Its 1am and your stomach is growling......

[BelovedofIsis]

What is your fav midnight snacks???

[PenskeFan]

A little PB, perhaps a small piece (end piece) of rye toast, or a piece of cheese.

[RelishPDX]

A glass of guava nectar. Mmm, guava, my late night weakness.

But if there's tapioca pudding in the house, watch your step, 'cause I'll get to it first!

[mamachef]

It's not quite 1 a.m. here, but that's irrelevant because my stomach sounds like anyway I'm really hungry. And tonight's fourthmeal is.....a cup of homeade chicken-rice soup with some wonderful baby carrots, and a cup of warm milk with a tot of brandy. Boozy aside, what a nursery meal!!
Oh, and half a warm blueberry muffin with a bunch of unsalted butter.

[pie22]

i have never gotten up from sleeping to get something to eat but if i am still up and home, it's usually leftovers or carrot sticks with hummus (like i just got finished having this evening). if i am out of the house it's almost always pizza or something from the wawa deli.

[EWSflash]

Man- I'm asleep when that time rolls around and I have never in my life woken up and gotten something to eat. It's all I can do to convince myself to go to the bathroom. Eating takes too much away from the sleeping experience 8^)
I might wake up in the morning craving something, but have never gotten up to eat. I guess I like my sleep even more than my eating- go figure

[danionavenue]

Well I must be drinking if I am up at 1 AM so I would say open 24 hour cafe with omelets or mcdonalds.... or pizza.... or a hot dog stand.... depends on how drunk I am and who i am with oh and what city I am in :)

[mucho gordo]

It's growling?? Probably just flatulence.

[ipsedixit]

... or monster under the bed.

[mucho gordo]

Mrs. G sleeps in the bed. not under.

[ipsedixit]

Didn't mean to imply the latter ...

[mucho gordo]

I was just joshin' you, ipse.

[jmcarthur8]

My father used to snack in the middle of the night - always sweet stuff. Sometimes half a sour cream apple pie, sometimes piles of cookies. Once when my mother got up in the morning, she came across an empty half gallon cardboard ice cream container placed upside down in the top rack of the dishwasher. She knew right where to look for the bowl and spoon he'd used. Yep, found 'em in the freezer. My 3 sisters, Mother and I had a good laugh on that one, but nobody had the heart to tell Father what he'd done. He would have been mortified. Think he'd had a few too many vodkas that evening.

[YAYME]

I eat what I made the day or night before. Or homemade pickles. Speaking of which I have to make a batch.

[condie]

Pickled eggs, sliced, on toast or triskets, with a bit of dijon. And maybe a whiskey and soda to wash it down! :-)

[Uncle Bob]

A couple of pinches of cold mustard greens....or maybe a few bites of cold fried chicken....or a chug-a-lug of milk straight from the jug....No need to dirty a glass at 1 AM ;)

[mamachef]

Pinches of mustard greens, I love that. Do you just reach in with your fingers? I do that with my enormous neverending jar of kraut sometimes. I figure all the vinegar and fermentation will kill off anything cross-transferred.
And now I know to stay awaaaaay from the milkjug when I come for a homecooked Southern meal. : ) I'll have the sweeeeeet tea, please.

[Uncle Bob]

Yep, just pinch them with ya fingers and drop them in your mouth...it takes talent not to get pot likker on our chin however ~~ Don't worry about the milk jug....there is no backwash...

[julesrules]

I like your fridge!

[itsaboutfood]

Wake the wife , and ask her what I should do?

[mamachef]

If it was me, at 1 am? I'd tell ya to find yourself a new wife. But then, I have sleeping issues and maybe your wife is a nicer person than me. : )

[Cheese Boy]

If it requires any eating utensils then I likely ain't touching it ... so I'll reach for a bag of Combos snacks most of the time. I won't tell you how many I devour out of the bag, but it's substantial.

We all should just drink a glass of water or milk, but I do that afterwards as my chaser. LOL.

[foodworthy]

If I'm eating that late I'm probably drunk, which means that healthy is not a consideration. I would have to say a potato chip sandwich with butter.

[mariacarmen]

ding ding ding - drunk (or rather, more likely, tipsy). we're often still up at that hour and later, and usually have "dinner part two", which can be leftovers from dinner part one, or a quesadilla, or buttered toast, or a blt...or just cheese and crackers or bread. Since we're up late, usually don't wake up hungry later than that!.

[Rmis32]

I'm not much of a late night snacker now, but back in my college days, if I was with friends & we got hungry late, the snack of choice was a banana cream pie. There were 2 stipulations - no hands, no utensils. Ah, the sixties, what a time.

[ediblover]

Not my favorites, but if hunger beats sleepiness, I usually grab Greek yogurt and a granola bar. Sleepiness may have lost, but it's still fighting and I just don't have the will to make, combine, or plate anything. So, things that can be unwrapped end up being consumed.

