Pregnancy Menu: The Founder of Weelicious

Catherine McCord has created more than 700 original recipes for Weelicious, her website that focuses on making family meals easier, healthier and more delicious. But the mom of two, who is expecting her third child, is also proof that during pregnancy, even a recipe expert can find herself drawn to an item not normally on the menu. “At the beginning of my pregnancy, I was craving cereal late at night. Even if I had plenty of food during the day I still wanted my 11 P.M. bowl of flakes,” she says. “Now I’ve been making an enormous smoothie every day with frozen fruits, chocolate vegan protein powder, greens, bee pollen and hemp. It gives me tons of energy and feels like I’m eating a real treat!”

McCord, a former model and actress, has been on a mission to get families cooking since she began Weelicious in 2007, when she struggled to find satisfactory information on how to make homemade baby food for her infant son. She leads a sizable community (Weelicious has more than 70,000 followers on Instagram alone) and is the author of two books, Weelicious Lunches and Weelicious: 140 Fast, Fresh and Easy Recipes. She was named one of the 50 most influential mommy bloggers by People magazine in 2010 and was Babble’s Best Mom Cooking Blog of the Year in 2013.

Based on how she started Weelicious, McCord believes that it is never too early to get kids on the right nutritional track. When it comes to making your own baby food—which can seem daunting at first—she suggests keeping things fun and simple, with fruits and veggies like baked sweet potatoes, avocados and even kiwi. “I like to start babies with the same fruit or vegetable a few days in a row so they get used to the flavors,” she says. “Both of my kids rejected certain foods on day one and two, but by day three couldn’t get enough.”

As far as what she is eating, along with her custom daily smoothie, McCord currently enjoys her super-food salad (pictured above) and strawberry yogurt parfaits. And though she admits that during the past few years, between work and taking care of her six-year-old daughter, Chloe, and eight-year-old son, Kenya, she hasn’t worked out much, this time around she is moving. “My midwife told me I had to do something so I’ve been taking Pilates class and walking a few days a week,” she says. “It’s amazing how good it makes my body and mind feel.”

Future Weelicious endeavors include launching an organic meal delivery kit called One Potato this summer and continuing Weelicious Menus, a menu-planning guide that is e-mailed every Friday. A busy time? Yes. But McCord's enthusiasm for getting her message across is as high as ever. “I get to produce video content, cook till I’m ready to drop and photograph and write," she explains, "so it’s a creative exploration every day.”