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 Western Nebraska and Eastern 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

If you don’t know much about where they come from and only see propoganda videos, it’s pretty interesting to see what most people don’t get to see.  Anyway, details on that another day and back to the egg salad!  Currently, I love how egg yolks contain choline, which is important for everyone but especially pregnant women and nursing mothers.  It helps to reduce the risk of brain and spinal cord defects in the baby.  And you pregnant women thought only folic acid and omega 3’s were extra important!

I lightened up this egg salad  with Greek yogurt.  If you like that idea, check out my Sonoma Chicken Salad!  I still like to add a little bit of mayo for flavor, though I use the organic olive oil version – tastes spectacular.  No, I do not make my own and I don’t think I use it enough to be interested…yet!  To lighten it up even more, you could toss some of the yolks, but I kept them in for the nutrients.  Also, some people chop up a ton of onions for their egg salad, and to me that ruins it.  Too many crunchy onions and after I’m done eating- I still eat far more than I would have just to get rid of the onion taste in my mouth.  It sticks around forever!  However, a hint of the onion is nice so I slice up the green part of green onions and put a little in there for balance.  Personally, I don’t use the stalky white part of the green onion because it gives more of the onion crunch that sticks with me all day.

I was in the mood for a nice and classic egg salad.  Nothing fancy, but a great classic done my way.  Easter is coming up… what are you going to do with your leftover eggs?

I was going to town on this after making it by dipping cucumber slices in the bowl.

Hey!  You may be here to see who the allbarstools.com Le Creuset giveaway winner is!  Random.org picked #35…congratulations Christine!!!

My Oat and Almond Flour Pancakes were delicious and I made them over and over for awhile there.  I took a little hiatus, made them again from my same recipe, and they were dry!  I think I didn’t used to pack the almond flour and now I do; but I promise to get back to those soon and make a note of what to do so they are not dry.  If you choose to make those in the meantime, please make sure the batter doesn’t seem dry before you put them on the griddle if it is, just add more coconut water and then go for it!  This time around, I really wanted to make something with coconut flour and buckwheat flour and was surprised at how great they turned out.  Moist and super-fluffy!

What's this? Look below!

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.

When the nice folks over at Jer’s offered to send me some chocolates, I said no thank you, I don’t like chocolate.

Actually, are you kidding me?  I LOVE chocolate, I don’t really trust those that don’t like chocolate – obviously, there is something wrong there.  Then, when you combine chocolate with peanut butter, it’s an even greater flavor explosion!  Of course I said yes!  What I love about these chocolates is that all the ingredients are easy to understand and I know what I’m putting into my body.  That’s difficult (or impossible?) to find in the larger, mass-produced chocolates.  There’s none of the yucky stuff that bothers me the most…hydrogenated oils.

The day I received my chocolates in the mail, I tore open the box (literally) and took my first bite of an Incrediball,  crispy peanut butter filled chocolate.  Oops- it was frozen, so I’m not sure about you, but I prefer my chocolate room temperature in the summer, so the 25 degree day sort of rained, er…snowed on my parade.  Then I had to practice some patience so that I could properly taste them.  A good while later, I tried them all one bite at a time.  The balls were surprisingly light and airy.  I believe I tried two Incrediballs, one milk chocolate  and the other white chocolate – the third was the Cara Mella, which of course added some caramel to the center with the peanut butter.  These were my absolute favorite!  Yummy !  Of course, this pregnancy has me craving chewy or nougat based centers with my chocolates, so normally, I’m not sure if this would have been my favorite.  As it is right now; I wish I had a bunch more of those!

I also received a few different flavors of peanut brittle bites, which really tastes like toffee.  It’s not the light, traditional crunchy peanut brittle with the obvious peanut wholes and halves inside – it’s packed hard and has a nice crunchiness set-off by a chewiness like a toffee.  Toffee is my husband’s absolute favorite – and trust me, this is good toffee!  I’ve bought him some expensive toffees before that really were too hard and burnt, but these were just right!  There are four flavors, coconut with dark chocolate, pretzel bites with milk chocolate, toffee with dark, and cayenne with milk.  Normally, I’d be excited to try the cayenne sine sometimes it’s fun to have a little heat in your chocolate, but my pregnant self can’t get me to try them just yet…  The coconut flavor is dusted with the coconut on the outside (you can see it in the picture), which lends a nice, mild coconut flavor to the candy.  The pretzel ones have a hint of saltiness which rounds out the sweet chocolate nicely, and the toffee ones taste just like they say!  I keep finding myself popping the coconut ones.

