What salad makes YOU give birth?

When my magic circular triphasic pill pack is plum near run-out of white pills, I know it's time to get serious. Rocky Road and deep dish serious. Chicago's Art of Pizza serious. When that bomb arrives, weighing more than a pile of laundry, its savory-yet-sweet tomato sauce aroma oozing out of the box and tickling me like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, I know things will soon be good. And when I take my first bite - a big, chewy, cheesy, gooey love fest of mozzarella, spinach, black olives, mushrooms and chewy, buttery crust - my world is just better. PMS crisis temporarily averted.

I'll be right back - I need to go eat something.

(Five minutes later...)

OK, I just ate a few heaping tablespoons of jarred spaghetti sauce, a pisspoor but desperate substitute for that 'za. We just got back from Colorado and our fridge is as barren as an Antarctic bank on a national holiday.

Anyhow, I have pizza on the brain because my sister-in-law is due to give birth any day now (!!! Auntie Lolly time!!) and I just read on the baby's web page that Sarah (the preggers one, not the baby) and my brother ate at a restaurant in LA tonight called Ciaoti's, home of the so-called miracle Maternity Salad. According to legend, when about-to-pop mommies-to-be scarf down the “maternity” salad of romaine, watercress, Gorgonzola and walnuts tossed in a balsamic-basil vinaigrette, they start contracting within hours. (Bonus: The baby smells like stinky cheese! Seriously, tho - isn't soft cheese a no-no during pregnancy?)

Anyhow, no baby yet, but it got me thinking: Do YOU have a go-to food to cure a certain mood? I mean, I know pregnancy isn't technically a mood so much as an expensive, tiring and emotional 10-month saga, but still. When you want to celebrate, do you consitently hit up DQ for a chocolate chip cookie dough Blizzard? Is a bag of salty. buttery popcorn the only way you can watch an action flick? Did you once carboload before a half-marathon at a special Italian joint and now you must go back there for pasta putanesca before any major race? Tell me! Im hungry! PS If anyone has a food/dish they swear induced labor, let me know - we want this baby out of my sister and into Aunti Lolly's arms STAT.

Comments

Oh, I have a few go-to foods...but I can't talk about them right now or I will immediately then go and buy some. And eat it. Bad, very bad. :-) Because I am doing way too well staying on plan to be eating Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream potato chips or Russell Stover French Mint candy bars.

Oops.

V.

To bring on labor? Castor Oil. At least so I've heard. I've never tried it. You are supposed to drink a LOT (like 1/2 c?). My sister said it gave her massive diarrhea but then she went into labor. Other friends swear by it as well.

Go-to foods for me? I'm all about the chocolate and ice cream for PMS. It's cliche but so so true at this house.

When I have a cold, forget the tea and crackers, give me pasta and diet coke. When I was preggo, only taco bell helped keep the nausea away. Pizza brought on labor, but since that is in the past, anything chocolate will always work for me-the gooier the better.

Generally anything with chocolate in the title - chocolate, chocolate muffin, chocolate ice-cream.

And then of course, there's salt - salt-n-vinegar chips, salt on edamame beans, salt on fries.

And challah. Homemade makes it better - I made your recipe over the weekend. Thanks (I think - I ate a lot of it myself!!!!)

Dogo-that's so weird. I thought I was the only one that needed carbs and diet soda when I was sick. My go-to meal is a diet dr. pepper and rice with margarine (not butter), garlic salt and soy sauce. Maybe I'm so bloated I don't care about the sore throat?

Unfortunately, this will be dinner tonight. Stupid summer cold!

Anything with frosting - my personal favorite is those chocolate chip cookies sandwiched with about 1 inch of frosting. Or Dunkin Donuts creme-filled. Or chocolate cake. Okay, seriously, I can't talk about this anymore!

If I'm sick to my stomach, I swear the only thing I want is chips and HOT salsa. It seems wrong, but it settles my tummy.

My husband makes these super spicy refried black beans that make almost everyone sweat. Some friends ate some at our house one night, and the wife's water broke on their way home. She swears the beans did the trick.

Cold Stone Creamery makes everything better, but so does cheese.

movie popcorn always perks up my mood.

that and a movie.

and dark.

and a slice of *quiet*

and the 'corn.

gotta have the salty 'corn.

My cure all is any pasta and cheese, but especially the classic mac and cheese (but only the shapes!).

And I can't go to a movie without popcorn. If I've just eaten and someone suggests a movie I get upset because I won't be hungry enough for popcorn.

