The most common comment I hear when pregnant, when it comes to food, is “You’re eating for two now, you need more calories!” Most of the time implying that you can eat whatever food/sweets you want. With all the pregnancy cravings and mood swings its tempting to use that logic when you want to eat another bowl of ice cream or just snack on a full bag of chocolate chips, or a bag of potato chips or whatever your unhealthy snack foods are. But this way of thinking and eating is so dangerous. High blood pressure, premature labor, gestational diabetes, morning sickness, unneeded weight gain and other high-risk pregnancy issues can mostly be avoided with a healthy diet. I am not saying if you eat healthy there will be no complication or that eating healthy will fix every problem but the healthier you eat the lower chance you have at a high-risk pregnancy. 

Good nutrition is one of the most important building blocks for a healthy lifestyle, pregnant or not. Healthy eating gives your body the nutrition its needs to function properly. When you are pregnant your body’s needs become more than normal, extra calories, more protein intake, more vitamins and minerals, extra water. And you can’t get these needed extra nutritious calories by eating just pickles and ice cream all day. You need to learn how much a mother’s nutritional needs are and feed yourself accordingly. 

To learn more about what is needed for a complete pregnancy diet we can look at the Dr Tom Brewers pregnancy diet.

What is the Brewers Diet?

The Brewers Pregnancy Diet was created by Dr Tom Brewer who was a obstetrician and studied nutrition for over 50 years. He helped his patients achieve low risk, healthy pregnancies, uncomplicated natural labors through a focus on diet.

The diet is not supper strict diet when it comes to what you cannot eat but more about getting the right amount of nutrition into your diet. Most diets fads we see are about cutting out foods. Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Fat Free, Low Carb, Vegetarian, Vegan… those are all about cutting foods out of our diet. The brewers diet for pregnant women is different in that it tell you how much of each food group you should eat to get the right nutrition each day for you and your unborn baby.

This diet provides what you need for the unique needs for a pregnant woman. The brewers diet guides you through 12 different food groups containing the mother’s nutritional needs as well as the needs for your unborn baby. As you eat throughout your day there is a list you can check off if your meal hit any of the foods groups that is recommended. At the end of the day you can see what food groups your where missing and adjust the next day paying special attention to eat more of the foods you are missing. You can adjust your diet slowly as you find new habits of eating that check off everything on your list.

Brewers Food Groups

There are 12 different food groups that the brewers diet pulls from with each one having a specific serving size. The amount of servings are not your limit but your minimum for a healthy pregnancy.

• Water (unlimited)
• Dairy/Milk Products (4 Servings)
• Calcium (2 Servings)
• Eggs (2)
• Protein (6 to 8 Servings)
• Fresh, dark green vegetables (2 Servings)
• Whole grains (5 Servings)
• Vitamin C foods (2 Servings)
• Fats and oils (3 Servings)
• Vitamin A foods (1 Serving)
• Weekly Liver (optional)
• Salt/Sodium (unlimited)

Here is an helpful Free PDF of the some different foods that fit in the Brewers diet food groups. You are not limited to only these foods for each category of nutrition.

Based off of the Brewers diet basic plan its not always easy to determine how much nutrition each size serving really needs. I’ve done my best to try and write out how much of nutrition I believe Dr Brewer was aiming for. The protein food group was the easiest to determine. Each serving size Dr Brewer suggests is about 7 grams of protein. The calcium and vitamins were unclear how many grams are needed but there I was able to find a range I could work with. Vitamin A needs about 450mcg per serving,Vitamin C was 100 mg, Calcium around 50-100 mg each serving. The hard food groups for me have been the wheat and the dairy.

The way wheat and dairy is processed these days is a bit different then it was in the 70’s when this particular study and research was done. I advice caution and discernment with these two categorizes. Be wise as to the quality of your foods. If the suggested amount of wheat or dairy is effecting you negatively with bloating, gas, fatigue or just feeling gross afterwards, try eating less but of the best quality you can get your hands on. Sometimes this means making bread and yogurt at home with organic, high quality ingredients. Avoid processed, pre-made items in these two categories.

