My Ninetieth - Italian Sausage Pepper and Onion Sub -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Ninetieth - Italian sausage pepper and onion sub -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

I actually thought, I should wait until MLB training started in a month or so, because my favorite memories of Italian subs are outside Fenway Park for a Red Sox game.  A proper sub has been sitting in the vendor cart for a while, and has that one burned strip, which seems to add extra flavor.  Or sure they were have the price of the admission ticket - BUT SO WORTH IT.

When I started testing my recipe, I debated whether to use Italian chicken sausage from Whole Foods, and then guilt road over me and said, Bitch, Please . . . .   If I was going to test it out, I had to do pork.  For decades, I used the Al fresco chicken sausage, but I'm going old-school on this one

I happened to be at my local farm-stand, Chip-in Farm, picking up fresh eggs, whenI saw in their freezer that they had sweet Italian sausage - BONUS!!  Turns out the sausage was not in casings, which is great because they tend to be a concern with blenders and G-tubes.  They also had "Hot" Italian sausage, but most of us can't handle spicy food.

Now, I've already made mention that my wife hates me cooking red meats in the house, and it is winter, and the windows are closed. . .  But this isn't my first rodeo,  so I decided to make an extra stop and pick up a side of Sockeye Salmon (wive's favorite).  The easiest way to disguise the smell of cooked pork in the house is to cook the pork in the morning with the fan on, and then cook a side of salmon in the oven right before she gets home . . . . just being real for all of you.

The recipe can also be used with sausage, peppers,and onions slow cooked with pasta.

RECIPE: 

One sausage
same amount cooked red or orange pepper
same amount cooked onion
half a sub butter-grilled or toasted


OPTIONS:
Steak sauce
Mustard
1/2 slice of cheese
non-alcoholic beer to thin, about one bottle

makes about to two-cup servings

MEAT
Although I have a tendency to slow cook my sausage, it is important to add a little bit a "browning" to the meat.  Flavor value goes way up.  If use are concerned about the casings, peal them off.  This meal should be fun, and not cause any anxiety.

RED/ORANGE PEPPER

I'm breaking with tradition here, because pureed SauPepOnion Sub made with green onions is a hot mess of ugliness, if you use cooked green onions.  I think the phrase - TRY THE GREY STUFF IT'S DELICIOUS would apply.  Cooked red or orange peppers add a much more appetizing color to the puree.  Although is visual is not an issue - use Italian peppers (from the garden)

SUB ROLL

A buttered toasted piece of white bread will work in a pinch.  So will a Hawaiian roll.  I'm hooked on Piantedosi sub rolls from Malden, MA.  Point is - it has to be buttered, and it has to be grilled or toasted

CHEESE

I don't judge . . . if you are a cheese fan GO FOR IT.

STEAK SAUCE

A dash is a nice pop.  My suggestion is to skip the sauce to start. Pour out the first serving, and then add a dash to the second serving.  Especially important for lip-sippers to keep the meal from getting boring.

MUSTARD

Use the same rule of thumb as STEAK SAUCE

Chip-in Farm, Bedford, MA
Buy Local

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Powders to Pack the Pantry -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

Powders to Pack the Pantry  -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

In a pinch . . . many items I keep in the pantry to use in a "Pinch" when my fresh supply has run out.  This blog is about powders I keep in my pantry to use directly in purees or batters.  Typically, I use them as thickeners when I puree meat or vegetables that tend to sink to the bottom of the blender or sipping cup.  Red meat and cabbage vegetables are common offenders.

Some of these are proteins; some are starches.

I keep them in the pantry for the times when I A) burn the meal and have to start over; B) need a late night meal because I was on the road and it threw off my meal times; or C) what I was looking for disappeared because thieves ate it (cooked pasta in the refridge), or it went bad (dairy or potatoes).

You would think that a can of chick peas in the pantry would be safe from robbers . . . not in my house. Found an empty can in the recycle bid just this morning.

You would think a can of black beans in the pantry would be safe from robbers . . . but I find out they are a favorite salad topper for my vegetarians who need protein.

BOXED MASHED POTATOES
Yea, this is number one on my list.  Always an easy thickener for a puree.  You don't have to worry about browning them on the stove.

ALMOND FLOUR
I find this is a great protein to breakfast purees, when I don't have a breakfast meat on hand.  Great with pureed waffles, toast, bagels, cinnamon rolls, etc.

WHEY POWDER
WARNING - I throw the warning on here, because many whey powders on the market are "whey shake" powders and have a lot of added sugars, so check the labels.  Whey is another protein I keep on hand to add to nearly anything that required dairy.

QUINOA POWDER / FLOUR
Sometimes a gluten-free option is needed.  Never had much luck cooking with it, so I add it directly to the blender.

