Creating Healthy Postpartum Meals and Menus

Posted 01/25/2024

And just like that, my sweet potato chili became a thick delicious sweet potato bean dish. Perfect for a topping for a cheesy quesadilla. Since I am going to be a grandma soon, that got me thinking about creating healthy postpartum meals and menus.

Early in my career as a personal chef, I designed menus and did a lot of postpartum cooking. For new moms, these included protein rich, nutrient dense, delicious lunches and dinners of finger foods that were easy to eat with your hands: vegetarian sushi, egg rolls, dips, and more.

Since I love developing new recipes, I re-imagined my popular sweet potato chili recipe. This time, I increased the amounts of sweet potatoes and corn. Making it naturally sweeter and thicker. Now with the texture of refried beans.

Instead of a typical Quesadilla where the beans and cheese are inside the corn tortillas, I melted the cheese in-between the local organic corn tortillas in a cast iron skillet.

Now I can be the artist in the kitchen.

Plate the cheesy quesadilla.

Add a delicious thick layer of the beautiful beans with corn and sweet potatoes onto the tortillas. And decorate with organic sliced avocado.

Served with a side of my home made naturally fermented organic sauerkraut, this is a fun meal to eat with your hands.

Health Benefits For New Parents

Foods that Aid Digestion

Cooking the beans with kelp

Naturally fermented sauerkraut

Sweet potatoes also aid digestion and is full of anti-oxidants, vitamins, fiber, and supports eye health.

When my daughter Michelle and I discussed my postpartum cooking nourishing meals for her, it was easy for us to quickly list a healthy bounty of seasonal dishes:

Iron and Calcium Rich Food for New Moms

Teff Vegetable Loaf
Leafy Greens with Tahini Sauce
Nori Rice Rolls, aka Vegetarian Sushi, with a variety of organic vegetables, hemp seeds and more
Chick Pea Pate
And Much More

Eating healthy after her baby is born includes

Seasonal Vegetarian Soups, Stews, Sauces
Smoothies
My Famous Decaffeinated Chai
Fruit Crisps
Cacao Super Food Truffles
Granola
Muffins

If you would like to do a class to learn how to cook these recipes, please Email me: leslie@lesliecerier.com

You know, all the seasonal dishes, I love to cook.

Supporting my local farmers, the cheese, tortillas, veggies were all from the local organic harvest. I even froze the corn from my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) the Brookfield Farm, last summer. And it was still so sweet.

That is also keeping the planet healthy.