So, by now we all know my pregnant self is a little lazy about cooking- I keep cooking my own old recipes from posts past, and my food creativity has turned into strange concoctions that nobody would want to eat anyway!  Plus, my taste buds have temporarily changed a little and this third trimester has me craving sweets in a totally unhealthy way.  I’ve also turned somewhat vegetarian this trimester as most meats seem to weigh on my stomach and make me feel gross for hours.  However, I need some protein other than beans and since I went so crazy on eggs in my second trimester, I haven’t been in the mood for them!  So, I’d like to tell you about the fantastic buffalo jerky I found last week!  Also, remember my awesome Le Creuset Giveaway courtesy of CSN stores?  Well, they contacted me again and though the last time I unselfishly chose to do a giveaway, this time, I selfishly chose a diaper bag for me!!!   Any mom out there knows how difficult it is to find a proper diaper bag and most of us end up using gigantic purses anyway…which don’t really cut it when you have a baby on the bottle!

First, I’ll tell you how the CSN deal…ever heard of CSN stores?  I love them- they have a million (ok, I’m exaggerating) different stores with so many different products to choose from, it’s awesome since they somehow have low prices and cheap to free shipping!  Need a bed?  No problem!  My personal favorite is cookware.com – but if you just get on this pageto see everything at once.   Anyway, I will tell you more about my diaper bag saga when I actually receive the bag and review it, but when my son was a baby, I went through FOUR different diaper bags and sadly just wasn’t happy with any of them.  I sold two at a major loss at a garage sale recently, and kept the best one for myself, but I’m not excited about using it again.  The other diaper bag we have is a camo one for my husband, which is tiny and I’ll get into brand names in the next diaper bag post!  Since I’m expecting a girl this time around, I picked this girly diaper bag pictured above - can’t wait to tell you all about it!  (…oopsy, they sold out now, the next diaper bag I choose is this one!)

And onto the Buffalo Jerky!  I love beef jerky, love it.  But it’s so hard to find it minimally processed without nitrites, nitrates, msg and you never know where the meat comes from.  I’ve been on a constant search specifically for good, affordable buffalo jerky with the above attributes, but of course only find very expensive versions on the web and can’t seem to find any here.  So, I was psyched to be at my local nutrition store (No Name Nutrition) and walk by these Tanka Bars and Tanka Bites.    I was somewhat skeptical to buy them since they have cranberry bits inside, and I typically like my jerky peppered, but I figured I’d give it a shot since I’m desperate for some good protein at this point.  Yummyyyy!  The cranberry bits are a nice little chewy addition, but I do wish they’d make a version without cranberry for when that mood strikes.  These bars are only 70 calories and have 7 grams of protein.  Usually they would probably tide me over for awhile but I’m a bit of  a hog recently.  I’m excited to have these on hand for when the baby comes!  These jerky snacks are made by Native Americans and sold in all 50 states.  These may be old news to you, but in Omaha, they are only sold at one store and so it’s easy to see why I missed them before!  Ironic that Omaha is named after a Native American tribe yet it’s difficult to find great Native American goods here.

Remember my review on Jer’s chocolates?  At that point in time, I was just getting over my nasty first trimester stomach and not cooking much – yet craving chocolate, so these natural chocolates were the perfect solution to satisfying my craving!  Know what?  Not much has changed.  I still am craving chocolate and haven’t been cooking as much but have been enjoying a wide variety of foods (I’ll get into that in a bit) – back to the Jer’s.

Here’s a little info from the folks over at Jer’s: to date, Jer’s products have won six International Taste Awards.  They combine crunchy rice crisps, salty pretzels, buttery toffee, or gooey homemade caramel with all-natural premium dark, milk and white chocolates  and all natural peanut butter.  The peanut butter is made from locally made Valencia peanuts, the most nutritious, peanut-sweet and protein-rich available.  They are preservative and filler-free!  You can buy these at Whole Foods, Cost Plus and some other local stores, and online at www.jers.com.  Jers.com is where this company is offering you a 20% off discount using this coupon code hrblog through the end of July!  Yeehaw!  I think these natural chocolates would make a nice gift or also be a great edible centerpiece at dinner parties. 