[soytoy]

Another cup of herbal or green tea.

[Beach Chick]

I can't go to sleep hungry but if I wake up and I'm hungry, I've gone to the big chunk of cheese..
I've made cheese and avocado tacos..frying the tortillas..took all of 10 minutes to cook and eat 3 tacos.. ; )
Made a vine ripe tomt's sandwich with gobbs of mayo and a handful of chips squished together.
Triscuit with some cream cheese or cheese.

[tonifi]

I never get out of bed to eat (the kitchen is three floors down, I'd have to be really hungry to tromp all that way), but I am often still up at one in the morning, and if I'm inclined to snack before the long trudge up the stairs, it's almost always some variation on toast. (bagel, crumpet, sliced bread, with cashew butter or lemon curd, eaten out of hand and the knife dropped into the dishwasher just before turning it on...)
We did, at one point, have a coffeepot and a teakettle on the third floor, but somewhere in the never-get-enough-sleep early days of having children, they both quietly sat misused until they ceased to function. It might be time for a re-install.

[Cynsa]

an apple - or, toast with peanut butter. the apple is a good before-bedtime snack, also - it helps you to sleep zzzzzzzzz

[alliegator]

I would nevet get up to eat, but if I'm still up, ice cream is my thing. Not a big bowl, but at that hour a little mugfull is pretty satisfying. If it's cold out and ice cream doesn't appeal to me, then Milano cookies always do!

[thew]

i wouldn't get out of bed to eat, but i am often up still at 1 am. could br some bread and cheese, could be leftovers, could be ice cream or sweets (but rarely) could be something crunchy and a beer.

[inaplasticcup]

Whatever's left over from dinner. Last night, it would have been pulled pork and potato salad.

[beevod]

A jar of Vita herring with two Aquavits -- works every time

[mamachef]

And, beevod, your morning breath is probably actually visible after a snacky like this! I like it!

[ttoommyy]

Great topic. My brother and I have discussed this frequently and we NEVER have "midnight snacks." We always laugh about sitcoms where you see The Beaver, Andy or Rob and Laura sitting at the kitchen table with a cold chicken or pie on the table. When we were young our family never did that and as adults we still do not. Like another poster said, if I wake up at 1am with my stomach growling I go back to sleep. It doesn't even occur to me to get up and get something to eat.

[mamachef]

ttoommyy, my dad used to use the midnight snack as a way of busting up whatever post- Sat. night date I was entertaining. When the clock struck one, out he'd come, in a plaid robe with his storky legs. : ), looking for pie or chicken or something. Then he'd glance at the clock and say, "wow, I had NO IDEA IT WAS THIS LATE!!"

[ttoommyy]

LOL Now THAT is straight out of a sitcom! I love "out he'd come, in a plaid robe with his storky legs." Priceless!

[roxlet]

I'm with you, ttoommyy! I don't understand getting out of bed to eat. Basically, it never occurs to me to do that. We also tend to eat dinner on the late side, so I mostly go to bed feeling plenty full.

[Jase]

Sometimes you're just too hungry to go back to sleep. When I dropped a bunch of weight a few years ago, I was working out pretty hard and my body had to get used to the new rhythms. A couple of times, I woke up starving in the middle of the night. I got up, ate a small amount of food, climbed back to bed and fell asleep. Woke up the next morning, hungry, worked out and ate a big breakfast.

I also knew a gal who is petite and had a hummingbird metabolism. She noshed all day long. She kept a fridge in her bedroom because she would wake up in the middle of the night starving. She'd eat enough to quiet the stomach and go back to sleep.

These are of course exceptions.

[julesrules]

This. Also usually due to a lot of exercise, pregnancy or breastfeeding. I try to go back to sleep, but after a while it becomes clear I need to eat or I will not sleep.

[ttoommyy]

I can truly say I have never woken up hungry. Thirsty, oh yeah. Hungry? Never.

[Jase]

*shrug*, I can't recall ever waking up thirsty. Different people have different needs and rhythms. After I got acclimated with the new rhythms of my weight loss, I was never hungry enough to get out of bed to get something to eat.

[rockandroller1]

I've wondered about this too. Unless you are starving yourself all day or, as someone mentioned below-thread, are working out Michael Phelps style, it really shouldn't be an issue. You're not going to die of hunger from fasting overnight. Just go back to sleep, and make sure you're eating enough calories during the day to begin with.

[cmspin]

Sometimes you get so hungry there's no way to sleep unless you eat something! Fasting doesn't work unless you want to be awake all night. This happens when I'm running a bunch-even if it's not Michael Phelps level.

[BelovedofIsis]

I was just up late, on chowhound no less, and got really hungry at 1am. Had me an english muffin with cream cheese.

