Nine months post-accident and while I'm doing well overall, I'm not fully recovered. One of the biggest hurdles has been getting back to running. I've been doing walk/runs which started with intervals of 10 steps and increased from there. This has been a slow process over several months. Each time I think I've reached a turning point, and on my way to running a 5k, I've had a knee issue and have backed off. It's difficult to not worry that running will never be available to me again. I miss it a lot. I wasn't a fast runner and I no longer ran long distances, but I enjoyed it and it's an efficient way to get some outdoor exercise.
Every so often I still think back to the moment of my accident and get upset with myself for the poor decision I made. Recently, on a group hike, I was comparing injuries with a fellow hiker and while discussing this he said, "if you make enough decisions, you're eventually going to make a bad one". I suppose this is true, and when you're riding trails, many decisions are being made along the way picking lines and deciding whether or not to ride a particular feature, etc. I prefer this line of thinking to my particular case over the common "accidents happen". That is also true, yet more generic as a retort.
This same concept could apply to cooking - if you pick enough recipes to make, you'll eventually pick a bad one! Thankfully this wasn't the case here. It's another one by Smitten Kitchen and I can feel confident I'll most likely enjoy a dish created by her. I had some tofu I needed to use up and had all the other ingredients on hand as well. The recipe calls for acorn squash, but I used delicata. I roasted some sliced acorn squash as well and mixed it in at the end. Original Recipe
Roasted Tofu and Winter Squash
1 medium delicata squash, sliced into half moons
1 block of tofu, pressed
7 tablespoons peanut or olive oil, divided
1/3 cup tamari
3 tablespoons honey
1 inch of ginger, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon chili flakes
fresh lime juice to garnish (not optional!)
sesame seeds toasted for garnish (optional)
chopped scallions for garnish (optional)
1. Either press the tofu for several hours or press it while you're preparing the squash and marinade.
2. Preheat the oven to 400.
3. Cut the squash in half and remove seeds and pulp with a spoon. Slice into 1/2 inch thick half moons.
4. Whisk together in a small bowl the honey, tamari, ginger, chili flakes and 4 tablespoons of the oil.
5. Slice the tofu into 1/2 inch thick slices and then cut each slice in half.
6. On a cookie sheet, arrange the squash and tofu pieces intermingled in a single layer. Using a spoon, drizzle the marinade over the whole thing. Then flip each piece so both sides get some marinade.
7. Put the sheet in the oven for 15 minutes. Take out and flip with a spatula, then drizzle with the remaining 3 tablespoons oil. Bake for another 15 minutes. (I ended up messing this up and putting all the oil in the marinade and using it all at once and it was fine, but will try it the correct way next time and see if there's a noticeable difference.)
8. Arrange in bowls, over arugula if you'd like and squeeze lime juice over the top. This is important! If you don't have lime juice, I read a comment that some cider vinegar will work. You need a bit of acid. Then sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or scallions if that sounds good to you.
