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A mom holding her baby, making easy recipes for breastfeeding moms that are simple and healthy.
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17 Easy Recipes For Breastfeeding Moms That Are Simple & Healthy

These nutritious meals and snacks are a breeze to make.

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As wonderful as the experience can be, breastfeeding is tiring. Eating a nutritious diet can help you maintain energy levels while nursing (and keep you from feeling quite as sleepy) but it still makes sense that the easier a meal is for an exhausted parent to make, the better. In short, to meet both yours and your baby’s nutritional needs, you’re gonna need some easy recipes for breastfeeding moms.

Proper nutrition is important all of the time, but it is even more crucial when you’re breastfeeding to get the essential nutrients you need. It’s also true that most people have to increase their caloric intake when breastfeeding, according to maternal dietary recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A recipe that will keep you satisfied and fuel your body with natural energy, but is simple to make, is ideal when you’re juggling all the demands that come with nursing a baby.

When you're every two hours all night long and basically a 24-hour buffet for your baby, the last thing you want to do is spend hours crafting a home-cooked meal. You're exhausted, and you know you need to eat something, but the thought of chopping, sautéing, and stirring up a storm just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Scroll through these recipes to find some quick and easy inspiration for something to eat while nursing.

1

Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowl

It doesn’t get much simpler than scooping Daisy Cottage Cheese into a bowl and adding a handful of healthy toppings. This cottage cheese breakfast bowl recipe from The Almond Eater on Yummly includes raspberries, almonds, walnuts, and cinnamon on top, but you can always add other types of nuts, berries, and spices to suit your taste. Cottage cheese is high in protein, so it’ll keep feeling sated until the next meal you can grab.

2

Instant Pot Hummus

Need a tasty way to add more veggies into your diet while breastfeeding? Whip up a batch of homemade hummus in your Instant Pot with this recipe from A Cozy Kitchen. Garbanzo beans blended with whole garlic cloves, tahini, and some lemon juice makes a creamy and delightful hummus that’s quick and easy to make.

3

Baked Sweet Potatoes

When you need a versatile but healthy food for nursing, a sweet potato is the way to go. This isn’t so much of a recipe, but more of a how-to with suggestions for how to make the best baked sweet potatoes from All The Healthy Things. You can eat them plain, with butter or sour cream, or even add leftover shredded chicken and sautéed spinach to make it a whole meal.

4

Slow Cooker Lemon Artichoke Chicken

As far as easy recipes for breastfeeding moms are concerned, a tasty chicken dish that you can make in a slow cooker like this lemon artichoke chicken from Fit Slow Cooker Queen is a top-notch dinner idea. Just slice up a lemon and an onion and add them to a crockpot with chicken thighs, broth, seasonings, and a can of artichokes to make this simple, but satisfying meal.

5

Air Fryer Hard Boiled Eggs

Healthy snacks are essential for breastfeeding moms, but a snack that you can also chop up and add to a salad or mix with some tuna for a quick and nutritious lunch is as good as (liquid) gold. This recipe for air fryer hard boiled eggs from Dr. Davinah’s Eats shows you how to make perfect eggs in under 15 minutes to keep on-hand while you’re nursing.

6

Cold Greek Quinoa Salad

This recipe for greek quinoa salad from Wholefully is jam-packed with nutrients from bell peppers, tomatoes, and quinoa grains. Plus, it features hydrating cucumbers. Everything is tossed in a deliciously savory vinaigrette and the dish is easy to make ahead and grab a bowlful straight out of the fridge when you need it.

7

Spicy Roasted Carrots & Fennel

This dish from Tori Avery looks super fancy, but it literally has only five ingredients, and two of them are seasonings. To create this flavorful dish, chop up some carrots and fennel, toss them with olive oil and spices, and then roast in the oven. Simple, easy, tasty, and full of nutrition.

8

Acai Bowl

When I was breastfeeding my sons, I was always so tempted to skip breakfast after being up all night nursing. I wish I had known about acai bowls like these from A Cozy Kitchen back then. This recipe uses frozen acai, so it's super simple to throw together in a sleepy haze.

9

Skewerlicious Antipasto Skewers

The beauty of these antipasto skewers from A Pretty Life In The Suburbs is that they're so easy to put together and have in the fridge ready to go whenever you need to grab a quick snack while you nurse or pump. And you can eat all of the nutritious ingredients with one hand. Genius.

10

One-Pot Spinach Ricatta Pasta

If you do happen to feel up to making something on the stovetop, this recipe for one-pot spinach ricotta pasta from A Spicy Perspective takes about 20 minutes to come together and you only have to dirty up one dish. Filled with nutritious ingredients like spinach and walnuts, this recipe is perfect for breastfeeding moms.

11

Honey Mint Melon Salad

One of the easiest ways to stay hydrated is to consume fruits and vegetables with a high water content. Watermelon and cantaloupe are both comprised of more than 90% water, according to Healthline, so snacking on this honey mint melon salad from Wholefully can be a delicious way for breastfeeding moms to reap the hydrating rewards of eating melon.

12

Slow Cooker Winter Vegetable Soup With Red Lentils

If there is one thing a busy breastfeeding mom knows, it's that anything cooked in a crockpot can make meal time 100% easier. This recipe for slow cooker winter vegetable soup by A Beautiful Plate is packed with nutrient-rich veggies like carrots, zucchini, celery, and tomatoes, as well as red lentils for a protein kick.

13

Cucumber & Black Bean Salad

Between hydrating cucumbers, protein-packed black beans, and healthy fats from a drizzle of olive oil, you really can't go wrong with this recipe for cucumber and black bean salad from Budget Bytes. Using canned black beans, this refrigerated salad comes together in a snap, and it's easy to grab when you need a filling meal quickly.

14

Sheet Pan Chicken With Rainbow Vegetables

This recipe for sheet pan chicken with rainbow vegetables from Well Plated checks all of the boxes for breastfeeding moms. Protein? Check. Veggies? Check. One pan to clean up? Also, check. Plus, you can adjust the seasonings and vegetables if you need to in case your baby is sensitive to specific ingredients.

15

One-Pot Zucchini Pasta

If you're a breastfeeding mom looking for a simple and delicious way to get more whole vegetables into your diet, look no further than this recipe for one-pot zucchini pasta from Making Thyme For Health. You can buy pre-made spiraled zucchini and put this nutritious dish together in less than 20 minutes.

16

Blueberry Overnight Oats

Don't even think about having to cook after a long night of nursing your newborn, and grab a cup of these blueberry overnight oats from Wholefully instead. With rolled oats, Greek yogurt, frozen blueberries, and a splash of lemon juice, it's full of the type of protein and nutrients breastfeeding moms need to thrive.

17

Detox Green Smoothie With Avocado

A simple, nutrient-dense smoothie recipe should be in every breastfeeding mom's back pocket. This recipe for a detox green smoothie with avocado from Cook Nourish Bliss features ingredients like spinach, mango, avocado, and cucumber that come together right in your blender anytime you need a filling snack that's quick and easy.

Simple, nutrient-packed, and full of flavor, these recipes for breastfeeding moms are easy to make, even when you’ve only slept 3 hours.

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