[ipsedixit]

If I'm up late (either goofing off or working), then it's usually cereal straight from the box, or maybe PB&J.

I have never actually gotten out of bed to get something to eat during the middle of night because of hunger pangs. The thought of having to brush and floss before going back to bed always deters me from eating anything.

[cayjohan]

So true on the brush-and-floss as deterrent! I always wake up hungry, no matter what the clock says. The inside-my-skull chat I have with myself always centers around not wanting to deal with another dental clean-up after a fridge raid. I like to let my various lazinesses work for me that way.

If it's before the bedtime brush, bets are off. Lately it's been a nighttime yogurt bender, so I'm feeling pretty guilt-free.

[ipsedixit]

I need to have my "before-brush and floss-bedtime" Wether's Original fix almost everyday.

[cayjohan]

I lied by omission when I said it was a nighttime yogurt bender here. Yes, it's been that, but for the past 48 hours it's been a Hub-out-of-town-and-there-are-cold-leftover-grilled-bratwursts-in-the-fridge bender too. Werther's sound pretty good as a chaser for those bratwurst snacks while up late waiting on a Hub-bearing plane. Bingo. I've got some tucked away, and the cab's 25 minutes out. If I have to brush out bratwurst, a little caramel wouldn't be much effort. The combination actually sounds good. Oops. Cab 22 minutes out. Must have a caramel and brush teeth...

[ipsedixit]

Caramel + grilled brats = sweet savory bliss.

[katybz]

A glass of water. There's no way I'm eating then going straight back to bed. However, I don't think a growling stomach has ever woken me up.

[jeanmarieok]

english muffin with butter and jam. or peanut butter and honey on graham crackers....

[GlobalTable]

Whatever is quick and easy. Chocolate chips, mostly. Or cheese with spicy mustard. Or leftovers. But usually I just drink some water and try to go back to sleep. :)

[OCEllen]

A bit of blue cheese and maybe some nuts. With a bite or two of TJ's oatmeal raisin cookie.

[amyzan]

Oatmeal or a banana

[Chemicalkinetics]

Usually something quick and easy. Cereal with milk, instinct noodle, leftover food...

[DuchessNukem]

"Usually something quick and easy. Cereal with milk, instinct noodle, leftover food..."
=====

Whoa. That's a delightful auto-complete typo. Sounds like maybe Paleo diet? :^)

Back on topic: 1 a.m.: cheese, or crunchy/salty chipsies. If cold cuts are around, they won't be for long. Never crave the sweets.

[Chemicalkinetics]

:) Instinct Noodle all the way!

Thanks for the correction.

[luckyfatima]

soy milk or possibly a small bowl of cereal and milk.

[fara]

if my stomach's growling at 1 am I go back to bed.

[jmcarthur8]

Bowl of cereal. If there's no milk, then a waffle with peanut butter and strawberry jam.

[BelovedofIsis]

yYou are awesome, I thought I was the only one that ate peanut butter on my waffles and pancakes!

[Breezychow]

Definitely cheese or a couple of slices of whatever cold cuts might be on hand. Protein.

[Phurstluv]

GREAT TOPIC!!

If I'm still up at that hour it's Xanax!!!! LOL!! Seriously, I usually don't get up in the night to eat, but if I do, sometimes it will be something relatively light like some triscuits with a slice of Tillamook cheddar that I quarter and put on them. That will generally cure the hungries for me. But every once in a while, I am obsessing or craving something that is calling me in the fridge, like a liverwurst sammie on toast with cheddar and mayo. Or salami & cheese on toast with mustard and mayo. Sense a trend here?? Love to see what other 'Hounds crave at night!

My Mom used to make my Dad go get us (of course I had to get in on the action) McDonald's cheeseburgers & fries, at like 9 o'clock at night. My Dad is a Saint, so he didn't care. I believe this was even before drive thrus came around. Yup, the good old days. I'm glad I live too far from one to make my DH do that, even though I know he would if i asked him to.

[mamachef]

LOL: I was going to say, if it's truly midnight the only snack I need is Restoril, since I can seriously get a stretch of sleep. But if it's after two a.m., and it's a matter of waking up with the growlies, a banana and a glass of milk do the trick; it can't be heavy or difficult to digest. Caveat, though: if I'm STILL awake as opposed to awake AGAIN, I can and do eat anything, from leftover beef stroganoff and noodles to graham crackers with peanut butter and sliced bananas, with a huge glass of oj.

[Phurstluv]

Right, right, you got it!! I wish I could drink a glass of milk!! That might help me!! But, NOOOO.

[bermudagourmetgoddess]

IF... I am still up at 1 am, i am probably drunk!

[mariacarmen]

and therefore you need to eat something!

[jlhinwa]

This is so cliche....ice cream.