Just before Halloween my boss came up to me and asked what she should order so I could be part of a team lunch on Halloween. I told her about my success with Panera Bread. She ordered sandwiches and cookies for everyone, and a container of cheddar broccoli soup for me. ALL GOOD! I started lunch early and ended late, and really felt part of the meal.
Yesterday, my company had it's annual charity auction over lunch time. I always drop some change, because one of the recipients is THE CAM NEELY FOUNDATION. For Lunch, there were meatballs, toasted ravioli, garlic bread, fresh veggies and salad. I looked over the assortment, and thought "Well, maybe I'll wait until after lunch to puree up some food. This is a standard issue with people who have to puree their food. Here I am a champion of pureed food, and still to shy to puree up a meal and eat with the crowd.
1 Unit* toasted ravioli
1 Unit Meatball
2 units extra sauce
optional "inside" of Garlic Bread
thin with water
25 MEALS OF EXPERIENCE
So I have 25 meals under belt. I can now look at a luncheon assortment and realize what is going to work. I had chewed all this food back when I could eat, so I knew the consistency of each dish. A couple of toasted raviolis (which require extra liquid because they are drier than you think); a couple of meatballs; extra meat sauce; and finally I scooped out the inside of a little garlic bread. The ravioli would provide all the starch I needed, so I didn't need the bread - just the garlic and butter.
I added hot water from the water cooler to heat up the meal, and make blending easier.
Now the blender I keep at work, is a highly inferior model, when compared with a Vitamix. I was given it as an emergency blender, and it travels with me. You just need to remember that you need to blend it longer. Vitamix usually takes 4 minutes or more. Other blenders may take up to 10 minutes. By the time I was done blending, there were still small chucks, but nothing that wasn't manageable.
TASTY
Besides my son, I never asked a "chewer" to try my meals. Today was going to be different. My co-worker, Patrick, and I started about the same time. OK, so he has a couple of months on me and won't let me forget it. He is also about half my age. We have a great working relationship, because he is at the beginning of his career, and I am at the end. He has been keeping tabs on my progress, so if I can trust someone with my first sample - it would be him.
"Patrick, would you like a taste?" Pause. "Yea, I think I would" He grabbed a small paper cup and poured himself a little bit. " You know this is kind of like soup. It has all the flavors that should be there." SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOREEEEEEEEE. I think that is the best response I could get.
After that I asked one more person, and again a positive response. OK Jeff, you are on a roll, how about attacking that pureed Nachos again . . .
My current favorite ravioli available at Costco
* A unit is whatever size you want. Whatever you choose, use the same measurement for all ingredients.
COMMENTS
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I have created a companion page on Facebook called: 100 Meals Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors. Sometimes it is easier to share a FB page than send a blog address.
Sounds delicious!
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