Even though I now work from home, years of brown-bagging a lunch and tackling a hellish commute has turned me into a meal-planning nazi, so by the time breakfast is over, I usually have a plan of attack for the rest of the day’s fare.
But this day didn’t turn out like I expected. [Cue wavy music and flashback sequence.]
My morning started with an egg, cheese and Canadian bacon sammy. No, not the McMuffin, but my own version that uses Gouda, a whole-wheat English muffin and and egg that actually looks like a real egg.
After making a dent in my workload, I headed off to the dentist for my semi-annual checkup. Call me crazy, but I often look forward to the visit. It’s never that bad: a leather recliner, music and dark shades to protect my eyes from the glare of the bright light, and I leave with a nice gleam to my pearly whites.
But my last visit changed all of that.
When the doc pointed out not one, but two old, cracked fillings needing repair I opted to get it done pronto. It was no big deal and only took about 40 minutes, but I left with the right side of my face dead numb.
It had been years since I had encountered that lovely swollen lip, “please tell me if I am drooling” syndrome. As I drove home contemplating lunch, I realized my fabulous leftover chicken fajita tacos were not gonna cut it, so instead of crunching on this …
I slurped a Greek yogurt with one side of my mouth and waited until I could feel my face again.
An hour and a half later it still felt like I could take a left hook without so much as a flinch, so I heated up a cup of leftover pasta and tossed it with a little olive oil and called it lunch. (Forgot the pic but then it wasn’t much to look at anyway.)
My bowl of carbs tasted good but did nothing to abate my hunger, so I gummed a soft blueberry breakfast bar to fill the void and waited for dinner.
My dinner menu — grilled pork chops and a seasonal salad with Granny Smith apples, Gorgonzola cheese and sugared-toasted walnuts — didn’t seem like a wise choice for someone who had been instructed to only chew on one side of their mouth, so I was forced to do a quick switch-a-roo. Luckily I had all the makings for a stir-fry including my favorite, TJ’s Soyaki Sauce, so I made a Szechuan-style pork with rice noodles.
It wasn’t what I planned, but at this point I was ravished, and the crisp but tender stir-fry hit the spot
I don’t know what was worse: the numb face, kinda starving all day long or messing up my meal plans. Whatever, I just can’t wait until I can floss again.
How well do you cope when your best food plans go awry? —Karen