My Sixtieth - Chili Dog -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Sixtieth  recipe for the new cookbook - Chili Dog

My mom made one of my favorite chili con carnes, when I was growing up.  Slow cooked ground beef, McCormick's chili spice, canned stewed tomatoes, dark red kidney beans . . . YUM.  I'm sure she still has the index card with the recipe on it.   When you are feeding a family of ten, it is a great way to feed the masses  and have leftovers.

I continued that tradition with my two children; although, the recipe changed over time.  The beef changed to bison, then the bison changed to zucchini.   My son is the meat-eater and my daughter is the vegetarian.  The simple McCormick's chili powder was supplemented with extra cumin.  The stewed canned tomatoes, changed to tetra boxed purred tomato sauce.  Now, I always add rice to make it thicker.

If both children are home, I make a vegetarian version with cooked bison on the side.

VEGETARIAN VERSION - FULL FAMILY MEAL
1/2 cup veggie oil

2 medium Zucchini (or summer squash)

1 large Vidalia Onion (or large yellow onion)

cook on medium heat until they start to bown turn heat down to low

1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tetra box kidney bean/black beans/ pinto beans
dash of garlic
dash of cocoa powder
2 cups cooked white rice, or you can cook the rice in the chili pot

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS EXTRAS

1/2 red/green bell pepper
pinch of fresh cilantro
1/2 a squeezed line
avocado on the side - I add it to my puree too


ALWAYS SERVE TOPPED WITH CHEDDAR CHEESE OR DAISY SOUR CREAM

So, I bought my first Red Sox tickets for this season, and I have been craving hot dogs and Italian sausage.  The nice thing about hot dogs, is that you can cook a package up on the grill and save them in the refrigerator for pureeing them later.

HOT DOG
Pick your favorite.  I've used most of them, including Italian sausage in a pinch.  Beef, Pork, Chicken, Turkey, Soy are puree just fine.  Recently, I've been into Kayem hot dogs.  Since hot dog have already been pureed, they work great. Favor why, I prefer grilled hot dogs to boiled hot dogs.

PUREEING
Typically I use one dog, one cup chili, and one cup water to make two cups of puree.  Depending on how dry the cooked rice is, you might need to add more water

HOT DOG BUN
Skip it.  I mean really, the bun it just to keep the chili from falling in your lap, and it doesn't do a very good job of that.

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My Fifty-ninth- Chicken Pad Thai -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Fifty-ninth  recipe for the new cookbook - Chicken Pad Thai

Serendipity is one of the greatest ways to create a recipe.

For the last couple of months, I have been only posting recipes that are part of a larger meal that everyone is sharing.  The other day, I felt lazy.  I didn't want to spend a lot of time making my lunch, so I thought I would just puree a box of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.  I was about to puree it when I saw the jar of PB2 (powdered peanut butter) next to it, and it dawned on my I had most everything I needed for a quick version of pureed Chicken Pad Thai.

I was probably inspired, because on Father's Day, my whole family visited my son at college in Waltham, MA.  We ordered Chinese food, because I knew I could puree Sweet and Sour Chicken.  After dinner, we took a warm Summer night walk to the local Ice Cream Shop - Lizzy's. While we walked back we talked about the variety of different ethnic restaurants there are on Moody Street.  The Thai restaurant smelled so good.

I always keep tetra boxes of soup in the pantry for those days when I just don't want to fuss in the kitchen.

TWO SERVING SIZE

1 box/can of chicken noodle soup

1/4 cup of PB2

dash of fish sauce

1/2 a green onion - you can decide whether you want the top half, the bottom half, or split down the middle

dash of lemon juice

1 pat of butter

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS EXTRAS

dash of crushed red peppers

tablespoon of peanut oil

pinch of bean sprouts

pinch of ginger

pinch of cilantro

floret of broccoli 

enough water to puree (about 2-3 cups) thickness is a personal preference

WHY PB2

Vultures.  I have a house of Vultures.  The vultures will eat my peanut butter and take several days to replace it.  I find that they will not steal my powdered peanut butter.  Also, since it is powdered, it is a lot easier to measure and puree.

WARMING THE SOUP

I have a SOUP Setting on my Vitamix that warms up the puree while it whirls.  If you don't have that, you can always warm the soup on the stove or microwave first.

OPTIONS

The list of OPTIONS are listed there because not everyone has these in their pantry/refrigerator.  I'll add them if I have them, but it won't break my heart if I don't.

UPDATE: 1 Jan. 2017

My wife makes a great Asian coleslaw, and was asked to make some for New Year's Eve. I asked her to save any extra dressing.