PEA PROTEIN
Great to add to vegetable heavy meal.  Usually, I add to canned/boxed soups.  Although, my daughter likes to have frozen peas on hand- I find that when I need them, they have already been consumed.

HEMP PROTEIN
It started out as my little protest that Dana Farber would not prescribe cannabis as an option to pain relief for cancer treatment, because of federal USA laws.  But now, I use it regularly because it taste good in purees

COCOA POWDER
Just being honest . . . Ghirardelli Cocoa is my personal favorite.  I buy the unsweetened and add it strictly as a flavoring.

 SOY MILK POWDER
Truth be told, I don't keep this in my pantry, for one reason only - I buy Soylent 2.0, so I get plenty of soy every day.  But if I didn't, soy milk powder would be in my pantry.  My soy milk helps calm my tummy when it is upset - but that just the way I work.

BUTTERMILK POWDER
I like buttermilk in my pancakes and waffles.  But I don't have it often enough to devote refrigerator space to a carton of buttermilk.  I add a scoop to my batter. I order this online from Amazon, because it not always available at my grocery stores.

GOAT MILK POWDER
I got this originally because my daughter prefers lactose-free dairy.  I don't always have carton of goat milk or lactose-free milk in the refrigerator.  I substitute this instead of buttermilk powder when I make strawberry waffles for the both of us.

PEANUT BUTTER POWDER
If you don't have a powerful blender, this is a must.  If you have people who will eat your peanut butter, this is a must.  Chocolate and peanut butter are a favorite comfort food.

VITAMINS
Many vitamins are sold in powder form.  Remember you can measure and mix powders in your puree.


COMMENTS
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Take-out -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

Take-out -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

New Year's Eve often means take out food.  So let me run through the recipes are available through take out.  The last couple of years I have been invited to a neighbors who have a blender ready for me.  They run a lot luck celebration, this year has a Asian theme.

As a reminder, I should mention that many restaurant take-outs offer some kind of soup, if you want to be simple about pureeing.

And don't forget that dumplings puree well.

My Fifth recipe - Pork Slider and Slaw -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Fourteenth recipe - Sweet and Sour Chicken -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Twenty-seventh - Chili Soft Taco (Nachos) -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Thirty-first - KFC -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

Supermarket food bars - 100 Meals Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors

My Thirty-Seventh - Veggie pizza - 100 Meals Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors

My Thirty-Eighth - Guacamole Nachos - 100 Meals Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors

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

My Fifty-fifth - Peking Raviolis -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

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

My Seventy-fourth - Empanada -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Eighty-sixth - Pho -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

COMMENTS

Please add your comments and suggestions to my blog.  Nice to see people from around the globe reading my blog.  Please follow you want the latest recipes.

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.

My Eighty-nine - salad sandwich -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Eighty-nine - salad sandwich -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

Ham salad sandwich, egg salad sandwich, chicken salad sandwich, turkey salad sandwich, salmon salad sandwich, tuna salad sandwich, etc . . . What we are usually talking about mashed leftovers thrown between two pieces of bread with greens and tomato.
And now that Christmas Day has passed and we are into the 12 Days of Christmas, Third Day of Hanukkah, and Second  Day of Kwanzaa there is usually plenty of meat in the refridge that can be mashed into a "salad" and placed between two pieces of bread.

While I was at my sisters house in Atlanta, "meat" salad sandwich did not dawn on me as an option, because it seemed that with over a dozen people in the house at any one time, there was something coming fresh out of the oven every few hours.

However, at the airport there were a lot of people ordering salad sandwiches.  That is when I realized I had made a pureed salmon salad sandwich already this past Christmas day. On 23rd, December, my sister and her husband Steve made a wonderful dinner with the option of pork tenderloin or salmon filet.  The next morning, there was still plenty of each in the refrigerator.  For breakfast, I thought I could make a version of lox on a bagel by using the chilled salmon fillet- salmon fillet, a little white onion, half a plum tomato, plain yogurt, a slice of whole wheat bread, coffee, and hot water . . . By the end of the weekend, I realized I was really making versions of salmon salad sandwich, turkey salad sandwich, and ham salad sandwich.

