weird cravings!!!!!! « Back to Group Discussions

[jodieanneanton]

Sooo.... pregnancy is a time known for it's weird cravings.  We all know about the stereotypical pickles and ice cream craving. 

What are you craving? Do any of you have any weird/crazy/funny cravings?

Here's mine: It seems that each of my pregnancies bring on cravings that completely surprise me.  With DD1, I started LOVING coffee, something I detested before I was pregnant with her.  Not the best thing for a pregnant woman to have. lol.  With DD2, I was craving cigarettes, a craving I never indulged, of course.  Before this, however, I only smoked cigars like once or twice.  This time, I was expecting some kind of craving to creep up...  And it finally has.  Again, it is something a pregnant woman shouldn't be consuming on a regular basis (or at all depending on your train of thought) and something I have NEVER EVER liked before.  As a matter of fact, I used to think this was detestable before now.  I am craving beer!!!!!  I felt compelled to taste my husband's pumpkin ale and now... I think about it all. the. time!!!  I find it soooo bizarre!

[Bena]

well, beer does increase your milk supply so maybe that's you bodies way of preparing?

With the coffe,  I am the other way around; I looooove coffee (love the taste, it's not even about the caffeine), but the first that I'm pregnant is that I can't stand it!  It makes me sad!!!

The one weird craving I've had at the beginning, is vinegar.  Seriously, I could've drank a cup of it! Just like that! Straight up!  Especially balsamic or malt!

I found out that acidity helps the absorption of calcium.  I am not a milk drinker, and I'm pretty sure my calcium intake was low.  I started eating more dairy (something I seem to only be able to eat during pregnancy) and my vinegar cravings are gone.

[jodieanneanton]

Originally Posted by Bena 

well, beer does increase your milk supply so maybe that's you bodies way of preparing?

 Could be, bena.  My boobs have been killing me lately with random sharp shooting pains.

[scruffy too]

I haven't really been CRAVING anything, but there's some things I'm enjoying A LOT more than normal.

Rootbeer and Dr. Pepper - NEVER drank it before, now it's like nectar from fairies.

Pears.  Can't get enough.

And normally I drank a lot of Coke Zero with Vodka, now straight Coke Zero takes like CRAP!!  Or any Coke / Pepsi product for that matter. 

And craving cigarettes.  Quitting in the first trimester was harder than quitting has ever been in the past.  Not sure why, because I had the best reason to quit EVER, but it sucked.  And I've indulged a few times (maybe once a week, but it's been over 2 weeks since the last one.)  Trying to get friends to bum you a smoke while you're pregnant damn near takes the joy right out of it though, I have to go into how healthy everything else I'm doing is, and how one a week won't hurt anything and to just SHUT UP!

[Bena]

Your post made me realise I do have a weird craving....coke!  DP drinks it, and often has a glass of it sitting around (he`s definitly a slow sipper!).  Whenever I see it, I can`t help myself but take a sip.  Thing is, I hate coke!!!!  And I still don`t like it and never take more than one sip, but for some reason I still am compelled to take that one sip!

[cabbitdancer]

My cravings have kind of slowed, lately. Aside from the sushi (which I finally had for lunch, yesterday) I haven't really had any "weird" cravings. Spicy stuff, mostly, and yeah... of all things, coke. I love coke, though, so it's not a big surprise. It's just that I've been able to avoid it (being diabetic) for most of the past two-three years, so to suddenly want it ALL THE TIME is hard. I finally gave in and bought the little cans so I can use it as my "emergency" stash when my sugars drop low.

[spughy]

I seem to be over my beer cravings and now the only thing that pops up semi-regularly is decent sausage rolls.  There are 2 places in town that make good ones, with a perfect sausage:pastry ratio. (FTR, lotsa sausage, minimal but delicious pastry.)  Problem is they don't do them every day, so its a bit of a crap shoot if I NEED a sausage roll at 2 pm because I had two breakfasts but no lunch.  So yesterday I ordered a dozen from one place, frozen, so I can pull them out as needed and not have to go through the lack-of-sausage-roll trauma again.

[Sara79]

Red wine is what I've been craving. Its one I won't give in to though :)

Otherwise my cravings are normal..salted caramel is my friend I love it. I found a salted caramel gelato that hits the spot. I tried a piece of salted caramel pie from Sheri's a place I've rarely been and it was awful I wanted to tell them shame on them for trying to pass that piece of pie off as salted caramel goodness :/

Fresh flavors like lemon and ginger are top on my list..been adding them to morning smoothies and its delightful.

[Melany]

I haven't noticed anything significant, but I did notice big aversions. I am a serious coffee drinker and I couldn't stomach the idea of it until a few weeks ago.

I have TRULY enjoyed bread. Lots and lots of bread and not just normal bread, but good bread from the bakery or fresh from my oven. Now I want to go pick  up a loaf of the local bakery cinnamon bread, which I have recently discovered as wonderful when made into a pancake. Cinnamon bread stuffed pancakes. So good...

