No worries I am not going to go over how important it is to eat healthy while pregnant, as you already know about it, just that it is somehow not that easy to do in everyday-life!
1- Price: well the best meal you would have is a nice combination of fish and veggies. I decided to make a nice and easy (yes easiness is key here!!!) grilled salmon with a lemony-dill yogurt sauce and steamed broccoli. Very fresh, nutritious and tasty.......yet a bit luxurious to Turkish standard when I realized how much I paid for this meal.
Then again, we are lucky here is Turkey where fish is abundant, fresh and delicious, I just feel sometimes lazy to go all the way to Besiktas Market (or Kadikoy on Asian side) for a Levrek, Cipra ....
2- Availability-Season: the best strategy then was to forget about your craving of seafood risotto, ceviche, smoked-salmon, tomato-mozzarella salad or anything foreign, forbidden during pregnancy or out-of-season! Just stick to the basics, get fresh, local and more importantly in-season vegetables and fruits.
Then just add a small touch, by mixing ingredients and/or taking a different approach on the recipe:
- like zesty citrous fruits, especially my favorite blood-oranges. Make juice, smoothie, toss in a salad and just enjoy plain as it is
- or you can "invent" a recipe, as a feta-cheese gratin of celery-roots and caramelized onion. Honestly very tasty, very reminiscent of a potato-gratin yet with a a nice/healthier bite
3- Go Veggies: Take it to the "extreme" and go almost vegetarian for a meal as follows: (clockwise in the picture)
-Shredded-carrot, parsley and lettuce salad with "fresh green garlic" or in Turkish "taze sarimsak"
- Asian-style vegetable and apple-meatballs (well don't forget I have a 4 year old daughter, I can't push it too much as far a veggies are concerned), nicely flavored with fresh-ginger.
- my celery-root gratin (see point 2)
- sauteed broccoli with again the fresh green-garlic
- then a side of thinly sliced radicchio or as my husband said it is referred to as the "poor man mezze" in Turkey
May sound nice and healthy but didn't please at my daughter, at all!!!!
Another alternative is my favourite soup these days a roasted-tomato and basil soup (with caramelized onion a very-very old piece of parmigianno that I toss in) with this time some Mercimek-koftesi or Turkish vegetarian bulgur-red lentils patties. Again, not a winner for my daughter taste buds! aghhh
4- Somewhere in between : then when you still crave for some "carbs" and try to keep it healthy and funny to make......Make you own home-made Spinach Tagliatelle.
Except that in this particular case it was not very successful :) Aside from the dough preparation and the shaping steps, the issue was that I probably let it rest too long which made the pasta stick together, then when I boiled it, it became kind of "mushy". The taste was ok but not the texture!
I made a cream-sauce with some sauteed beef to serve with the spinach tagliatelle.... which made Ela say " I have never seen Green Pasta".
So dears friends and readers, HELP, could you please share a recipe and tips for homemade pasta? Thanks
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