You know what is a total buzzkill? Fitting triumphantly into your skinniest pre-pregnancy skinny jeans one week and the next having someone ask you if you're pregnant again. You know, because of your belly?
Zing!
Yes! (I mean Yes! that happened. Not Yes! I'm pregnant.)
Urgh.
It's okay, I've mostly gotten over it and I do think this friend is far more mortified (still) than I was. Also, I'm still nursing and my belly was never my best feature, let's be honest, and yadda yadda yadda, I have a beautiful baby boy in exchange, so who really cares, right? Except of course that one does care even if one is sort of amazed at how much less one cares now than one would have before one became a mother. Oh, self! You contain multitudes.
Luckily for me, I can identify pretty clearly the factors standing between me and Rock! Hard! Abs!, or, you know, Abs That Do Not Look Like They Are Encasing A Fetus. And those factors would be 1. Total and absolute sedentariness (is that a word?) and 2. My afternoon cookie-cake-whatever-as-long-as-it-is-sweet-and-delicious break that I've been doing religiously since Hugo's birth.
Since daily exercise is really limited only to what I can do at home during Hugo's naptime, it's the afternoon cookie break that I'm training my eyes on. It needs serious reforming and Sara Forte's The Sprouted Kitchen cookbook is currently my reform master.
Specifically, her recipe for Sesame Date Yogurt Cups, which jumped out at me last year when I was reviewing the pages for a blurb (full disclosure!) and hadn't left my mind since. They're so simple – just dates mashed with sesame seeds and then layered with yogurt that's been flavored with a pinch of cinnamon and crisped brown rice – but so much more than the sum of the parts. I mean, flavoring yogurt with cinnamon? So good. Pairing dates and sesame seeds? Of course! Putting them together with crisped rice on top for texture? Lady, you are so smart. These lovely little treats are as satisfying as they are virtuous. I really love them.
(If salt is your vice, not sugar, may I direct you to the recipe for nori popcorn on page 161? You're welcome.)
Sara's cookbook is full of little gems like that; healthy ingredients matched up in inspired ways that would have never occurred to me and that taste so, so good. Sara's idea of enlivening that old standby pesto with lemon zest and lemon juice to serve with lentil meatballs is so easy and yet I'd never tried it before. I usually ignore pesto, but now I plan on using this combination as a dressing for grain salads and cooked beans, anything, really, that needs a little kick. I loved her zucchini roll-ups, in which za'atar and Greek yogurt give grilled zucchini slices new style. And I cannot wait to try what sounds like breakfast cereal nirvana: pearled barley cooked in coconut mik and cardamom, then topped with toasted coconut, pomegranate seeds and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses. Yes?
YES FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
Happily, I have an extra copy of this lovely book for a giveaway! So for a chance to win a copy of The Sprouted Kitchen, please leave a comment below and I'll pick a winner at random tomorrow. Good luck!
Update: Erin is the winner and has been emailed! Thank you all for participating – comments are now closed.
Sara Forte's Sesame Date Yogurt Cups
Adapted from The Sprouted Kitchen
Serves 4
7 Medjool dates, pitted
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, plus more for sprinkling
Sea salt, optional
2 cups whole-milk plain yogurt (or Greek or goat's milk)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup crisped brown rice
1. Soak the dates in warm water for 10 minutes to soften. If the dates are soft enough, skip the soaking. Put the dates in a bowl with the sesame seeds and a pinch of salt, if using. Mash together to create a chunky paste. Press a fourth of the date mixture into the bottom of four small glasses.
2. In a bowl, stir together the yogurt and cinnamon, then spoon 1/2 cup of the yogurt into each jar. Sprinkle a few sesame seeds and a couple of spoonfuls of the crisped rice on top. Eat immediately.
Site Title 
325 responses to “Monday Giveaway!”
I know – you’re supposed to embrace how the body changes and simply marvel at what it can do etc. I do and yet… After two kids, that muffin top seems to be here to stay and my boobs – not so marvellous, I think. But zipping up those pre-pregnancy jeans gave my over-tired self a huge boost!
LikeLike
Sounds lovely …
LikeLike
i would love to have a copy of that yummy looking book!
LikeLike
This cookbook sounds like a missing puzzle piece for better living at our house. It’s tough to get motivated for much of anything in February, especially going outside! At least we could have new, healthy food ideas.
LikeLike
Boy oh boy! Breastfeeding made me want sugar like I’d never wanted it before. It’s hard work making food for a human! Anyway, I love LOVE the Sprouted Kitchen blog, and have been eyeing that book for ages. I think she’s brilliant.
LikeLike
i love all ideas for healthy snacks, and looks like i will try this delicious breakfast tomorrow!
Thanks!
LikeLike
I need to try that nori popcorn! Would love to own a copy of this book.
LikeLike
Just wanted to say, I really enjoy your blog. And it would be awesome to win this great book…
LikeLike
I think my formerly pregnant belly and I also need this book! (I so hear you on the lack of exercise/afternoon sweet fix!)
