Look Ma, No Teeth
August 18, 2024 10:52 AM Subscribe
I'm in the process of getting dentures. It's be a hot minute before I have teeth again.
I need to eat.
I'm having trouble getting protein in. Today I tried blending silken tofu with pasta sauce. Which is ok, but it took a lot of doctoring to make it better than palatable.
I'm not looking for vegan.
I want to try mac and cheese, but I'm having trouble finding non-vegan recipes.
Other ideas? I'm guessing it should be strongly flavored.
Beans recipes? I think it would work if they were really soft or smashed (like refried beans).
I'm having trouble getting protein in. Today I tried blending silken tofu with pasta sauce. Which is ok, but it took a lot of doctoring to make it better than palatable.
I'm not looking for vegan.
I want to try mac and cheese, but I'm having trouble finding non-vegan recipes.
Other ideas? I'm guessing it should be strongly flavored.
Beans recipes? I think it would work if they were really soft or smashed (like refried beans).
Protein/nutrition shakes can be quite good. Both the Fairlife and Premier Protein shakes are popular with those who consume dairy, and the OWYN shakes (do not get the powder, get the shakes, I do the higher protein option in chocolate) are good for those who don’t. I do chocolate for all flavors, often blending with Greek yogurt, a banana, or peanut butter if I want to add fat, carbs, or calories.
posted by moosetracks at 11:16 AM on August 18
posted by moosetracks at 11:16 AM on August 18
Eggs - scrambled; quiche, frittata, shakshuka; all can be as spicy as you'd like
Bone broths (DIY or store bought; can also be spiced up)
Greek yogurt
Nut butters
Almond Butter Overnight Oats
Peanut Butter Overnight Oats (5 Ingredients)
Peanut Butter Protein Overnight Oats (uses peanut butter powder)
Protein Powder Mashed Potatoes Recipe
How to use whey protein in your daily cooking
Intro to different types of protein powder
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:20 AM on August 18
Bone broths (DIY or store bought; can also be spiced up)
Greek yogurt
Nut butters
Almond Butter Overnight Oats
Peanut Butter Overnight Oats (5 Ingredients)
Peanut Butter Protein Overnight Oats (uses peanut butter powder)
Protein Powder Mashed Potatoes Recipe
How to use whey protein in your daily cooking
Intro to different types of protein powder
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:20 AM on August 18
Look for a stovetop macaroni and cheese recipe, since you're going to want to avoid any kind of crust or crunchy topping, and you get to control how soft the pasta gets. The secret ingredients for flavor are usually mustard powder and paprika, smoked if you have it.
posted by bgrebs at 11:21 AM on August 18 [2 favorites]
posted by bgrebs at 11:21 AM on August 18 [2 favorites]
Naked makes various juices with 30g of protein in them. They're usually in the produce section of the store. I lived off them after getting my tonsils out.
There's a few other brands that also make protein juices but IMO the ones by Naked taste a zillion times better.
Ensure and Slimfast also have high-protein shakes.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:45 AM on August 18
There's a few other brands that also make protein juices but IMO the ones by Naked taste a zillion times better.
Ensure and Slimfast also have high-protein shakes.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:45 AM on August 18
For more taste and protein, make your macaroni and cheese with gorgonzola, cream and egg yolk. The egg yolk is added as a thickener when the macaroni and cream has already cooked down a bit. You turn off the heat, temper the egg a bit with some of the sauce and then add it off the heat.
The other day I made a minestrone with butter beans and somehow the big beans didn't work for me, so I blended the whole thing, and it became delicious. You could use a bone broth or chicken stock as the liquid for the soup for extra protein and mouthfeel.
posted by mumimor at 1:39 PM on August 18 [1 favorite]
The other day I made a minestrone with butter beans and somehow the big beans didn't work for me, so I blended the whole thing, and it became delicious. You could use a bone broth or chicken stock as the liquid for the soup for extra protein and mouthfeel.
posted by mumimor at 1:39 PM on August 18 [1 favorite]
This is Sohla cooking stovetop mac n cheese. She does it with milk, and doesn't use an egg. You can still add an egg yolk to her recipe.
posted by mumimor at 1:45 PM on August 18 [1 favorite]
posted by mumimor at 1:45 PM on August 18 [1 favorite]
Make what you like, put soft meat in it, and then blend it. Or blend meat and add to your otherwise soft food. And then maybe eat it in a very dim room, pretend it's fine dining lighting, because it looks rough but it's perfectly normal food!
