...what you craved tastes like it came from the land of mythical deliciousness; where everything tastes like unicorn tears mixed with hallucinogens.
Trust me, this is better than a food-gasm.
So I've approached my 33rd week and I've just started to crave funny things. Nothing too funny like pickles mixed with ice cream. I think that's a pregnancy myth. The idea of mixing pickles with ice cream will guarantee a moment of acid reflux from me. BURP!
Today's craving is oranges. I know it doesn't seem that funny considering what the Toronto weather looks like today. Its cold, wet, and dark (perfect sunshine food day).
I went to the local grocery store and bought a bag of organic oranges (a special treat...I know, aim high Fox). When I got home, I could hardly wait to crack open the bag. I cut one up, turned on some 'My Morning Jacket' and started to drift into a food-high incomparable to any blissful feeling I've ever experienced. 'Getting off' on food is not something normal people do (unless they've laced their baked goods with drugs). The good news is that during pregnancy, no drugs are required to take you to a heightened sense of your self. True bliss. Even chocolate doesn't compare. An orange dipped in chocolate though...maybe later.
I know, all this from a single orange.
I'm making pregnancy sound awesome. For moments like this, it is.
An orange craving is pretty easy to handle. Oranges are always ample at the grocery store and as the weather cools in the Northern Hemisphere, Orange season is underway in southern climates. Alex and I have a miniature orange tree and its just starting to bloom. It lives inside (obviously). Oranges are not native to Canada and with our many months of brutal winter are evidence of that.
Christmas time is a great time for citrus (clementines, oranges, grapefruit...). We are getting closer to that time but first we have to eat all these nice juicy fall apples that the grocery stores are pushing on us with their discounted prices and pretty displays.
This post isn't about oranges; even if after completing my orange, I could probably rant about how much I love them for about 50 pages. This post is about cravings; so I will take you back there.
As a celiac, cravings can often be more difficult than simply buying a $4.99 bag of organic oranges (I know it looks expensive but I got about 8 oranges in the bag and they are simply heaven. This is still cheaper than most GF treats so I think $4.99 for anything is a bargain).
Last week, I had a hankering for oatmeal cookies. This was not an easy task. If I didn't have celiac disease, I would have made a bee-line to the grocery store and bought a box of cookies. Instead I had to ask myself if making GF oatmeal cookies was worth the effort. After 20 minutes of deliberation, and a hunt around my kitchen for the appropriate flours and ingredients, I was baking two dozen oatmeal cookies. It was a lot of work and totally yummy but was it worth it? Kinda.
By the time the cookies were made, I was tired and grouchy. I really wanted to just eat a damn cookie and not have to worry about the hassle and mess. I also only wanted one cookie and I was sitting on 24! Alex, Andrea and my family helped scarf down the rest of them and there were no complaints.
A few days later, I was emailing back and forth with my Aunt Bonnie and she mentioned something about baking in her email. She sent me a link to a company for GF flours. Everything on the website looked amazing! I immediately wanted pie. I had to have pie.
Again, I found myself in the GF predicament: if I didn't have celiac disease, I could go buy a pie. I can't just go buy a pie. I went downstairs to look for ingredients for a pie. I didn't even care what kind of pie I was going to make, I just wanted some pie. Sure enough, I didn't have ingredients for pie. Uh oh!
Instead, I made pancakes. It didn't really satisfy but it was a quick fix and I dipped them in cranberry sauce for that pseudo-pie effect. Again, this didn't really suffice but it held me. I make pretty good pancakes so it wasn't a complete bust.
Celiac disease has not hindered me from doing many things I love (including eating). I'd be willing to bet that the care I take in my diet has resulted in a very healthy and manageable pregnancy. Some days I wish that I could run to Tims and have a donut but the reality is that I can't and I know in the long run, this is for the better.
For all my GF moms-to-be out there, I feel your pain. It's a bit of drag that we can't eat a bucket of fried chicken our adorable partners run out and get us at 3am but think of it this way, your pre pregnancy body will be back in action sooner than you think and because you are already conscious of your diet, you and your baby are probably off to the absolute best start possible.
Don't stress. Have an orange!
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