We are in the middle of the 28th week. Finally she has made her full presence known, and it is no longer a question to strangers of whether or not my belly is a baby or a beer gut. This belly is definitely a baby.
I am starving constantly and to be honest having a really hard time thinking of what I want to eat, constantly. I make myself eat what I should when I should, for her sake, but eating at this frequency exhausts options much more quickly than my old habits did. Snacks disappear in half the time because I am eating twice as frequently... or so it seems.
The standby faithful friend, that was nearly my only food friend in the first tri-mester, is this green smoothie. Those first few months I would wake up at 5am, starving and nauseous. Stephen, being as loving as he is, would stumble into the kitchen and make me this smoothie. I would sit up just enough in bed to get it down and then and only then could I muster the strength to head to the kitchen for the rest of breakfast prep. Oh. I am glad that we went through that and glad that now it is over.
The sheer joy of the process outweighs any of the minor inconveniences. Eating constantly, though sometimes overwhelming, makes me grateful for food to eat and for a baby growing so well that she needs it. I also need to pee constantly, but that is typically an easy problem to solve.
This recipe has all sorts of room for improv, and I hope you take advantage of such. The basics I would keep in mind is that you want your bananas peeled and frozen, you need enough liquid just to make the blender puree it all, and adding in a handful of fresh baby spinach adds a whole lot of nutrition without altering the flavor. As the days get warmer, the thought of a creamy frozen drink sounds more and more appealing. I hope you find it as faithful a friend as I have.
Green Smoothie makes 1, 16 oz smoothie1 frozen banana
1 small handful baby spinach leaves
1/3 cup frozen berries
1/4 cup plain (or flavored) yogurt
1/2 cup Orange Juice or Milk (if you want it not as sweet)
1 scoop whey or other good quality protein powder (optional)
1. Puree all ingredients in the blender. Add a splash more liquid as necessary until pureed to your liking
