If you are wondering what to make for the new mom in your life, please make her these. I can almost guarantee that she will love you forever. I posted these on Instagram yesterday and had several requests for the recipe.
I like to use oat flour as the base because it's quick and easy to make (literally just blitz up oats in your food processor or blender until it forms a flour) and oats also support milk supply (see benefits on eating oats while breastfeeding below). The original recipe I started using was from the Oh She Glows cookbook by Angela Liddon.
Of course, you can go wild and throw in a bunch of ingredients you have on hand that you think would go well with these.
If I'm eyeballing the recipe, I just taste-test it as I go, making sure the consistency of the dough sticks together enough to hold it's shape once I roll it. Pretty sure anything with peanut butter, chocolate chips and maple syrup are bound to be good, it's hard to mess these up. I make them vegan but you do what you want with your life. Please do yourself a favour and double, triple or quadruple the recipe:
1. Add your oats and cashews to your food processor and process until they become a flour (30-60 seconds). Careful not to over-process as the cashews will start turning into cashew butter
2. Add in the dates and process until the dates are finely chopped
3. Add the syrup, coconut oil, nut butter, vanilla and sea salt
4. Pulse in the chocolate chips
5. Pinch the dough and make sure it sticks together, if it seems dry, add a splash of plant milk or water. If it seems like it needs more stickiness and could use more sweetness, add a little more maple syrup. If it needs stickiness but not sweetness, add nut butter
One key ingredient I like using here is coconut oil. I also recommend freezing these and eating them from frozen. The coconut oil creates a fudgey like texture that I love. Keeping them in the freezer also helps hold their shape.
These are the best protein-packed snack that will get you through those night feeds like nobody's business.
I like to make these right around the time when I think my client's birth process will begin. Ideally I bring them with me to the birth, and they snack on them in labour and I throw the rest in their freezer to enjoy after.
Yesterday on Instagram Stories, I asked everyone what their favourite things to eat were in those early postpartum days and these were some of the answers, in case you're looking for some inspo:
- toast with peanut butter and banana
- fruit and veggie platters
- "everything" hahaha yes
- chia seed pudding or granola, yogurt + fruit
- smoothies
- chips, guac and beer
- muffins
- soups, protein + coffee
- cereal
- these energy balls!
- Aussie bites from Costco
- big ass salads
- almonds, a big tub on the nightstand for the night-feeds
Thanks so much to everyone who shared their favourites! If you have any go-to postpartum snack or meal ideas, share them below. Bonus points for anything that can be eaten with one hand!
Benefits of Oats for Breastfeeding:
- Oats are full of nutrition. Oats contain proteins, vitamins, and minerals. They are high in iron, zinc, manganese, and calcium. They are an excellent source of soluble fiber. Plus, they contain B vitamins to help increase energy, elevate mood and fight off exhaustion, anxiety, stress, and depression.2
- Oats contain saponins. Saponins are a substance that may have a positive effect on the hormones related to breast milk production.3
- There are plant estrogens in oats. Foods that contain plant estrogens are associated with the stimulation of the milk glands and greater production of breast milk.4
- Beta-glucan is found in oats. Beta-glucan is a type of fiber that's thought to raise the levels of the breastfeeding hormone prolactin. Higher prolactin levels can have a positive effect on breast milk production.
