by Jessica Martin-Weber

I love it when my day goes exactly according to plan!

I also love it when unicorns prance in my yard and fairies tend to my garden.

If I had a nickel for time I set out with a plan, well thought out and provided for with necessary preparations and is somehow looks as though I had no plan at all, I would be a very wealthy woman and able to afford to give prancing unicorns and gardening fairies a livable wage.

Sadly, I earn no income from failed mornings, no livable wage there. So I just keep trying to find that one magic button that will make my day unfold perfectly. (I’m starting to think there is no button.) Since it all tends to fall apart before 10am at the latest, I focus on problem solving mornings. (See what our plan is mornings vs the reality here.)

The biggest problem in mornings?

Me.

I am not a morning person. Unfortunately, several of my children have followed in my footsteps. We really aren’t trying to make mornings difficult, we’re just trying to survive them. Having breakfast made head at least means we’re getting fed. Hopefully.

In our home we make a week’s worth of these mini-frittatas most Sunday evenings to get us through the week. It simplifies our morning routine and can be the difference in a tardy slip or not. Having breakfast made ahead and easy to heat up without sacrificing my need for a high protein start to my day and not dosing my children with exorbitant amounts of sugar first thing in the morning gives me something in my day that makes me feel like I’ve got at least one mothering win in the day. And because I let my kids dunk their mini frittatas in ketchup, they are usually willing to eat them. Or at least to lick the ketchup off of them and I’m convinced that they get some healthy stuff that way. It counts, trust me.

To turn that simple recipe into a milk boosting one for my friends who need a little something extra we made just a few simple modifications. (You probably don’t need to eat anything specific to make more milk, check here to see.)  The way milk production works is amazing, usually baby asks of the boob and the boob makes sure the baby receives. Skin-to-skin and being responsive to baby’s hunger cues are enough for most moms to make plenty of milk. But sometimes, a little boost can help. One of my good friends produces plenty of milk when her baby is able to feed directly from the breast but when she’s pumping away from her baby at work her supply starts going down. So she eats some food that her body responds well to by producing even more milk and that helps her let down to her pump. We are a fan of whatever helps

To take this make ahead mini-frittata recipe and make it a make-ahead-milk-boosting-mini-frittata recipe, add these modifications options (one or all) for the large batch:

Add any of the following:

1 large fennel bulb, diced thinly (I like to sauté this slightly to make them tender)

2 TBS flax seed meal

4 TBS brewer’s yeast

Follow the rest of the directions as provided in the original recipe. If you make a smaller batch, adjust your portions accordingly. They freeze well so high five yourself for having breakfast made before you even get out of bed tomorrow.

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*Note: It’s important to point out that most women aren’t going to need to eat food with the intention of upping their milk supply, if everything is working the way it is supposed to, your baby will know how to up your supply just fine themselves. Skin-to-skin and feeding on demand are the best ways to increase breastmilk supply to meet your baby’s needs. (Concerned you have low supply? Read this to help figure out if it is something you need to be concerned about.) For those women, galactalogues just happen and they don’t need to think about it. But some women, like Carrie, do need a boost. As a mom who ended up exclusively pumping and indeed having low supply such that Carrie ended up on medication solely to increase her milk production, she knows what it’s like to look for anything, anything at all that would help your body make even just a little more milk to help feed your baby. With the support of her health care providers, she tried everything. It becomes “I will eat all the cookies, I will drink all the shakes, I will eat all the parfaits!” if it even just makes you feel like you’re doing something to address the low supply struggle, it is worth it.

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Drawing from a diverse background in the performing arts and midwifery, Jessica Martin-Weber supports women and families, creating spaces for open dialogue. Writer and speaker, Jessica is the creator of TheLeakyBoob.com,co-creator of BeyondMoi.com, and co-creator of OurStableTable.com, supporter of A Girl With A View, and co-founder of Milk: An Infant Feeding Conference. She co-parents her 6 daughters with her husband of 19 years and is currently writing her first creative non-fiction book and a children’s book.