iron rich food ideas please

[rosydreams]

Hi my name is jo i am 30 weeks pregnant and have been told to up my iron levels.During a typical week due to working nights after the school run i catch up on sleep.So i end up with a 2hrs in the middle of the day to get stuff done and eat before back to school run then work.I get minutes to eat breakfast,lunch is were i get a main meal and sometimes get dinner.I seldom get breaks at work.So what are some easy ways to up iron intake in my diet i would take supplements but they upset my stomach =/

Primarily meat, also any dark green vegetables. If you eat Vit c at the same time it helps the uptake, so eat and orange with your meal. Brown rice, eggs, tofu, pulses, peas beans. Do you eat breakfast before you have your day sleep or when you wake up? When I did nights I had breafast before sleep then main meal when I got up. You should be eating something , salad, sandwich at work. It is ilegal to go more than 4 hours without a break. Your eating pattern is not very healthy for you or your baby. Try to change your habits

Kale and other leafy veg...not particularly tasty but if you just steam some with garlic/chilli and salt and pepper it's ok.

Nuts....a big load of mixed unsalted ones. Eat them through the day.

Lentils....if you can soak some the night before, they're lovely as a dahl.

thank you Yeah i eat before school run then sleep then main meal.

were i work they dont have enough staff sometimes to cover me for break they hire the bare minimum.Its because they cant give me a break.I really wish i could change hours but my wage is not enough to cover childcare for school run.Otherwise i would work days.

OP, your employer is breaking the law and it’s not your fault they don’t hire enough staff, nor is it your responsibility to cover it. What sort of job are you doing? Could you simply insist you are stopping to eat after the statutory 6 hours or whatever?
I often didn’t have enough staff to relieve me for lunch, but I simply ate my lunch off the anaesthetic machine in the operating theatre while minding the patient. I damn well wouldn’t starve just because my employer is a badly organised cheapskate!

i wish i could contest it but i am on 0hr contract either i work hard or i get less hours.I work fast food so i can be replaced with ease, i wish i could get better.But having poor education and cerebral palsy(stiffness in the legs) makes me very undesirable.

Hours are sporadic but yes after 6hrs they have to give me a break and they know this.So the days i do get a break tend to be when i get a long shift.Its hard but sometimes you have to work with what you can get.

A lot of cereals are fortified with iron - 2 x weetabix gives you 86% of the RDA of iron so if you had them for breakfast you would be almost there. And then snacking during the day - pistachios have the highest iron content of all the nuts. Dried apricots & raisins also quite good for iron. Consuming vitamin c at the same time as iron increases your body's absorption so drink a glass of orange juice if you are eating anything iron rich...

I know you are probaby time poor but some of these recipes might be useful if you can do a big batch and freeze to see you through...
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/iron-rich-vegetarian

These smoothies might be a good option for something you could drink at work:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/search/recipes?query=spinach+smoothie