Please, nobody say soup. No more soup. I’m begging you. Please.
I had surgery two weeks ago to correct my TMJ. Vertical ramus osteotomy, to be exact. My jaw is completely immobilized with arch bars and rubber bands, and will be for the next 2-4 weeks, depending on how I’m healing. I go in for my second follow up on the 24th of April and if the surgeon determines all is well he said he might be able to start “loosening me up”. Whatever that means.
I’m hungry. I’m eating 6 meals a day and drinking liquid meal replacements (nasty things) on top of that, mostly just for the nutrition. I’ve nearly exhausted my feeble imagination coming up with things to eat…er…drink. I’ve blended and pureed until my blender is smokin’. Whatever I eat has to be liquid enough to easily suck up through a straw, and velvety smooth to get through my teeth. I have a close bite with good alignment, there are almost no gaps for anything chunky to get through.
I would kill for a salad. Bitter greens, sharp and crunchy, croutons and sunflower nuts, chopped egg. Lots of creamy, tangy dressing…mmmmmm. Salad.
Have you tried taking all of those salad fixings and putting them in the blender? You could have salad soup.
(Okay, okay, put down the gun, I was kidding.)
I unfortunately do not have any good ideas for you if you’ve exhausted all possibilities with the blender, especially since my last experience with a blender was trying to make a ham sandwich smoothie.
Hello and my sympathies. Im sure you’ve had your share of smoothies and stuff, but did you ever consider adding yogurt to the meal replacement type things? It tastes way better that way.
[aside]
I once worked in a nursing home that purreed EVERYTHING. So anything that was on a regular diet would be blendered to death to give to the people who were on puree diets the same thing.
This led to monstrosities such as pureed toast. (Okay whats the past tense of puree? ) About the same colour and consistency as Poly-filla. So no, not for you, you’d have to thin it out a bit. But it does go to show that anything can be ground up.
Wait, maybe they didnt puree salad. But they served puree spaghetti, perogies, puree cake… (that you can do, mix it with ice cream and some milk or table cream)and a hideous mess that was pureed cabbage rolls.
Of course they were going for a pudding like consistency, you’d have to experiment a bit.
You and your ham… and I suppose you broke your juicer the same way? :rolleyes:
Well, there’s always beer.
You could nuke peanut butter (non-crunchy) until it was liquid enough to suck through a straw, but hopefully still cool enough to eat. You’d need a short enough straw that it didn’t cool to the point of congealing before it got to your mouth. Likewise jelly.
Actually, it was at a friend’s housewarming, where he gave himself a present of an industrial strength $600 blender. Allegedly it could make ice cream, soup, and power a third world country all at the same time.
So after we all had milkshakes and other such blended treats, I tossed a ham sandwich into the blender and poured in some milk for filler, and then selected “Atomize” from the digital touchscreen interface.
Suffice it to say that it was one of the very few times in my life I discarded a pork product.
Believe it or not, there is a limit to the length of time one can live off of sweet creamy dinkable things.
Mine was less than 5 days. If you had told me that two weeks ago, I would have said you were nuts.
The problem with pureeing (man, that just does not look right) regular food then thinning it down is that all of the flavor is gone, and it just tastes like whatever was used for thinning. Right now I’m flavoring different broths and adding either egg, pasta, rice or potato for a little bulk.
I was hoping that someone that had been there, done that would come along and give me some new combination ideas.
My older brother broke his jaw…right around 8 years ago this month, and spent the summer with his jaw wired shut.
The first mistake they made was bringing him pureed scrambled eggs and bacon while he was in the hospital. He has never eaten an egg willingly in his life (yeah, he’ll eat them in cakes and things like that…but not scrambled, fried poached, hard-boiled or any other way).
Then he lived on Ensure for a while - he hated it, but it gave him some nutrition. The last four weeks he lived on Dairy Queen milkshakes and malts. And he lost about 30 lbs (that he didn’t put back on).
What he did find, finally at one point was the Campbell’s cream of chicken soup. It’s mostly smooth anyway, but he gave it a bit of time in the blender to take it the rest of the way, and it worked for him. I’d think that some other cream-type soups would be about your best bet. I’ll pop him off an e-mail though, and see if he has any further suggestions.
Have you tried protein shakes? You can get the mix at your local health food store in vanilla or chocolate flavor. I have one for breakfast every day (I’m a vegetarian, so I feel like I’m helping myself get some protein) made with milk and a banana for extra flavor. They’re not bad and very filling. I enjoy the Whey kind better than the Soy (less chalky). By the way, how was the surgery? I have TMJ pretty bad and have been told that I need the surgery to correct it. I have never been able to seriously consider getting the surgery done because I’m afraid of the pain. Is the recovery very painful (aisde from having to eat every meal through a straw)?
My brother called tonight, so I asked him about that - he said that he really liked the cream of chicken soup, because it tasted like what it was going to smell like. He did have to blend it a little further, but not much.
So, yeah, it’s still soup…but maybe it’ll help.
I know you said “no more soup” but when my dad had to have his jaw wired shut, he found an exception to the “No! MORE! SOUP! DAMMI!” rule:
Take ham (deli sliced, very thin). Take Campell’s cheddar cheese soup. Blenderize them. Heat. If you can manage cracker crumbs, take some saltines (or potato chips: he tried them too and liked 'em), crush them with a hammer and sprinkle them on top. It’s damned similar to a ham-n-cheese sammich.
When I was 8 or 9, I busted my jaw, had to have it wired shut. I ate a lot of milkshakes and pudding, and probably a bunch of other stuff, but can’t remember what right now. When my mom gets home, I’ll see if she remembers.
I do remember 3 other things, one good, one not, and one impractical. First off, do NOT, under any circumstances whatsoever, try pureed BBQ chicken. The good one was something my grandmother made. Some toast, warm milk and cinamon (is that spelled right? looks weird…) all blended up, to whatever consistency you like. And, the third (impractical) thing I recall was a Dove ice cream bar. Had to sort of break open the chocolate, then let things melt enough to suck it down. Messy, to say the least. Tasty though.
Sorry about your problem. But if everything must be pureed, then it’s all soup. Ain’t it? What choice do you have?
I think I’d go to World Market or Whole Foods Market, or Mexican, Thai, Indian, etc grocers and see what they had, including soups.
By the way, the Campbells Cream of Chicken is not bad, as far as American soups go. But I’d try out any of the many Indian dals available, or Moroccan harira, or Greek fasolatha or Mexican Cream of Poblano or—I could go on forever.
Optimum Nutrition 100% Egg Protein Chocolate Flavor can be used to make a pretty tasty protein shake. I eat low-carb and have them all the time for breakfast. Since you’re not eating low carb you can add ice cream to yours instead of plain cream and ice cubes. You can get it at GNC. The flavor is IMO vastly superior to any of the whey or soy protein shake mixes.
I’ve never had my jaw wired shut but I did have to live on pureed foods and liquids for several weeks. My nutritionist recommended baby food. Most of it tastes like it looks but there are exceptions. The baby food bananas are good and so is the oatmeal. I think you would probably be able to get at least the bananas through a straw.
Major warning: Under no circumstances, however, should you try the broccoli and beef!
How about applesauce? Spicey V-8? Pureed avacado? Gin and tonic?
