Cravings

Okay, so sometimes I think the whole pregnancy craving thing is overrated. Except then I get a craving for something and really cannot get it off my mind until I eat it.

For example, last week I was making my grocery list and suddenly had this craving for my mom’s homemade mac ‘n cheese dish that’s sort of like a really cheesy casserole, except my mom never made casseroles, so it’s mac ‘n cheese. I haven’t had it in a really long time, and I have wanted to eat it every day since I thought about it. Also, last night I had a dream about bbq chicken and I can’t stop thinking about it. So we are having homemade mac ‘n cheese and bbq chicken for dinner. In my dream I actually made my own bbq sauce from scratch – which I have never done before and will probably never do – and it was amazing.

People ask me all the time if I have cravings for things. The answer? Sometimes. With all three of my pregnancies I could eat pizza every day of the first trimester. Literally, I never got sick of pizza and would want to eat it all the time. I still like pizza, but could care less about it right now. In the beginning of this pregnancy I ate lots of dry cereal, bagels with cream cheese, and really cheese in any form it would come in. Which is maybe why pizza was so awesome, lots of bread and cheese. There was a week that I was so sick that I think those are the only things I ate. And I really like chocolate and ice cream, but I am pretty sure I liked those even when I was not pregnant ;)

One thing, however, that happened to me this pregnancy that I simply don’t understand is that I have started to L-O-V-E grapefruit. The reason why this is so weird is because I once learned that I am a “super taster”, which means that I started out not liking the three most naturally bitter foods: coffee, grapefruit, and beer. I can remember specific instances where I gagged over the taste of coffee and grapefruit when I was younger, and I have never been able to handle more than a sip of beer. Then Starbuck’s arrived on the scene, added loads of sugar to coffee, and I became a coffee drinker. For the first year I could never drink anything but a caramel Frapuccino, which I think is one of the more sugary drinks on the menu, but I slowly acquired a taste for coffee. Still hated grapefruit, still hate beer.

Lo and behold, I ate a grapefruit a few months ago and it was good. It was better than good. It was delicious. It was so good that I immediately went out and bought several more. I can’t seem to get enough of them right now. I could eat one every day. I kind of want to eat one right now. Mmmm. Maybe pregnancy can change your tastebuds? I don’t know. I still can’t even stand the smell of beer, so it didn’t work on that, but grapefruit is a new passion of mine…at least until this pregnancy is over, then we’ll see if I am still obsessed :)