And for a little pregnancy update:  I’m now 8 months along and my usual food creativity is still mostly put on the back burner of my brain since I’m so darn tired all the time!  When it’s time to eat, I generally want something fairly easy with little prep and clean-up or to go to a restaurant!  Also, this time I’m having a girl, and last time it was a boy.  The cravings are completely different, while last time I wanted lots of burgers, which I normally don’t even like, this time burgers are extra gross and fish and vegetarian meals are what I prefer.  I would say it is not a healthier pregnancy than my last though since I’m still craving lots of chocolate!  I’m not talking about one Jer per day:)  I wish!  The other thing is I’m playing around with one particular baked recipe that I may end up selling after having this baby…and healing, etc… Stay tuned:)

Wow, this is such a coincidence! About three or four years ago, I had a VitaMuffin addiction. I couldn’t find varieties anywhere in Omaha at the time so I’d order directly from their website.   So that means when I was pregnant with O, I was chowing on these things taking one muffin or brownie out of the freezer at a time and letting it thaw and then eating it.  It drove my husband nuts that our basement freezer was full of these boxes.  To be honest, I’m just starting to want to eat them again since I had soooo many while pregnant with O!  And really, I probably should be buying them since I accidentally gained three pounds this past week eating too much Nutella Puppy Chow and other snacks.  Well, I guess I’m going through a pregnancy phase of being really really hungry but it’s got to stop!!!  These would be the perfect solution to my current problem of snacking on the wrong things lately since chocolate sounds good all the time.  They’ve got more flavors now so I couldn’t give you a review on all of them, and I can’t remember everything about all the muffins I was eating at the time.  However, I do remember that I never got sick of the brownies (they didn’t have pom at the time) or the deep chocolate ones. 

And lucky you!  Vitalicious is giving away 12 Deep Chocolate VitaTops to one of my lucky readers in celebration of the fact that right now in the Midwest, Costco is carrying Deep Chocolate VitaTops!  Yay!  I loooooove Costco.  I hear a rumor they are in in the freezer aisles in Omaha, and they are also in IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, OH, WI.  So, if you aren’t lucky enough to win, at least you know for another five weeks or so you can pick them up at Costco.  I’ll be picking some up for myself in hopes of ending my pig-out streak.  One Deep Chocolate VitaTop has 100 calories, 1.5g fat, 6g fiber and 3g protein.  I’m taking my Costco trip tomorrow for some new summer pj’s for my toddler, so I’ll be picking up a box of these!  I can’t wait to see my husband’s reaction when he sees them in the freezer again:)

How to win? (US Residents Only)

• Comment!
• Follow me on Twitter (@healthytasty) & comment that you did it
• Tweet with a link to this post & comment that you did it
• Post about the giveaway & comment with a link to your post
• Winner will be drawn Friday, April 16th – good luck!

Voting is closed, Congrats Coco, you’re the lucky winner!!!  Enjoy your VitaTops:)

Okay, remember that earlier this month I went on the Egg Farm Tour sponsored by The Good Egg Project ?  We wrapped it up with this cooking session!  Isn’t this egg chair awesome?  Also, that’s me on my 31st birthday with a four month pregnant belly, it’s only been a month but I’m pretty sure another baby crawled in there because I look way bigger now!  Of course, the cooking section was my favorite:)  I don’t get to cook near as often at home as I’d like to, so it was nice to be able to finish off my whirlwind egg tour with a cooking session where I didn’t have to prep or clean up and there were no really cute toddlers there to tug my hand away from the kitchen.  So, upon concentrating on our teachers, the first thing I learned was that the 100 notches in a a chef’s hat symbolize the 100 different ways the chef can cook an egg.  We did not learn 100 ways, but quite a few and I’ll share some of them with you!

First up, nutritionist Mary Lee Chin was up to bat chatting with us a little about eggs and nutrition. Eggs have 13 vitamins and minerals that you can read more about here.   Her main focus from the beginning was the importance of breakfast.  She said 50% of kids do not eat breakfast which can lead to concentration, behavioral and nutritional problems.  We need nutrients to learn and the best way to start a day is to eat a nutritious breakfast.  The top excuses kids have for not eating breakfast is that they are not hungry, have no time, or their parents are too busy.  I’m an avid breakfst eater and always feed my child breakfast – so I just never really thought that it’s possible that 50% of people don’t feed their kids breakfast!  Wow!  Obviously, eggs are a fantastic choice for a nutritious breakfast and take no time to make.  However, if the clean-up is an issue for you, at least grab an apple and a yogurt drink or something fast!

