Yesterday I had a couple of small misadventures during the day.
Act I. Donuts
I started out early going to the Donut Friday run, because it was National Donut Day. I decided to take Velcro and Gypsy with me, and they were extremely and surprisingly well-behaved. They tried to steal Nelly's donut and begged for Colin's powdered sugar donut, but they mostly sat in the shade and drank their water. Even though the donuts were free, I didn't have one. Didn't sound appealing.
Act II. The Pinecone
We only got about 4 miles in that morning so I decided to take them for a few extra miles while it was still cool, afterward, on the Power Trail.
About 50 meters from the car I was running directly into the sun and didn't see a pinecone in front of me on the sidewalk, and I stepped on it and rolled my ankle. I heard and felt a pop and it hurt!!
As I was bent over, recovering as the pain subsided, wondering how much damage I did, I could see my summer plans disappearing into the ether.
I walked slowly back to the car, girls attached. It seemed okay, but I knew on a fresh injury you sometimes don't feel the extent of the damage.
I got home and iced the crap out of it. It felt like I rolled forward, more anteriorly onto the front of my foot, my lower shin and the top of my foot seemed to be where the damage was.
Alternating with ice on and off all day, I finally got the guts to see if I could walk around. It didn't feel too bad, a bit tender, but I managed to walk around the block slowly without much discomfort.
Act III. Jackfruit
Lately I've been experimenting with vegan food, just to wean us away from meat, make our diet healthier, and add some variety to our usual meals. We eat healthy meals except just a little too much meat. I've been an enabler of sorts, Dennis likes meat, and I tend to do most of the cooking and I steer toward fish whenever possible. But I'd refer to eat much less meat. I've tried convincing Dennis in the past and it lasts for a short time and somehow it always backslides.
I have been wanting to try cooking some vegan meals for a while and finally put my foot down. And it's been amazing- Dennis likes it and hasn't complained. So I must be doing something right. We've had a lot of quinoa, sweet potatoes, avocado, veggie burgers, and a few other things. But one thing I had not tried, that I was curious about, was jackfruit. I've seen the things at Whole Foods- they are huge and look like this big green oblong orb with bumps all over. Not the most appetizing-looking outside.
But I heard the texture resembled shredded meat. I thought that would be perfect for Dennis. I bought a can last time I was at Trader Joe's and have procrastinated on opening it. Since I was stuck in the house with my ankle I decided to try cooking it.
I looked up a few recipes online and found one using canned jackfruit. It reminded me of a sloppy joe recipe. You cook the jackfruit in barbecue sauce with some onions and peppers and spices, and then shred the jackfruit chunks. Easy enough.
I opened the can and drained and rinsed the jackfruit. It looked kind of gross, with these things that looked like bloated seeds, they reminded me of little baby alien heads floating in the liquid. I kept working and managed to shred the parts that looked like shredded meat anyway. The other parts of the fruit were sort of gelatinous and I smashed them as well as I could. The whole mixture looked unappealing. After the cooking process was done, I tasted it.
The texture reminded me of chewing on little baby alien heads. And it didn't taste all that great either, despite the recipe. Maybe it was the brine they were soaking in, in the can.
I put it away in the fridge and tried to figure out what went wrong. I came back to it after an hour and reheated it to see if I might have a different take on it. It was the taste and the texture- I just couldn't do it. It gave me the chills- sort of like drinking mag citrate before a colonoscopy. I chewed on a few bites and it was just too gross. I dumped the rest of it down the sink and mentally scratched it off my list. I decided to ask on Facebook to see if anyone had any jackfruit cooking advice.
I found out you can buy it in the refrigerated section of a grocery store- so maybe that will be the way to go. I am willing to try it again, but the texture really grossed me out. I'll keep you posted if I have success next time, but I'm going to need some time to forget this experience.
As it turned out, this morning when I woke up, the top of my foot was a little puffy and tender, but not bad. I can walk, no problem. I'll take the weekend off and ice it, see if that takes care of it. I'm glad it wasn't worse. Maybe I should put some frozen jackfruit on it- might be a better use of it!
I guess I'll use my extra time this weekend when I'm not running to find a new recipe...or maybe I'll eat a donut instead!
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