jemjabella

Weird Food Aversions

I guess it’s hard to sum up my food aversions with Isabel, as I had problems with all food. This time it’s different though… I’m having some particularly odd cravings and, at the opposite end of the scale, food that turns my stomach just thinking about it.

I’ve already mentioned that I’m eating a lot of meat at the minute (way more than is usual for me). Alongside this I just can’t get enough home-cooked food. Don’t get me wrong, I cook the majority of my meals from scratch anyway, but there are days when all I’ve got the energy to do is come home and chuck some chips and a burger in the oven but I can’t even do that. It has to be a home-made curry, or spaghetti bolognese or mince n’ tatties or lasagne … but mostly curry (not doing the heartburn any favours mind you). The idea of a big roast dinner right now: pork belly with roast potatoes, honey roasted carrots, cabbage, apple sauce, mash n gravy — someone stop me before I leave dribble marks on the sofa!

I would love nothing more than to satisfy the fatty in me by nipping to the chippy right now and fetching home a big fat greasy bag of fish & chips, but the very idea has my stomach performing somersaults. I ordered pizza to celebrate passing my driving test last week and didn’t manage more than a slice and a half.

I enjoy good food but this shit is hard work. Anyone want to be my personal chef for a few months?

Beansprout Scan

Finally got ’round to scanning this in:

Dates spot on (unsurprisingly; such is the benefit of having a very predictable cycle) — due 02nd June 2012 as mentioned previously.

The morning sickness is, thankfully, backing off. As long as I eat every 1.5hrs I don’t get nauseous/spew. The downside is that this is way more frequently than I’m used to eating and I can imagine me weighing 20 stone by the end of this pregnancy.

Not Impressed by The Well Hung Meat Company

This post has several follow-ups:

• Going Back to Well Hung Meat
• A little bit more meat
• My cheaty leftover-lamb curry

I am also now a regular customer of Well Hung Meat.

Minds out of the gutter, please. I’m referring to Well Hung Meat the organic meat box delivery company, nothing more sinister.

I don’t think I’ve talked much about my ‘food beliefs’ before but I generally try, as in most things in life, to be ethical. When it comes to meat, that means buying good quality cuts from animals that have been looked after; generally free-range and/or organic (although these two are not mutually inclusive). I would rather buy less often and support good farmers than eat meat every day. With that said, pregnancy has given me a huge appetite for meat and so I need to explore my options.

I did a little research and happened upon Meat in a Box, the blog of one Jenny Lau, who is on a mission to cook and eat meat sourced only from UK meat box delivery schemes. She had blogged about an offer on Well Hung Meat and, not one to resist the pull of a freebie, I set about ordering a small selection. See here, a screenshot of my order receipt including reference to the “free roasting joint with first order” promotion:

You can imagine my disappointment, then, when my meat box arrived on Friday last week with no free roasting joint. The “seasonal cuts” (sounded mysterious) was little more than 300g or so of diced pork. Further, I was worried that my inexperience with cooking a good steak would get in the way with the rather expensive (even for organic) rump steaks, so I sought advice from an expert which made absolutely no difference whatsoever; because the steaks were badly cut/uneven they ended up overcooked and chewy on one end and virtually raw on the other.

I contacted Well Hung Meat on Friday about the lack of roasting joint and await their response. In the mean time, I’ll be placing my next meat box order with Riverford who’ve been providing my veg since I signed up in 2008.

Update (29th November, 2011)

I cooked my final steak last night and found the result much better (more tender, more taste). I don’t recall doing anything differently, but the meat itself was cut much more evenly than the first piece so I think I got a more consistent result. Unfortunately, this does little to improve my overall impression of the company having now received a reply regarding the missing roasting joint:

You do need to be set up as a regular customer to have received that promotion. If you would like to do this I will ensure the free joint is included in your next box.

As this was not made clear on either the website or the blog entry pushing the promotion, and indeed the cart accepted my code without problem (as seen in my receipt above) I feel somewhat misled. I am not impressed with my experience of ordering through the website, or indeed the meat I received. I somehow doubt I will be placing a regular order with Well Hung Meat any time soon.

Server Downtime – Planned Maintenance

Clook are having a planned server move thingy this weekend which means my site will be unavailable from 10pm-6am GMT on the 26th November (Saturday). I have no idea what that is in foreign times, but probably smack bang in the middle of the day. My email should be fine because it’s hosted elsewhere.

This will also affect:

• theqbee.net
• rev.iew.me
• sirbendy.co.uk
• telfordslingmeet.co.uk
• babyledweaning.com

..and a few other hosted sites who may or may not post their own bloody notice :P

Apologies for the dreadful inconvenience.

Isabel is Weaning

Except by weaning, I mean weaned. But if I write weaned all official like that in my title it’ll mean it’s true, and I don’t think I can handle that at the moment :(

Truth be told she’s not had a feed that involved actual milk transfer in well over a month (early October). She’s nursed a few times since then but usually for a few seconds, before announcing “finished” and toddling off… not long enough to stimulate let down, never mind actual milk flow. Thus, my boobies have all dried up.

I wish that I could say it was because I’m pregnant, at least then the guilt I’m feeling would be rational. Instead I feel like I’ve let her down but can’t put my finger on why.

You’re all probably thinking I’ve lost my marbles about now. She’s 2, she’s not a “baby”. I guess my problem lies with the research that tells us babies typically self-wean around the age of 4, and if my baby hasn’t lasted that long, then what did I do wrong?

It all started ‘going wrong’ when she began sleeping through the night around 6 months ago. I’d wanted her to sleep for so long, and when she did (no influence from us) … well, I had no idea that it would be the beginning of the end of our nursing relationship. From there she was down to 2 feeds a day (after nursery, and before bed). She replaced the first with a yoghurt — her choice; tantrums if we had none in — and the last with cuddles.

I did everything as I “should”. She never had bottles or a dummy. She slept sleeps in our bed. We didn’t night wean or sleep train. She had on demand access to the boob when she wanted it. I didn’t restrict her feeds to certain hours or enforce rules about “only at home” (not bothered about feeding a toddler in public). I guess I went back to work. But I only work 4 days, so why didn’t she compensate over the other 3?

I don’t have answers, and I don’t understand why I’m so bothered about something so totally out of my control. Maybe it’s the hormones. Maybe it’s normal to feel this way when something so special comes to an end.

Sigh.