Protein Mac and Cheese: Why This Pregnancy Nutrition Coach Uses Personalized Nutrition Coaching Over 'Clean Eating'
By Nicole Roggow, Certified Pregnancy Nutrition Coach | Published: October 6 , 2025
When you think about “positive nutrition habits” or “nutrient dense meals” or those picture perfect, colorful plates you may have had in mind for yourself when you first found out about pregnancy - I am 99% sure Mac & Cheese doesn’t come to mind.
It’s one of those dishes - among many others we can come to demonize - often considered “comfort food”, “a splurg”, “a brown food”, “a lazy meal”. And I would bet that most pregnancy nutrition coaches aren't encouraging you to lean on this food during pregnancy, UNTIL NOW. Welcome.
You see, I know what those early weeks (and sometimes even the majority of pregnancy!) are like where you cant stand protein, the sight and smell of any meat and most vegetables makes you nauseous and even thinking about cooking that stuff seems out of the question. So instead of ignoring the realities of pregnancy aversions, nausea, and cravings - i choose to work WITH THEM to find ways to shift how we approach meals you want, meals that sound good (because many probably dont) and figure out ways to get you the most amount of nutrients possible within those constraints. It is ABSOLUTELY possible!
This is the divide in pregnancy nutrition: those who stick to textbook recommendations regardless of reality, and those of us who understand that personalized nutrition coaching sometimes means the "wrong" food is exactly the right food.
When "Clean Eating" Becomes the Enemy
Lets take Lisa for example - she is, one of my clients who came to me at 8 weeks pregnant. Before pregnancy, she was executing her nutrition flawlessly. She was food/meal prepping every weekend and even doing a smaller one throughout the week. She would make two kinds of protein, two kinds of veggies and have plenty of quality carbs ready to go to build her meals - all the things we encourage from our clients.
BUT NOW? Even just a few weeks into her pregnancy, the sight of raw chicken makes her gag so prepping is no longer an enjoyable experience, and even when she could get it done - she would go to plate her meal and become instantly nauseous and averted from food by the sight of chicken.. She had been trying to force down protein shakes instead, but those would either come right back up or make her feel so bad that she would hardly eat the rest of the day.
This is a VERY COMMON thing I hear from clients, and they typically come to me in those first few check-ins with something like: "I know I need protein for myself and the baby, but I can't eat any of the foods I'm used to eat or feel like I should be eating."
That's when I asked her the question that defines personalized nutrition coaching:
"What sounds good TO YOU right now? What could you actually see yourself eating?"
Her answer: "Something like mac and cheese. But I feel awful saying that!"
But you said “PROTEIN” Mac & Cheese…..
Here's what most nutrition coaching services don't understand about pregnancy nutrition: the best nutrition plan is the one you can actually follow.
A meal plan filled with grilled chicken and quinoa is worthless if you can't keep it down or it goes to waste every week.”Comfort food” like mac & cheese (especially when we can add a nutrient twist to it) can actually provide us enough protein and nutrients to meet our needs, get some quality calories in us, and allow us to not feel completely awful for the rest of the day. Lets break it down::
Carbohydrates (pasta) — your body's preferred energy source, especially important when you're growing a human, you could even choose brands with a higher protein content (usually made from chickpeas) which also yield more fiber and nutrients
Calcium (cheese, milk) — crucial for your baby's bone development and can also help the mother’s muscle and nerve function, if at all possible, lets avoid boxed cheese powders and use real cheese to ensure true calcium content
Protein (cheese, milk, hidden protein, yogurt) — even “regular” mac and cheese has some protein from the cheese and milk used, but many of my clients have found they can actually “hide” ground meat or shredded chicken into the dish without causing aversions since it is taken over by the cheese sauce, you can even stir in a bit of plain greek yogurt for some added protein and creaminess!
Comfort and Calories — which matters more than traditional nutrition coaching services realize, especially in the first trimester, when a mama is struggling to keep many things down, having a dish that carries this much nutrition is absolutely better than tossing prepped food in the trash and skipping a meal altogether
The result of this “high protein mac and cheese” could be a bowl of comfort food that delivers 25–35 grams of protein while it continues to be a “safe” meal that a first trimester mama will want to come back to over and over again..
