Menu Ideas for Pregnant Women

In this article, we'll offer a few menu ideas for pregnant women, as it's very important to follow a healthy diet during pregnancy, both for mother and child.

Eating a healthy and balanced diet is a concern that intensifies during pregnancy, since, at this stage, eating healthy is important for both the mother and baby’s health. That’s why menu ideas for pregnant women must be well planned and structured.

If you’re pregnant, we’ll offer a few different menu ideas in this article, so that you can follow a correct diet. Discover them below!

Menu ideas for pregnant women

Each pregnancy stage requires specific nutritional needs, both of energy and micronutrients. Weight control throughout pregnancy is also highly relevant, as a correct weight increase should be between 22 and 26 pounds.

If you follow healthy eating guidelines and good habits, your pregnancy will develop normally. Therefore, you must mainly base your diet on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and fish. In contrast, diets high in sugar and fat promote diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular diseases.

In the first trimester of pregnancy, you don’t need to consume additional calories. However, you do need to monitor your intake and nutrients in order to prevent complications.

However, from the second trimester onwards, you need to consume 300 to 500 kilocalories more a day, which should mainly come from slow-releasing carbohydrates, such as legumes, pasta, rice, or potatoes.

In your third trimester, you must maintain this calorie increase, making sure to eat foods high in proteins, as they’re necessary for the structural development of the fetus.

The goals of eating a balanced diet during pregnancy are the following:

• Cover the pregnant woman’s nutritional needs.
• Prepare the mother’s body for delivery.
• Meet the baby’s nutritional demands.
• Ensure energy reserves in the form of fat for breastfeeding.

Recommendations for menu ideas for pregnant women

Below, discover some important recommendations before preparing your menus:

• See what foods you have on hand to make the menu.
• Make a weekly plan that includes the recommended foods for pregnancy (dairy products, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, small oily fish, and nuts). In addition, you can include spices and seeds to season your dishes.
• Buy your groceries without straying from your shopping list and dedicate some time a week to cook various dishes, as it’ll facilitate organization.
• The drink of choice will always be water.
• Mid-morning and afternoon snacks are interchangeable with each other.
• Use olive oil to cook and season your salads.
• The preferable cooking techniques are: steaming, grilling, en papillote, baking, and stewing.
• Avoid the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, sugary drinks, cold cuts, meats, fish, raw dairy products, and highly processed products.

Breakfast menu

1. Monday. Banana smoothie and whole-wheat toast with avocado.
2. Tuesday. Plain yogurt with kiwi and apple with oatmeal and nuts.
3. Wednesday. Decaf with milk and whole-wheat toast with oil and turkey.
4. Thursday. Egg and oat pancakes with cocoa powder and prunes.
5. Friday. Mango and chia smoothie with cornflakes.
6. Saturday. Natural orange juice and whole-wheat toast with fresh cheese and tomato.
7. Sunday. Milk with cocoa powder and fruit salad with sesame seeds.

Mid-morning and snack menu

You can choose between:

• Fruit smoothie with nuts or whole grains.
• Fruit yogurt with nuts or whole grains.
• Fruit and whole wheat toast with oil, tomato, cheese, avocado, turkey, or chicken… Whatever you want.

Lunch menu

1. Monday. Brown rice with vegetables and baked hake with dill.
2. Tuesday. Gazpacho and spinach with chickpeas.
3. Wednesday. Lamb’s lettuce and corn salad and cod with tomato.
4. Thursday. Ratatouille with potatoes and grilled egg.
5. Friday. Steamed broccoli and chicken in almond sauce.
6. Saturday. Black bean salad with sardines.
7. Sunday. Quinoa salad with salmon en papillote and yogurt sauce.

Dinner menu

1. Monday. Potato, tomato, cucumber, and egg salad.
2. Tuesday. Grilled cuttlefish with green asparagus.
3. Wednesday. Vegetable cream and potato omelette.
4. Thursday. Whole wheat pasta salad with turkey.
5. Friday. Spinach and nut salad and deviled eggs.
6. Saturday. Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, zucchini, and pepper.
7. Sunday. Beet hummus with vegetable crudités and fresh cheese.

Try making this weekly menu. We’re sure you’ll love it!