The legend of tuna noodle casserole...and other maternity advice.

Just entered Week 24! (App 1 tells me she's an ear of corn, and App 2 tells me she's a "demi-baguette.") The cutesy pregnancy literature out there calls the second trimester the "smooth second" because it's the most comfortable time...after the exhausting first trimester and before I become too big to bend over and buckle my sandals. I wouldn't have noticed that I'm nearly done with Part II of III except that Nick had to help me unbuckle a sandal yesterday, so I figured I'd better savor the next couple weeks and commemorate with another post.

As I mentioned in the reveal, I was pretty lucky as far as eating goes in the first trimester -- apart from a brief period of nausea and sometimes-debilitating smell-sensitivity, I didn't have terrible morning sickness nor insatiable, guilty cravings (with the exception of mac and cheese...miraculously I mostly craved fresh fruit). There was one minor meltdown circa Week 12 during which I sobbed into a previously-beloved bowl of ramen that tasted like a cast-iron pan, so filled with fear was I that food would never taste the same again. My older sisters -- one with a five-year-old and two-year-old, and the other with a nearly five-month-old -- reassured me relief was near.

That's been the most wonderful thing about being pregnant...your world becomes this loving melting pot of other people's advice (the most consistent piece being that you will get a lot of inconsistent advice), stuff (thank goodness for the generous collections of rotating maternity clothes, gender-neutral baby onesies and toys and gear) and traditions.

Around Week 16, I was getting pretty fed up (pun intended) with metallic-tasting food when my mom told me that while she was pregnant, she had had basically no appetite and awful morning sickness until a family friend brought over an unlikely meal: tuna noodle casserole and peach pie. She ate both with gusto and was apparently cured.

Regular readers may raise an eyebrow...Campbell's soup and canned tuna? I had grown up eating "tuna bake" with some regularity, and I assure you, it's delicious...but it had been probably over a decade since I had last eaten it. I got the recipe from my mom and gave it a try. It tasted like home, and I ate two giant pieces. Was I cured?? As it turned out, later that week I was back to metal-mouth -- my mom astutely pointed out it was probably because I hadn't made the peach pie -- but it didn't last much beyond that.

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Gretchen's Tuna Bake
Makes one 9x13" Pyrex (serves 8, or 2.5 pregnant women)

12 oz wide egg noodles
1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 can volume of milk
8-10 oz canned tuna (look for a brand/grade with low mercury, for Ms. Expecting)
1-2 c frozen green peas
1 c breadcrumbs
2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400*F. Cook egg noodles in boiling, salted water, according to package instructions. Toss cooked noodles with drained tuna (flaked with a fork) and frozen peas. Add soup plus one half can of milk, topping off the rest with water (= 1 full can of liquid once the soup has been emptied). Top with shredded mozzarella and breadcrumbs. Bake 30 min. or until golden brown and bubbly.