Soft Foods List

Breakfast Ideas:

  • Milk
  • Fruit Juices
  • Cream of Wheat
  • Grits
  • Scrambled Eggs
  • Oatmeal
  • Ensure/Boost Drinks
  • Carnation Instant Breakfast Drink

Snack Ideas:

  • Applesauce
  • Canned fruits
  • Cheesecake
  • Cream Pies
  • Custards
  • Ice Cream
  • Malts, Milk Shake
  • Jell-O
  • Mousse
  • Puddings
  • Yogurt
  • Fresh Fruits:
    • Bananas
    • Papayas
    • Mangos
    • Melons (very ripe)

Other Meals Ideas:

  • Vegetables: (very well cooked, baked, scalloped, pureed, casseroles, soufflé)
    • Avocado
    • Broccoli (heads only)
    • Potato (white or sweet)
    • Carrots
    • Peas
    • Beans
    • Squash
    • Turnips
  • Meats and Fish:
    • Deviled Ham
    • Hamburger
    • Canned Salmon
    • Tuna
    • Chicken
    • Vienna Sausage
    • Egg Salad
    • Pressed Ham Salad
    • Tuna Salad
    • Any Flaky Fish (Dolphin, Grouper, etc.)
  • Cheese:
    • Soft Cream Cheese
    • Pimento Cheese
    • Cottage Cheese
    • American Cheese
    • Cheese Spread, Processed Cheese
  • Pastas:
    • Any Type, with or without sauce
    • Egg Noodle
    • Fettuccine
    • Macaroni, with or without cheese
    • Spaghetti and sauce
  • Soups:
    • Any kind without rice.

Diet Tips and Recipes

Liquid Diet Tips:

Almost any food can be pureed however, it may not be visually appealing.

Equipment is essential. A good quality blender or two will be needed. Vitamix is the best or a food processor and a sieve.

Use caution when blending hot foods in blender as they can expand. Use a towel to hold the lid on when processing hot/warm foods.

Freeze all fruit, or buy it frozen; bananas should be peeled and cut in 2 inch sections. Avoid raspberries (unless put through a sieve) as the seeds will get lodged in arch bars.

All prepared foods can be thinned out to fit through a straw with water, juice, milk or soup stock.

Keep track of all intake, including juice and water.

Contact Tropical Smoothie or your local smoothie maker for nutritional breakdown information.

Shake and Smoothie Recipes:

Protein shakes can be made using Syntha-6, a sustained release protein powder. Vanilla is the most versatile, as it can be made into almost any flavor. Use with milk, water, juice, yogurt, frozen yogurt or ice cream.

Vanilla

  • 2 scoops of powder
  • 1 cup milk (whole, low fat or skim), or 1 cup plain yogurt (or 1/2 of each), or 1 cup of vanilla ice cream
  • 1 cup of ice
  • Blend until smooth

Chocolate

  • Use the vanilla recipe, and add chocolate syrup

Banana

  • Use the vanilla recipe, and add 1 banana

Peanut Butter

  • Use the vanilla recipe, and add 2-4 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth works best)

Chocolate Chip Cookie

  • Use the vanilla recipe, and 3/4 cup crushed chocolate chip cookies

Oatmeal Cookie

  • Use the vanilla recipe, and add 3/4 cup crushed oatmeal cookies

Fruit and Protein

  • 2 scoops of protein powder
  • 1 cup fruit juice (apple, cranberry, pomegranate, pineapple, etc.)
  • 1 cup ice
  • 1 to 1-1/2 cups of frozen fruit (strawberries, bananas, peaches, blueberries, mangos, etc.)

Pina Colada

  • 1-2 scoops of protein powder
  • 1 cup frozen pineapple
  • 3/4 cup pineapple juice
  • 1/2 cup cream de coconut

Stews

Beef Stew

Beef stew meat works best. Cooking it long and slow makes it easy to process when additional beef stock or water is added to thin it out.

  • 2 lbs. stew meat, browned
  • 1 cup of flour for dredging
  • Oil for browning
  • 1 large onion, cubed
  • 3 carrots sliced into 2-inch sections
  • 1 lb. red or white potatoes (not baking potatoes)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 sprig of thyme
  • 8 cups of beef stock or broth
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup dry red wine (optional)

Dredge beef cubes in flour and brown in oil (do this in batches, removing browned beef and adding as needed). When all beef is browned, add back to pot and beef stock, onion, bay leaf, thyme and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Add carrots and potatoes, then cook an additional 30 minutes until potatoes and carrots are tender. Remove bay leaf.

