Thought this might be helpful to those who are struggling to eat normally. Avoid buying things that are spicy or have alot of salt in them, instead buy low (or no) sodium and make as much as possible from scratch.

soft scrambled eggs with cheese
poached eggs
yogurt
pudding
cheesecake
milkshakes (I used to drink choc/peanutbutter milkshakes daily)
baked beans mashed up like mashed potatoes
mashed potatoes
mashed sweetpotatoes, or candied sweet potatoes
chicken and stars soup
wonton soup
french onion soup (can make very easily at home, just beef broth and sauteed onions, piece of toast on top and provolone cheese broiled to melt it)
pancakes w/ real maple syrup or smucker's blueberry syrup
french toast
canned carrots
peas or green beans mashed
glazed carrots
cottage cheese
buttered soft, fresh white bread with jelly
soft serve ice cream
applesauce
tomato soup made with milk
zucchini squash either dipped in egg and lightly fried or sauteed in butter
jello
canned peaches or pears
asparagus (overcooked)
baked potato with butter and sour cream


Some meats are very tender when cooked in a pressure cooker like turkey legs.

To help balance your diet, add a scoop of dry carnation instant breakfast to milkshakes.

2 things,, the sweet potatoes should be baked, them smothered in a butter brown sugar and just a touch of cinnamon. these potatoes are as soft as anything and you don't need to mash them. and as for the carrots, get the large ones to cook because the baby ones stay too firm. As for peaches, get the elberta freestone ones, they are much more tender.. the cheesecake of Christines is delicious

Thank you so much for the list. Any other input from anyone else would be great too. What about rice, oatmeal, grits? Are these too grainy/dry/sticky etc to go down comfortably (beginning stages of trying to eat again)? AND anything with some calories too it?? Thanks.

cream of wheat and oatmeal and ramen noodles worked for my H. My best guess is because they were bland and nothing tastes right. Occasionally he can eat some other stuff (when we aren't battling thrush) and then spaghettios work well.

I find that skim milk is great whereas whole milk is too much. Cream of wheat and oatmeal are also not bad. Mayonaise is okay but catsup is deadly. Almost all of the vegetables if steamed well. A quesadilla is not too bad, but a sandwich is not. It is really weird what is good and what is not, and what you can actually eat and what you can't. Cheryl hit it right on the head when she said that nothing tastes right.

Cream of tomato soup - soak cheese bread pieces in it. Sounds gross but it is wonderful and gives you that carb hit that you need when you are having trouble finding suitable food.

Donna

oooh tomatoes are very acid,dont they burn the mouth?

Traci,

Re calories, get Carnation Instant Breakfast VHC. It has a whopping 560 nutritionally balanced calories in a small 8 oz can. I drank them during Tx and for over a year post Tx to boost my caloric intake by mixing it with whole milk, half and half. Lew needs a ton of calories daily now to combat this recovery process.

The tomatoe thing is pretty "iffy" at our house - some days Mike can eat tomatoe sauce and sometimes it bothers him. Most food doesn't taste right to him yet so when I cook for me and the kids I have him just taste a little of everything to see if we can hit on what comes closest. He's still using lots of Ensure Plus.

Cheryl,

Have you considered Carnation Instant Breakfast VHC? It has appx 50% more calories in the same size can.