How To Make Meals that Fit the Brewers Diet

Now that we have a foundation of what the Brewer diet is and our list of what size serving, we can put together meals that hit all of these requirements for our prenatal care.  

Using our handy-dandy little check list I will give you an example of a days worth of meals and how it checks off all the boxes.

Here’s how it works.

Breakfast

For breakfast I might eat 2 egg, 2 pieces of whole wheat toast with butter 1/2 a cup of cottage cheese with 1 cup fruit that is full of vitamin C.

I can now check of my 2 egg, 2 whole grains, 2 serving of dairy, and 2 serving of vitamin C and 1 fats/oils. It’s tempting to mark off 2 protein (the eggs) as well but the brewer principles advise not to do that. If you do check off eggs as protein as well as ‘eggs’ make sure you hit all 8 servings for adequate protein intake.

Lunch

For lunch I will then eat, 2 tacos with rice and beans, (⅓ cup meat ⅔ cup bean ½ cup rice, 2 corn tortillas, 2 oz of cheese). Other topping like salsa, limes, avocados are optional.

This meal checks off 3 proteins, 2 whole grains, and 1 dairy/milk and 2 fats/oils if you add 1/2 an avocado.

Snack

While I’m snacking throughout the day I may eat, 3 apricots and a handful or two of almonds or two high protein granola bars.

This covers 2 more protein and my vitamin A needs.

Dinner

Now for Dinner I will eat, Spaghetti and meat sauce with 1 tablespoon molasses in the sauce, Parmesan cheese, side of kale salad or broccoli.

Dinner checks off 1 Dairy, 2 Calcium, 2 Protein, 2 Greens, 2 Whole Grain.

Be sure to drink water throughout the day, and mark it. Add good, rich in mineral salt like Redmond’s Real salt or Pink Himalayan salt to you whole foods. Learn more about the benefits of good salt here.

Meal Planning Made Easy

Here I have a meal plan guide to help you out. Figuring out what to eat each meal to hit all the right requirements for a mother’s nutritional needs can be a daunting task, especially if you are in the first trimester. 

Here is a guide is broken into 4 groups. If in one day you eat 1 meal/snack from each group you will successfully meet all your requirements for a healthy diet during your pregnancy.

For example, for breakfast you choose a meal from group 1, then for lunch you can choose a meal from 2, 3 or 4. Say you choose group 4. Dinner you pick from group 2 and your snack is from group 3. By the end of the day you will have covered all your nutritional needs. 

Feel free to mix things up, I honestly love breakfast foods and could each just breakfast all day. And sometimes I do. I just make sure I choose an option from each group so I still get all my nutritional needs.

These meals not an exhaustive list. They are suggestions and can be adapted to meet your needs. I hope this is a tool that helps you understand how you can get your daily needs with as little emotional stress as possible. I hope this guide helps you see how you can make your own favorite meals work for you while checking off all that Dr Brewer recommends.

These meals not an exhaustive list. They are suggestions and can be adapted to meet your needs. I hope this is a tool that helps you understand how you can get your daily needs with as little stress as possible. I hope this guide helps you see how you can make your own favorite meals work for you while checking off all that Dr Brewer recommends.

Learn More About How to Have A Healthy Pregnancy and Natural Labor

The post Free Meal Planning Guide for Pregnancy | The Brewers Diet appeared first on Embracing The Home.

• Meal Planning for a Month Vs. a Week
• How To Meal plan for a Month
  • Start with Base Ingredients
  • Create a List of Family Favorite Meals
  • Meal Plan According the Ingredients You Have
• What Happens When My Schedule Changes?
• Free Meal Planning Templates

Meal Planning For A Month Vs A Week

Most people I know plan weekly meal plans or don’t plan and all. When I was trying to plan my family’s meals a week at a time I kept struggling to actually get it written out done each week. There was always a day or two that I’d be struggling to think of something last minute because I failed and getting a menu plan written out in time. 