LikeLike
When the weather warms up and you spend more time pushing Hugo around in a stroller you may see a change in your abs. I wish I still had the abs that went with carting a baby everywhere.
LikeLike
I think everyone can use a little healthy eating inspiration at this point in the winter!
LikeLike
oooh yes please. if only my vices were limited to sweet OR savory.
LikeLike
The bellies may come and go, but those babies are totally worth it!! Thanks for the lovely giveaway- I would absolutely love to finally have this book!!
LikeLike
oh i have been wanting this book for so long! my library doesn’t have it so i am crossing my fingers for your copy. thanks for sharing!
ps. i was asked if i was pregnant a year after my daughter was born. i’d just signed up for a new class and felt brave and strong and had the best time, and then, the teacher asked me as i was leaving – in front of everyone. i was mortified. people really should not ask unless you are 9-months pregnant obvious!
LikeLike
Ugh, I keep alternating between being able to fit into my skinny jeans one week and then having a bulge over the top the next. It’s frustrating how quickly my weight fluctuates these days, but I’m trying to focus more on how things are starting to fit again and on how it probably won’t be long before I can start adding my smaller clothes to the regular rotation again. You should, too! Congratulations on fitting into those jeans, lady!:)
LikeLike
Wanted this book for christmas! Love the author!
LikeLike
Haha, I have the same story! My baby boy was born almost 6 months ago. Soooo proud when I could do up my old jeans! And I didn’t even have to lie down! The muffin top, however, is a different story!!
LikeLike
Once more I find here great inspiration. Thank you!
LikeLike
the book is on my wish list…would love a copy! thank you for the chance!
LikeLike
Thanks for the wonderful recipes and delightful read you provide! As an avid cook, new ideas and inspiration are always welcome in my kitchen!
LikeLike
Fingers crossed! Rock hard abs are sorely overrated. I much better prefer a little pudge in the middle to give witness to the freedom with which we live–cookie-cake-sweet thing in the afternoon gives sanity more than an attempt at abs anything anyhow.
LikeLike
Medjool dates are now on my shopping list. Can’t wait to try today’s recipe, and would love to have the book!
LikeLike
Heathy snack options would be good….. on a sugar kick right now.
LikeLike
The book sounds lovely! I really want to make that dessert, I love dates, I love sesame and I love yogurt! I have a question, is crisped rice the puffed rice you can find in supermarkets? Where I live that’s the only kind other than regular rice.
LikeLike
The are you pregnant comment is just a right of passage. You perspective will continue to evolve….as well as a lot of other things!
LikeLike
Don’t worry about your belly, you have a wonderful baby to show for it!
LikeLike
That. Looks. SO. Good.
LikeLike
What a nasty person! Don’t listen!
LikeLike
wow! I think I need that cookbook…. for the Nori popcorn and the date-sesame-yogurt cups and everything else in it!
LikeLike
I want this book so much!
LikeLike
this looks like just the thing that i need to motivate me to get out of bed on these chilly winter mornings!!!
yum yum yum.
LikeLike
Aw, what a bummer. My daughter is 11 months now, and I was just contemplating my tummy in the mirror last night, wondering how I could fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes again and still look SO different. Ah, well. Hopefully they’ll take care of us in our old age and make up for it, hey? Haha.
The cookbook sounds wonderful!
LikeLike
Looks great. I could use some healthy ideas. Thanks
LikeLike
Hi Luisa, I just finished reading your book yesterday! I very much enjoyed it.
At times I felt that your words said things I felt but could not say. The recipes are lovely too!
I made the “fake beans” so far. Now I want to go to Berlin (in the summer!)
LikeLike
Count me in!
LikeLike
Yes! This cookbook is so inventive. Her braised beans and leeks are very good and I must try more recipes. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing such a delist recipe!! YUM,
LikeLike
Glad to know of this book! Thanks for the introduction!
LikeLike
Great combination of flavours and colours! And the book surely has plenty more delicious and healthy ideas!
LikeLike
I’m on a health kick and am going to up it starting in March so Sara’s recipes and the cookbook would be wonderful. Thanks for the opportunity!
I don’t even have post pregnancy belly and could get rid of it!
LikeLike
thanks for the salt vice recommendation! I definitely have more of a savory than sweet tooth and nori popcorn sounds like the perfect satisfaction for that craving 🙂
moorehe2@gmail.com
LikeLike
…if only for more of that kid of breakfast inspiration.
LikeLike
Yes please! Thanks for not making us click like on facebook and follow on twitter and four hundred other things to enter this contest!
LikeLike
zounds this seems like the perfect mid-afternoon snack!! brilliant!
LikeLike
ooh I would love a new cookbook, thank you!
LikeLike
love the sprouted kitchen blog and would love this book 🙂
LikeLike
By some fluke I don’t own this cookbook yet, which is a terrible mistake based on your recipe descriptions! Lucky I’m planning to be at my local cookbook store this evening!
LikeLike
I got this book from the library and loved it. How great it would be to have a copy of my own!
LikeLike
Count me in. Thanks, Luisa!
LikeLike
this looks so fun!
LikeLike