Today, I took some noodles, cabbage, Asian coleslaw dressing, and peanut powder and made myself a pureed vegetarian pad thai noodles for lunch

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My Fifty-eighth - Barbecue -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Fifty-eighth  recipe for the new cookbook - Barbecue


I'm not even going to talk about which type of barbecue is best.  Because if you think the US political process is ugly, the barbecue debate is even worse.  So, I'll stick to BBQ as it relates to my experiences with pureeing meat.  Because after all, North Carolina BBQ is best . . . .

MOST IMPORTANT INFO
When is doubt, use a conical shaped sieve to strain the puree before pouring into a tube feeder.  You might want to travel with a tea strainer large enough to hold a cup or two of puree.

FAST COOK VS SLOW COOK
I define Fast Cook as meat that you measure cooking time in minutes, and Slow Cook as meat that you measure cooking time in hours.  For pureeing purposes, Slow Cooking is far superior.  The meat is soft enough that pureeing is pretty simple.  I have yet to meet a slow cook meat that doesn't puree well.

Fast Cooking tends to have charred pieces which make pureeing a little trickier, and may require longer pureeing times.  Although, my Vitamix can handle charred meat, my smaller travel blender has a little more difficulty.

Many times, I am at a friends house with a blender I have never used before, so there is a little panic over whether the pureeing process will work.  For tube feeders I recommend running the puree through a conical-shaped sieve to make sure all the larger pieces have been removed

BBQ SAUCE
There are plenty of times where it have taken grilled meat, and added the BBQ sauce to the blender instead of cooking the meat in the BBQ sauce.  Go light on the sauce the first time, until you are able to understand how your body responds to the sauce.  Remember even though your gill chef might slather the meat with sauce, typically there is little sauce left after cooking and getting it all over your fingers, face, and napkins . . .

BEEF STEAK
I tend to chose beef steaks with a lot of marbling because I am still very conscience of trying to add weight on a daily basis.  I typically cut my beef into 1" cubes before I place them into the blender to help the blender grind the meat into a puree.  I almost always add a starch to the puree.

GROUND MEAT
Ground beef, ground bison, ground turkey, ground chicken, ground pork, ground lamb, ground veggie - they all puree well.  My concern is always to make sure the meat it thoroughly cooked.

LEG OF LAMB
This is more of a forgotten meat at many cookout, but for those who cook lamb regularly - bless you.  This is an amazing puree.  Some markets now offer ground lamb kabobs as an option - DO IT!

CHICKEN BREAST
OK, this is the one that I typically pass on.  White Chicken meat tend to puree into a chalky paste which tends to be a very odd texture on the tongue.  If you are using a stomach tube, then there isn't an issue - you get plenty of protein but lack fat.  I would rather go Veggie Burger before breast meat - but that is how I roll . . .

CHICKEN THIGHS
This is one of the best options for chicken.  Plenty of meat that is easy to pull off the bone,  Nice and moist.  Enough fat to make the puree creamier than other chicken options

CHICKEN LEGS
WARNING!  I throw up a warning, because there is a pretty good chance that you will accidentally puree a piece of cartilage or bone.  I am too concerned that a piece might be too big for my "gravity feed bolus".  Kind of sucks all the fun out of a picnic.  If you are able to drink the puree, it kinda sucks to sip a lump of cartilage.

CHICKEN WINGS
A lot of work for little meat.  But if you miss peeling lobster, or smashing blue crabs, then it is worth getting your fingers messy pulling all the meat off chicken wings.  Yes, I throw Buffalo Wings into this section.  I typically cook up chicken thighs, and then add Buffalo Sauce to the blender.

CHICKEN SKIN
I add this as another subtitle because this might be an issue with a weaker blender.  some skin is too under-cooked and won't puree into small pieces; other are too over-cooked, and form charred chunks in the puree.  If you think you might have issues, pull out the conical shaped sieve and strain.

SHRIMP
Great option - be sure to look for left-over shells.  Don't dump a handful into the blender.  Inspect each piece before adding them.

FISH
They all work well - except the ones with bones.  Inspect each piece of fish for bones.  For mouth eater, your tongue might not be nibble enough to "fish-out" the bone once it is in your mouth.

PULLED MEAT
Best option of all - I love them all.

BEANS
Add any slow cooked beans, like baked beans, all perfect to add to your puree.
If you are going to use a bean salad, try to squish the beans with your fingers to test the hardness of beans.  There are a lot of people are trying to be "hip" by cooking the beans from fresh/dried stock that are WAY UNDER COOKED.

RICE
Rice or Rice and Beans are great starch for purees.  Once again test the rice before you puree them.  Although, most people know how to cook rice; there are those who might cook the rise the night before and then set the bowl out in the sun, where is dries up too much to puree easily.

BEER
I thought this might get your attention.  JEFF, HOW COULD BE BE ADVOCATING BEER!!!!!!! We are cooking here, people. I usually use O'Doul's® in my puree.  I found it funny that if you go to the O'Doul's website, you have to proof you re of proper drinking age.  The biggest issue with using a "beer" in a puree is that it tends to foams pretty badly, and it might take you a little while to wait until the foam calms down.