Salad sandwiches are an important part of family holiday gathering regardless of the time of year and which holiday it is.  "THE NEXT DAY'S MEAL" is usually a fend-for-yourself buffet style meal plan

RECIPE: two-part recipe

Meat Salad:
1/2 Cup of pre-made meat salad 
or  
1/4 cup of meat
1/4 of White Stuff  (White stuff can be mayonnaise, yogurt, or cream cheese)
1/2 inch of celery and/or onion

PUREE RECIPE:
1/2 Cup meat salad
slice of bread or 1/2 cup of "slice your own" bread like a baguette
2 small tomatoes 
layer of greens
1/2 cup of water or more

OPTIONS:
dash of brown mustard 
grind of black pepper
1/2 slice of cheese

MEAT
I haven't met a meat that cannot be turned into a salad, but I'll keep looking for one.  I will even make a Beef Wellington salad sandwich (with extra mustard).  Important to make sure there is no bone, cartilage, or grizzle on the meat

TOMATO

Small cherry of grape tomatoes make for easier portioning; however, this past weekend, my sister had organic hot-house plum tomatoes which worked great because they are meaty tomatoes.

CHEESE

You don't need much cheese to flavor the puree.  I always recommend using warm water with cheese dishes because it helps soften the cheese.

LAYER OF GREENS

A good chicken salad sandwich has one thin layer of crisp lettuce that runs edge to edge under the bread.  What ever is the area of your bread, you should use that much "area" of green leafy, whether you like iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, kale, or spinach.

MUSTARD

My mouth is healed enough that a dash of mustard is fine.  Mustard is one of my top favorite flavors during the holidays.

LOBSTER SALAD SANDWICH

I was going to add it, but I was talking about making salad sandwiches from holiday leftovers, and as a New Englander, it is considered a sin to have lobster leftovers.

My mom and I prepping mash potatoes for Christmas

COMMENTS

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My Eighty-eight - Au Gratin Potatoes -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Eighty-eight - Au Gratin Potatoes -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My family gathers in Atlanta every year.  This is the first time, I have been able to make the trip since neck surgery two years ago.  Nothing like family for Christmas.

I asked my sister, with whom I am staying, to include me in the food prep, as I love to cook.  I arrived on Festivus (Christmas Eve, Eve) and the last main dish to be prepared was potatoes, au gratin potatoes.

There are three main starches for us who need to puree: Pasta, Rice, and potatoes.  And besides, hash-browns, au gratin potatoes are one of my favorites.

For descendants of Northern Europe, au gratin potatoes are a staple for Christmastime meals, so the fact that my sister tasked myself, my niece, and my nephew to make the potatoes, felt just like Christmas to me.  Nothing says Christmas like family gathering in the kitchen to cook.  Also, nice to hand the kitchen skills down to the next generation who think making quesadillas, as cooking. 

RECIPE:This is a wonderful dump, stir and bake version

Large bag of uncooked frozen hash-brown chunks
1/3 cup diced white onion
One and a half cup shredded cheddar cheese
One large container Sour Cream or unflavored yogurt

mix up, dump in a pan and bake . . . 

Jeff, the recipe is rather vague . . . yes, I have not gotten my sister's permission to share it, and You know how cooks are about their recipes . . . If there is a printed version, I'll ask her for it

COMPLETE MEAL
Last night, I pureed the au gratin potatoes with pork tenderloin, spinach salad, and a dash or two of pinot noir.   Don't judge me - it is the holidays, and Willy Wonka would have approved.

I often use potatoes in the morning with breakfast meats . . . 

POTATOES

Potatoes are great in a puree because they help suspend all the heavy items, like meat.  Potatoes are also able to absorb at lot of oil.  My nutritionist always wanted me to add more olive oil to my diet and potatoes are great at that.

CHEESE

Potatoes are also great at suspending cheese.  I find cheese and potatoes work great at preventing the cheese from sticking to the stomach peg.

COMMENTS

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FACEBOOK

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My Eighty-seventh - Tandoori Spiced Lentils -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Eighty-seventh - Tandoori Spiced Lentils -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

Ummmmmm, Jeff, have you lost it?  Since when has Tandoori Spiced Lentils been on anyone's top one hundred list?  

Let me explain.

When I was in the fourth grade.  I had a keen interest in cooking and baking.  Now, I wasn't allowed to use a large knife in the kitchen, but I was allowed to use the stove and the oven.  My mother allowed me to create whatever I wanted as long as I had to eat it.  All failures had to be consumed.  (One does not talk about the epic failure of a peanut-butter and tuna-fish sandwich)  OK, so that cuts down on experimentation, but is certainly had me be more creative.

Now most everyone has had cinnamon toast; and others have had buttered toast with cinnamon; but I decided to take it another direction.  As a child, I really liked soft white bread.  Sometimes toast was just to crunchy and rough.  What if I could make cinnamon toast with a soft center? And so was the birth of YumYum Toast.

Take the white bread and lay it out on a cookie sheet.  Top each piece of bread with a pat of butter.  Dump a 1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon-sugar on top of butter.  Place the cookie sheet in the oven with the broiler on, and broil until the butter is melted, and the edges of the bread just start to brown.  PRESTO! 

