Buy pre washed spinach, wilt in a covered saucepan with a few tablespoons of water. Drain in colander, cool. Chop and season with garlic, oil and vinegar and salt. Serve with main course.

Or

Fry the pre washed spinach in oil until wilted, add crushed garlic and salt, cook until wilted, very quickly. This method is faster and and the combination of oil, garlic and spinach is very tasty especially if you are having soup too. The spinach is slightly astringent so you the oil doesn't make it greasy it's a good combination.

Anyway that's an old Italian dish, and I had this dish the fried one after surgery and now I realize garlic and spinach goes with everything. Yes this is only one a side dish, but sometimes you need good sides. You can also make a Tarte/Quiche, which no crust, just the custard flavored with garlic and salt and pepper, add the chopped spinach and some tomatoes and cheese to the bottom of your pie pan, cover with any quiche custard (3 or 4 eggs and milk) and bake. You don't need the crust. Some leave our the milk completely as they prefer an eggy custard.

As you get better you can try very soft cookies made with just powdered sugar, a touch of almond extract and lemon extract, and blanched almonds that are mixed in the blender, bake for 20 minutes, they are very soft. Substitute pistachios for a change.

Good Luck with your recovery.

Nat.

I just noticed your post so not sure if you still need recipes. I also had jaw surgery years ago and my mouth was wired shut for almost 8 wks. I could only eat with a food syringe with the tube stuck behind my back molar teeth. Very hard to eat enough to keep energy up. I don't know what I missed more - talking or eating.

Here's a few things I remember eating (all pureed completely to fit through the feeding tube):
-broccoli, cauliflower, cheese puree
-banana, peanut butter, ice cream shake
-carrot, parsley juice (really tasty)
-V8, fruit juices, veggie juices of all types
-tomato soup with chili seasoning, mexican seasoning, or italian seasoning
-potato/cheese soup
-taco soup (tomato soup with pureed grn pepper, onion, cilantro, taco seasonings)
-puddings
-applesauce with apple pie spices
-thin mashed potatoes with cream cheese and parmesan
-sweet potatoes with maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla
-macaroni and cheese
-Ensure or similar nutrition drinks in a can

Cheese may increase mucus so he might not be comfortable with that. I drank tea after meals and snacks to cut the mucus-y feeling. I got very tired of bland things so started adding lots of spices to liven up the purees. Once I even tried lasagna through the blender but it clogged up my feeding syringe. Also drank a fresh watermelon - not near as fun as eating slices.

If you'd like specific recipes for these, let me know. I hope your brother is doing well. He's probably found all sorts of things to eat by now.

CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP
1 lb. fresh asparagus spears
1 medium onion -- diced
1 Tbsp butter
3 cups chicken stock
1 medium potato -- peeled and diced (I believe he actually shredded it, with a cheese grater)
1 rib celery -- chopped
1 sprig fresh thyme or 1 tsp. dried thyme
1 cup cream (I use milk)
Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
Preparation Instructions:

Soak and rinse asparagus. Remove top 1 inch of each spear, discard tough lower part, reserving middle portion of stalks. In a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat, sauté onion in butter for 3 to 5 minutes or until translucent. Add chicken stock, asparagus tips and stems, potato, celery, thyme, and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to
low and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
Remove from heat and let cool.

Remove asparagus tips and set aside. Place half of the soup at a time in a blender container. Cover and blend at high speed for 20 to 30 seconds or until very smooth. Pass through a fine sieve and return blended soup to saucepan. Add reserved asparagus tips and cream (or half and half, or milk) and heat thoroughly, or refrigerate to be served cold.

Serves 4

NOTES : Half & half or milk may be substituted for the cream if fat content is a concern, although it won't taste quite as good. Be sure to adjust the seasoning after you add the cream (or half & half, or milk), especially if you plan to serve it cold.

I wish I could have some right now, but I'm on the South Beach diet. I miss my taters. -sigh-
C

solutions i found were chicken broth, split pea or tomato soup, and my favorite of all time... cheese soup! seriously, they sell it. full of delicious fat and sodium, mm mm. try adding garlic, onion, or spices to any of the soups as well.

the best thing about jaw wired shut is that even though it's a liquid diet, you don't have to worry about calories from fat anymore (i lost 15 pounds over a varying treatment of 6 weeks, drinking anything i could get my hands on). try using it as an excuse to try every sports drink and juice ever made. long live starbucks frappucinos!

Yes to good diets, but being wired shut deserves some pleasures too.

Naturally, a good blender is important. Buy or borrow one if you don't already have one. I was lucky; my roommate works for a restaurant and he already had a commercial-grade juicer which will liquify pretty much anything you put into it.

I've been keeping plenty of the follow on-hand to thin out what I'm going to 'eat': milk, fruit juice (apple is pretty neutral in flavor,) and vegetable broth. I add one or more of these depending on what I'm blending.

I've found that cooked oatmeal blends well when thinned with milk or juice, and that it's very filling and satisfying. I've added all kinds of things, including bananas with peanut butter, chocolate nutrition drink (Ensure, etc.), honey, wheat germ and flavored yoghurt, and more.

I've been using a lot of yoghurt in my smoothies, btw, and they're great for flavor, texture, and to counteract the beneficial bactera kill-off that goes along with taking antibiotics after surgery.

I've done mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and melted cheese which was pretty tasty, although the texture wasn't the greatest... just be sure to thin with plenty of milk and/or vegetable broth.

I even tried some 4-cheese lasagne last night, thinned with veggie broth. It was... interesting. Um... different. Don't know that I can strongly recommend this one, but hey, variety is the spice of life.

Lots of soups, of course.

Good luck to anyone going through this. Only four more weeks for me!

First I had bundles of ensure and babyfood, but both began to make my stomache feel super queezy so I had to get creative with the blender. I began to find that most foods that taste good together really dont taste good when they are really TOGETHER. One thing I found was really num was putting a slice of bread, peanut butter, jelly and milk in the food processor made a pretty good PBJ sammie milkshake :). It was good for about a week straight, then got a little old!

After three weeks of becoming very desperate for food my oral surgeon recommended a really great protein power to me. It is called Muscle Milk and can be found a nutrition store, but two scoopfuls are full of about 60% protein and 33% of any vitamin you could want in the day (except fiber, grr), and then also 300 calories. It instructs to mix with water, but it tastes GREAT with milk - which adds 100-200 calories. I got the flavor of cookies and cream and I swear it has been a lifesaver. I keep getting extremely nauseous off of the few foods I can eat and I get very faint when I dont eat enough, so this muscle milk has been great!

Also, one other thing that makes my stomache feel very soothed is Malt-o-Meal/Cream of Wheat. I just water it down a little and can easily suck it through a straw. I crave wheaty products so this stuff makes my tummy o-so-happy.

I'm going to try the mac and cheese I have seen here. Frankly the New England Clam Chowder blendering worked so well, I am going to check out a few other soups with a similar consistency.