You can soft-blend (as in not puree but just make very small particles) cooked ground meat and that's probably the easiest, but I also do this in soups. Like last night I made broccoli cheese soup, and normally I cook all the stuff and pull out the chicken breasts to dice and add back in at the end, but (not for the first time) I forgot and put it back before I stick-blended the whole shebang to homogenize my carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, and yellow lentils (actually panchrata dal blend - but either way it makes a heartier soup). So...pureed chicken it was and honestly, you wouldn't even know it was there since the other ingredients are fibery anyway.
You can also add greek yogurt to a creamy soup like that, it's better if you do it when you serve it as it'll break sometimes.
You can use the same technique to make pasta sauce - brown ground beef or sausage and put it in a blender (or jar and stick blend) with a couple of ladles of your sauce or canned tomatoes, just keep adding until you get enough liquid to blend, and then add that blended mixture back into the sauce. You can also make a pot of chili (and either season it in the traditional fashion, or season it more like pasta sauce) and blend or mash with a potato masher.
If you don't want to think too hard and don't mind the salt level, frozen lasagna (or the refrigerated ones in the deli area, I think Rana is the brand name of the one we get) works well to keep you fed. Cook it until it's cooked but not browned and if you don't want to truly blend it you can just go at your serving with a knife and fork and basically dice it into swallowable oblivion, or use a potato masher. Frozen creamed spinach or spinach-artichoke dip is one of those things you can "hide" a bunch of pureed chicken in with some egg and kinda remix it as a souffle-ish thing.
Speaking of: steamed eggs.
I've switched us to the the newest wave of high-protein pastas and they are fine, you will need to overcook them to get them mushy.
You do not need special recipes, but you can find inspiration in recipes for dysphagia that will be the correct texture. The problem with a lot of "soft food" recipes is they're often meant for digestive issues, meaning they are blaaaaaand and don't contain any kind of fiber or other irritant to the intestines. But you actually NEED fiber, and you likely WANT some real flavor. Be generous with black and white pepper, cumin, onion and garlic powder, smoked paprika, Italian herbs, hot sauce, strong cheeses, msg or umami/mushroom powder, tomato paste, a little acid.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:08 PM on August 18
You can soft-blend (as in not puree but just make very small particles) cooked ground meat and that's probably the easiest, but I also do this in soups. Like last night I made broccoli cheese soup, and normally I cook all the stuff and pull out the chicken breasts to dice and add back in at the end, but (not for the first time) I forgot and put it back before I stick-blended the whole shebang to homogenize my carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, and yellow lentils (actually panchrata dal blend - but either way it makes a heartier soup). So...pureed chicken it was and honestly, you wouldn't even know it was there since the other ingredients are fibery anyway.
You can also add greek yogurt to a creamy soup like that, it's better if you do it when you serve it as it'll break sometimes.
You can use the same technique to make pasta sauce - brown ground beef or sausage and put it in a blender (or jar and stick blend) with a couple of ladles of your sauce or canned tomatoes, just keep adding until you get enough liquid to blend, and then add that blended mixture back into the sauce. You can also make a pot of chili (and either season it in the traditional fashion, or season it more like pasta sauce) and blend or mash with a potato masher.
If you don't want to think too hard and don't mind the salt level, frozen lasagna (or the refrigerated ones in the deli area, I think Rana is the brand name of the one we get) works well to keep you fed. Cook it until it's cooked but not browned and if you don't want to truly blend it you can just go at your serving with a knife and fork and basically dice it into swallowable oblivion, or use a potato masher. Frozen creamed spinach or spinach-artichoke dip is one of those things you can "hide" a bunch of pureed chicken in with some egg and kinda remix it as a souffle-ish thing.
Speaking of: steamed eggs.
I've switched us to the the newest wave of high-protein pastas and they are fine, you will need to overcook them to get them mushy.