So for those cancer treatment patients who cannot eat toast because it tears up their mouth - this might be an option.

To this day, it is a real treat when Dad sneaks white bread into the house and makes YumYum Toast for his children . . . Don't tell my wife . . .

So, how does this relate to Tandoori Spiced Lentils?  I made up the recipe to Tandoori Spiced Lentils.  Don't be afraid to make up your own recipes.  

This recipe was created through tasting my friend, Bonnie Altemus' lentil stew. When she didn't give me her awesome recipe, I had to step out on my own.  Personally, I think she made up the llentil stew on the fly, and she doesn't know the redipe - she is just that creative. . . 

Tandoori spiced lentils, is one of the few dishes I make that my wife will tell me how much she loves it as she is scooping out a huge piping hot bowl.

RECIPE:
In a slow cooker add:
Cup of Lentils
Cup of Rice
Cup of Quinoa
Cup of diced Cauliflower
Cup of diced Carrots
Cup of diced Celery
Tandoori spice
Small finger of Ginger
Turmeric
Cardamom
Garam Marsala
Sumac Spice

OPTIONS:
Spinach 
Green Peas
Corn
Chick Peas
White Beans

Cook for five - seven hours

By now you might have made my chili recipe.  A number of years ago, My daughter spent time and Grandpa's VT house.  One of his treasured dishes was tandoori chicken, with his own blend of spices, which he has not shared, but he sends up bottles of the spice.  Now that my daughter is vegetarian, I don't make tandoori chicken anymore, but I do make a tandoori spiced vegetarian chili.  Once Bonnie introduced me to the lentil stew, it wasn't a long jump to making tandoori spiced lentils.

SLOW COOKER
Besides the blender, I recommend owning a good slow cooker.  I love the dump it and leave it aspect of slow cookers.  Slow cookers also fill the air with wonderful smells, and help stimulate appetite.

HARD VEGGIES
Typically, cancer treatment patients are on some sort of opioid to manage pain, which causes opioid constipation.  It is important to make sure that veggies are added to the diet regularly to help prevent this.  Hard vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, and celery need to be well-done to puree best.  Slow-cooking is the best way to solve this issue without to much fuss.

STARCH
I find that the mixture of lentils, rice and quinoa make a wonderful blend.  And the three blend well with Indian Spices.

INDIAN SPICES
My nutritionist was always talking about the cancer prevention aspects of combining turmeric and ginger.  This is a great ways to add some to your diet.  I add a finger of ginger to a slow cooker instead of dicing it up, because for those not pureeing the meal, biting into a hunk of ginger can be rather disconcerting. So, I slow cook a pinkie finger of ginger, and then fish it out when the meal is cooked, and cut it up and add it to the blender.

Yes, there may be spices I added to this meal, that you may not have used before . . . go light and experiment. Sumac spice was added to our pantry, when my son brought a recipe home from college.  Too me, sumac was a tree to be avoided in the woods.

Yes, I deliberately did not add any "HOT" spices.  This recipe is already on on the fringe, I don't want you to make it too-spicy and have another reason for the patient to poo-poo the meal.

OPTIONS
These are the items I add at the very end.    They are all items that don't take that long to cook, because I either use frozen or "canned" versions.  Usually, I don't have any room left in the slow cooker to cook them anyway.  Now, I made this recipe vegetarian, but you can add chicken if you want.

COMMENTS

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FACEBOOK

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My Eighty-sixth - Pho -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Eighty-sixth - Pho -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

I still remember the first time I had Pho.  My children were young and my wife and I had stopped with them at a Mall in Newton.  The restaurant attached to the mall was Vietnamese and had a good reputation, so we wanted to try it. Each of ordered something different, vegetarian, chicken, and beef.  And we spent the next hour raving about it.

Now, I understand that pureeing Pho will suck a lot of the life out of it, because tasting each flavor on its own, is part of the enjoyment.  But even when it is cool enough to eat large gulps, to is fantastic

Pho is great because it has noodles, fresh veggies, small amounts of meat,  and broth that is fabulous.  Luckily, Vietnamese restaurants are stretching across America. All the pieces are cut small so there is less stress on the blender.

I have mentioned a lot of European-centric soups, because they have a lot of cream and starch that is important for cancer treatment patients, who are trying to pack as many calories into every spoonful. Pho is a nice way to cut through the boredom that is cream and cream smoothies. It provides a lot of fresh vegetables - which are often lacking in other meals.

The other reason I really like Pho, is that it is served piping hot, which means that is has to be eaten slowly.  This means there is plenty of time for diners to spend time communicating with each other.

RECIPE:
Pour Pho into blender
Puree
Add extra cold water, if the Pho is too hot

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.