A-Cute Craving

One of the most common things I’ve been asked while pregnant has been about cravings.

“Any weird cravings?”

“You wanted anything unusual to eat?”

Or,

“Any aversions to anything?”

I don’t mind these questions myself because they were always my own go-to questions when I would encounter a pregnant woman.  And to be honest, it IS interesting to think that there are odd flavor combinations that you would suddenly, out of nowhere, kill for.

If I could sum up my cravings, I would simply say “junk”.  I have eaten so many chips, pretzels, and crackers with sugary sodas and juices.  I have wanted birthday cake, cupcakes, snack cakes, pancakes, icing, ice cream, cream pies, and brownies.  I could polish off two different dinners without much trouble.  It’s disgusting; at least, it would be for the non-expectant person.

Now I was never 100% health conscious before I got pregnant, but I was able to keep my junk food in check.  Have a brownie but drink it with milk or water, I'd tell myself, or drink the soda but have no other sweets.  And make sure to jog extra long to make up for it.

The fact that I wanted Spaghettios and onion rings one day about nine months ago, two things that I don’t even like, I figured I needed to buy a pregnancy test.

And then weeks later, when I was given the good news and free range to eat whatever I wanted (so long as it didn’t violate the pregnancy list of no-no’s and I made sure to keep it balanced with actually healthy things) I got a craving for something I hadn’t had since I was in middle school- pizza topped with French fries.  And it had to be the wide, steak fry variety.  For some reason, the mix of hearty potato and crispy coating amidst gooey cheese and tomato sauce brought me back to pizza parties at the local pizzeria in our town.  God love Joe for trying to recreate it for me with the pizza place near us.  It wasn’t exactly the same, but close enough.

After that, my cravings pretty much stayed on anything deep-fried, smothered in cheese, or covered in chocolate.  No other weird cravings hit.

Until tonight.

Joe and I were texting back and forth about what to do for dinner tonight, a common volley of suggestions and vetoes.  As it was back to my turn to launch a suggestion, I tried to search my Rolodex of food items to see what hit on a craving button.  I looked down at my swollen ankles and doughy feet as I contemplated.

“God, I don’t know what I want to eat but I am going home and flinging these feet up in the air to get the fluid down.  So whatever I have for dinner will have to be handheld,” I thought as I wiggled my feet in midair to loosen the swelling. 

It was then that two foods began to emerge through my clouded mind.  Pizza.  Specifically, I wanted pizza from Oceanport Pizza, the pizzeria in the next town over from my hometown.  I could probably count on both hands the number of times I’ve eaten there, and the last time was probably over a decade ago.  But there it was, fresh on my mind and tongue.  Because it was just slightly unreasonable to expect Joe to fly a pie in from Jersey by tonight, and because we JUST had pizza the night before, I let my mind settle on something other than pizza. 

So what was the second craving?  Something crispy and cheesy as well.  A quesadilla!  It fit the bill: something hand-held, and something…triangular.  Why triangular?  I thought about it for a second and reasoned I wanted something that I could easily bite into even while laying on my back.  

Joe was waiting for my suggestion and without thinking I just texted back.

“I want something triangular.”

I didn’t get a response until I got home.

“Triangular, huh?” Joe asked, bemused.

I tried to explain my logic and reasoning, but instead he just smirked and picked up his phone to post about my odd request on Facebook.  Then we set to decide on what “triangular” food we should get.  In the end, quesadillas won the night and I happily feasted on my cheesy triangles.

Who says cravings have to be based on flavor?  Cravings can take any form…even triangular ones.

Soooo how about you?  Any weird cravings??