Pregnancy Superfood Granola

When you are pregnant, you need additional nutrients, vitamins and minerals. After all, your body constantly changes as it is caring not for one, but for two people. Iron, folate, DHA, and calcium (to name a few) are especially important for the development of your baby. Though prenatal supplements are a must during pregnancy, it’s equally important to get the nutrients you need through wholesome, balanced meals and snacks because dietary intake also has a profound impact on prenatal and postnatal health. In other words: you need to eat your prenatal vitamins.

Enters Barley + Oats — a meal delivery service that Ashly Yashchin founded in September 2015, after her first pregnancy. When she was placed on bed rest during her third trimester, Ashly was unable to cook and care for herself like she once could. That’s when she decided to create a meal delivery service that would help support the long-term health of moms and their babies.

Working with a nutritionist, Barley + Oats offers 15 fully prepared meals that address the dietary needs of women who are pregnant, nursing or postpartum. The brand uses 95% organic ingredients, grass-fed and pastured meats, and it avoids soy, caffeine and refined sugar. The offerings change every quarter, and you can choose from 3 to 15-meal plans. In addition, Barley + Oats also has functional snacks, like lactation cookies and graham crackers.

The Superfood Gingerberry Granola is a great way to start your mornings and an example of Barley + Oats’ commitment to nourishing mom’s beautiful baby-making body. Not only does it help mom stay energized during pregnancy, it boosts immunity and digestive health. It’s also packed with manganese and omega-3, both of which are beneficial to baby’s nervous system function and brain development. “We are really excited about the amount of nutrition we were able to pack into this granola while still maintaining a great taste,” Ashly said. “Sometimes you grab a healthy granola and it taste..well, healthy. Our granola is a crispy, sweet, salty, and buttery, and with the addition of superfoods like goji, mulberry almonds, and chia, we’re able to pack sizable amounts of nutrition (like vitamins A, C +E, magnesium and omega-3) into each serving.”

Lucky for us, she’s shared the recipe:

Pregnancy Superfood Granola

(Makes 3 Cups)

Ingredients

½ cup goji berries, cold soaked in ¼ cup water overnight*

½ cup mulberries, cold soaked in ¼ cup water overnight*

2 cups oats, whole rolled

1 ½ cups buckwheat groats

¼ cup chia seeds

¾ cup coconut flakes, unsweetened

1 ½ teaspoons ginger, ground

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup coconut oil, melted

¾ teaspoon almond extract

¼ cup maple syrup

1 cup almonds, slivered or whole

* Short on time? Just give your berries a quick boil in water to plump them up and drain – this keeps them from burning in the cook process.

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 300° (275° if using a convection oven). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Drain berries.
3. Mix oats, groats, chia seeds, coconut flakes, ginger + sea salt together.
4. Toss with coconut oil, almond extract + maple.
5. Mix in almonds.
6. Spread evenly onto cookie sheet. Granola must be thinly spread with space (no clumps) or it will steam and not get crispy.
7. Bake for 20 minutes. Stir granola and rotate sheet.
8. Bake another 20 minutes until golden brown and crispy, checking every 10 so as not to burn.
9. Let cool completely. Store in airtight container in cool, dry place for up to 2 months.

Cooking not topping the to-do list these days? We’ve totally been there. Barley + Oats granola ships nationwide and is available here.