January of 2024 I decided to try planning my meals for a entire month. I planned the whole month out and it took so much stress away! I thought that if I had a hard time planning a weekly menu then monthly meals would be worse, but it was easier.

New Recipes

When planning the month I was able to be more consistent and more creative with new recipes with my meals. When meal planning for a week at a time I would find myself trying think of different meals for each week. If we had it last week I though I couldn’t plan for it again the next week because we would get tired of eating the same foods all the time. 

As I planned a month out I was able to see how often I was repeating meals and how often I was adding in new meals more clearly then when I was planning for a week. I no longer felt guilty keeping the same easy quick meals ever Tuesday and Wednesday (our busiest evenings) because I was being more creative on all the other nights.

Staying in Budget

As I meal planned monthly I found I was able to make a more accurate grocery shopping list. I was not longer buying food because we might eat it but because we planned to eat it on a specific day of the week. I was not buying food that would go bad and it reduced my food waste in our house by a lot. 

At the beginning of the month I would plan my meals based off of what foods we had in our house at that time. If we have rice, I made sure it was on the menu. If we have left over chicken or an abundance of potatoes, those foods made it on the monthly menu. Then I would make my shopping list. Going over each meal and making sure I had everything I needed for the entire month on my grocery list. I would brake up the produce into 2 weeks and shop for the second part of the month in another two week to keep fresh produce in the house. 

This planning process kept me from spending money on items that we would not eat. I was also able to plan creative meals using the ingredients we had or that I knew would not be expansive to purchase. Without last minute trips to the local grocery store we have been able to keep our food budget.

How To Meal Plan For A Month

To meal plan for a month may seem daunting. You may be tempted to think you can’t do it because you don’t know what or where you will be on 3 Friday’s from now. Or you might have had a hard time thinking of 7 different meals how am I going to think of 30? 

Here are my 3 tips for for successful meal planing. Plan by base ingredients, create a master list of family favorite meals, meal plan with ingredients you already have.

Plan your meals by base ingredients

The base ingredients are the foundation of your meal. Just to name a few… pasta, rice, potatoes, chicken, fish, ground beef… You can make many different recipes with these bases. For each day of the week I choose a base. (Your list may look different with a lot more meat, we eat mostly vegetarian in our house)

• Mondays – potatoes or soups
• Tuesday – Rice and beans (Taco Tuesday)
• Wednesday – Picnic sandwiches (we don’t eat at home on Wednesdays)
• Thursday – Rice and fish
• Friday – Salads and meat
• Saturday – Random/special meals

Again, I do not stick to this perfectly, I am not a slave to this list. I mix things around all the time but this weekly base ingredient list gives me something to work off of if I can’t think of anything else to make.

Here an example of meals that go with each category or base ingredient.

• Potatoes – Baked potatoes with baked beans and cornbread, Mashed Potatoes with lentil stew, Shepherds Pie, Potato soup…
• Rice and Beans – Tacos, burritos, nachos, bean bowls…
• Rice and Fish – Shrimp stir fry, shrimp scampi, shrimp saganaki (greek dish), balsamic glazed salmon, honey mustard salmon, crispy fried cod…
• Big Salads and Meat – Taco salad, greek salad with lamb or chicken, Italian salad with pizza or chicken, sweet broccoli salad with stake…
• Pasta – Lasagna, spaghetti and meat balls, alfredo, pesto, pasta salad, lemon pasta…

I hope these lists help you see how you can take base ingredients and think of many different meals to eat throughout the month. Keeping it simple with lots of verity.

You can also make a goal is to choose a protein, vegetable and starch/grain for each meal. 

