For us with damaged salivary glands.

[alfredo]

I've been seeking foods I can swallow, but now I think I found the holy grail of easy to swallow foods. I had a craving for okra, so I ordered a take out of fried okra and coleslaw. The slimy nature of okra helped me swallow the coleslaw. I dipped the okra in catsup to provide moisture and salt. It tasted so good. I will try fresh okra as soon as I find some. I used to eat it straight from the plant.

If you buy some from the store, pick the smaller pods. The larger pods can be tough.

I guess eggplant might be a good addition to my diet.

What foods have you found easy to swallow?

[PennyK]

1. While this is not my situation...

...I will confess to a dirty little secret: I swallow some pasta (skinny noodles like angelhair) without chewing. I even do it with skinny pretzel sticks - I bite them into tiny pieces and just swallow them. Been doing these things for my whole life and never had any issues from it. It would probably not work with any food other than a processed carby food..I mean, you don't really chew mashed potatoes, either. (I just confessed all of this to my husband and he told me that it was BAD LOL.)

[alfredo]

2. It's awful what meat does in the mouth when you can't really swallow without chewing it to death.

[PennyK]

3. What about ground meat? Like a meat loaf with lots of filler? Almost Sloppy Joe-ish?

Or even chicken from long-simmered chicken soup? That can be almost shredded-up and it gets very soft. Which reminds me of my dad...he grew up in a household where they made chicken soup every Friday for Shabbat. He HATED the soft mushy chicken, and it turned him off so much that my mother wasn't allowed to cook chicken for us.
Definitely not gourmet food, but...I should talk..I had a Thomas' bagel last night. Me. An ex-New York Jew LOL!

[alfredo]

4. Ground meat is the worst.

Chicken is good, but the dark meat is preferable.

I made this for my wife. I was able to eat some, and enjoy.
http://emerils.com/127418/braised-chicken-thighs

I follow recipes now because I can't trust my tastebuds

[PennyK]

5. Sherbet!

The chicken recipe looks really good!

I've been making fresh fruit sherbets. So far I've tried lemon, pineapple, and raspberry. For the pineapple, I actually ran it through the food processor and you could not even tell it was in there. For the raspberry, you press the juice out in a strainer (which is very tedious). And of course, the lemon is just the juice. The finished consistency depends on what dairy you use, from heavy cream to milk. It is GOOD. Can you do dairy? All you'd have to do is leave out the lemon or lime zest.
I'm really getting my money's worth out of the Cuisinart ice-cream maker I bought three years ago for around $60. I see it's currently available for under $45. This stuff is incredibly delicious.

[alfredo]

6. Milk and ice cream makes me cough

My wife makes great smoothies.

Yesterday I made peanut butter soup. It's kind of rich for me, but it is a great dip for whole wheat bread.

Two cups chicken stock
Minced green pepper
Chopped carrot
Minced onion
Garlic minced
Black pepper
Hot pepper (optional)
Peanut butter

Slowly sauté veggies until soft. Add broth. Simmer for ten minutes. Mix a heaping soup spoon full of peanut with some broth until smooth. Add to soup, stir until smooth. Let simmer for a few minutes.

[alfredo]

7. Made Baba Ganoush and just ate a bunch of it with WW bread.

I'm getting ready to make some roasted Brussels sprouts. It's all happening so fast.

Oh, and I ate pizza and a Greek salad. Life is looking up.

[PennyK]

8. Pizza and a Greek salad?

That sounds like heaven to me!
So glad to hear you're making such good progress.

[alfredo]

9. I might have started eating sooner, but I had an aversion to food I had to overcome.

The Brussels Sprouts turned out great. You roast them until they are almost black. They come out sweet and crisp. They are good cold from the fridge.


Roasted Brussels Sprouts
*
* Prep
15 m
* Cook
45 m
* Ready In
1 h

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and yellow leaves removed
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
* Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
* Place trimmed Brussels sprouts, olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper in a large resealable plastic bag. Seal tightly, and shake to coat. Pour onto a baking sheet, and place on center oven rack.
* Roast in the preheated oven for 30 to 45 minutes, shaking pan every 5 to 7 minutes for even browning. Reduce heat when necessary to prevent burning. Brussels sprouts should be darkest brown, almost black, when done. Adjust seasoning with kosher salt, if necessary.