But What About Vegetables?
We can then take this concept and continue to build off of it (lets keep using our mac and cheese example!)/ If we notice that this pregnant mama is starting to get more protein but her veggie intake is still suffering, maybe we suggest:
Blending cauliflower into the cheese sauce (you’ll never taste it)
Using butternut squash pasta for extra vitamins
Stiring in finely grated carrots or broccoli — they disappear but add nutrients
Why Other Nutrition Coaching Services Get This Wrong
Many nutrition professionals are trained to recommend foods based on optimal nutrition profiles, not real-world eating behaviors during pregnancy. This is where personalized nutrition coaching makes all the difference.
They see mac and cheese and immediately think "processed food, refined carbs, too much sodium." They miss the bigger picture: a pregnant woman who eats protein mac and cheese through personalized nutrition coaching is getting significantly more nutrition than one who can't eat anything at all. And, with that personalized and intentional coaching each week, she can learn how to still keep those comfort foods around but think in terms of “what can I add/adjust within this meal to hit some of my goals (like protein, veggie intake, fiber, and overall nutrients).
I've seen clients go weeks barely eating because they're trying to force down foods that make them nauseous. That's not healthy for mom or baby — and it's exactly why personalized nutrition coaching exists.
There's something powerful that happens when you stop fighting your cravings and start working with them through personalized nutrition coaching. My client Lisa - she didn't just eat the protein mac and cheese — she actually enjoyed it - something that can be quite a foreign concept for many moms during pregnancy. This is important because when you enjoy your food, you:
Digest it better
Feel less stressed about eating
Are more likely to eat regular meals
Feel like you have a better understanding of what your body wants and needs
Three weeks after our mac and cheese conversation in our personalized nutrition coaching sessions, Lisa was eating it almost daily. Because of her success with this meal, she went on to talk to me about things like chicken nuggets (I sent her my favorite method for Homemade Nuggs!), chili (her favorite was Wendy’s Chili so we made a copycat version), and even French Toast (something she couldn’t stop thinking about so we made it with a high-protein twist). It was like she FINALLY WAS UNDERSTANDING that I was here to work with her pregnant body, not fight against it.
Just In Case You Want to Copy & Paste the Recipe, HERE IT IS:
Pregnancy-Friendly Protein Mac and Cheese (From a Pregnancy Nutrition Coach):
Cook 1 box high-protein pasta according to package directions (I love the Barilla brand)
When cooked, add 1 cup of Farlife Whole Milk (i like this brand because the protein content is higher) then add 2 cups of shredded cheese, you may need more milk/cheese depending on the amount of pasta but maintain these ratios
Now - stir in either (or both!) 1/2 cup unflavored Greek yogurt OR 6-8oz of meat (shredded or ground)
Nutrition stats: Approximately 30g protein per serving, plus calcium, carbs for energy, nutrients for you and the baby, and satisfaction for your soul — exactly what personalized nutrition coaching delivers.
Beyond Mac and Cheese: The Bigger Personalized Nutrition Coaching Principle
All this to say - the high protein version of mac and cheese may not work for everyone. This isn't a magic solution for every pregnancy appetite challenge because everyone is different. Some pregnant women reading this may be nauseated by even the thought of mac and cheese and that right there is exactly why personalized nutrition coaching can be so so incredibly helpful during this season.
This isn't really about the actual dish and more about the concept that personalized nutrition coaching meets pregnant women where they are instead of where the textbooks say we should be.
It's about understanding that sometimes the "imperfect" food choice is actually perfect for that moment, that woman, and that pregnancy — which is the heart of personalized nutrition coaching.
It's about building and improving a person’s nutrition on a foundation of foods that sound appealing, not foods that look good on paper.
Lisa, by the way, had a healthy baby boy who is now a toddler.. She still makes protein mac and cheese regularly — not because she has to, but because her son is a HUGE fan of mac and cheese and it reminds her that taking care of herself and her son doesn't have to be complicated or joyless and that they can still get PLENTY of nutrition from comfort foods done right.
Ready for personalized nutrition coaching that works with your real cravings and aversions? Stop forcing yourself to eat foods that make you miserable. Get pregnancy nutrition coaching that meets you where you are.
