Eating Through Morning Sickness...or a Hangover

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven’t posted in a while (aka a few months) but this is a blog about food, and I’ve been having a rather tumultuous relationship with food lately. That’s mostly (in fact entirely) because…I’M PREGNANT! I’ve been pregnant since January which is when I think I initially announced the blog publicly. The timing of that turned out to be unfortunate, because a mere couple of weeks after announcing the blog, I was hit with the all-day morning sickness that basically feels like a constant hangover. Yay. 

I’m actually having a pretty healthy pregnancy – as far as I can tell – but man, does morning sickness ever suck! It really takes the wind out of the excitement of getting pregnant. When we were planning to conceive, I really hadn’t thought hard about the possibility that it may render me completely debilitated for MONTHS! Months, folks. In the movies, we see the expecting mother puke once, and then in the next scene she’s painting a nursery with her beautiful glow and baby bump. So, media doesn’t set us up to prepare for the long, arduous task of trying to function through all-day nausea.

Now, morning sickness isn’t the same for everyone, but this post isn’t about the glory of morning sickness. It’s about food! So just be aware that I’m speaking from the experience of someone who was (and still is sort of) nauseated all day long. For me, this nausea is paired with complete exhaustion, and a desire to do nothing more than lay on the couch and watch reruns of The Office over, and over, and over again. Honestly I’ve had days where I sat for 30 minutes debating whether or not I had too pee badly enough to get up yet. Does this sound familiar anyone? Unless you’ve also experienced pregnancy, you’re probably thinking “sounds like my last hangover.” Which I think is accurate (except that your hangover is over in a day, not two or three months). So, if you’re not pregnant but you’re having a bad hangover, this post may help you too!

Here are my general suggestions for eating through morning sickness:

1)      Keep it quick and easy. You should be preparing food for about ten minutes, tops. You don’t want to be exposing yourself to too many ingredients or cooking techniques since any of this can trigger worse nausea. Plus, you’re probably super tired and don’t want to exert much energy.

2)      Keep it frequent. Small meals throughout the day (for me it was basically every hour) gives the stomach something to work on, which makes you feel less like you have a stomach filled with sour milk (that’s my best description of how I felt). If you have a spouse and he or she is willing, ask for breakfast in bed. Eating before getting up helps.

3)      Embrace carbs – but try and find good sources. I had to accept that, while I usually prefer to eat low-carb/low grain, my churning stomach needed something absorbent. So, I welcomed back bread, pasta, and the like. But, I aimed for a good quality sourdough or a nice gluten free bread without too many yucky ingredients. I also reached for quinoa pasta, or rice pasta, which was easier on my belly and my guts.

4)      Find simple ways to incorporate super foods! Or, healthier foods. If I made a grilled cheese sandwich (see below) I would try and find ways to incorporate things like avocado, which has fibre and healthy fat. With pasta, I’d aim to add a few sneaky vegetables. 

5)      Finally, don’t be afraid of pre-made meals. Whether it’s a frozen meal from the grocery store, or take-out from an online delivery service, you’re going to need to opt for that a fair bit. Just try for healthier options. I was a big fan of broth-based soups, and I loved these little instant ramen packets from the local health food store that used millet-quinoa pasta. If you can afford it, health food stores have all kinds of packaged snacks and meals that have somewhat improved ingredients just to help you along. Obviously something packaged isn’t the healthiest option, but you’ll feel good about finding somewhat healthier options at least.

Ok, so those are my suggestions! And since this is a food blog, here are some recipe ideas. I have two to share in this post, but feel free to browse my blog for simple things like the charcuterie plate under the French recipes, or my maple oatmeal under Breakfast. These are good ones to reach for when you’re feeling miserable and need a quick, healthy meal.

Avocado, Apple and Dijon Grilled Cheese: 

This is intended to be a loaded grilled cheese recipe where you can substitute any ingredients that sound appealing to you in the moment. On this day, I decided that cheddar cheese, avocado, sliced apple and Dijon mustard would taste good together. And it did! Plus, this recipe gives you calcium from the cheese, good fat and fibre from the avocado, and vitamin C plus fibre from the apple. The Dijon is just there for flare.

Start with your ingredients: 

2 slices of whatever good quality bread you prefer (I had a gluten free chia seed bread on this day)

Butter 

½ an apple, sliced

½ an avocado, sliced

A few slices of cheddar cheese

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Once you have your ingredients, make your grilled cheese as per usual! Butter your bread on the outside, assemble your sandwich, and then pop it in a frying pan and grill until golden brown on both sides. Sometimes, to ensure the melted cheese keeps the sandwich together, I’ll slice the cheese super thin but place it on both sides of the bread with the other ingredients stuffed in the middle.

Now for my second recipe: 

Pasta with Caramelized Onions, Chili, and Lemon: 

If you have morning sickness and you’re thinking “that sounds too fancy for my appetite right now” then you may be right. This one was a recipe I was more into near the end of my morning sickness, when I wasn’t as miserable. That said, I did have a desire for flavour when I did eat. The sources say to stick to bland food, but I was more interested in a wide variety of flavours to keep my body guessing. If I got used to one thing, my body turned against it. This pasta only takes a few minutes, so give it a shot. 

The ingredients are: 

½ a box of gluten free spaghetti

½ an onion, diced

Zest of ½ a lemon

½-1 tsp of lemon juice

1 tsp chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil as needed

Parsley to garnish

Boil your water and get your pasta in. The pasta shouldn’t take more than ten minutes, which is enough time to cook the rest of the ingredients. Put some olive oil in a pan on medium heat, and add the diced onion. Cook until caramelized, about 7 minutes. Once browned, add the lemon zest, chili powder, and some salt and pepper. When the pasta is ready, use tongs to pull the pasta straight out of the starchy water and place it in the pan with the onions. Toss to coat, adding more olive oil if necessary. Then add the lemon juice and continue to toss. Add more or less depending on how much of a hit of acid you feel the dish needs. Finally, swirl onto a plate and garnish with parsley! I think I also topped this with a bit of cheddar cheese because I had some laying around. 

Enjoy! 

P.S. I know these recipes aren’t celebrating unique Canadian ingredients or history today, which is what I usually try to accomplish, but hey. Sometimes you just need to eat something simple. And when you’re pregnant (or hungover), it’s all about keeping it simple!