Cravings

img_6812.jpgI think when someone is a naturally greedy person, such as myself, it’s natural to crave food. While eating my lunch I can be thinking about what I am going to have for dinner, and sometimes I’ll find myself in a kind of reverie of food, imagining a delicious slice of cheese or piece of thickly buttered bread.

Pregnancy, however, has taken my cravings to a whole new level.

I haven’t been craving strange combinations of food, like pickles dipped in chocolate or peanut butter with sausages, but I have experienced an unrelenting desire for some foods, which initially I found hard to deal with as our kitchen was being renovated at the start of my pregnancy and so I had nowhere to cook. A disgusting McDonalds put me off fast food, and an epic 2 hour round trip for a Gregg’s sausage roll cured that habit as well, but one of my favourite ‘meals’ when my oven was installed was simple poached eggs on toast.

img_6925.jpgEggs featured strongly in my cravings: runny yolked poached eggs were a favourite (I know pregnant women should avoid under-cooked eggs but I was always comfortable to eat my favourite Clarence Court eggs with soft yolks).

img_6037.jpgI also became utterly addicted to egg and salad cream sandwiches: hard boiled eggs mashed with salad cream, mustard, salt and pepper.

On the way to Wales on one trip, I ended up begging Andrew to stop at a services which had a Waitrose so that I could buy Clarence Court eggs and Heinz salad cream so that I could indulge in my craving when I arrived at Andrew’s parents’ house.

Then I started to get a hankering for salt and vinegar crisps, and despite not having had them for years I got it into my head that I wanted Discos crisps. Do you know how difficult it is to get Discos? They don’t seem to be for sale in large supermarkets so I had to buy individual packets from garages, until I was saved by my brother who managed to find a multi-pack supplier and helped me to keep my cravings at bay.

img_5971.jpgIt’s not just been savoury food I have been craving though: as well as lovely red Jelly Babies, I have also taken to have a Magnum ice cream almost every evening for pudding. The ice cream seems to ease my heartburn which can only be a good thing. As you can see from the gorgeous picture of me below (thanks Andrew!) I have really been enjoying them …

img_6899.jpgYou may remember that I have also had a hankering for hot cross buns and fruity bread:

img_6060.jpgMy main craving though has been for things I am absolutely not allowed to eat at the moment: most particularly ripe camembert cheese, rare steak, and pate. As soon as I have the baby I am going to treat myself to all three: I will buy the nicest camembert I can find and leave it out of the fridge so it goes all gooey and runny, and might eat the whole thing myself. I have eaten baked camembert to slightly relieve my craving:

img_6225.jpgFor the pate, I adore brussels pate (the smooth one) and fancy it spread thickly onto buttered bread or crackers (or maybe both …).

I want a huge thick steak which is seared on the outside and bloody on the inside: I’d like to have it with a gorgeously tangy homemade bearnaise sauce, and perhaps some crusty bread to mop up the bloody juices.

What I really don’t want, however, is curry. I can just about tolerate Asian spices but the idea of an Indian curry absolutely does not appeal to me at all, despite it being one of my favourite foods before. I just hope I manage to get my curry tastebuds back when the baby comes into our lives.

Of course, I am not unique in my cravings – during one of my NCT classes we shared details of our cravings and discovered that Natasha is loving Slush Puppies and Jo likes potato smileys. I also asked fellow food bloggers about their pregnancy (or non-pregnancy) cravings, and discovered:

Laura from Kneadwine craved dairy, and Becs from Munchies & Munchkins craved steak and … brushing her teeth! Although they haven’t blogged about their cravings, the following bloggers shared with me what they were most tempted by: Helen from Casa Costello loved black pudding and cried when the butcher had run out (I know that feeling), Helen from Family Friends Food wanted mint choc chip ice cream (I did have to stop myself buying mint flavoured Magnums because I knew Andrew wouldn’t want them), Claire from Foodie Quine wanted Chupa Chups lollies, Jo from Jo’s Kitchen enjoyed McDonalds, Janice from Farmers Girl Kitchen loved Dairylea triangles (I could imagine eating them), Mary from Goodie Goodmother wanted courgette fries (quite healthy actually)

However, I think my favourite craving story goes to Katherine from Veggie Desserts who took to sneakily drinking the juice from pickled beetroot as her husband was so shocked by how much she was getting through! Top tip, the crinkle cut beetroot yields more juice!

What  cravings have you had … either pregnancy, hangover, or just generally?

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10 Replies to “Cravings”

  1. Jane Billing says: Reply

    A long time ago (1970) but I craved lemonade and liver. I didn’t like either before my pregnancy and now liver would be a no no. Problem back then was that shops didn’t open 24hrs or on Sunday and garages didn’t sell food (is lemonade food??) I suffered from extreme sickness and lost more than a stone in weight. Is it any wonder my son is an only child… As soon as my baby was born I returned to hating fizzy drinks and liver. But what a joy to lose the sickness and heartburn.

    1. Ooooh, and they don’t even let you eat liver nowadays when you are pregnant! Poor thing suffering from such bad sickness – I think I was very lucky. I cannot wait to ditch the heartburn either – I am fed up of swigging Gaviscon from the bottle! Thanks so much for commenting.

  2. That last photo is awesome, makes me smile!

    1. Thanks so much Kavey – there’s a whopper in there waiting to come out!

  3. Hi Tracy – I do love your blog. ALL THE BEST over the next few days/ weeks(!) My first was 2 weeks late so hang in there if he decides to stay put for a while!

    Liz

    1. Thanks Liz, that’s really kind – thanks for the comment, and fingers crossed he won’t be *too* late 🙂

  4. Haha, when you dip the courgette fries in a creamy sauce they stop being so healthy! 😉

    I love this article, and hope you enjoy every bite of steak and Camembert soon!

    1. Thanks so much for commenting – still no baby so no camembert yet!!!

  5. Oh I am getting so excited for you lovely lady xx

    1. Aw thanks – very excited too!

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