Howard Helmer is the Guinness record-holder for fastest omelet maker, so who better to teach us how to make omelets?  He says, use a non-stick 10″ pan on medium heat with a little bit of butter or oil spread around.  Add 2 eggs plus 2 tablespoons of water (the water/milk helps steam to rise making the eggs lighter and fluffier and coats the protein so it’s not dry) and whisk together.  When pan is hot, add the eggs  and allow to spread all over the pan.  With a spatula (plastic turner), constantly “paint” the eggs toward the center and turn the pan to fill in that blank spot with uncooked egg – do this constantly on all sides until the egg starts to settle and cook on top.  When it appears mostly done but slightly watery, it’s time to remove from heat and add whatever you want to the middle..such as cheese, and flip in half!  The residual heat should cook the rest of the egg and it should be done perfectly without being dry.  If you cook the top portion of the omelet to the point where there is no more moisture on top before adding the filling, your omelet will be dry!  Here’s his blog.  You really can’t be in his presence without getting a huge smile on your face -and so it was such a pleasure to be able to learn from the master himself!  OH!  I almost forgot to mention how he made breakfast burritos!  I usually scramble the eggs and put them in a straight line in the center of the tortilla.  Howard made his usual omelet, but instead of adding the filling to the middle and flipping it, he added the filling right in there with the egg (cheese on top).  When the omelet was done, he just put the whole thing on top of the tortilla leaving about an inch of tortilla on the outside circumference.  Then, he folded two sides in a little and rolled up the the rest of the omelet lengthwise.  A bite of egg in every bite!  Far better than my old breakfast burritos.  Why didn’t I think of that?

Anybody watch The Next Food Network Star?  Jeffrey Saad, runner up on season five, was there to help us learn some more egg recipes.  I could definitely see why he made it so far on the show!   He was quite charismatic and held our attention as he whipped up a bunch of different and imaginitive styles of eggs!  He’s jazzed up the most popular egg style I’ve seen lately in food blogs- the egg or toad-in-the-hole by making it making it nach0-style, see recipe here.  It’s a kid-friendly recipe but of course, my toddler still wants everything fairly plain, so I just make the toad-in-the-hole for him with whipped eggs using a car cookie-cutter.  Don’t be afraid of making one of these!  The egg/bread combo is super-easy to flip!  If for some reason you still can’t get it, try baking it in the oven at 350 until the egg is cooked-through.  Voila!  For a more grown-up breakfast sandwich, why not try eggs, tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil sandwiched between two slices of toast?  Yummy!!!  I had the most fun watching Jeffrey teaching some of the other moms how to flip an egg with just the pan and the flick of the wrist.  This is something I do at home but was too embarrassed to try in front of others – just because I figured the pressure would get to me and I’d lose my touch!  What a wimp, but it was fun watching a few egg disasters:)

And for a couple more egg tidbits that friends have since asked me since my last post:  Why don’t our eggs hatch at home?  Hens are able to produce an egg every 24 to 26 hours.  If during that time the hens have mated with a rooster, chances are the egg may be fertilized.  Eggs sold at the store are eggs where a rooster has not be in presence and so they are not fertilized.  However, a hen with a fertilized egg has a natural instinct to sit on the egg and turn it, rarely leaving the nest, keeping it at a perfect temperature and humidity.  My other question I received was - Can I eat an egg with a really-cloudy egg white?  The answer is yes, a cloudy egg white is just a sign that the egg is really fresh!  Bon Appetit!

Now for the giveaway!  Thanks to the folks at The Good Egg Project that sent me on this fabulous informational egg trip,they are giving away TWO sets of this Norpro Egg Rite Egg Timer (featured in a recent food mag article {too bad I can’t remember what it was!} as a MUST HAVE item!) – and this Norpro Silicone 3 Piece Egg/Pancake Ring Set.  This means – two winners win one set each!  I could see my son having lots of fun with different shape pancakes and eggs.  Plus, when I’m not pregnant, I’m planning on making some soft cooked eggs and dipping bread hunks and asparagus spears in it, yummm!  Right now I have a feeling I’d probably end up hard cooking them accidentally and then no dipping for me.  How to enter?

• Comment below
• Follow me on twitter
• Tweet about this giveaway with a link to the post
• Mention this in your blog
• Check out the Incredible Edible Egg recipe portion and tell me what looks the yummiest to you
• If you get creative and think of something fun that I didn’t, please comment again on what you did and I’ll see if it seems fair, probably will allow it:)
• Giveaway ends Friday, April 9th  (US residents only)

I got the amazing opportunity to to to Arizona to learn about eggs. Seriously. The good people at the American Egg Board and The Good Egg Project (via Foodbuzz) brought us to Phoenix where we learned about eggs and toured Hickman Family Farms.  Since that was the place chosen to host our tour; I figured they were the “model” place that hosted tours all the time for those curious about egg production.  Come to find out, that’s not the case!  Hickman’s have given a few press tours, but they are not in the business of giving tours at all.  Ooooohhhh, that made it even more fun!  The first thing that hit me (other than the smell of course) was how CLEAN everything was.  I couldn’t speak for all egg facilities, but this one, most definitely.  The outside fence goes on for miles for biosecurity – you let people in that aren’t authorized and they could contaminate everything.  No bird owners allowed!  Luckily, none of the bloggers attending that day were bird owners so we were all allowed in.  First thing once you walk in the door is stepping on the chlorinated tablet mat, in an attempt to sterilize your dirty shoes.  Not a bad idea for home either with babies dropping their pacifiers on the floor and popping it right back in their mouths!  Then, you must wear a hairnet and a robe thing to cover up your clothes.  I was afraid if I sneezed that I’d get thrown out. 