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Top Summertime cook-out option -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

June means Summer cook-outs for the northern hemisphere (yes, I have readers in Australia) and we shouldn’t be excluded from the fun.  Below is a quick list of the dishes that can be pureed this summer http://jeffscotthoyland.blogspot.com/

Six years ago, I had tongue cancer and I had a stomach peg. My wife, Randi, and I created Stomach Peg Original Soup™ -SPOS.

2014, I discovered I had Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (ACC). I opted to not have a stomach peg, but I still needed to make sure I got my nutrition.

After two "tours of duty" with radiation treatment, my jaw muscle on the treatment side tightened to the point where I could barely chew. Everything I “ate” had to be pureed. After several months of enduring cold pureed food, I joined a support group for head and neck cancer patients at Emerson Hospital. Turns out the pureed food issue is common among head and neck survivors.

We decided that the internet is full of cold fruit smoothies; tasteless veggie shakes; and creamy, milky, yummy, dairy treatment. What we craved are hot meals that everyone else at the back porch table was eating. Most of us have been shunned from picnics, because we can’t eat what everyone else is eating. We want to join in on mealtime again. We wished we could convert normal meals into something for us. We joked that we should create a “recipe” book. I went home that night and decided it needed to get done.

Below is the list of SPOS Soup and my recommendations for summer cookouts:

Stomach Peg Original Soup(tm) SPOS

Stomach Peg Original Soup™ SPOS STARCH ADD ONS

Steak and Potatoes just add BBQ sauce

My Second Recipe -Frank and Beans

My Fifth recipe - Pork Slider and Slaw

My Sixth recipe - Buffalo Chicken and Rice

My Sixteenth recipe-Veggie-burger supreme

My Twenty-third - Mac and Cheese

My Twenty-seventh - Chili Soft Taco (Nachos)

My Thirty-first - KFC it’s basically fried chicken

My Thirty-Fourth summer time picnic - beans; fried chicken; colesslaw

My Thirty-Eighth - Guacamole Nachos

My Forty-Second - Chili con Bison

My Fifty-second - Chicken Fajitas or fish burrito

My Fifty-sixth - Potato salad

My Fifty-eighth - Barbecue

My Sixtieth - Chili Dog

My Sixty-nine - Burger and fries

My Seventy-third - State Fair ready to puree

My Ninetieth - Italian Sausage Pepper and Onion Sub

My Ninety-Seventh -Sloppy Joe

My One Hundred and Fourth - Red Sox Special (hot dog and peanuts)

 COMMENTS

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If I can catch a keeper, I'll add it to the recipes

My Fifty-seventh - Beef Stroganoff -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Fifty-seventh recipe for the new cookbook - Beef Stroganoff

One scoop of Beef Stroganoff
1/2 scoop of noodles
thin with vegetable broth

BASIC INGREDIENTS
beef sirloin steak
ounces fresh mushrooms
medium onion
garlic clove
butter or margarine
beef broth
salt
Worcestershire sauce
all-purpose flour
sour cream
hot cooked egg noodles

When you have seven brothers and sisters, finding a dish that all of us like was difficult for my mom.  On a cold day, there was nothing like Beef Stroganoff to stick to your ribs.  Beef Stroganoff always reminds me of rainy day that have a hint of hail in them.  There must have been one day that I sat by the dining-room window and heard the hail tapping on the window while I enjoyed my dinner.

I hyperlinked the Betty Crocker version, because I sure this is similar to the type my mom used to make in the 70's.

Beef Stroganoff fills the house with a wonderful smell, which is why I forgot about it for so long. My wife has asked that I don't cook beef in the house, so now that it is grilling season, I have the beef cooking in the Weber on the back porch

The important thing for us to know is that Beef Stroganoff has all the important characteristics for a Great Puree - Protein, starch, onions, mushrooms, cream and more cream, and butter, don't forget butter.  Especially if we need to add weight, add more butter,  When you are done pureeing you end up with a mushroom soup with beef, so it is familiar to the taste-buds both as a flavor and a texture.

EASY ON THE STOMACH
I had a reader talk to me about needing something easy on the stomach because some of the meals are a little hard on the stomach.  This is like a warm beef smoothie so it fits the bill

However, if you are at a gathering at a friends house, life is easier.  I recommend having small courses over several hours - egg salad, potato salad, pork and beans, cake and ice cream, more cake and ice cream.  pain reliever and ice cream.  As you can see, most of us are worried about putting on weight so potato salad and ice cream are paramount, but don't blend them together.

BUT WHERE ARE THE VEGGIE
Um . . . there aren't any.  It's beef Stroganoff.  Not everything meatless

COMMENTS
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FACEBOOK
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.