Favorites

Sometime last week I began noticing that I was feeling nauseated in the mornings and afternoons. Normally I can't wait to eat breakfast in the morning, but I began just having tea and juice because the thought of food was just too gross. By lunchtime I would be so hungry that I'd eat just about anything, but I felt sick to my stomach after. I was afraid that my pregnancy-related nausea was returning. "Good thing I still have some Zofran left from my first trimester," I mused.

Then I started thinking about how long this had been going on. I could trace it back to the week before...when I had started taking iron supplements at the behest of my doctor. A quick google search revealed that for many people taking iron can indeed cause nausea. As I take my supplement before bed, the feeling for me is usually the worst in the mornings and abates by dinnertime, when I am typically starving and ready to make up for the day's lack of calories.

All this is to say that I haven't been doing much cooking lately. Most of the time I plan and start meals in the late morning, before I head to school, so they'll be ready when I come home in the late afternoon. Making dinner is the last thing I want to do in the mornings these days.

So this has led to some creative mealtime improvisation, as well as to my trying to have a few of Charlotte's favorites always on hand. For the time being, while my nausea is still bad enough to keep me from cooking regularly, I'll post on a few of C's favorite things.

One of her favorite meals also happens to be one of mine, and fortunately is almost ridiculously easy. It's two things: a Distinctively Dole salad and a Bertolli pasta meal. I have to admit to feeling a little guilty about serving two packaged things at one dinner, but I fall victim to convenience. Plus, Charlotte can't get enough of either. Is it weird to have a two-year-old LOVE salad?