Of course, the most interesting part was the hens.  In this case, there were a bajillion white hens.  White hens = white eggs, brown hens = brown eggs.  Same nutritional profile, only difference is the brown eggs tend to be a little harder to crack.  So, there are six hens to a cage (I think?  The United Egg Producers animal welfare program says one hen every 67+ inches ) and the cage is slightly tilted towards the front so when they lay their egg, it will slowly fall into the line where the eggs are then whisked away to be cleaned and packaged.  Underneath the cages are long conveyor belts where the excrement goes and gets cleaned out once per day.  The poo doesn’t touch the hens below, don’t worry!  At the front of the cage is the feed, and the back is the water, which means within the pecking order of the hens, the alpha female can’t competely dominate the weaker ones because at some point the alpha will need to visit the opposite end of the cage for either a drink or a bite to eat.  Also, the beaks are trimmed (still plenty of beak left…again, not to worry!) so that the alpha hens don’t tear apart the weaker ones.  Really, the alpha hens will go after the weaker ones and there are casualties, but that’s more prominent when the hens are freely roaming and more difficult to do with a trimmed beak.  Luckily, the hens were on their best behavior when we were there and we didn’t see any hens down at all.  

I typically buy organic eggs, mainly because I don’t want the hormones and pesticides.  Come to find out, they don’t feed  them hormones anyway!  However, those pesky pesticides find their way everywhere.  As a consumer, unless you know the farmer, you don’t really know how happy these Cage Free hens are and how much time they actually get out of the cage, nor do you know if they really want to be out of the cage.  The mortality rates are on average, much higher in the Cage Free environments as well.  Plus, going Cage Free means exposing the hens to mosquitoes and whatnot, which exposes them to disease that is far better contained in the caged hens, obviously.  I’m not too sure why there aren’t any caged hens fed organic feed though…is there?  I don’t think so, but at least you’d have a cheaper egg since you wouldn’t have to pay for the higher mortality rates and the bigger land space of the free range hens.  So, you’d have a cheaper “organic” though not cage free/free range egg.  I hope I just made sense there!   In the meantime, I still buy organic eggs for the pesticide-free reason and hope the hens are treated well.  However, at restaurants, I chow down on conventional eggs without a second thought. 

Most consumers buy Grade A, large, white eggs (about 15 cents an egg).  If you are to spend a little extra on the Omega 3 eggs, you’re just paying more for a hen that ate some flax seed.  Personally, I don’t buy these because I eat plenty of flax/salba/hemp seeds and prefer to get my Omega 3s through fish anyway!  However, if you don’t eat any of those things, you may as well spring a little extra for those Omega 3s!  Oh, and if we all decided that we were going to stop buying conventional eggs and we wanted Cage Free hens, there would be an egg shortage and the cheap cost of eggs would go up up up!  I’m pretty sure that isn’t going to happen…at least in most of the US anyway.  People will do anything for cheep, er…cheaper food. 

Back to Hickman’s tour – this place was so clean and the standards so stringent I felt like I could Pull a Mr. T and start drinking raw eggs for the awesome quality of the protein within and not worry about salmonella.  However, there is still roughly a 1 in 20,000 chance an egg will have salmonella so I refrain myself from chugging them.  Um, and I don’t do that anyway.  However, I love a slice of toast with an egg over-easy and dipping the toast in the yolk.  I’m trying not to do that pregnant but do it anyway sometimes…shhh, don’t tell the nice nutritionist, Mary Lee Chin, that attended the egg tour!  One large egg has about 70 calories and 6 grams of protein.  Most of the nutrition comes in the yolk, click to learn about nutrients and pregnancy benefits.  You can eat an egg a few weeks past its sell-by date and be just fine (so stop throwing them out)- each state has different requirements.  When egg whites start to get watery, it just means that the protein chains in the egg white are breaking down, but there is nothing wrong with the egg.  You can still eat them, but these eggs are best for baking.  Oops, I deviated from the tour talk again – when they took us into their cooling room, where the eggs go after being cleaned and packed, they told as a very interesting fact!  Sometimes, the eggs at the grocery stores feel a little warm still.  That’s not because the store is doing a poor job of chilling them (I hope not!), it’s because the eggs are so fresh they didn’t have time to be completely chilled by the time they made it to the store.  Wow!  Can’t get too much fresher than that unless you have your own chickens!  On average, the time it takes from the hen to lay the egg to when it gets to the store is one to four days.  That is it.  Sweet.  Makes me want to open every carton of eggs at the store and feel for their warmth…except then I’d be contaminating the cleanliness that those egg farmers work so hard to maintain.  Beware: if you are at a grocery store and an egg farmer sees you feeling up those eggs…he/she will cringe with disgust!  You can bet the shells are clean when they get to the store, but you can’t help what consumers do once it hits the store! 

