The closest thing I think I’ve experienced to an authentic pregnancy-related food craving occurred toward the end of my first trimester, when I felt that my happiness and well-being depended entirely on a steady supply of fresh pineapple. If I didn’t have one in the house, I became nervous, jittery. Now, though, exactly ninety-five days from my estimated due date, the pineapple passion has waned somewhat. I do still keep a pineapple around, but I am going through them at a much more reasonable rate and it’s rare anymore that I get up in the middle of the night to sneak a slice.

Pregnancy-related or no, for I have always been passionately pro-vegetable*, I have been in recent days utterly fixated on green foods. Last night I ate steamed spinach for dinner. Two days ago, it was a bowl of buttered peas for breakfast. Green foods, in addition to being fantastically delicious, just make me feel good. And they’re certainly not doing any harm to the acrobat in my belly, which adds to their appeal.

So yesterday I decided to take green as far as green would go. Inspired by one of the many wonderful recipes from 101 Cookbooks, these noodles came together quickly and more than satisfied my need for green.

I began by simmering slices of ginger and garlic in a quart of vegetable stock. I strained out the aromatics and added shredded chicken, sautéed asparagus, and spinach noodles from Nonna’s**. Basil, mint, cilantro, scallion, sesame oil, lime juice, and red pepper flakes comprised the garnish.

And now, though it is only a quarter to ten, I’m already thinking about today’s dose of green. Mint chip ice cream with candied kale, perhaps?



*I credit my parents for this—and acknowledge that it wasn’t always easy to get me to eat summer squash.
**Nonna’s Noodles: nom, nom, nom!

Today was a Hungry Day. Big time. I haven’t learned how to balance my wild appetite fluctuations and nutritional needs with the urgent cravings I am experiencing with ever-greater frequency. I need advice: when I am sure that I will die if I don’t eat a turkey burger immediately (a true story), should I go make that burger happen (I didn’t)?

I’ve always been into food, but not like this. The bowl of lightly-sweetened multi-grain Cheerios I had for breakfast (with real milk, which is pretty crazy considering I “gave up” cow’s milk back in 2001) just about put me into orbit. It’s good, right, but it’s never been that good. By ten a.m. I started to wonder if maybe I should stop at every food cart between PSU and the Library MAX stop in case I needed something to tide me over through my teeny fifteen-minute commute. Some days, all food smells make me want to fill my nostrils with concrete. Today, the aromas of frying onions and baking dough and coffee and even the sort of freaky meat smells (like, I assume, sausages) flipped some kind of switch in my guts, causing me to need everything I smelled.

Though it’s just not possible, I feel like I have been hungry all day long. When I arrived home after that epic quarter-hour commute I wolfed down two slices of veggie pizza left over from last night’s dinner at Old Town Pizza (we had leftovers because yesterday was definitely not a Hungry Day). Shortly thereafter, I emptied all of the vegetables from the fridge and pantry and made a spicy, tomato-based vegetable soup, scheduled to be my lunch tomorrow. While that simmered, I baked off some Cinnamon-Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies and gave them to guys installing windows downstairs. Tasting occurred, of course, throughout.

About two hours ago I started thinking about the slice of banana bread I had last weekend. I was at a morning event catered by Grand Central Bakery, and enjoyed a slice of their very moist and nutty banana bread. I decided about an hour and a half ago that I have never had such delicious banana bread in all of my life. I decided an hour ago that if I didn’t make something half as good for breakfast tomorrow, then my day would surely be ruined and the mental and physical well-being of the baby, the Squeeze and me would be irreparably compromised.

What follows is a variation based on the a Cook’s Illustrated banana bread recipe, not meant to be even an approximation of GCB’s banana bread, but one that, what with the wheat flour and the demera sugar and all, I can feel less-bad about eating.

Ingredients:

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 6×9-inch loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flours, sugar, salt, soda, and poppy seeds. Whisk to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together cooled butter, yogurt, eggs, vanilla extract, and mashed bananas.
4. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the flour mixture, leaving some lumps in the batter.
5. Pour into prepared loaf pan, smooth out the top, and bake for approximately 55 minutes. When a toothpick is inserted into the center of the loaf, only a few crumbs should cling.

• roast beef
• pizza, anything without meat
• pineapple
• watermelon
• enchiladas
• Mom’s tacos
• anything a character eats in a book I’m reading
• butter pecan ice cream
• chocolate, chocolate, chocolate
• millet, as a component of something trail-mixy
• bran muffins
• blueberry muffins
• morning glory bread
• fruit pie, any
• mint
• TLC original crackers
• black beans
• lentil soup and spinach pie from Nicholas
• Chaat House fare

What I’ve Actually Been Eating:

• pineapple
• watermelon
• yogurt
• mutli-grain Cheerios
• fish
• salads
• hummus + veggie sticks
• lentil soup and spinach pie from Nicholas
• bananas
• almonds

These are incomplete lists, of course, but you get the idea. In the last three months food has taken on yet another dimension in my head, my kitchen, and my guts. I’ve been queasy, then downright nauseated. My digestion has slowed, because that’s what happens; my eating habits have had to change. Some days I wake up starving, unable to get to the kitchen quickly enough. Some days anything I eat seems to sit in my stomach, like stone, for hours. Lately, it doesn’t feel like there is room inside me for a stomach, a bladder, and a baby. There is, of course, or there will be. It’s not like my condition is strange.

Some days I eat what I want, when I want, and I regret it. Some days I plan and choose carefully, proud of myself that I am giving my body—and the freeloader it carries—the material it needs to build the bones, skin, and eyelids of this inchoate being.

I am unused to denial, to discomfort, to frustration around food. I have always tried to eat responsibly, but now I am newly and powerfully motivated. I don’t always do my best, but every day I hold my belly and promise to do better. Eating for two maybe isn’t eating more, it’s eating better. It’s also eating what you can get into your stomach, because even a nutritionally-suspect snack is better than nothing at all.*

A few weeks into my second trimester, I can eat real meals most days, though carefully, and some days I can stay awake all day without a nap. I hear, from the few moms and dads that I know, that I have nothing but discomfort and pain to look forward to as we creep towards our November 16 due date, but for now I am celebrating the return of my appetite. I am celebrating also the fruits and vegetables that are coming into season, the mexican watermelons that I can’t keep out of my grocery basket; hawaiian pineapples, and tamales from Micro Mercantes at the new King Farmers Market. For now I am celebrating the notion that I might get to raise an Eater, that maybe I can teach my kid to love kneading dough as much as I do, and that maybe soon my body will adjust to it’s altered state and I’ll be in the kitchen again making pizzas and muffins, minty things and black bean soup—anything to satisfy the growling cravings and nourish the little beast.

*This isn’t nutritional advice; it’s just the opinion of a cranky, pregnant food writer. If you are pregnant, please consult a qualified caregiver for advice about nutrition. And good luck.

Potato Cakes of Wonder and Joy

• maybe three cups of shredded starchy potato It’s a good idea to squeeze the shreds in cheesecloth to get excess moisture out.
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup yellow onion, small dice
• 4 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley, also minced
• 1 whole egg
• salt and pepper, as you please.

Mix all ingredients together and drop into 1/4″-1/2″ vegetable oil over medium-high heat.
Cook until golden brown – maybe 5 min on each side.

Shown below served with Savory Apple-Onion sauce (that’s Applesauce III from previous post)

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