Wisdom Teeth Blues

Who knew how creative one could become while limited to consuming merely soft foods.  I have been visiting home up in Sacramento for almost two weeks now, and as of one week ago I am wisdom teeth-free.  For someone who is up and about exercising everyday, this was very difficult for me.  I basically slept all day long after the operation, but after I finally woke up, I was ready to get creative with a limited jaw.  I didn't want to resort to a bunch of pre-cooked packaged meals.  Its important to know what is going into your body for a quick and steady recovery.

A few of my staple ingredients throughout this whole process have been eggplant, squash, raw soft tofu, spinach, sweet potatoes, carrots, rice, and various sauces.  The key is to overcook everything, while still maintaining the nutrients in all of these raw goods.  Spinach was one of my favorite ingredients to work with because it carries so much protein and can easily be transformed into baby food.  The key is to use very little water while boiling it, a hint of olive oil, some sliced tomatoes for flavor, and a dash of salt, pepper and garlic powder.  I let about 3-4 cups of fresh dry spinach sit in a pot with all of these ingredients over high heat for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly until the density increases and the spinach shrinks.  Mind you, I wasn't eating spinach until the second day.  Ok, so now you have this cooked spinach.  This is certainly not a meal. Now what?  Well pair it up with something soft you like!  It can go great with some overcooked pasta or you could get even more creative!

I loved working with cooked carrots.  Cooked carrots are actually more appealing to me than raw, so I kind of took advantage of my handicap.  Now carrots are not tricky to cook at all!  Back at my apartment I usually just steam them in our rice cooker, but a microwave works fine as well.  Again the key here is use as little water as possible.  Water sucks the nutrients out of raw food, so we want to reduce this as much as possible.  Ok so you chop your carrots into thin slices, make sure the carrots are laying over the water and not floating over a pool.  Add a hint of agave for some extra flavor, salt, pepper, and basil.  Let the carrots cook, and be careful that you did add enough water so that they don't shrivel up and dry out.  Once they are cooked, carefully drain the carrots.  Now what I did was pair them up with the spinach, add some raw tofu, and eat this little concoction over very cooked angel hair with some parmesan cheese sprinkled over.  This was definitely my favorite recipe, because it was so simple and kept me high on energy.  I ate this about 5 days after surgery when I returned to my 6-hour dance schedule.  Paired with a superfood fruit drink, I stayed full and active shortly after the 3 grueling days of medication.