[PennyK]

10. Yum!

I make them this way too, except that i wasn't smart enough to put the whole mess in a plastic bag (I just used my hands and got messy).
I, too, struggle with an aversion factor after treatment. Many things taste wrong to me, i.e. most bread tastes oddly sweet, many things taste bitter, and I seem to have lost my love for chocolate. I guess even Herceptin has effects that I have to recover from.

[alfredo]

11. Potato salad is so bland to me. I might have to try the mustard variety.

Baked beans are OK, so is cole slaw.

What have you found that is good? Can you eat meat?

[PennyK]

13. Remember, I was in a different boat

I had breast cancer, so my situation is completely different from yours. After my "regular" chemo, I had surgery and radiation, and then completed a full year on one of the drugs, Herceptin (finished four months ago).
For me, it was basically just regrowing the taste buds and getting over the side effects of the Herceptin, which has taken longer than I expected. I still have wonky hair and fingernails, for instance.
Food tasted great to me for a while, and then it went a bit downhill, which I suspect could be related to the blood-pressure meds I'm on now(since nothing else has changed). I can eat whatever I want but things I used to love don't always seem appealing these days...like chocolate. I bought a bunch in a great sale months ago and it's still sitting there, collecting dust.
I think it's great that you are trying new stuff and able to eat more.
I know they're working wonders with saving us, but these treatments really leave a lot to be desired.

[alfredo]

14. I know a sweet lady that will take that chocolate off your hands :)

Has your recovery been a series of peaks and plateaus? Mine has.

A year ago I couldn't finish a poached egg. It tasted great ,but soon it would make me nauseous. Today I had a spinach, feta, and shallots omelette. I finished it and didn't have to force myself to finish. I'm pumped.

Later I will have some steamed veggies.

[PennyK]

15. I had been told that herceptin was "no big deal" with really no side effects

But I read yesterday that some estimate it takes about six months to be clean from it. I'm hoping that's so, because I want to see improvement. I'm planning on getting my reconstructive surgery in January or thereabouts, when I figure I'll be in better shape. From what I've read, I'll be in recovery for a good month to six weeks from it. I really never imagined at the outset that it would take so long for this illness and treatment to run its course.

[alfredo]

16. Age has affect my recovery, made it much longer. Be patient.

[alfredo]

12. Bread is OK, but Pita isn't. Chocolate chips eaten one at a time is OK.

Coffee tastes burned.

Corn tortillas are so good. I can warm them, cut them into wedges, and fry them to make chips. I can fry the whole tortilla add sugar and cinnamon to make a tasty dessert.

[PennyK]

17. That sounds delicious

And you're right about giving it time. I was never anywhere near physically fit, but now getting myself back into decent shape for just walking around is WORK. I consider myself lucky in getting breast, rather than lung cancer, since I smoked for so long, and I need to remember that. Even all the side effects I had were just a "series of unfortunate effects" that I will recover from. Just time.

[alfredo]

18. I quit smoking cold turkey in 73, and haven't gone back.

I worried about the smoking, but I gave no thought to HPV.

This thread made me think of Tig Notaro

[aka-chmeee]

19. Had cancer which started in left tonsil and spread in lymph nodes along jaw...

4 years out, still experimenting with food. I have terrible time with whole wheat/grain breads (which is what I ate before) Now can eat some white breads but have best luck with sourdough breads. I remember being told that milk with meals would help but I find that any liquid is helpful. I no longer like beef (sense of taste screwed too) but enjoy fatty cuts of pork, dark meat from chicken and turkey (especially the back meat of turkey which cooked in the roaster bottom) and baked fish. Find that almost all vegetables work well and prepare a couple of gallons of vegetable soup in beef or chicken stock frequently and subsist mainly on that while it lasts. Smiled at comment on chewing forever, I tell my wife that I never get full, I just get tired of chewing. (Part of preparation for treatment was the removal of all my molars. I lost a lot of weight but in 4 years have managed to gain about half of it back and I think I have started to adapt to the new "normal" due to all the left over effects. At this point, it's not likely to improve and for the inconvenience and disruption to my routine, I must admit it is a hell of a lot better than it might have been without some damned good doctors and a lot of luck.

[alfredo]

20. Today I had tomato basil soup with baked pita pieces, and a bit of cheddar cheese.

I found some Delicate squash, just perfect for roasting. I can eat the skin.
I've lost over 30 lbs since late Feb 2016. I want to stabilize around 175.

BTW, Emeril's braised chicken thighs is wonderful and easy to make.


I have a hard time with potatoes, but I always have.