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Wednesday, November 27, 2019

by Diane: Thanksgiving lasts three weeks for husband's recovery

One shelf is devoted to prepared food for Don to help himself.
 some foods are made fresh daily.
 After  4 day old mock gravy was suspect for causing gas,
I am learning to use post it notes with dates
and then toss out quanities of three day old food. 
My husband was released from the hospital November 11. Up until  last Saturday, November 22, he has been eating liquids and purees in small quantities. Rejecting protein shakes, and can you blame him because he had a willing cook? Early on fixing liquid and pureed food was done with heart and love.
I felt my expression of love was creatively satisfying to me and was healing to my husband.
       
         I was happy to make mini meals.  Like a quarter cup of mashed yams with mini marshmallows, mashed potatoes with mock gravy from homemade broth further flavored with chopped turkey. Even jellied cranberry sauce on the side! Custard or lemon meringue without crust of course.  And ice-cream banana shakes! Shakes with blueberry juice separated from the seeds. Couldn't beat the convenience of classic Campbell's chicken noodle soup! Also made homemade soups like potato or chicken soup. Then he wanted more texture in his food. Maybe too soon!
Some of my appliances include a Magic Bullet best for soups and shakes, a Black and Decker Handy Chopper
and Instant Pot to make broth and cook meat until tender

        Just as my Husband was eating a little more, I made a mistake that caused us both a bout of gas and could be a possible cause of his poor sleep Monday night. (Yes, I eat his left overs because my appliances to work properly make more food than he can eat.) From now on I will not serve left over sauce, just freshly made. I will make sure that canned soups and vegetables are cooked not just warmed in the microwave.  Yesterday working with the turkey, I cleaned up with a little bleach.

Lesson learned: I don't belong in the kitchen when I have too many pots on the stove. Then I take short cuts like using food that should have been tossed. Cleaning up the counter tops of everything except what I am using will make food preparation less frantic and  safer and more fun.

Update:
11-27-19
This morning I made scrambled eggs whipping and adding enough milk to make the eggs pastel, baby yellow. Then in  fry pan mixing them continuously until they are almost completely thickened. Then I add milk and cover for a minute. I served half of them. The rest went into the magic bullet with vanilla ice cream, a third of a banana, blueberry passion fruit sorbee and vanilla ice cream. I pushed pulsating. Poured into a small cup and my husband said I didn't serve him enough. He wants more later.

My best wishes to you for a Happy Thanksgiving no matter what you think you can eat.

5 comments:

Rain Trueax said...

This is amazingly complicated but sounds like you have a handle on it. Happy Thanksgiving. We are actually doing a turkey but no mashed potatoes as they are nightshades. Old age is complicated. :)

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

My husband eats sweet potatoes and yams but has not been as happy with potatoes. Noodles in Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup slide down. Can’t do corn or rice until New Years - eight weeks after surgery.

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

Happy Thanksgiving Rain and Ranch Boss.

Rain Trueax said...

I love Campbell's Chicken noodle soup but they use MSG and it ruins my sleep at night.

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

Rain, The healthy choice Campbell's chicken noodle soup with less fat does not have MSG on the label but the regular one does. When Don and I went shopping we purchased the regular thinking it would help him gain more weight.

Today Don refussed to eat any more of my purees and chopped creations. Especially anything made in the instant pot. We purchased a lemon mirangue pie at Safeway, and a rotisserie chicken at Winco. He did amazingly well swallowing but ate less quantity. I cooked the chicken drumsticks in the instant pot as a back up to his experiment.