And to those of you checking in for a pregnancy update, I’m feeling even better but as usual, certain foods sound far better than others.  Right now, I’m really wanting fried or baked “fried” fish.  Also, I even really feel like sardines.  I love sardines but whenever I think about them my husband is around and out of politeness, I wait for him to not be here since he doesn’t like the smell when I open up the can!  But when he’s gone I forget:(  Another thing that keeps sounding fantastic is fried eggs- I really want one on top of some pasta for some reason.  Then, there’s the chewy chocolate – I’d like more chocolate with a chewy center but I ate it all!  And still, I really haven’t been cooking much – though we’ve had some work events and things at night over dinner that have prevented it.  On top of that, my little boy has been sick and really doesn’t want to eat much but cheese crackers.  They must feel good on his tummy.  I wish I could force-feed him some better foods but I know he’ll get better and eat normally again!

And a little announcement: there is a GIVEAWAY coming up real soon, stay tuned:)

Disclaimer: I received free product from Jer’s

Anytime I’m either in Italy or at an authentic Italian restaurant with meat and gravy over polenta (either roast or rabbit), my mouth instantly waters and I want to order it!  Luckily, either my Dad or husband always orders it, so I can try something else equally delicious and we can all share.  During our Vegas trip last month – one restaurant has a fantastic appetizer portion of rabbit and gravy over polenta and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Because I have a freezer in our garage full of cow, I decided to go ahead and throw this together.  I’m sooo glad that I did since we loved it and I know what I will be doing with a few more of those roasts in the freezer!  As a kid, I didn’t like the traditional American style roast with potatos and carrots.  I like it now but still prefer the Italian style most days.  I made it with extra liquids on purpose for some leftover gravy to share over more fresh polenta!

If you’ve read this post, Easy Purple Polenta Meal , then you’ll know my son finds purple foods intriguing and will eat it.  I would’ve made this with purple polenta but unfortunately, I couldn’t find the Bob’s Red Mill blue cornmeal this time!  That resulted in my son not eating this when I know he would have had the polenta been purple!  Urggghhhh!  Next time I see it, I’m buying a few of them.

Ingredients:

• 3 shallots, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 TB olive oil
• 1 TB butter
• 5 lbs bone-in chuck roast (or whatever roast you have on hand)
• 6 oz tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth (less if you want less gravy)
• 1 cup dry red wine (I used a Chianti)
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 16 oz mushrooms
• cornstarch for gravy (or whatever method you prefer) -about 2 TBs dissolved in about 1/4 cup of water
• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal (I used roughly ground cornmeal which takes longer, but you can use the fine ground stuff as well)
• 4 cups chicken broth + 2 cups water, more or less
• parmesan or pecorino romano

Method:

• Set crockpot to low (8 or 10 hours)
• Add olive oil to bottom of crockpot and then add garlic and shallots
• Add broth, red wine, herbs and tomato paste, stir
• Heat butter on stovetop pan and sear all sides of roast, (salt and pepper roast)
• Add roast to the crockpot
• Mid-day, if you are able to come home, add mushrooms – I did this about 4 1/2 hours into cooking so that the mushrooms didn’t get too tiny, omit this step if you can’t come home and just add the mushrooms
• For the thick-cut cornmeal, about an hour and a half prior to serving, I like to soak fora half hour, it seems to make cooking time go by faster without having to stand around and stir for quite as long.  Then, one hour prior to serving, set heat to medium and stir with whisk.  When bubbles start to form, turn down heat until the bubbles are minimal- continue stirring with a wooden spoon almost constantly.  When the mixture becomes tough- keep adding little bits of water at a time.  Continue cooking and stirring until coarseness of the grain goes away and it starts to pull in from the pan.  I think the thicker-cut cornmeal has a better texture, but you have to cook it long enough so that it’s not grainy!
• For the finer-cut cornmeal, similar instructions but it should only take 30-40 minutes
• Season polenta with grated parm or romano or both, and invert onto a plate (or do it like I do, just serve out of the pot so I don’t have to do another dish!)
• When meat is done, remove from the crock pot and put on a plate
• Slowly stir in cornstarch mixture with a whisk or spoon until desired thickness of gravy is formed.  I’m lucky, my mom was over this day and makes the best gravy ever, she did this part for me!  When done, return meat to crockpot.
• Serve the meat and red wine mushroom gravy over the polenta, top with more grated cheese if you wish!

By the way…excuse my picture- I meant to take a beautiful shot of how the meat fell off the bone and demonstrate how tender it was…but then our stomachs got the better of us and we ate all the good stuff in no time.  This picture is the last we could salvage of the meat!  It still smelled divine though…

I was super-excited to receive some (lots) of frozen meals and treats to try from Amy’s!   See, I had posted a picture from my pregnancy cravings part and in the process of getting their permission to post it, we had a nice little chat and I got some food!  Though I am now officially at week 14 and feeling better- I’m still fairly particular on what I’m in the mood to eat.  The things I’ve tried so far aren’t necessarily the same things I’d normally go for first, but that’s okay, it’s fun!  Currently, I’m craving a good white cake or cupcakes- which is strange since I normally never want cake – I’d pass up a wedding cake any day for a brownie or carrot cake, but here I am, it’s all I can think about.  Wedding cake style cupcakes is what I’m obsessing about- will have to figure something out after this!  But…uh…not healthy.  Amy’s is!