Speaking of cleanliness, there is even a USDA inspector permanently at the egg farm inspecting random batches of eggs!  Nothing goes to waste and for those eggs that aren’t getting sold in cartons, there is also another building where they hard-cook eggs and peel them- as well as a cracking and/or separating room.  Typically, the medium-sized eggs are heading up this section.  Egg size is entirely due to the age of the hen.  A younger hen will lay a medium egg and an older hen will lay a jumbo egg – and large is the in-between.  There is nothing nutritionally different about those eggs either (except of course a larger egg will have a percentage more protein, calories and nutrients and a medium hen will have a percentage less, but only a proportional difference).

The Hickman family is truly a stand-up, welcoming, classy family.  We met almost the whole family, with Clint leading the tour portion.  Here is Clint on an ad for Sesame Street!  I was so impressed by their graciousness, honesty, and community involvement, that if I lived in Arizona, I’d be sure to look for their eggs!  However, since I live in Omaha (Nebraska for those who don’t know!), that is not possible since they don’t ship their eggs this far.  I guess local is better anyway:)  We’ve got lots of wonderful farmers in Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa to provide us fresh, quality eggs.

I am leaving so much out, I’m sure, but you can click on any of these other attending bloggers and check to see what they said!  I will also have a follow up post about the cooking portion of the trip, the cool stars we met, and a giveaway with that one:)  Also, if you’re hungry for more pictures, here’s a link for you!

• MOMformation
• This Mama Cooks
• All American Mommy
• Parents With Style
• The Mama Zone
• Double Bugs
• The Eclectic Cook
• Family Fresh Cooking

When the nice people over at barstools.com (a CSN store) asked me if I wanted to do a giveaway on one of their sites, I said absolutely!  They sell a ton of barstools on that site, but they also have an affiliate store that seemed like a perfect fit for anyone that reads my blog- cookware.com.  I love that there are so many items to choose from and shipping is either cheap or free, depending on what you spend, not the weight of the product.  After all, the giveaway is for Le Creuset and we all know Le Creuset is HEAVY!   I love Le Creuset products…who doesn’t? 

• Option 1) Le Creuset 1.5 Quart Tea Kettle in Dijon (shown above)  I LOVE this color, what a fun compliment to a kitchen!
• Option 2) Le Creuset 3 Quart Sangria Pitcher in CherryI also LOVE sangria…drank too many of them while I was in Spain.  Salud!
  

  Le Creuset 3qt Sangria Pitcher

• Option 3) Le Creuset 4 Quart Medium Canister in Cherry Sweet!  I need a few of these to replace my old “stainless” canisters with fingerprints on them.  This looks much nicer.
  

  Le Creuset Medium Canister

   The many ways to enter: …for shipping in US and Canada

• Comment below and tell me which you prefer
• Follow me on Twitter @healthytasty
• Tweet about this giveaway
• Mention this on your blog
• Mention this on your Facebook page (I’ll just have to trust you:)
• The winner will be chosen Thursday, March 4th via random.org

Thank you barstools.com, cookware.com and CSN!

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED.  Please check Egg Salad & a Winner post.

Here’s just a quickie- you may remember my Take on Runza Casserole from awhile back.  I entered it into a Pepperidge Farm’s Puff Pastry contest with Foodbuzzand am now a finalist!  I’m a little late on this post- since they posted their finalists Tuesday and I only figured it out yesterday (Friday).  Of course, I haven’t been on the computer as much lately since my stomach is still a little queasy due to the little baby in there and so didn’t check my twitter until yesterday to see the Foodbuzz announcement tweets!  Darn!  I could use some helpful votes! 

I promise – the casserole is delicious and I’ve had lots of emails from people who have made it that loved it!  Click on VOTE and select Main Dishes then find the Runza Casserole, select Vote and in the lower-right “Submit My Vote” and you’re done!  They don’t ask for any personal information so it’s fast and simple.  Thank you for helping!  And once again, I promise to get cooking soon- I’m 12 weeks along right now so feeling better, but still not quite there yet.  My last pregnancy I felt magically fantastic the day I hit 13 weeks!  Not sure if it’ll happen quite the same way but hopefully, a little fantastic would be nice.