My go-to at the movies used to be an icee - I remember a couple years ago going to a theater that didn't have them and I was crushed! But I don't always get them now. Definitely mint chocolate chip ice cream, or chocolate. Trying to think of other stuff, sure there's something I'm forgetting.

I'm not particularly prone to "the cravies" but it used to be (before I found out the calorie content of what I was eating) that when I really wanted something really good, I cooked up breakfast foods. Eggs, toast, French toast, pancakes, omelets, anything I could throw together with breakfast food ingredients and could be toppbed with syrup. And it had to be fried with butter. (I think I invented the grilled cheese and fried egg French toast sandwich. Mmm.)

My husband is definitely an emotional/celebratory eater, however. When we really want to celebrate something, we head over to the Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder for a shared house salad & Mediterranean bread, and we each get our own pizza pot pie. Oh, the cheese and Mmm the dough is worth the average wait of 30-45 minutes for a table.

It's really just unpasteurized cheeses that should be used cautiously during pregnancy - all unpasteurized cheeses are soft, which is why that sometimes gets translated as all soft cheeses. Listeria can be present in unpasteurized milk/cheese and can cause problems.

Brie, camembert, feta, queso fresco & bleu cheese are some that are often (but not always) made from unpasteurized milk. (You also should be careful about hot dogs and meat spreads, as they can carry listeria as well.)

My go to food is always pizza.

Baskin Robbins peanut butter and chocolate ice cream! It cures all!

Instant mashed potatoes, peanut butter m&ms, chex mix (bold flavor), oreos, bread of various kinds (dinner rolls, yeast rolls, rye, etc.), tuna fish, spicy brown mustard, sweet tea, cran-grape juice, and sprite.

Only these things have the power to make the "Mentrual Monster" go away.

Hope the baby comes soon!!! Congrats!

I so want to go down to Ben & Jerry's now...there's one about a half block away...

That's so funny, because I lived in L.A. during both of my pregnancies, and we would go to a cafe near Ciaoti's, and EVERYONE told me about that salad!
I almost ate it, when my first was a week overdue. But tell your SIL to go to Zhankou (Zan-koo) Chicken and have a few of their hot peppers. That's what did it for me!
Now we live near a place called Amici's. They have the best cheese pizza and an amazing baked penne with eggplant! Oh man, now I'm hungry, lol!

This is Sarah, the preggo. Hot peppers at Zhankou Chicken? Walking out the door right now. :) The gorgonzola was pasturized...so says the waitress when she saw that "look" in my eye. I also bought a bottle of the salad dressing and have had so much in the last 24 hours I'm sick! Does that bring on labor? Haha. We're trying it all...don't want to be induced. The big triggers are apparently sex and walking. Both of which are close to impossible and equally funny when I try! (Sorry Leslie!) Not the most romantic moment of our lives. Hehe. No baby yet... But, hopefully my shopping spree at BRU (babies r us) will help! I'm going stir crazy.
Oh, and if there's a "comfort food" for pregnancy? Chocolate cake. The more chocolate frosting the better.

When I have a bad day all I can think about is how much I want cheesy pasta with some red wine for dinner. Num.

have her man stimulate her nipples. then give her a spicy burrito. (not a metaphor, for real, a mexican burrito) Then have sex.
She'll have a baby in the next 24 hours. And if not, she will have heart burn and irritated nips.
good luck!

Ice cream is my go-to comfort food. And if I need a really big pick me up, a creamy pasta dish and some red wine will precede the ice cream!

i don't have a go-to comfort food anymore. it used to be nestle's sugar cookie dough. mmmmmmm. buuut, given how horrible it is, i've weaned myself off it for the most part.

and hope you enjoyed my wonderful state of colorado! i did an aspen trip today with my former roommate. :)

This may be too personal... but I'm telling you - the best thing to induce labor is sex! Both of my kids were born four weeks early and I know at least one of them was because of that! ha ha! It may not be the most romantic thing in the world, but I swear it works. :)

Sick food for me is toast with butter and marmite on it, and a cup of tea. The only other food I crave is sweets... usually chocolate or something citrusy, like a key lime tart.

I've heard that spicy food and insane quantities of garlic are said to induce labour, but I don't know how much truth there is to it. But I suppose it can't hurt to try.

There's no mood that Greek food can't make better.

On a side note, I'm a doula and I've seen women try all kinds of crazy things to get labor started. A friend of mine swears by climbing stairs and walking...but the exersion and possible dehydration could have had a hand in that. Seriously, though, nipple stimulation and sex are probably the most fun out the all the options but a somewhat warm bath can also do wonders (just don't stay in too long). The reason why castor oil works is because it irritates the bowels so if you're big on poopin' in hopes of labor, go for it!