You do not need special recipes, but you can find inspiration in recipes for dysphagia that will be the correct texture. The problem with a lot of "soft food" recipes is they're often meant for digestive issues, meaning they are blaaaaaand and don't contain any kind of fiber or other irritant to the intestines. But you actually NEED fiber, and you likely WANT some real flavor. Be generous with black and white pepper, cumin, onion and garlic powder, smoked paprika, Italian herbs, hot sauce, strong cheeses, msg or umami/mushroom powder, tomato paste, a little acid.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:08 PM on August 18
Lyn Never's ideas reminded me of what I had for lunch today: saag paneer and dal. The reason I didn't think about it at first was that because I was hungry, I didn't cook either to the right mushiness.
On the other hand, relevant to your situation, I didn't have paneer, so I used soft goat cream cheese instead, and it was really, really delicious and just melted in the pot and in my mouth. You could also just use normal Philadelphia cheese.
It was spicy and tasty and had legumes and cheese.
posted by mumimor at 3:00 PM on August 18
On the other hand, relevant to your situation, I didn't have paneer, so I used soft goat cream cheese instead, and it was really, really delicious and just melted in the pot and in my mouth. You could also just use normal Philadelphia cheese.
It was spicy and tasty and had legumes and cheese.
posted by mumimor at 3:00 PM on August 18
Not quite the same situation, but we've had a few kids in braces in our home, so lots of soft foods. Things that have been very popular: greek yogurt smoothies with lots of berries/kale/peanut butter/whatever flavor you want thrown in. Scrambled eggs. Refried beans and cheese. Cream based soup like potato soup. Bean soups that are blended (or I suppose you could blend meat based soups, too). You could also add protein powders to things like cream of wheat. A favorite snack when hungry was also avocado with salt. Nice and soft, and filling.
posted by I_love_the_rain at 3:09 PM on August 18
posted by I_love_the_rain at 3:09 PM on August 18
Egg drop soup is easy to make.
Crack an egg into a measuring cup with a spout and stir with a fork.
Boil some chicken broth, stir in a circle really fast and slowly add the egg.
If you like the egg to be threads, add a little water to it before adding it to the broth.
Microwave cheese sauce
Add 1/2 tsp of flour and 1/2 tsp of butter (margarine has water in and doesn't work as well) to bowl
microwave for 30 seconds and stir.
add 1/4 cup of shredded cheese (creamier cheese work better but Romano/Parm works too) and 1/4 of milk.
microwave for 30 seconds and stir.
It will look like a soupy mess. That's normal.
microwave for 30 seconds and stir until smooth.
It's like magic.
posted by stray thoughts at 3:36 PM on August 18
Crack an egg into a measuring cup with a spout and stir with a fork.
Boil some chicken broth, stir in a circle really fast and slowly add the egg.
If you like the egg to be threads, add a little water to it before adding it to the broth.
Microwave cheese sauce
Add 1/2 tsp of flour and 1/2 tsp of butter (margarine has water in and doesn't work as well) to bowl
microwave for 30 seconds and stir.
add 1/4 cup of shredded cheese (creamier cheese work better but Romano/Parm works too) and 1/4 of milk.
microwave for 30 seconds and stir.
It will look like a soupy mess. That's normal.
microwave for 30 seconds and stir until smooth.
It's like magic.
posted by stray thoughts at 3:36 PM on August 18
Cheese and broccoli soup? I'd probably blend the cooked broccoli and stir it in to a basic cheese sauce, but you can also just cook it to death so it takes no chewing.
Basic sauce recipe. Personally I thicken just the milk and then melt the cheese in afterward, because once it has cheese in it will curdle if you accidentally boil it - edible but disappointing.
Cheddar works (sharp cheddar particularly) and if it's not cheesy enough both more cheese and something more pungent like Parmesan helps. Flavour improvers: pepper, cayenne, mustard powder.
Given that is also a lazy man's macaroni cheese sauce that would also work. Boil macaroni, stir in.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 3:41 PM on August 18
Basic sauce recipe. Personally I thicken just the milk and then melt the cheese in afterward, because once it has cheese in it will curdle if you accidentally boil it - edible but disappointing.
