I must confess that initially, I found the idea of a pregnancy cookbook a little … odd. After all, the time that you spend pregnant is really pretty short in the grand scheme of things, unless you happen to be Michelle Duggar. I’m not sure that I, personally, would buy a book that’s targeted so specifically to cooking while you’re pregnant. Especially because I get pretty sick when I’m pregnant. It’s one time in my life when thinking about food and looking at pictures of food is completely unappealing to me. I actually had to leave a restaurant once during my 2nd pregnancy because people had the audacity to eat right in front of me. The nerve!
My kids decorated the cover – they’re so thoughtful that way
My opinion changed a little when I got my hands on a copy. The book opens with a comprehensive listing of what foods an expectant mother should avoid, and what foods she can consume in moderation. It advocates for enjoying food, and it manages to avoid an alarmist tone. The recipes themselves are varied, and they’re more about eating what you like, and less about ensuring you get your daily recommended allowance of folate. I’d sum up the book’s feel as: “Food can still be fun when you’re pregnant, even though your approach changes.” It came across to me as a gorgeous resource, that manages to avoid finger-wagging about fish consumption.
I am only one woman, though, so I decided to get some more opinions. Luckily, I just happen to have a pregnant sister. Gretchen is expecting her first child, a boy, in early July, and last weekend she had her baby shower. I prepared some recipes from the book and brought them along. I made tempura dill pickles with sambal oelek dip, fresh tomato, basil and bocconcini skewers with lemon olive oil, chocolate raspberry fudge and fresh mango strawberry lemonade. The quality of my photos isn’t very good, because the light was low, but here they are:
What I loved about the book was that every recipe had a beautiful accompanying photo. I liked the way the book was broken up into sections, and had a wide variety of food choices. I also appreciated that the instructions were simple and straightforward, at least the ones I tried. The skewers were especially fun, because my 5-year-old was able to help. I can see a lot of skewers in our future. On the whole, the food was fancy, but not fussy to make. Which is a bonus, because what pregnant lady wants to spend 2 hours on her feet making dinner?
What I didn’t love as much was that almost every recipe called for ingredients I didn’t already have on hand. I suppose that’s going to be true of most gourmet recipes, though, since my pantry runs more towards cheddar, apple slices and ketchup than bocconcini, fresh lemons and sambal oelek. On the upside, I did discover that my local suburban grocery store stocks sambal oelek, so that was fun.
Tempura dill pickle recipe
I thought the recipes I tried were delicious, and I went back for more. I especially thought the tempura pickles were fun. Gretchen said that she enjoyed all of the food, too, so it has an actual pregnant lady’s stamp of approval. As for the other shower guests – most everyone liked the the mango strawberry lemonade, and the skewers were also a hit. The pickles were hot and cold – folks either loved them or hated them. And the fudge? Well, it was fudge. I had to cut my 5-year-old off at 2 pieces, and then I had to peel her off the ceiling.
As for the book, Gretchen was a fan. She is much cooler than I am. In fact, she always has been, not that I’m bitter or anything. She and her husband live downtown, and they eat out and entertain a lot. She thinks that she would actually use a book like this, in order to make food that she really enjoys for herself and for others. She also thinks that many pregnant women aren’t very well-informed about what they should and shouldn’t eat, so having a fun resource is helpful. Plus, she managed to escape pregnancy without any nausea, so food is maybe less scary for her than it was for me.
If you are a pregnant foodie, or you are a foodie cooking for a pregnant lady, then The Gourmet Pregnancy may be a good book for you. It’s certainly gorgeous to look at, if you enjoy poring over recipe books. I passed my copy along to Gretchen, and she’s loving it. She said that she would absolutely buy it as a gift for a pregnant friend. As for me, I bought some more tempura mix and I plan to try the pickles again. They don’t seem to be everyone’s thing, but they’re a hit with me. Pickles are good, man!
Transparency achieved. Except, you’re craving pickles:)?!
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I bought a couple pregnancy cookbooks when my husband and I started trying to get pregnant. What’s funny is that even though I didn’t use them much during pregnancy, I use them ALL THE TIME now. They have such awesome nutrition information; my other cookbooks don’t have that. So I guess next time I’m in the market for a new cookbook, this will be a good one to check out. Even if I’m not pregnant either =)
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I heart pickles! And… Go Gretchen!!!
.-= abbie´s last post ..Nobody told me… =-.
Now I’m hungry! Tempura anything is just so yum.
Your sister looks stunning!!
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That is indeed one gorgeous pregnant chick. My initial impression is like yours — unless it had thirty recipes involving grapefruit and pistachio nuts, forget it. But even just as a cookbook it looks awesome. Tempura dill pickles? Just a good idea! And in fact I do have sambal oelek and fresh lemons as regular ingredients in my kitchen (my kids are older and I love spice). Cool.
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Thde food looks great! And I love the idea of the pickels. Although I wouldn’t have been eating when I was pregnant. You know, because I wasn’t eating anything cooked. Havig said that, I would have eaten the fudge.
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I like how the skewers look. Congrats to your sister!
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OK. Not pregnant but those dishes look so so so good! Now I understand all the deep fried references! Congrats to your sister who sure looks like a Krause (or is that a Storcel).
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Hey, I had to leave a restaurant during my pregnancy with K because just seeing people eat was making me nauseous too! During my second pregnancy I just avoided restaurants for the first half of it.
I would love to try tempura pickles! They sound interesting in a good way.
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I received a copy of this book too! I really like your review of it. At first I thought the exact same thing… a pregnancy cookbook? How weird?! Then I started to flip through it and understood it more. I really liked the lay out of the book and the pictures too.
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Somehow we ate during my pregnancy despite the near-constant nausea – for the life of me I cannot remember how we did it but diclectin did play a part.
Aha, and now I know from where the yummy food pics in your flickr stream originate. ……. and thanks to your link, sambal oelek ditto
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I absolutely loved this post! Very funny and I never would have thought (like you) a pregnancy cook book would be something of interest. Here are good wishes for your sister G and hoping she has a safe and wonderful pregnancy.
Those sound like great recipes for non-pregnant women too! Not sure about those tempura pickles although I’m willing to try any kind of food at least once.
Since you can do the tempura batter you should try doing tempura eggplant spears! Obviously you need the long thin variety of eggplant to make the best spears. A local restaurant does them and calls them eggplant fries and to me they are even tastier than regular french fries!
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Pregnant or not, I love looking through cookbooks! Especially if there are delicious pictures to look at.
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YEAH…you’re going to be an auntie…and the kids will have a little cousin. Pregnancy looks great on Gretchen! And the food looks good too….when’s the big day?
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I might find this book inspiring, but… for me, when I am pregnant, I have Gestational Diabetes. The types and amounts of food I can eat are very restrictive, and tempura or chocolate anything would be off the menu.
I basically revert to a bare-bones diabetic diet, carb count and eat only low-GI foods. I get my menu through a dietician, base my intake on blood sugar, and dose insulin appropriately.
However, I would think this would be a great book for every day, not just pregnancy! Is there mention of low GI foods and GD safe recipes in it?
I didn’t see any mention of gestational diabetes, but that doesn’t mean that it’s completely omitted. I may just have overlooked it. And, unfortunately, I no longer have the book to check.
Yum, sounds like good pregnancy eatin to me.
Yeah that’s so wrong to do that to eat front somebody like that
:l. Anyway I love the tomato thing I thought that the white part was feta cheese but ok nvm I guess 
. Anyway take care.
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Oops sry made a ‘slight’ mistake in my last comment, my bad.