Healthy Eating During Pregnancy: 100 Recipes for a Nutritious Delicious Nine Months - Softcover

Pasta Bolognese
A shortcut to the satisfying Bolognese-style meat sauce in Marcella Hazan's The Classic Italian Cookbook, this recipe is a great midweek meal--especially since kids love it, too. You can dive into a big bowl with reassurance that it's providing necessary protein. Use whole-wheat pasta and you've added fiber to the mix.
Serves 4
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ pound extra-lean ground beef (less than 9% fat)
½ cup dry white wine
¼ cup milk
1 cup marinara sauce
½ teaspoon kosher salt
pinch nutmeg
8 ounces spaghetti
freshly grated Parmesan, for serving (optional)
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the beef and stir frequently to break it up, until it's no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add the wine, increase the heat to medium-high, and cook until the wine has evaporated, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the milk and again simmer until evaporated, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add the marinara sauce, salt, and nutmeg, simmer for 5 minutes, and keep warm.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the spaghetti, following the directions on the package, until barely al dente. Drain and transfer to four serving bowls.
Top each with a quarter of the sauce and serve with grated Parmesan, if desired.
Per serving: 428 Calories, 10.87g Fat , 52.66g Carbs, 20.39g Protein, 3.50g Fiber, 52mg Calcium, 3.71mg Iron, 146μg Folate

If you have this book in your hands, congratulations! Not only are you pregnant, but you are also doing one of the smartest things you can do to ensure the health and happiness of you and your unborn baby. Why? Because, as you've probably already discovered, pregnancy comes with a cornucopia of dietary conundrums, from what you should or shouldn't eat to how much weight you should or shouldn't gain to how on earth you can possibly stay on track when your cravings are strong enough to make you consider breaking into a bakery after-hours. Add to that the litany of boring pregnancy-food recommendations out there, and it's enough to make even the nutrition-conscious mom-to-be shrug her shoulders and dive into a tub of ice cream. That's where this book comes in. The following introductory information, provided by the fabulous nutritionist and mommy Brooke R. Alpert, answers all your nutrition questions and provides concrete guidelines for smart eating for all nine months. Then I follow up with 100 spectacularly delicious, even downright indulgent, recipes that make eating for optimum baby and mommy health a truly satisfying experience. Collected from some of the world's finest chefs and my own kitchen, you will be making these fast and easy-to-prepare dishes for years to come. So don't be afraid to cater to your newly gargantuan appetite, even if it's peppered with hurl-inducing bouts of nausea (hey, we've got food for that!). With these recipes, you can actually have your cake and eat it, too.--Erika Lenkert