Cheddar works (sharp cheddar particularly) and if it's not cheesy enough both more cheese and something more pungent like Parmesan helps. Flavour improvers: pepper, cayenne, mustard powder.
Given that is also a lazy man's macaroni cheese sauce that would also work. Boil macaroni, stir in.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 3:41 PM on August 18
When I had dental surgery and was off solids, I developed a super delicious smoothie recipe that I still crave. It's high in protein thanks to yogurt and protein powder and very satisfying. This recipe makes about 4 cups.
1 cup spinach
1 cup frozen mango
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup milk (almond, cow or soy - unsweetened)
1 Pear, cut into chunks
1/4 long English cucumber, cut into chunks
Generous handful cilantro
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp sweetener (maple syrup, honey, etc) (Optional)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lime or lemon juice
1 tbsp flax meal
3 tbsp pea protein powder
posted by urbanlenny at 5:32 PM on August 18
1 cup spinach
1 cup frozen mango
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup milk (almond, cow or soy - unsweetened)
1 Pear, cut into chunks
1/4 long English cucumber, cut into chunks
Generous handful cilantro
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp sweetener (maple syrup, honey, etc) (Optional)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lime or lemon juice
1 tbsp flax meal
3 tbsp pea protein powder
posted by urbanlenny at 5:32 PM on August 18
For a situation like this, I'd make jook aka congee and very finely chop the meat protein. There are a lot of recipes on YT but it's basically rice, enough water to make it soupy, flavoring, and any veggies or protein of your choice. It's a very forgiving recipe and there are millions of variations. If you find it's getting too thick for you, just add hot water until you get the thickness or consistency you want. If you find you've added too much water, you can remove some of the water or add more veggies/protein. For flavoring, I add some chicken bouillon, Vietnamese fish sauce and finely diced ginger. There have been times I've cheated and just used a flavoring packet from a packet of ramen.
This guy's recipe is nothing like the way I make mine. He adds his water in steps while I just start out with all the water I want - I like my congee more watery and I do not use miso. I've also never used daikon. You can probably substitute carrots or turnip. Since you want more protein, I'd double the amount of tofu and the peanuts. You can probably use any other type of mushroom or skip it. Once you figure out a basic rice/water/flavoring base, you can add whatever ingredients you have on hand. I've also made congee with fresh cod - you can cut the pieces very small so you don't have to chew.
You can also just stir in an egg for extra protein.
posted by Constance Mirabella at 8:58 PM on August 18
This guy's recipe is nothing like the way I make mine. He adds his water in steps while I just start out with all the water I want - I like my congee more watery and I do not use miso. I've also never used daikon. You can probably substitute carrots or turnip. Since you want more protein, I'd double the amount of tofu and the peanuts. You can probably use any other type of mushroom or skip it. Once you figure out a basic rice/water/flavoring base, you can add whatever ingredients you have on hand. I've also made congee with fresh cod - you can cut the pieces very small so you don't have to chew.
You can also just stir in an egg for extra protein.
posted by Constance Mirabella at 8:58 PM on August 18
I know the sweet tooth is a lot easier to treat on a soft food regimen, but protein desserts (often born out of keto/low-carb desperation) tend to be soft/mushy due to their lack of flour/crust or anything to caramelize, so there's lots to be inspired by there that will also up your protein intake. You can always convert the artificial sweeteners back to real ones if you prefer.
Sometimes you just need some chocolate pudding or similar, so it's nice to have around.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:34 AM on August 19
Sometimes you just need some chocolate pudding or similar, so it's nice to have around.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:34 AM on August 19
Hummus is an option here. And can be made with different types of beans.
Prepping for dental surgery, I once wandered through Trader Joe's buying all the soft, savory things dips, pesto, yogurts, smoothies, etc. I ended up with multiple kinds of hummus that I ate with a spoon for a week.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:01 AM on August 19 [1 favorite]
Prepping for dental surgery, I once wandered through Trader Joe's buying all the soft, savory things dips, pesto, yogurts, smoothies, etc. I ended up with multiple kinds of hummus that I ate with a spoon for a week.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:01 AM on August 19 [1 favorite]
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posted by seanmpuckett at 11:05 AM on August 18 [5 favorites]