Fruitful Delights
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Pregnancy legends say whatever you eat in your first trimester will be your baby’s favorite foods later in life. As my husband and I both sat here devouring the sweetest Florida oranges you could ever want to taste, I cringed thinking about my future food bills… specifically, the price of fresh fruit!
Pre-pregnancy, I loved vegetables. Fresh green beans, canned peas, broccoli, cauliflower, even brussel sprouts and lima beans. You name it, I’d eat it; raw, steamed or sautéed with garlic and butter. I ate a relatively balanced diet, but never shied away from my greens.
I realized around week 5, when I finished my steak and brown rice and left my salad sitting in its bowl, that I had lost my taste for vegetables. “Since when do I leave my salad for last?” I moaned to my husband. “Our future child won’t like vegetables, and it’s your fault!” My husband likes only a handful of vegetables, all raw, and corn in any form except creamed.
Concerned about not eating enough healthy foods during pregnancy, I ransacked the produce section of Stop n’ Shop. “If the kid doesn’t like vegetables, he’s going to eat fruit!” I came home with oranges, apples, grapefruits, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, and kiwi fruit.
I’ve been making a smoothie in my Magic Bullet once a day with a banana, five to seven strawberries, a handful of blueberries and a cup of non-fat milk. Not only does it calm the nausea and fill me up for a whole two hours, it’s probably one of the healthiest foods I actually have a desire to eat.
I started to get worried this morning about my fruit stock. Last night, I ate the last banana and the last apple and my strawberry supply was running dangerously low.
When my husband came home from work with bananas and oranges, I hugged him as if he had given me diamonds and the keys to a new car. I dug deeper in the grocery bag and found sugar snap peas, one of the few foods on his list of “approved vegetables.” I tossed them aside in hopes of revealing a pint of strawberries.
Two out of three isn’t bad, I guess, but if this is a glimpse into the future, I’m thinking we ought to reconsider our vegetable garden concept with rows of tomato plants and green beans. We’ll just need to buy enough land to grow an orchard.
Science-mom says...
Hi Dawn,
The price of fresh fruit or any fresh produce you`d be buying would be all worth it.It all boils down to the cliche “health is wealth.”
I am not a health food fan myself but my food preferences changed for the better during my pregnancy. Now my twin boys devour fruit and veggies (raw!) like they`re the best treat in the world and it warms my heart to see them fight over the last piece of apple or cucumber.
Dawn says...
I agree wholeheartedly, Science-mom! And it is our dream to live in a place where we can grow fresh fruits and vegetables, or even somewhere we can buy them from a farmer’s market without driving 40 minutes! That will help the food bills, which, of course, are worth every penny.