While I was preparing dinner for my family today, I realized how much cooking resembles football for me now. Before my chronic illness complicated cooking, I’d just grab a recipe, get everything together, prep, and cook. Sometimes it’s still that easy. Since football season is about to start, I feel like I’m a football quarterback. Why?
It all starts with the playbook, aka the recipe. Here’s the list of things I need to have and do to complete the play. Before my diagnosis, I’d grab all of the ingredients and equipment together and follow the recipe to the letter. If I needed to chop or slice things, no worries. I had plenty of energy and strong enough hands to get it done.
Now, it’s not so straight-forward. I have to rely on the equipment managers to set me up. I wanted to make a pork roast in the crock pot, but I needed help getting what I needed. It’s hard to get the crock pot out of the pantry, and the pork roast is in the garage refrigerator. My husband took out them out for me, so I was good.
I looked at the recipe and realized I didn’t have the players on the field that I needed. It called for grated carrots and sliced vegetables and a few other items that I cannot easily prepared because of I have a bad left hand. So I did what a good quarterback and called an audible, deciding to change plans on the fly.
So I checked out my available players and got them together to try something else. I grabbed crushed tomatoes, honey, garlic, and spices. Then I got to work executing the play.
It started out well, until I tried to open the jar of minced garlic. Like I said, I have a bad hand, so that wasn’t going to work. Time to make a substitution. So what if I couldn’t open the jar? I had garlic powder on hand and used it instead. Bingo! Meal put together.
But I still had to make sure I completed the play. I’ve seen football players do stupid stuff like strut toward the goal line and get caught, or drop the ball before they’ve crossed the goal line as part of their premature celebration. My stupid plays have included not plugging in the crock pot or plugging it in but not turning it on. So glad I double-checked, because I hadn’t plugged it in. Whew! Disaster averted.
So I didn’t get to make that recipe that my family has enjoyed before. The important thing is that dinner is cooking and is going to be good. Funny – before I was diagnosed, I never deviated a recipe. But when you have a chronic illness, you learn to adapt and change plans on the fly. It may not turn out exactly as planned, but that’s not a bad thing.
Remember the Real Goals
- The goal isn’t to make a perfect meal. The goal is to feed your family.
- The goal isn’t to follow the recipe to the letter. The goal is to make a good meal your family will enjoy.
- The goal isn’t to make yourself sick. The goal is to take care of yourself.
ENJOY!
