Just food

Now that I've solidly gotten my appetite back and can think about food more objectively, I think I've also gained a little more perspective in terms of the things I crave(d) and am/was averse to during the first trimester and even now.

Things I couldn't eat then and still can't bring myself to now (not because I'm not allowed to but because I can't suffer the smell/flavor):
- anything that tastes too much of chicken (like plain grilled chicken or roast chicken. Fried chicken, chicken stock, chicken wings are all fine. Don't ask me what the difference is...)
- anything with dill
- pesto

Things I crave then and that still satisfy today:
- nuts
- cereal with milk
- peanut butter
- chocolate (in fact, anything sweet, creamy, fluffy, decadent, like that little tres leche cake we got from Whole Foods for dessert tonight... yum yum... )
- Annie's Honey Bunny Graham crackers
- Jimmy John's #6 vegetarian sandwich, no sprouts (I think I've had one every week since the beginning of this year)
- Cheese Delight at Oasis Grill outside my school, which is basically a simple salad, Mediterranean vinaigrette, Spanish cheese and pita chips wrapped in pita.
- fries
- Caprese salad with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes
- cold sweetened soy bean milk (tau huay zui) (not the soy milk you get at the supermarkets here as a milk substitute but the kind from the Asian market. It's so refreshing and so comforting because it reminds me of home. Having my second glass of the night as we speak...)

So I was trying to figure out why I couldn't bring myself to eat all that stuff that I couldn't/can't and realized that it was because they're all related to something that I had just around the time we found out we were pregnant which was on New Year's Day. I had made Bulgarian Spicy Dumpling Soup that had a lot of dill in the dumpling two days before the new year, our New Year's Day dinner was a roast chicken, and lunch the day after (just before I took the pregnancy test), was a cilantro pesto pasta. I'm not sure what it says when I'm averse to the things that remind me of the day I found out I was pregnant, but honestly, even just thinking of how dill smells/tastes right now makes me want to gag... (like that salmon patty I couldn't swallow at Whole Foods just now...)

As for the foods I love, I think it's a combination of things that easily kept the nausea and hunger away during the first trimester (all things dry and crunchy like nuts, peanut butter sandwiches, and crackers), foods that have always comforted (chocolate, sweets, and fries), and things that are cool and refreshing (vegetarian sandwiches and soy bean milk). While I still love a fried chicken dinner or a grease-laden burger now and then, too much of anything greasy actually makes me-- and the baby-- uncomfortable. Maybe we're having a health nut baby who's only going to eat healthy food as prescribed by the nutritional food pyramid ;) Now, that would be a complete hoot!