Oh My Aching Back

Usually, it fills me great joy and personal contentment that I spend the majority of my time working out. I"m not really happy without my routine; which includes running 4-5 days a week, being on a bike or spinner 3 days a week, swimming 2-3 times a week, and doing yoga/pilates 3 times a week.

"Hi, my name is Megan and I'm addicted to endorphins."

"Hi, Megan."

My life doesn't really have meaning unless I'm working out; and I'm completely OK with that...until, that is, I get injured. As Roomie will attest, getting injured is, and I say this without hyperbole or dramatic intent, THE END OF THE WORLD FOR ME. When I'm injured, I have to STOP WORKING OUT and stopping for even a few days means I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO WORK OUT AGAIN because my injury will become SOMETHING CHRONIC and then I'll get FAT and my life will BE PURPOSELESS and I will spiral into a gray, bleak, hopeless depression from which there is NO ESCAPE.

These periods of bleak meaninglessness have happened several times over the past 5 years (swimmer's shoulder, a twisted knee, a torn groin muscle, strained ligaments in my ankle, pulled sacroiliac); basically any time that I have to take more than a day or two off of working out. Roomie, having been there for all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth, has been helping me focus on healing and what I can do, rather than on the injury and what I can't do. "Which sounds better," he'll ask me, "never working out again because it's become chronic (the equivalent of a racial slur to me)? Or resting for a few days and starting fresh?" Hard as it is to do, I must concede the latter.

So here I am, in the 5th day of my inactivity, due to a re-strain of my sacroiliac (at a yoga class, no less! Sigh. 27 never felt so old). True to form, it's been a rough week. Since I don't teach until the late evenings, I have long, long days to try and fill with distractions from both the pain in my back and the depressed thoughts (you will never be fit again!) that wrap their long, stealthy, banana-peel fingers over my shoulders and squeeze.

But, as I have been learning over the course of this blog, cooking & baking helps. Though I can't stand too long in the kitchen, I have been able to turn out a few things in between fanfic chapters and Frasier reruns. It helps pass the time and makes me feel at least vaguely productive. Now, if I could only convince myself it's ok to eat any of these things on a day when I haven't worked out....

Grump-B-Gone 'Nanner & Oat Bread

1 1/2 cup white flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup oats

1 cup-ish mashed banana (I used 3 that were black as my mood)

1/3 cup soymilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vinegar (to make buttermilk)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs worth of Ener-G egg replacer

Combine all the wet ingredients and mix well. Set aside.

Sift together all the dry ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just moistened.

Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes at 350 degrees or until a tester stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

The Shut-In's Carrot Cake with Ginger-Cream Filling

(like a true shut-in, I made my own "shredded carrots")

for the cake:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 tablespoons flax meal in 6 tablespoons warm water (= 2 eggs)

2-2 1/2 cups blender-ed carrots (see below)

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

for the filling:

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons warm soymilk (as needed for thinning)

1/2-1 teaspoon powdered ginger (depending on how strong you'd like it)

to prepare the cake:

To make the carrot mixture: mandolin 4-5 big carrots into your blender. Pulse-blend until they have an ABC look about them (already been chewed). Add a little water to facilitate blending if necessary but not much or the batter will be too thin. You don't want carrot soup, just carrot pablum.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the flax mixture, blender-ed carrots, and oil. Mix well and set aside.

In a smaller bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients. Add the dry to the wet until thoroughly combined. (Add nuts or raisins or pineapple or minced candied ginger or whatever here if you so choose to jazz up your cake).

Divide the batter between to greased, 9-inch-round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until center tests clean.

to prepare the filling:

While the cakes are cooling (in pan for about 10 minutes, then on a rack), prepare the filling. Note that the measurements I give above are for a half recipe because I only wanted to put frosting in between my layers, not on top. Feel free to double it if you want to fully frost your cake.

Cream the butter and half the powdered sugar. Alternate between adding the milk and the rest of the sugar, mixing well. Add the ginger by halves, to taste.

When the cakes are completely cool, frost the top of one half and flip the other on top.