Food In the Time of Injury

Back in November I had a severe bout of laryngitis which left my poor throat traumatized and me unable to swallow. Once things settled down there followed a long period of desensitization in which I basically have had to retrain myself to swallow food without my gag reflex kicking in. This meant a soft / liquid diet for quite some time. Including the holiday season and all the wonderful associated foods. I love my food and a baked ham at Christmas has to be my absolute #1 favourite. I felt tortured. I'm still dealing with the emotional repercussions of not having been able to eat vast amounts of pig with a silly paper hat on my head.
Just as I was making progress and enjoying a more normal diet again, fate once more took an unpredictable, somewhat devastating turn.
On my way home from work on Friday, 19th of January, on my scooter in the pouring rain, I had an accident. I rounded a corner on a narrow road and found a car smack dab in the middle of it travelling towards me. I swerved to avoid going straight into it and on the wet road my back wheel went right out from under me. I could feel the bike going down and tried to fight it but, no luck. Most unfortunate was my decision to break my fall with my face. Into the wall.
I was lucky. I had a laceration of my eyebrow, a very scary looking egg on my temple and, as it turned out, a fracture of my orbital floor...the 'cheekbone'. The resulting concussion was horrendous and lasted for a few weeks. Of course there were the usual scrapes, bruises and pulled muscles that come with this sort of accident as well and, all in all, I was laid up for a couple of weeks to recuperate. (Lucky for me, my boss is also my orthopaedic doctor, so he's the one who sent me off work...he can't complain then!)
Anyways, my point was really about the facial fracture. You see it meant I couldn't chew. You see where I'm going right? Yes. Back to a soft / liquid diet. F'n TORTURE I tell you.
It's taken a while to heal up but I'm finally back to near normal...avoid anything with too much of a crunch still, as it sends a shock through my face that practically stands my hair on end...but nearly there.
So I think about food a lot. A lot a lot a lot.
Funny though, early on in this ordeal, I kept saying that if the worst thing that came out of this was that I never eat a big juicy steak again, then that's just not that bad. After all, it's bad for you, right? But. I know that, if you are a meat-eater, you are now thinking about a big juicy steak, done just how you like it. I know you are, 'cause I am too. Every time I tried to console myself that way I'd just end up salivating and fantasizing, fantasizing and salivating.
However, I have felt so different, in my body, lighter, healthier (despite injuries) than I have in along time. And I'm sure it's the lack of beef along with all the other things I had to do to ensure I was getting proper nutrition. I may not go back to beef. We'll see how I make out with that. But I will continue with the V8 and the fruit shots by Vie 'cause they're yummy AND good for you.
During this period, finding myself obsessed with food, the closest I could get to some of my favourites was my recipe book. So I decided to sort it out and discovered some new, some long forgotten recipes that I am dying to try. Sweets, savouries, baked goodies. Can't wait.
And at least now I can eat it all.
If these past events were nature's way of getting me to lose a few pounds? I am about to really mess with that!