Life
I was obnoxiously sick during the first trimester with, "lucky" for me, both of my pregnancies. For the first three months I lived on saltines, lemonade, and fresh bread. Once I was able to eat, however, all I wanted was savory and sweet comfort food. The thing about comfort food, though, is that everyone is comforted by different cuisine. So when I asked moms to share their pregnancy comfort food cravings, they all listed different foods, from cereal to salads, that provided them some reprieve from their unreasonable, seemingly un-ending pregnancy cravings.
Personally, I loved fried potatoes and hash browns. Oh, and mashed potatoes. Actually, a potato in any form would have sufficed. I also enjoyed bagels and warm Italian baguettes with salted butter. I guess you could say carbohydrates were my comfort food. In fact, my pregnancy cravings weren't all that different from the foods I crave when I'm not pregnant. I just love my carbs, you guys. And carbs love me, too. We have a real bond, you could say. Not the fake bond I created with healthy foods, like spinach and avocado, but a real unbreakable bond. A bond that lasts a lifetime.
Thankfully, my mom makes the greatest fried potatoes. She slices the potatoes into thin circles and then into half-moons. She heats up butter and oil in a non-stick pan, and the fries those bad boys with some more butter and salt. Does that not sound heavenly? I've tried to replicate her mind-blowing recipe and, sadly, I just can't seem to get it right. I'm sure there's an ingredient she isn't sharing with me, because her potatoes rock and my potatoes, well, don't. Honestly, the ability to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted (without worrying I wouldn't fit into my skinny jeans) was probably the best part of being pregnant. I had difficult pregnancies with both of my kids, so those baguettes and bagels really helped alleviate some of my misery.
If you, too, are pregnant and craving some comfort food, take a page out of these formerly pregnant women's books. Perhaps you'll find the food inspiration you've been looking for.
Alla, 31
"When I was really nauseous the first few months, the only foods I could stomach were Big Macs from McDonald’s and Boston creme donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Megan
"[Pillsbury] Grands biscuits! Grands cinnamon rolls. Lots of chocolate pudding and cereal!"
Courtney, 34
"Shrimp cocktail. All the shrimp cocktail."
Julie
"Let me call The Cupcakery and ask for their recipes, because there is a reason why my family still calls my daughter 'the cupcake baby' almost 10 years later."
Dara
"Dry Apple Jacks!"
Sami
"I craved bacon! I ate a ton of grilled cheese BLTs!"
Julia
"Multigrain bagels with veggie cream cheese! Also, mashed potatoes, especially if done right and homemade."
Olga, 34
"Watermelons. All. Day. Long."
Regina
"Stuffed portobello mushroom with zucchini. Marinate the mushroom in Italian dressing for an hour or so. Finely chop zucchini, add salt and mayo. Put lots of mozzarella cheese on top and bake until cheese is melted and golden."
Simona
"I mean, if we’re being honest here, I ate pizza three times a week my entire pregnancy. And for a month I couldn’t get enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! (Which I hadn’t had in like 15 years before that.)"
Lina
"Bread. Pizza, bagels, challah: literally anything with bread. During my first trimester the smell of food didn’t sit well with me. I wasn’t vomiting, I just couldn’t stand the smell of food. All I wanted was bread. My husband would make me sandwiches, homemade pizza, and would get me Manhattan Asiago bagels non-stop."
Liya
"I was obsessed with Greek salads (no olives) with some olive oil lemon juice dressing. Literally ate a Greek salad twice a day for almost my entire pregnancy, past the first trimester."
Lauren
"I loved any kind of salad while pregnant. And in my third trimester I would wake almost every night in the middle of the night starving, so would eat half a peanut butter sandwich. OMG, and pumpkin ice cream. I don’t even like ice cream, but I ate that stuff by the gallon."
Ulyana
"Tomato mozzarella panini from Starbucks. I had it like three to four times a week, and sometimes twice a day."
Alina
"My biggest craving was cereal. All the horrible classic ones, too, like Apple Jacks, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, French Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Captain Crunch, and Chocolate Chex. And I would put my milk in the freezer like 10 minutes prior, so it was super cold. Ugh, the good ol' days."
Luba
"Noodles. I'm not joking when I say a Cup-a-Soup saved me many times when nothing else would stay down. It warmed my belly and was oh-so good."
Diana
"Multigrain bagel with cream cheese toasted, plain croissants, chocolate chip cookies, and ice cream. I wish I craved salad instead."
Anna
"Two slices of sausage pizza and a Philly cheesesteak."
Jane
"Fried potatoes. And chocolate, of course."
Check out Romper's new video series, Bearing The Motherload, where disagreeing parents from different sides of an issue sit down with a mediator and talk about how to support (and not judge) each other’s parenting perspectives. New episodes air Mondays on Facebook.