UPDATE!  Feb 6,  Thank you so much to everyone who voted and supported me on this:)  We find out winners April 15th!  I’ll be checking but for now, I’m just happy to have made it that far!  (I’d have updated this sooner but my computer wasn’t working for a week)

Okay, so now I am 12 weeks – one week away from second trimester and hopefully bliss compared to the last many many weeks!  I’m still not able to cook (way too stinky, the thought is gross) -but luckily I can eat out at most restaurants and have a few options that sound good to me.

Compared to before- where only a certain food item from a certain place would do for days at a time – I’ll indulge you in some of these things!  I wish I could say that I am being a model pregnant person and only craving healthy foods- but it’s just not the case.  It’s such a struggle because I would try to eat healthier (ie, not the cravings) and then I would physically get sick!  It was nuts!  Luckily, I am definitely eating healthier now.  My doctor said, when you are first pregnant many women need more fat in their diet – myself definitely included!
The cravings all started before I even knew I was pregnant- I didn’t really want to eat much of anything but Amy’s Indian Vegetable Korma and then sometimes their Indian spinach and cheese meal.  That was for about almost a week of lunches.  I’m not so sure if frozen meals are really that healthy when eaten every day since I don’t have the patience to put them in the oven.  I know there is a study going on now about the result of microwaved foods in pregnant women and their fetuses/babies.  I’ll be interested to see the results-though it will be too late when the study comes out!  Still not knowing I’m pregnant, the next week I was all about Amy’s cheese tamales and also the black bean tamales with salsa verde!  They were both heavenly and just so delicious!  I highly recommend you try those tamales!  I see they are coming out with a vegetable one on their website but have yet to see that at my local Targets (where the Amy’s foods are by far the cheapest!)  Then the strangest craving I had, at this point wondering if I was pregnant, was the maple glazed cake donuts with nuts.  This was really the only kind of doughnut that I liked when I was a kid.  As a little girl, I’d just eat off the top part, including the top half of the donut, and then throw the bottom part away.  I haven’t done this in years so when I really wanted one, I knew something was up!  Anyway, I figured I’d pick up some totally unhealthy donuts and bring O a few donut holes- he’s almost 2 1/2 now and he’s never had a donut!  So, what the heck, how will he like them?  I put three on his plate to see what he’d do.  He takes one tiny bite from each one and then says, “all done!”  Wow!  I felt pretty proud:)  All the while every single morning for breakfast I was eating a slice of buttered toast with a fried egg on top.  I did this when I was pregnant with O as well without knowing.  Strange!

Then it hit.  Sickness.  It’s like I had the flu but for one week would only eat lasagna (who eats lasagna when they are sick?) from this one restaurant in Omaha- Pasta Amore.  With toasted Rotella (local Italian bread) heavy hearth rolls.  That really isn’t too bad since there are some great nutrients in lasagna – but it’s so heavy and for almost every meal is a little much for anyone!  The week prior to that was probably the weirdest craving for sure: combination fried rice, no shrimp – and egg rolls.  This craving happened over Christmas week when we had major snowstorms and kept getting trapped in our house and/or neighborhood!  I’m supposed to be in the Christmas spirit and everything but pretty much daily I was just pissed off (hormones) that either I couldn’t get out of the house to get more Chinese food (they don’t deliver in Omaha) or I was freaking out that the Chinese food rations would run out!  Normally, I never really want to eat Chinese food and I never order egg rolls!  But egg rolls in the sweet and sour dipping sauce was amazing - which is hard to imagine when absolutely no other food sounded good at the time and I felt on the verge of being sick at any moment.  Low energy and nauseus plus Chinese food obsession was a strange week.  Then I moved on to steak salads.  I had to get them at Pepperjax grill since the weather was too bad for me to go too far and still wasn’t cooking.  For breakfast it was Honey Bunches of Oats.  What?  Totally not my type of cereal – doesn’t have the nutritional requirements or flavor I typically want, but I saw this old lady at Costco with a huge box of them and suddenly I had to have them!   Oh, I almost forgot the worst thing of all that I wish I could have removed from my diet – but I couldn’t help myself and bought Munchies.  Doritos, no matter how nostalgically yummy they are, have hydrogentaed fats and are not good for baby.  However, it was something I just had to have.  Sigh.  Wish I could’ve removed that craving especially but the pregnant belly/mind doesn’t care about anything- it’s a crazy short-term addictive personality!  Oh yeah, the other really bad thing that I’m ashamed of but couldn’t seem to help myself: Arby’s curly fries with cheese dipping sauce.  A 5th grade favorite come back to haunt me as a 30 year old pregnant mom.  Sigh- luckily, the really bad stuff didn’t last all that long- most of the cravings were at least somewhat nourishing!  Malts are full of calcium:)   Okay, I’m being honest here and am fully aware of epigenetics and the results of what you eat on the fetus – so if you have anything negative to say, please skip it – I already feel awful about it!  I think the really sickness lasted about a month with periods of eating crap but mostly eating heavier, yet healthy-ish foods.  Oops- I left out Italian style thin-crust pizza.  I think that was a week or a week and a half!  Pizza is just tasting good again.  See, when you only one want food for a few days to a week, after you’re done with it, it sounds pretty gross for quite some time.  I should note that for my friends who normally eat unhealthy foods, when they get pregnant, they start craving fresh crunchy vegetables and tons of fruits.  I think your body wants what it normally doesn’t get – healthy or not so much.

