are we reflecting upon? Your favourite stories from the past year as well as what tips and tricks and products we’ll discover in 2010 to keep mums-on-the-grow in the know. So here it is, your top pick for 2009:

You voted and your favourite story of the year was our prenatal nutrition tips. With info on keeping hydrated, the best fats and even a recipe for Raw Truffles, it’s a handy, dandy info on nourishing yourself and your babe.

You’ll find more healthy eating tips in our articles on keeping morning sickness at bay and guidelines for caffeine and alcohol intake while gestating.

And here, excerpted from Healthy Mum, Happy Baby: How To Feed Yourself When You’re Breastfeeding Your Baby (in the interests of full disclosure we wrote the book) is a recipe for one of our favourite healthy snacks for pregnant and new mums:

Tina’s Hummus

This was one of the first recipes to be included in the book and it’s still one of my favourites. Tina and I gravitated toward each other in prenatal yoga class because our due dates were one day apart. We both went hugely overdue and our kids were born two days apart (and two weeks late). Her big fear was of tearing during labour, mine was having a C-section. She tore, I had a C-section, we both survived…

  • 1 can (19 oz/540 ml) chickpeas
  • 6 tbsp virgin or extra-virgin olive oil (with olive oil the more virgin the better!)
  • 4 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (or concentrate is fine too)
  • 1/4 cup tahini
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Cayenne to taste
  • c. 1/4 cup water

Drain and rinse the chickpeas (apparently with tinned beans when you rinse off that gloopy, opaque liquid they’re packed in you’re also rinsing off a lot of the salt, which is good). Place the chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add oil, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, cumin, salt and cayenne, and process until smooth, adding water until you reach your desired consistency. Makes 3 cups.

Variations: You can totally adapt this to your taste, we’re big garlic fans in our house so I’ll often add extra. You can also try a splash of hot pepper sauce or substitute black beans for the chickpeas.

Hummus is super versatile. Use it as a dip for baby carrots, celery, pita bread or corn chips. Try is as a sandwich spread, or spread inside a pita bread stuffed with cucumber, tomato and lettuce. I also like dipping cheese toast into hummus.

Happy holidays and all the best for a healthy, fun 2010!

 

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