Hi everyone, I’m Vanessa, or Nessa to my friends, a mum of two who is passionate about creating a healthier way in which we we can enjoy sweet treats and cakes during pregnancy. After studying newspaper and magazine journalism and then taking a very roundabout route a few years later to study gourmet catering, two passions which I never truly fulfilled – I eventually found myself here making the decision to start a website during maternity leave after ditching the sugar prior to my second pregnancy.
Knowing instinctively that I would want to eat the cakes and sweets I craved so much during my first pregnancy, and not wanting to fall into the same cycle of an unhealthy consumption of high sugar foods ( I can’t help it – I LOVE CAKE) I set to work creating the recipes found here today with the hope of having the best of both worlds.
You’ll also find a range of well-being, lifestyle and health related posts whereby I draw on many of my own personal experiences and my own journey into motherhood.
Oh and for anyone wondering what’s going on in the below photo…. my daughter is trying to make her little brother smile for the camera and it is one of my all time favourite photo’s of the three of us together.
A little background on my journey into motherhood the first time around – The expectations I had of my first pregnancy were that I would spend nine amazing months filling my body with delicious healthy foods and the result? A post pregnancy body that would bounce back in no time. Huh!! Who was I kidding? The healthy eating went totally AWOL and throughout my pregnancy I put on four stone, suffered severe heartburn, morning sickness, indigestion and constipation.
Fast forward three years and the idea of The Pregnancy Pantry came to me when after much consideration we decided we wanted to do it all again and extend our little family. However, the second time around I was determined to do things a little differently and I wondered if it was possible to avoid or at the very least reduce many of the pitfalls of my first pregnancy simply by ensuring I consumed a balanced diet packed full of nutritional foods but also combined it with the delicious snacks and treats I instinctively knew I’d crave.
So, I set to work combining three of my biggest passions – baking, eating, and writing to create sugar-free healthier versions of those delicious treats in the hope I could have the best of both worlds without piling on the weight and causing my body even further unnecessary stress.
The first six weeks didn’t exactly go to plan and I did waiver on a few occasions. I think our bodies crave what they need but I persevered through it and amazingly suffered no-where near as much as I did the first time around , halving my weight gain in the process, reducing my morning sickness symptoms and generally having more energy, which was a massive bonus when running around after a three year old.
So, The Pregnancy Pantry was born. All of the recipes you’ll find on the site are free of refined sugars, many of which can be modified to gluten or even diary free if required and I always try to ensure each recipe contains an element of foods associated with a healthy pregnancy, for example yoghurt, berries, nuts and oats.
So, ladies, I really hope you love the site and the recipes as much as I do and here’s to hopefully a healthier and happier (where you CAN have your cake and eat it) pregnancy.
Much Love
Nessa x