• Roasted Vegetable Lasagna (kosher, corn free, tree nut free, soy free): Delicious!  (not to be confused with their Garden Vegetable lasagna, which I have not tried but a vegetarian friend raves over that one)  It’s got a fantastic blend of tomato sauce and cream sauce that melt together quite nicely with the roasted vegetables.  Since eating this one – I can’t stop thinking about how I’d like another one asap.  Also, there’s a nice flavorful crunch to finish it off from the bread crumbs on top. 
• Mexican Casserole(Gluten-free, kosher, soy free, peanut free):  I love this one, however, my husband tends to steal it before I get to it.  That’ s okay though since he’s super-picky with his frozen meals and this is one of the few he’ll eat without complaining about it!  The corn tortillas mixed with the sauce (in this case, a great chili flavor), reminds me of my favorite Mexican dish when done well: Chilaquiles.  Though it really isn’t like chilaquiles, you can’t beat the tortillas in the casserole!
• Kid’s Meal Baked Ziti(gluten/dairy/cholesterol/lactose free, kosher, vegan):  I’ve actually been buying this one for quite some time now.  It’s funny because I think after the third time eating it I realized it was gluten free!  What a huge bonus- the noodles are fantastic, you really can’t tell they are gluten-free at all.  It has a nice mild sauce for kids.  My son’s favorite part is the apples, which he does not allow me to eat any of.  I love that there is broccoli on the plate – usually my son takes one bite of the broccoli and spits it out, but at least he keeps doing it, one day he’ll eat it!  And the foccacia is good for me to dip up the leftover sauce.  Yes, we always end up sharing as he only seems to eat half of the ziti, which is fine by me.  Also, there is a nice little picture to color on on the inside of the box, as well as a temporary tattoo or little gift for the kid.  How cute! 
• Baked Ziti Bowl(gluten/dairy/cholesterol/lactose free, vegan, tree nut free, kosher): Similar to the kids meal ziti but with the addition of peas.  It’s a large bowl of ziti, very mild flavor. In this case, I also split this with my son and this time he ate plenty of peas, very nice! 
• Mexican Tamale Pie(gluten/diary/cholesterol/soy/tree nut/lactose free, kosher, vegan, lower-fat): I’ve been buying this one forever.  It has a more mild sauce than the Mexican Casserole, actually, I wish I could get that sauce in this dish!  Anyway, I love the small portion size and the fact that it’s only 150 calories.  I eat this on the days where I am literally eating  like a hog and just cannot stop myself.  I’m feeling like  I need a whole meal at 2:30 after a large lunch and can’t figure out why I’m not full and must eat.  When a granola bar just won’t do.  I’d never eat this for a meal, definitely not filling enough, but it tricks my stomach into thinking I’ve had more of a meal rather than just a snack when otherwise I could’ve been a huge piggy.  This has saved me many times.
• Shepherd’s Pie (gluten/dairy/cholesterol/lactose/tree nut/corn free, kosher, vegan):  Same deal as the Tamale Pie, it’s a perfect stomach tricking snack when I want a meal at inappropriate times!  I won’t lie, I prefer pub-style shepherd’s pie with lamb or cottage pie with ground beef, but hey, this is a fantastic and healthy snack and it’s served me well many times. 
• Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake (gluten/dairy/cholesterol/lactose/tree nut/corn free, vegan, kosher):  First I’ll say that I love reading the stories on the side of the boxes.  I read them all.  I’m kind of a sucker for these stories and hope they’re all true!  This goes for whatever story comes on my food, if there’s a story, I’m curious because then I feel like I know a little more about where the food came from.  Anyway, for me, this cake needed something, like strawberries, a little something moist and sweet to add to the flavor. 
• Orange Cake (dairy/cholesterol/lactose/tree nut/corn/soy free, vegan, kosher):  This moist and heavy cake has a fantastic orange flavor with a little nuttiness to it.  As I write this, I’m planning on making some butter-cream frosting to top it off.  I know this will be snarfed up by my family very soon…or if it isn’t, I will gobble it up myself, no problem!

Here’s something really cool.  You know how when Oprah likes your product, you’re pretty much gold?  Well, Oprahs’ producers did a nice video about Amy’s founders, click here for the link.  You get to meet Amy’s parents who tell you how the concept all started (I’ve read the boxes, I already knew:) and you actually also get to meet Amy- who is now a beautiful young woman very proud of her parents’ accomplisments.  Watching the video, it’s pretty obvious why I trust this brand and since they came out in stores here; it has always been my number one frozen meal company!