[babytoes]

Cravings... Oh yes! Red meat, sushi, iced coffee, I crave all of these, but the strangest thing so far is Honest Ade. I never drink juice, maybe a tiny bit here and there, but I have to stock up on pomegranate Honest Ade every time I'm at the grocery store I drink so much. Very weird.

I also have been craving red wine and beer like some of you. DP gives me a few sips of his beer when he has one, and its always so yummy! I've wanted to indulge in a small glass of wine, but DP is very paranoid about it, although I know one glass is not going to hurt anything. So yesterday at our midwife appointment I asked if I could indulge in a glass (DP was at the appointment with me, and I wanted to ask so he could hear it right from her), and she said, yes of course you can, not a bottle (duh!), but a glass with dinner a couple times a month is fine. So yay!! I am going to have steak and a glass of red wine tonight! 

[cabbitdancer]

That's awesome, babytoes! I could totally go for a steak, right now. I feel like I'm STARVING, today.

My husband started brewing his own wine, last year, with varied success. We did another batch of apple wine, this year, made from local cider, and it tastes slightly of honey, which is fabulous, but the batch of spiced apple wine turned out AMAZING. It's like a cup of mulled cider with just a faint hint of alcohol, but BOY, does it pack a punch. I had two sips and I was feeling floaty. That one is going to have to wait until after Bun gets here, and I'm totally going to celebrate after the birth. ;)

[jodieanneanton]

I LOVE steak and red wine.... I miss it sooo much.  :)

[Melany]

Originally Posted by cabbitdancer 

That's awesome, babytoes! I could totally go for a steak, right now. I feel like I'm STARVING, today.

My husband started brewing his own wine, last year, with varied success. We did another batch of apple wine, this year, made from local cider, and it tastes slightly of honey, which is fabulous, but the batch of spiced apple wine turned out AMAZING. It's like a cup of mulled cider with just a faint hint of alcohol, but BOY, does it pack a punch. I had two sips and I was feeling floaty. That one is going to have to wait until after Bun gets here, and I'm totally going to celebrate after the birth. ;)

How did you make apple wine? We have a ton of apples still on our tree and that sounds delicious. :)

[cabbitdancer]

We used local cider, so we didn't have to press our own apples, but you should probably be able to make your own cider and go from there. All you really need is cider, yeast, and sugar, and a jug or two (two would be preferable). But we've actually got all the fancy supplies to make five gallons of wine with. Makes things a lot easier, if a bit more expensive to start out.

There's a brew shop in town that has all the supplies we need, but there are plenty of places online. For that matter, the place we usually get our stuff has a website: http://www.foxvalleybrew.com/ There are lots of websites that will give you basic instructions, or you can pick up a recipe book (We did. They had them at the brew shop). It's a pretty big initial investment to get all the supplies, but, once you get started, you can make somewhere around 24 bottles of wine for like... 1/10 of the cost of buying the bottles in the store. It only takes a couple of weeks to brew, but you'd want to let it clarify, which can take 2-3 months. You can home brew soda this way too. Water, sugar, flavoring, yeast. You can even toss it into a regular 2 liter bottle. Just toss everything in, let it get to work, and then stick it in the fridge as soon as the sides get really rigid. That stops the fermentation process, so you have fizz, but very little alcohol. :)

It's been a lot of fun watching my husband work and the house smells amazing while the yeast is doing its job (assuming you like the smell of yeast and fruit). We've done apple, strawberry and blueberry so far. I think the apple is, by far, our favorite, though. And my favorite, as I've mentioned, is the spiced apple. :) Next year, we'll probably try dandelion wine, with the gazillion and one dandelions we get in our yard, though we'll probably only manage a gallon of that, since you only really use the head of the flower, and you need five cups per gallon, I believe. One of these days, we will get around to making mead, too, but good honey is hard to find, and not generally cheap.

[Melany]

My dad has a grape press and I actually called him after reading your post. He's all excited to try it, now. We think we have at least 2 cases of apples left on the tree, so I might ask some of the neighbors if I can have some of their apples, too. Dad is a retired chemical engineer who has been making wine in his basement for about 10 years. So, we think we can use that set-up and he has nothing going right now.

[spughy]

Ah, homemade booze.  I love it.

I've made wild-fermented mead a few times.  It's delicious, especially if you add some fruit once it's in the carboy.  I did a blackberry mead one year that was outstanding.  My old house had better wild yeasts though - this one is too new and it doesn't work as well.

[cabbitdancer]

That's awesome, Melany! I'm always happy to inspire people to try their hand at brewing. ;)

Is that adding fruit, during backsweetening, once the initial fermentation process is done, spughy?

[spughy]

Not exactly... with wild yeast mead you basically mix water and honey in a big bucket and wait til it catches some yeast and goes bubbly, then put it in a carboy for I guess what would be the primary fermentation.  That's when I added the blackberries, and let it blip until it was done so I wouldn't get any secondary fermentation in the bottle.  Wild yeasts have a relatively low alcohol tolerance so the end result was only around 6-8% alcohol and still plenty sweet.