Proteins 

• Meat
• Eggs
• Fish
• Beans

Vegetables

• Broccoli
• Salad
• Green beans…

Starch/Grains

• Breads
• Pasta
• Rice or quinoa
• Potatoes
• Sweet Potatoes 

Add one of each of these three food categories to each day and you will have a healthy meal plan.
examples:
Chicken – rice – roasted broccoli and cauliflower
Pot Roast- Potatoes – Carrots
Ground Beef – pasta – Salad

Create a list of family favorite meals

When meal planning for your whole family its always helps to know what everyone likes to eat. Another list that might be helpful is of what your family does not like. How to you find out your family’s preferences? Ask. When you sit down the meal plan ask your husband and kids what they would like to each this month. Fit their meal ideas in where they make since to you. If you have younger kids who only want pancakes and chicken nuggets for dinner, you can also take note on which meals they finished and what meals are a struggle to finish. If they ask for seconds, its a keeper. 

Here is a list you can download for free of lots of different meal options. Keep this list near your meal planner or on the refrigerator to help you when planning out the month. Once you’ve tried a meal and you notice your kids love it or hate it, rate it on your list. Give it a star, or cross it out. This way the next month you will be able to remember how to bring meals to the table the whole family can enjoy.

Meal plan According To The Ingredients you have

To help you save money, cut down on food waste and get the idea’s flowing for meals, look not to Pinterest, but in your cabinets, refrigerator and freezer to see what you can make with what you have first. Check the back of your freezer, find that bag of frozen green beans or that can of kidney beans that’s been in the pantry for months. Minestrone Soup, perfect, you can use both the green beans and kidney beans in that recipe. 

I’m all about stocking up on bulk items to save money and be prepared. But when you stock up, don’t make the mistake of not using those items. Continue to use what is on your shelf now instead of always buying more just to make what sounds good in the moment.

What happens if my schedule changes?

Its true, we often don’t know everything about our social calendar a month in advance. But planning meals that far in advance is not a hindrance but a help. 

When you plan meals for the whole month we can first look at the family calendar and see what days we know will will be gone for most of the day. There are times when I know we will be out doing one thing or another. So I either plan to meal prep the day before, plan to make extra of something earlier on in the week to eat leftover that day, or plan a slow cooker or crackpot meal. 

But, when something comes up unexpected and your planned meal won’t work for you that specific day, you can trade it with another day’s meal. I first ask myself, “can I make this in the crackpot?” If the answer is “no” I find another meal that is on my plan, that I already have the ingredients for, that will work in the crock pot. 

Another trick I use is to have extra pasta and sauce in my pantry for days when I was unable to make anything in time or when my husband has to make dinner. Quick meals like that, not on your meal plan, is great to have in your pantry when your in a pinch. 

Don’t be a slave to your meal plan. We plan ahead so we have freedom, not bondage to the plan.

Free Meal Planning Templates

Now that you know the benefits of monthly meal planning its time to get organized. Personally I like to use a calendar for my meal planning. I keep it on the side of our refrigerator so everyone can see what’s for dinner. This is super helpful for my husband as he sometimes gets nervous when it looks like I’m making a super healthy meal. He gets to look at the menu and see although we are having lentils today we will be having pizza tomorrow and he has hope. 

Some people keep a binder with their grocery list and chores list in, some people just write out a list on a scrap paper and keep it in the kitchen while other keep the list on their phones. There’s no right or wrong on your own organization preferences. As long as it helps you.

What you must do is write out your full plan. Again, start with whats in your cabinets now, using the base ingredients to come up with a variety of recipes. Don’t be afraid to repeat recipes on a specific day of the week. Pick days you know you will be home all day to try new recipes. Then finally make your grocery shopping list that revolves around your planned menu.

With that being said here are few free printable templates that you might like.

Edit For Yourself in Canva

Monthly Meal Planning List Layout

2025 Monthly Calendar

2025 Monthly Calendar Lined

175+ Meal Planning Dinner Ideas

Ready To Print!

Meal Planning Monthly List

2025 Monthly Calendar

2025 Monthly Calendar Lined

175+ Meal Planning Dinner Ideas

More meal planning tips and tricks

I know I didn’t cover everything on the subject of meal planning so comment below if there more tips or ticks to meal planning that my readers could benefit from. I would love to hear from you all the success you have had in your own meal planning.

The post How to Meal Plan for a Month – Save Money with Simple Meals appeared first on Embracing The Home.