Luckily, a couple of weeks ago I went to Vegas.  Something about the oxygen pumped into the casinos (or something else? ) made me actually feel better for a long weekend and I was able to eat like a semi-normal person!  I had my first healthy dose of fruit cravings and also fish.  We went to Bartolotta at the Wynn and it was probably the best meal I’ve ever had in my life!  Don’t listen to the negative reviews- order seafood and use the sauce they suggest.  This food is seriously Italian food, but I can’t say if sometimes they have an off- night.  The rabbit appetizer is delicious.  Thank you Vegas!

I’ve been back from Vegas for a couple of weeks and though I don’t feel as well, I can still eat a little bit more normally and I’m still eating lots of fruit.  Yay!!!!  My only unhealthy craving nowadays is milk chocolate dipped in crunchy peanut butter – but for me, that’s a little more normal!  Usually, it’s dark chocolate, but whatever, pregnant me wants milk chocolate.  So be it!  Actually, I lied, I want various Girl Scout cookies but it makes me so mad that still the cookies have trans fats!  C’mon people!  Just remove them already!  And all the fake stuff and the high fructose corn syrup!  I wonder if the ingredients have changed since I was a kid or if I also grew up with all the trans fats?

Oh yes, vitamins, darn it, vitamins stink.  Not only that, taking them made me get even sicker- no matter what time of day or what brand, the pre-natals made me sick.  When I was pregnant with O, I was able to take gummies- but this time, the smell has made me sick as well.  I have to not breathe when I give O his gummy vitamins and then wash my hands immediately.  So, needless to say, I haven’t been able to take them every single day, but as often as I could get them down!  That’s getting better too but still smelling and swallowing the big pill makes me feel gross.  And there goes being active as well!  Every day that I get a lot of work done and move around too much I end up paying for it big time by having a huge wave of sick and tiredness.  That’s getting better too- though not completely gone.  Can’t wait until the weather gets warmer and I can take long walks outside.  Bliss!

Anyway, this could have bored the crap out of you and I’m sorry, but if you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably been pregnant, are trying to get pregnant, or are pregnant right now (or maybe trying to understand your crazy wife or friend).  I wish for you that your experience is/was better the first trimester- though I know a few people with far worse experiences -hospital stays due to sickness and/or dehydration.  Constant vomiting, etc…  However, most of my friends have had similar to better experiences and luckily, the worst part for most people (and I’m hoping me again!) is over after the first trimester.  Yay!  Here’s to not being a hermit anymore, having more energy for my son, and cooking again!

Paul Smith Limited Edition Evian Bottle

All you foodies into fashionable impressive presentations will like this.  In fact, I feel a little divaish just talking about this:)  I have to admit, I have a hard time with presentation.  I put so much time and effort into the flavor of the food- I often forget how to make it look pretty.  Er, sometimes I just don’t want to take the extra time on looks.  But I always appreciate and notice when someone else tries to make nice impressions and it really works!  You go into a creative atmosphere where everything flows together and some effort was put into appearance, and it just seems to help the party feel like a party and also get a nice mood going.  Ambiance.

A friend of mine who is an interior decorator came by the other day.  She’s attempting to help us finish our house nicely- tie everything in together and attempt to make it NOT look like a cute kid took over the whole place (he really did).   She brought me a bottle of this Paul Smith Evian thinking it might be of interest to me

Every year about this time, Evian has a famous designer or two design a limited edition water bottle.  You may have heard the the British designer Paul Smith.  My husband has some of his cologne and it smells fantastic!  The stripes on this year’s Evian bottle are basically his signature stripes, which are on the cologne bottle as well as his shopping bags.  It’s a nice and fun whimsical look that will effortlessly add a little pizazz to your gatherings.  However, this fun and different look does not come without a hefty price tag for water.  At $13.95 per 750ml bottle or $118 a case – you’d better make sure wherever you’re serving this water is worth it!  In fact, per bottle, this is more expensive than my usual wine!  Since my husband and I are huge wine-lovers, we prefer to buy some excellent yet affordable Italian table wines and treat ourselves when we’re in the mood.  Of course, I  usually serve nicer wines to guests or for special occasions, so the same holds true for water presentation- whether you’re putting a nice pitcher full of water with thinly sliced cucumbers on the table or this Paul Smith Evian bottle – it’s probably a little something different to show you’ve put some thought into it.

