One day I ate a tiger, and then a tall giraffe.

And when I ate an elephant, it really made me laugh!

And then my belly looked like this:

My apologies for the graininess of the image. iPhone, low light, the usual excuses.

Of course, I’m just kidding. I didn’t eat any of those things in either meaty or cracker form. I have a couple of babies in there.*

*Note: I did not eat the babies. They got there in the usual tango method.

But that is my reason for such a long stretch without any kind of post – I was worried about spilling the beans.

I will now reward your patience with a delicious recipe.

Take a couple of potatoes, wash them, and shred them. It’s ok to leave the skins on. Do the same with a few carrots and some onion (I go light on the onion). Put this mixture into a fine sieve and leave for a few hours OR squeeze through a cheese cloth (I used a regular dishtowel – it worked fine). Put the starch mixture into a bowl. Add an egg. Add a few tablespoons of flour. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Mix (use your hands – it works better).

Heat up a skillet or griddle over medium-high heat with some oil. I used macadamia nut oil (my sister lives in Hawaii), but peanut oil is fine. Or even olive oil in a pinch (but I suspect that vegetable oil will work better). Fashion the potato mixture into flat little pancakes (again, use your hands) about an inch 1/2 – two inches in diameter. Place on the skillet (or griddle). Flip when the time seems right (a few minutes – you’ll know when they more or less stick together). Cook on the opposite side for another few minutes. If they’re burned you may have gone too far – flip sooner. If they’re not burned, you did it right. Maybe start with just one, and feel your way from there – they don’t take very long to make.

Serve fresh with sour cream (although I bet they’re pretty good the next day, too).

We first had these at our friends’ house, and liked them so much we made them later the same week.

Moving on to eating while pregnant. It’s the same as eating not pregnant, just more so. Provided you get enough protein (peanut butter, eggs, almonds) and iron (broccoli, spinach) there’s no reason to eat meat (that goes for everyone, by the way), and my fish intake benefits my babies. Within the next few weeks they’ll be able to taste what I eat as they gulp down the amniotic fluid, and it’s generally believed that what babies eat in the womb they will have a preference for when they are born. I’ve been eating fruit every morning along with an egg and cheese sandwich on an English muffin (made at the cafeteria at work), and drinking plenty of fruit juice every morning too. Lunch usually consists of a sandwich (cheese generally – for calcium – but also tuna on occasion) and an orange. Dinners vary. I try to have several snacks a day – usually granola bars and more fruit – and ice cream (again, for calcium and deliciousness) often. Despite eating much more than usual, I have only gained 12 pounds since I got pregnant 20 weeks ago. I had hoped to gain quite a bit more (the more fat the better with twins). However, they are absolutely thriving, so I just hope to keep providing them with healthy nourishment and a safe, warm environment. My doctor was pleased with this gain (it’s partly because I wasn’t exactly skinny to start with).

Discussions are currently underway regarding whether or not our children will also be pescatarians. Our compromise may be that they can eat the meat we buy locally from the farm – I would prefer no meat, and Bob leans more towards judicious consumption of meat (nothing approaching daily intake of meat). I worry about the antibiotics in supermarket meat and nitrates in processed meat (deli meat and hotdogs), not to mention the fact that they’re now manufacturing meat in labs. That’s just disturbing. And it seems like a slippery slope.

We’re planning on making purees out of our own food, so we’ll know exactly what they’re consuming for awhile. By the time they’re ready to start solids, I’m sure we’ll have revisited this and come to a decision or at least a path we’re both comfortable with.

This week also marks my one-year mark of pescatarianism. I have no immediate plans to resume eating meat, clearly. One day I may begin to eat our local farm-raised meat again, but I don’t plan to currently. Now that I’ve seen my two, healthy babies nourished by and flourishing on my pescatarian diet, any argument for eating meat seems pretty weak.  As long as my doctor is not worried, neither am I.