Solutions

As best as I can tell, I really haven't struggled too much with cravings so far. There are things that sound good, but no more so than normal, and they don't interfere with my ability to function if I don't get them. Only one thing comes to mind when I think about foods that I have left me thinking about them constantly (or at least more often than is healthy.)

Pretzels. Giant, soft pretzels. With rock salt. No sauces. No extras. Just the plain wonderful goodness. Once or twice I have decided that I just can't live without a pretzel one more day and have gone to Pretzel Time in the mall and purchased one. They are super good - but at $2.29 a piece, it is a little unreasonable. I have thought about going to Costco multiple times to buy a box of them there. I have done so in the past before I was pregnant - because my love for soft pretzels is not new - but I haven't wanted to spend the money. Of course, buying them at Costco is really the only affordable option if you are going to spend the money... but I kept pushing that argument aside telling myself I didn't "need" them.

Until one day it grew beyond need. It was dire necessity. So I drove to Costco and walked determinedly up and down each frozen aisle searching for my prize. Then a second time. I scoured the shelves of each freezer growing slightly more worried at each passing box. Nothing. No pretzels anywhere. What was I going to do?!

I slumped back defeated to the line to wait with my bag of piano candy and pulled out my phone to text Ryan.

"Tragic," the text began. I was only a word or two into my explanation when Ryan called. I felt a moment of panic. "I can't talk right now!" I thought, but opened the phone anyway and put it to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey! What's up?"

"I can't talk about it," I replied.

"Why?" he asked, his voice instantly suspicious.

"I just can't. Can I please just text you?"

"No. That's dumb. We are on the phone. Just tell me what's wrong."

I felt my chin quiver and my eyes brim with tears. I took a deep breath. "They.... don't... have... any.... pretzels!" I quietly sobbed into the phone. The tears were so sudden I couldn't blink them away in time. I knew this would happen - as idiotic and overly emotional as it was. But I couldn't help it. And now, here I was, standing in line at Costco, clinging to a giant bag of candy, and blubbering away.

"Whoa honey. It's okay," Ryan said soothingly. I could tell he was surprised by my reaction and didn't quite know what to do. Not that I could blame him. I am sure a million possibilities ran through his head when I told him I couldn't talk about it. I bet he never saw this one coming.

I started laughing, even though the tears continued to roll down my cheeks. It was so stupid. I knew it was. But the tears wouldn't stop.

"That's why I wanted to text you!" I blurted out.

He did his best to console me for a moment or two more before I needed to hang up, wipe away the tears and pay for my candy.

Later when Ryan and I were both home, he said, "You know, you could just make your own pretzels. They are super easy."

This thought had honestly never occurred to me. Make them? Myself? But pretzels come from a box from Costco. At least they were supposed to...

About a week later, I sat down and looked up recipes for pretzels. Of course there are tons of them out there, but I found a very simple/easy one on Cooks.com and decided to give it a go. The only question was what to do about the rock salt. I spent some time googling where to buy pretzel salt and almost every answer I found was just to use Kosher salt.

That same day Ryan came home from a shopping trip to Wal-Mart. He had just purchased a small homemade ice cream machine - the ball that looks like a gerbil ball that you roll around. In one of the bags he had a couple of boxes of ice cream salt and a box of Kosher salt. I couldn't believe my luck! I asked him what it was for and he said that he was actually looking for pretzel salt in case I ever decided to make them on my own and found Kosher salt and decided it might work just as well. Can you believe that? We didn't even talk about this! He is my hero!

So a couple of nights ago I decided to give it a go. I came home from work (Ryan was a scout camp, so it was just me and the dog) and I went to work on the pretzels. It took only minutes to mix together, but rolling them out was a little more time consuming. Most of the reviews I had read said to make sure to keep vegetable oil near by so that the dough wouldn't stick to your hands. I didn't have a problem with that at all, which makes me think maybe I added a little more flour than it called for. Oh well.

The end results? Not bad for my first time ever! They were a little on the thick side (which again supports my extra flour theory) but I also made them short and stocky. Next time I will roll them out thinner and make them bigger. :) But they were good! I sat down and enjoyed two of them while I watched a chick flick. Dodger even liked them and spent a good amount of time giving me puppy eyes hoping I would share more.

So at last my craving was curbed. To a degree. For now.

A couple days after my culinary adventures, my dear friend called me and asked if I had made pretzels, how they turned out, and if I wanted a box from Costco. Turns out it was just my local store that didn't have any. All that drama for nothing. Hahaha. The sweet woman bought me a box and brought it to my house. Can't get much better than that! I thanked her for not only keeping my belly happy, but for keeping me from bursting into tears in public again.

If anyone wants to try the recipe, here it is:

1 pkg yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

4 cups flours

Mix yeast and warm water. Add salt and sugar. Add flour and knead until smooth. Make into desired shapes. Spray cookie sheet with Pam. Brush dough with beaten egg, sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Tada! Now you can have a fun, inexpensive treat that you know is worth shedding a tear or two over if you don't have one. Unless you are not pregnant and your hormones are slightly more balanced than mine. Then maybe crying over a pretzel simply isn't an option for you. But I will leave that entirely up to you.