Anyone remember the movie Reality Bites?  It’s from 1994 with Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke.  I think it was Janeane’s character that said, “Evian is naive spelled backwards.”  Love that movie.  Well, the quote is true, but it’s still a nice bottle and conversation piece!  Is there anything special you do with your water to impress guests?  I usually don’t get past lemons or cukes!

Photo by Cecily Upton

I graduated high school in 1997 – and since grade school, I always brought my own lunch.  Why?  Because the school food was nasty AND unhealthy.  Even as a 1st grader – I knew this food was not near as good as the stuff I ate at home.  I was just lucky enough that my parents could afford to make me my own lunches that were relatively healthy.  I am aware that some school districts out there have already taken matters into their own hands in favor of working together with farms, planting their own gardens, and hiring innovative chefs.  But for the most part – the rest of us are stuck in Lunch Lady Land.  My son is only two – but I’m already not looking forward to sending him off to school to eat the cafeteria  food.  See, I’m a girl (obviously), and we didn’t have any qualms about bringing our own lunch to school.  But boys (I’m remembering my high-school)- they’re macho.  They don’t want to walk around carrying a brown paper sack or worse-yet, a reusable thermal bag!  How embarrassing!?!  So, many of those cool boys end up eating the gross food- not liking it, but shoving it into their mouths anyway so they don’t have to deal with bringing their own bags.  Even if they’re not embarrassed about bringing their own lunches, they didn’t want to have to deal with making a lunch – it’s just too much to think about.  In high school- my boyfriend (now husband) – used to sit by me during lunchtime and share my lunch because it tasted so much better than what he could’ve bought!  Then, he also got to save his lunch money and use it for CDs or something.  Worked out pretty slick for him:) 

And then there’s the vending machine.  I’m not anti-vending machine.  Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea to strictly prohibit things from kids.  My thinking: I’m sure we all know the party-animals in college who gained tons of weight and went a little crazy with alcohol.  They almost certainly came from super-strict parents who not only didn’t let them do anything, but also made them eat all healthy foods all the time.  I wish I could run around and make sure O only ate super-healthy stuff.  But, I know if I say no when we’re out and about, I’m just creating a monster!  He gets the occasional trans fat food (gasp!!!!) and whatnot, but otherwise, he eats pretty well and I’m relatively low-key in public considering the internal turmoil:)  I’m healthy and I know growing up I had my share of the stuff!  But there are a million ways to add better, more natural choices to the vending machines-with food and drinks.  

Anyway, O goes to a pre-preschool type of program once per week for 2 1/2 hours.  In those 2 1/2 hours, a parent is in charge of bringing a snack but it has to be peanut free.  The list of peanut free foods is mostly empty calorie, artificial, processed crap.  Except for fruit, yogurt and cheese.  Most moms, having to feed the whole class snacks, go the cheap, nutrition-free processed route.  Thinking it’s more practical on their budgets, plus, a healthy alternative to what they may have otherwise brought in to class was made in a facility that processes peanut, so it’s out.  Already, I’m seeing that we need a list of healthy peanut-free foods for situations like these so that we can bring our kids healthy snacks.  I couldn’t find a comprehensive healthy list anywhere – but I’m assuming one exists somewhere.  By healthy, in this respect, I’m just asking for no preservatives, no artificial coloring, flavors, no trans-fats, no high-fructose corn syrup- or any suspect sweeteners for that matter, antibiotic free meat and pesticide free meet and produce would be nice as well -and whatever else I’m not thinking of at this moment that should obviously be added to this list!  The wonderful thing is, the big food companies are starting to catch on. 

Unfortunately, our Child Nutrition Act only allows $1 per meal which alone is obviously not enough for schools to prepare healthy meals, even fast food restaurants laden with cheap fats don’t often make money on their $1 menus- this program is coming up for reauthorization from Congress in early 2010 and if enough people voice their opinion – then we CAN make a difference.  So at least if they change this program it’ll actually be something that can help reduce health costs in the future.  Ta da!  Tackle the problem before it becomes one with the young kids – and reverse some damage already caused.  For more information and to see what  YOU can do,  click here: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/campaign/time_for_lunch/get_involved/ for how to get involved – how to be a voice and write a letter to your congressperson.  There are programs for kids to write in school as well as a project (I don’t think they need to be afraid they’ll only get broccoli from now on – I’m pretty sure the choices will still be vast!).   And to sign a petition click HERE.  I’m going to write an email letter.  Are you in?

Also, if you have any great peanut-free lists of healthy options, I’d really like that so that I can pass it on to my son’s teachers and maybe get better “peanut-free approved” list of foods for him!  Thanks!