I love how sensitive Amy’s is to people’s various food sensitivities as well as being mostly organic!  I feel like by feeding this to my family, I’m not going to stir-up any potential allergies by removing some of the major allergens in the diet beforehand.  My philosophy, a little bit of everything is fine.  Though I do not know if my son has food allergies yet, I wouldn’t want to over-do the wheat and other allergens just in case, since my husband does have a wheat allergy (among many other food allergies).  Also, I always think of those stories of the kids whose parents thought they had autism, but changed their diets to gluten and casein free which basically solved their behavioral problems.  Okay, so maybe it’s not that cut and dry, but I think of those kids when I read the ingredients in many of these Amy’s items.  I’ve got lots more to review so expect a round II!!!

Disclosure: I received free product from Amy’s

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!

I apologize for not doing anything with my blog for the past month!  However, I just haven’t been feeling well and so I really have hardly cooked anything except some nachos and a steak salad.  Otherwise, it’s been almost all restaurants and/or takeout.  Lots of cereal and berries as well.  My poor family!  Why have I not done anything for a month, including checking other blogs?  Because yes, I am pregnant.  And unless the particular food item is something I happen to be craving that second, it just looks nasty and I don’t even want to think about it!

It’s pretty awful to be a crazy food person like me and then not want to think about food except the craving.  In fact, I think I’ll probably write a crazy pregnant lady cravings post here soon.  Anyway, I normally wouldn’t be announcing my pregnancy this early (because I’m a totally paranoid pregnant person- so please send some warm fuzzies to my tummy please), but it’s just not right to leave this blog lonely and I’m beginning to feel slightly better.  I’m 10 weeks along, so I am beginning to be able to eat more like a normal person, though still pretty darn skewed.

When the nice people over at Attune contacted me (A MONTH AGO), I was soooo excited to  try the new flavors I could hardly wait!  It was pretty funny timing too because the last time I went crazy buying Attune bars was when I was pregnant with my first!  They are chock-full of probiotics with fiber to boot, and when I’m pregnant, pills are just revolting and chocolate is nice.  Plus, they are gluten-free!!!  A fantastic and natural compromise to helping my stomach get through the next nine months or so!  I waited patiently and finally, received them at my house.  Oh boy, it was pretty late when I got them so I thought I’d wake up the next morning and rip into them all and take at least a bite of each.  Little did I know, the next morning I woke up feeling awful, sick and not wanting food at all, and then wanting very specific things and that’s it.  Knowing it was probably the pregnancy, I figured I could just try them in a week or so.  Unfortunately, the darn yucky bug stuck with me for a month.  It’s still with me but not as bad.  Last pregnancy, I felt gross the first trimester but nothing like this.  Anyway, in the meantime I received a few more items to cook with and review from other companies and I feel just awful about not using them yet!!!  It’ll all be featured eventually though, just later than I thought.

I’ll start with my original and favorite: chocolate crisp!  There is something comforting about eating the chocolate crisp.  It has a nice sweetness and though the Attune bars are stored in the fridge and I usually eat my chocolate at room-temp, they eventually melt in your mouth if you give them time.  You could also just take them out of the fridge for awhile if you know you’re going to want one.  The probiotics survive best refrigerated so I also keep mine in the fridge.  I think the milk chocolate crisp must bring me back to being a kid.  They’re simple, sweet, and good for you.  I think I would’ve been happy with a case full of these:)  However, it took me awhile (until yesterday) to finally try the rest of the flavors because I was not in the mood for them.  What kind of chocolate have I been in the mood for?  Chewy nougat covered with milk chocolate.  Not offered by Attune yet but maybe someday!

The almond milk chocolate was also nice – another little crunch with milk chocolate – though I usually like milk and dark chocolates, this pregnancy has me leaning towards milk unless it’s a lower-percentage dark.  The raspberry dark chocolate has a very nice hint of raspberry to it.  I normally don’t eat white chocolate (since it isn’t really chocolate,  I wish they’d change the name!) but actually, the blueberry vanilla white chocolate was the sweetest of them all and pleasantly nice, my little boy gobbled this one up in nothing flat!  Without my current state of skewed tastebuds, I’m not sure how I would normally feel about this one, but I liked it!!!  I can’t remember if I liked the dark chocolate one before, but this time it was too dark for me and I unfortunately couldn’t try the coffee bean one.  Actually, just the smell of coffee has made me nauseus the past few weeks.  I’d like to tell you how they taste but I’m just not qualified right now, sorry!

Thanks again people at Attune for letting me try your newest selection of bars and a few of the oldies too.  In a few weeks when my stomach normalizes a little more (I HOPE), I’ll be back to Whole Foods getting some Chocolate Crisp bars for sure!

Disclaimer: I received free product from Attune Foods.