Process in blender until smooth. Cover blender top with towel.

Soups:

Potato Leek Soup

  • 6 potatoes peeled and diced
  • 3 leeks, cleaned thoroughly (chop white parts only)
  • 1 T. minced shallots
  • 1 T. butter and olive oil
  • 2 quarts low sodium chicken or vegetable stock
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1-1/2 cups cream (heavy or light)

In a soup pot saute leeks and shallots in butter/olive oil until tender. Add stock and potatoes. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Simmer until potatoes are fork tender. Remove from pot and process in blender. Return soup to soup pot and add cream to heat through (do not boil). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Lentil Soup

  • 2 cups dry lentils, rinsed and inspected
  • 1 smoked ham hock (optional)
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 3 ribs celery, finely chopped
  • 4 carrots, finely chopped
  • 4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 8-10 cups low salt chicken or vegetable stock
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 t. oregano
  • 1 t. thyme
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions and garlic in soup pot until tender. Add stock and rest of ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes or until lentils and carrots are tender. If using ham hocks remove any meat from bone and add to blender (do not add bone to blender) and remove bay leaf before processing. Process in blender until smooth. May be thinned out with additional stock or water.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken can be slow roasted or grilled, and chicken stock can be added to thin it out.

  • 2 cups cooked chicken (grilled/roasted sauteed)
  • 1 can tomatoes, crushed
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 can chopped green chilies or 1 jalapeno pepper (chopped and seeded)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 quart chicken stick (low salt if using canned)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 t. cumin
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Hot sauce to taste
  • 1 package frozen corn
  • 1 T. chopped cilantro + 1 T. for topping
  • 8 fresh corn tortillas (or you may substitute tortilla chips)
  • Sour cream for topping

Add all ingredients to soup pot, except for tortillas and sour cream. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 35-40 minutes. Add remaining cilantro when soup is finished. Remove bay leaf.

Bake or fry tortillas until crisp.

Place soup in blender or processor in batches, adding some tortilla crisps each time until smooth. Top with sour cream.

Easy Cream of Asparagus or Broccoli Soup

  • 2 T. Butter
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1/2 cup cream (heavy or light); do not use milk
  • 1 large baking potato (peeled and chopped into cubes)
  • Dash of nutmeg
  • 6 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable stock (warmed)
  • 3 cups fresh or frozen chopped broccoli stems and florets, or
  • 3 cups fresh or frozen asparagus cut up into 1-inch pieces
  • Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot saute onion in butter until tender, then potato to coat with butter. Ad warm stock and simmer. Stir in broccoli or asparagus and simmer until potato and broccoli or asparagus are tender. process soup in blender until smooth, in batches if necessary. Return soup to pot and add cream to heat through (do not bring to a boil!) Salt and pepper to taste.

Gazpacho Soup

  • 2 large cans of whole tomatoes with juice
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 very large cucumber (seeded and chopped), or large English cucumber (chopped)
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 1 T. vinegar
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Hot sauce (optional)
  • Sour cream (optional)

Blend all ingredients in blender except sour cream. Chill thoroughly then top with sour cream.

Miscellaneous:

Baked Apples

  • 4 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 – 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
  • Dash of nutmeg
  • 2 T. butter
  • Apple juice

Mix apples, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Place in baking dish and dot with butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until fork tender. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Place apples in blender, process; add apple juice to thin out.

Sweet Potatoes

Bake or microwave sweet potatoes until tender. Place in blender with 1 T. melted butter. Add apple juice or water to thin.

Mashed Potatoes

Bake or microwave potatoes until tender. Place in blender with 1 T. melted butter. Add warm milk to thin.

Juicers:

Carrots, Apple and Ginger

  • 4 cold carrots
  • 4 small quartered apples, cold
  • 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled
  • Juice and serve

Roasted Beets

Roast until tender. Peel and juice
Almost any fruit or vegetable can be juiced. Make your own vegetable cocktail; it’s much better than V8!

Additional Tips:

Multi vitamins and pain relievers (Tylenol; Motrin) come in liquid form. Obtain a baby liquid medicine syringe or squirt measure from your local pharmacist.

Fiber can be made into liquid form.

Ensure, Boost and other liquid supplements are good for traveling and are loaded with vitamins.

Not all protein powders are created equal; they can be made from soy, whey, rice, or other forms of vegetable protein. Be certain to read the labels.

You can find out what your daily caloric requirement is for maintaining weight – by visiting www.cancer.org and searching for calorie intake.

Juicers are good, however, food that is juiced must be consumed immediately.