With my third pregnancy looming I have had the intention of maintaining a healthy diet and exercise. I used my two boys as great inspiration to keep moving and have a very active lifestyle but unfortunately during this pregnancy I was hit with the news that I had Gestational Diabetes.

My OB put me in touch with a wonderful Nurse Practitioner who explained my predicament in a very simple way; Every woman only needs two things in order to gain GD, 1. A placenta 2. The Gene. 
and lucky me, even though I had been active and healthy this really didn’t make the difference to my pancreas which was not producing enough insulin during the pregnancy.

The kicker for me was finding out that all the extra sugar that my body was not processing was going straight to my baby girls tiny pancreas & her body was working overtime! 

So I have changed my diet ever so slightly to incorporate avoiding sugars and (as I usually am not a fan of white carbs) stay away from white carbs. 
This has been hard to get creative though keeping in mind I have two growing little boys who eat every 15minutes and usually have the same portion of food as I do! 

To me, it made more sense to have us all eat the same meals- I didn’t want to be in the kitchen all day and night preparing three different meals (who has the time or patience).

So I came up with a few wonderful successful recipes that I really wanted to share with all the beautiful mums out there struggling to get inventive OR those of you who are time poor (like me the avid multitasker).
These recipes my boys loved, they take max 20mins to make including preparation and are fine for those of us diagnosed with GD!

*To keep the kids busy & having fun, they always cook with me, their instructions are in BOLD

1. Squid Salad

INGREDIENTS

Mixed lettuce, Cheddar cheese, Olives, Salt & Pepper Squid, Anchovies, 2 Boiled Eggs, 1 Cucumber, Olive Oil, 1 Avocado, Almonds.

Put the Squid in the oven for 20mins 220 fan forced, put the eggs on boil & dice the cheese.

Scoop out the avocado add anchovies to taste (if you like them) otherwise leave them out and pour the anchovy oil into the bowl. Add the almonds, wash the lettuce and add to olives, slice cucumber and add to cheese, slice the eggs & add them and lastly add the squid with a dash of olive oil.

Mix lightly & eat while squid is still hot.

*balance the olive oil with the anchovy oil I usually use two tablespoons of each.

-If your family are big eaters add 1-2 more eggs or you can serve with hot bread. 

 For GD have about 4 pieces of squid per serving & as much of everything else as you like without the bread!

2. Sweet Chick Peas

INGREDIENTS

5 Bacon strips, 1 tin of Chickpeas, a handful of Cherry Tomatoes, 1 Avocado, Blanched sliced Almonds, 1 Grapefruit, 2 Oranges

Preheat the oven to 180 fan forced.
Lay the bacon strips on baking paper with space in between lightly spray with canola oil let cook for 15mins (keep an eye on them every oven is different).

Wash the cherry tomatoes & squish them in between your fingers in the bowl.

Segment the Oranges and the Grapefruit, cut the Avocado into the same sized squares, rinse & wash the chickpeas and add them to the other ingredients, add the cherry tomatoes and almonds to preference. Lastly let the bacon strips cool and then break them up and add them.

3. Berryliscious Breakfast/ snack

INGREDIENTS

1 punnet of blueberries, ricotta cheese, dark brown wholemeal bread or Rivita crackers.

Wash the Blueberries or Strawberries 

Toast the bread, add ricotta cheese and sprinkle blueberries all over! Enjoy :)

GD can have one piece of toast or 6 crackers.

4. Chocolate Mousse

INGREDIENTS

 2 large avocados, 1/4 cup of cocoa, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 115-150 grams of dark chocolate, 1/3 cup of coconut cream and maple syrup to taste

Scoop out the Avocado 

Melt the chocolate, endure you use room temp avocado (not from the fridge).

Blend it all together - if you have GD you’ll be in heaven! Just leave out the maple syrup (I personally don’t think it needs it).

Lick the bowl! 

Serve with blueberries as they are low GI but you can also use Strawberries, it’s always better fresh but you can refrigerate and have the day later as well.

 Everything in Bold my two year old has helped or done himself and he loves cooking! 

*Serving suggestions are based on a general understanding of 15g of carbs per meal for those with GD, as everyone’s body processes sugar and carbs differently I would suggest trying a small serve and then testing your sugar levels a couple of hours after eating to work out exactly what works best for your body.