I’ve heard all of the jokes about late night pregnancy cravings — husbands having to trudge through all sorts of weather to go find a certain type of fried rice or pickle or ice cream. But what is my husband sent out for? Lentils.
This is my third pregnancy, and while I have crazy strong pregnancy cravings, the good thing is that they are almost exclusively for healthy foods. (Except for that brief period during my pregnancy with the Goose where I would have killed for Buffalo Wild Wings hot sauce regardless of the heartburn it gave me.)
With Magoo, I craved lemons and milk. The lemons make sense because they helped with the nausea. The milk was odd though because I pretty much can’t stand milk. There are times I can tolerate it, but often when I’m not pregnant, it leaves me dry heaving over the sink.
With the Goose, my main craving was apples. Harmless as apples are, I never really liked them much. They were too bland, and there are many types of fruit I would choose over them. But not during those nine months. I would literally lie awake in bed fantasizing about crispy, juicy apples. And it worked out well because I was pregnant during prime apple season.
While my taste for milk went away after my pregnancy with Magoo, I luckily kept my affinity for apples. I no longer daydream about them, but I will purposefully stock my cart with a good amount rather than pass them over for the more tasty fruits.
And like I said, the craving time is for lentils. Shortly after the Goose was born, a friend of mine was kind enough to bring over a delicious herbed lentil and rice dish. (The recipe can be found here.) I liked this dish from the beginning. It’s kind of like a low cal, healthy casserole which sounds like an oxymoron, but it is so good.
And since becoming pregnant, this has gone from a good recipe I make at times to my all day every day obsession. I often have it for lunch and then again have some of the left overs for a late night snack. (Hint — it reheats very well.)
And the best part is that both girls love it. They aren’t quite as obsessed as I am, but I give them both some at lunch with some veggies and fruit, and they are happy to eat up all the lentils I give them.
I was a bit worried the first time I gave it to the Goose because the downside of this dish is that it is really ugly and displeasing to the eye, and as anyone who has ever fed a toddler knows, looks matter. A LOT. But the first time I gave it to her, I just put a little extra cheese on top, and she happily gobbled it up. Magoo doesn’t care what it looks like — she just knows she likes it.
I don’t want to actually repost the entire recipe because I follow the published one pretty closely, but you can find it here. I do make some alterations.
– I use beef broth rather than chicken. This is just what I had on hand the first time I made it, and I liked it, so I stuck with it. I also don’t use reduced sodium because I need extra sodium in my diet to keep my blood pressure from getting too low. If you want to make it healthier though, go with the reduced sodium.
– I basically double all of the spices. I do this in most dishes I make. Just make sure not to put too much because it will get almost grainy if it is too overly spiced.
– I use mozzarella cheese rather than swiss. I don’t like swiss cheese much, so we never have it in the house. We always have mozzarella, so I just throw some of that in. To me, the cheese is one of the best parts of this, so I can’t imagine ever switching back to swiss.
And that’s it. It’s very simple to make — throw all the ingredients in a casserole dish, put it in the oven for a couple of hours and you are done.
The plus side of this craving is I feel no guilt in indulging it. The downside is the amount of time it takes to bake. The last thing a pregnant woman wants to hear is that she has to wait two hours to eat the food that is occupying her thoughts.
If you try it, let me know. I would love to hear how it goes.
And I think I’ll end this post with a conversation between me and Magoo this morning.
Magoo (taking pictures with her Fisher Price camera): Mommy, I need to take pictures for my blog.
Me: Oh really?
Magoo: Yea. Wait a minute. Do I have a blog?
Me: Not really, but I write about you on mine a lot, so we kind of share that one.
Magoo: No. I want my own blog that I can write for and take pictures for.
Watch out world — I guess it’s hereditary!