Did you know you actually need more calories as a nursing postpartum parent than you did while pregnant? And nursing or not, food is an essential building block for your healing and recovery post-delivery. Hopefully you’ve got your Meal Train all set up, but you’re also going to want some snacks to munch on as you care for your little one. Enter: healthy postpartum snacks!
Your snack list might not always consist of perfect, home-cooked food and that’s OK! Here, we are going for nutritious foods that provide quality nutrition and are as easy to eat as possible. You’ll live on one-handed foods—because you’ve got a baby in the other hand and eating needs to be easy.
As postpartum doulas, we highly recommend these easy, portable snacks:
- Bone broth (sip it in a mug—so much good collagen!)
- Pumpkin seeds
- Nuts
- Grass-fed jerky
- Plain or low-sugar yogurt tubes
- Fruit and veggie leather strips
- Oatmeal: Go heavy on the toppings and mix-ins, including fruit, nut butter, ghee, butter, or even protein powder.
- Fresh berries
- Roasted edamame
- Seaweed snacks/dried nori
- Hummus
- Chopped vegetables (preferably cooked but raw works, too)
- Roasted chickpeas (we love this method!)
- Smoothies with protein powder
- Energy bites/balls (see our recipe below!)
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Egg muffins: We love this recipe, but mix it up using your own favorite, veggies, cheese, and spices.
- Loaded toast: Think avocado toast with tomatoes on top, peanut butter toast with a chopped apple or cottage cheese with berries and hemp seeds.
- Rx Bars
- Tortilla roll-ups: Think turkey and tomato, banana and almond butter, or shredded carrots and hummus rolled in a tortilla to make it easily portable.
- Trail mix
- Frozen yogurt bark (this recipe is great, but feel free to customize!)
The foods above are rich in great stuff including protein, zinc, magnesium, and vitamins A, C and K and some of them are also lactogenic, like oats and chickpeas. A lactogenic ingredient is something that has been found to encourage milk supply, even if only slightly. Every bit counts, right?
Here’s our endlessly customizable recipe for uber-portable energy balls. (We have two different variations on this recipe in our app My Fourth so be sure to download it to learn more ways you can make these amazing little bites!)
Coconut Cacao Recovery Date Balls
Cacao is like cocoa powder’s slightly more bitter and more nutritious sister. We’ve tempered that bitterness with sweet dates and rich coconut.
Recipe type: Snack
Serves: 10
Ingredients
½ cup pitted dates (3 ounces)
½ cup raw cashews or almonds
½ cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut, divided
2 tablespoons cacao powder
1½ teaspoons filtered water
Pinch kosher salt
Instructions
- If the dates you are using are very dry or brittle, soak them in lukewarm filtered water for about 30 minutes to soften. Drain completely before using.
- Add the dates, cashews, and ¼ cup coconut to a small food processor and process until the dates and cashews are mostly broken down, about 1 minute. Add in the cacao powder, water, and salt and process until the mixture begins to resemble a dough. The mixture should be mostly smooth, some texture is okay.
- Add the remaining ¼ cup of shredded coconut on a small plate or bowl.
- Use a tablespoon measure to portion out the mixture (each ball should be about 0.6 ounces). Roll between your palms to create a smooth ball then immediately roll in the coconut flakes to coat. It is important that you coat the balls right after rolling as the ball will be somewhat warm and the coconut will stick better.
- Repeat with remaining mixture. You should have about 10 date balls. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Once you’ve got your snacks all set, settle in with a bite to eat and peruse our recommended postpartum reading list. For more on healthy postpartum snacks, including how to build the ultimate snack battle station, download our postpartum app, My Fourth, and check out the postpartum prep module!
About Major Care: Major Care is a doula-led maternal health company on a mission to tackle America’s postpartum care gap. We blend the power of guided learning with the support of virtual postpartum experts to create a safer and more supported experience for parents while addressing a $14B+ problem for providers, employers and payers. The My Fourth app, which is free, blends self-guided learning with virtual care. It includes a postpartum prep toolkit and six full weeks of daily guides to life after birth, with videos and content covering physical recovery, emotional health, lactation, relationships, and baby care. The app also offers plans for texting and video sessions with a diverse team of on-call doulas and lactation experts.