Don't Change Horses In Mid-Stream

After I fell off my bike 2 weeks ago, flying over the handle-bars to land with most of my weight on my chin on the sidewalk, breaking my jaw in two places, requiring surgery on one side and a 7-day stay in the hospital, I had some time to wonder "why" this happened.

I was in shock, and so annoyed, worried, and scared. I couldn't believe that an ordinary day turned into a life-changing one so quickly. Trying to figure out what went wrong (I guess I believe there are lessons to be gained from every thing that happen), this phrase came into my head, "Don't Change Horses in Mid-Stream". I think the phrase is actually don't change courses in mid-stream, but I like to imagine jumping off one horse and onto another while both are running fast down a hill. Sounds like a bad idea. So it was, apparently, a bad idea for me to switch from the street to the sidewalk on my bike that afternoon, even though the curb I attempted to ride over was so small, only an inch or two high!

Now I find myself stuck on a no-chewing diet for 6 weeks (2 done, 4 to go), and so I haven't been cooking like I used to. But I have learned a few things about how to get variety and nutrition from pureed and liquid food. Here are some ideas, and maybe some other broken-jaw sufferer will find this!

BREAKFAST:

Most mornings I have been making "Frappe". (Rhymes with "Crap".) This is a recipe my mom discovered somewhere many years ago. Simply put one orange, one banana, and one apple in the blender. Blend. That is a frappe. It is delicious, and thick, so best eaten with a spoon. Lately I've been adding soy milk and cinnamon and often some ground flax seed to the frappe for my breakfast. Other fruits such as strawberries can be added as well.

Baby cereal! I think oatmeal or any other cooked cereal could be blended with milk or soymilk to make a drinkable breakfast. I haven't tried making real cereal yet. But I did try something extremely delicious and decadent and comforting: I bought a package of instant baby cereal. At the grocery store here in Germany there are so many kinds, made with millet, oats, spelt, wheat, and other things I don't know the translation for. I bought some millet cereal, which when added to hot water makes an instant, smooth and creamy cereal which is basically liquid. I added some dark-brown beet syrup (the Germans use it a lot and it is high in iron--can be substituted with Molasses, but the beet syrup has a less metallic taste) and salt and this was very good!

LUNCH-DINNER:

Blended Soups:
I bought myself an immersion blender the day I got out of the hospital. I'd always wanted one anyway. It seems that blending soups really enhances the flavor of certain ingredients. It is fun. I had a variety of fresh, organic vegetables in my refridgerator which had been there for a week, since the day I fell from my bike. So on my first evening home, I made a soup using everything in the fridge. I had some bell peppers, which I roasted in the oven first. Everything else I just chopped (or my mom did, actually), placed in a pot with some olive oil. I sauteed the veggies a bit and then added water, covered and cooked. There were endives, carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, maybe some cauliflowers, and the bell peppers. I can't even remember what went into this soup, but it was delicious when we blended everything together after it was all cooked. Later in the week I used a different random selection of vegetables, and this time I started adding greens at the end, just before blending. I added a huge bunch of rucola (arugala), and fresh parsley and scallions. Delicious, and nutritionally, it's the closest thing to salad I can have!

I highly recommend this relaxed way of making improvised soups. Throughout the week I cooked some white beans and some brown rice, and some lentils. Each day when I heated my soup I'd add some amount of one or two of these extra ingredients, and always (I'm addicted to green soup now), some scallions, parsley and other herbs, or even baby lettuces just before blending.