Billy, I have to retrict myself to pudding-like textures or liquids, though it sounds liek the causes of our swallowing difficulties may be different. While all these suggestions are good, they are NOT things with smooth texture and, if you are like me, you may find some of them hard and some of them may go down the wrong way, so be careful and ask your speech pathologist.

Here's what has worked best for me;

mashed potatoes with lots and lots of gravy(I buy the canned stuff--prefer turkey gravy). You're right they are thick on their own.

Yogurt--not low fat but the full fat stuff. This is much better for you than pudding--less sugar and it has stuff in it that can actually help prevent thrush. I puree this with very ripe fuits such as peaches and some fruit juice and a little protein powder--makes a great breakfast smoothie

Pureed and strained vegetables--just for health reasons not a lot of calories there. I am no longer ashamed to buy these already pureed and strained as babyfood, rather than spending the time doing it myself (time I often don't have).

Creamy soups, as many different kinds as I can find, often with some protein powder added in. I also add in sour cream or toffuti sour cream for calories.

Kefir which is a yogurty kind of milk drink--good for you and good amount of protein.

Coffee with chocolate soymilk, cream and protein powder

Overcooked pastina pasta with cheese sauce--pretty pudding-y although I have to really rinse my moiuth afetrwards as I get little bits of pastina stuck in odd places and I do choke every now and then on this.

It's a pretty limited diet and the time it takes is a LOT to get all the calories I need so since I have been back at work, I've also been back to getting about half my calories by the tube.

Frustrating. Hope your recovery is quicker than mine!

Nelie