Trying Something Different

There are a few foods out there that make health-conscious people cringe yet are very popular on the market. Not surprisingly I happen to like some of those foods.

I spent part of the early afternoon thinking about what I might try for dinner. The baby food...I've so far only really taken a liking to the Macaroni and Cheese and Macaroni and Cheese With Vegetables. Even then they're kind of...bland. The cream of wheat is also kind of flavorless but the addition this morning of some vanilla whey protein actually helped spice it up a little. The best I had so far was vanilla sugar free pudding.

I then started thinking of what small foods I might be able to try in a few weeks, like Chicken McNuggets. One or two McNuggets as a meal? There's something about the smell of those fake meat-and-corn-byproducts that holds a fond place in my memory!

What if I could puree them? Would the aroma trigger the same memories? Would it make me content to have a McNugget puree?

Hmm...the diet class said that we could have pureed items, usually soups, nothing with a lot of fiber. What if...

Then I remembered something else we had picked up awhile ago, something I was taking for a dinner or lunch a month or two before the surgery.

Chef Boy-R-Dee. Ravioli with meat sauce, to be specific. I love the smell of the sauce in that pasta and meat byproduct in a can! Plus it has protein in it. I was told to try being careful to up my protein intake. So I took a can of it and with the help of my wife pureed it then carefully spooned the resulting pasta and sauce mud into two baby jars, a four ounce tupperware-like container, and a second four-ounce container (they're convenient as serving sizes). I refrigerated three of them and heated the fourth one in the nuke box for thirty seconds.

I know it's not supposed to taste good...but WOW. I don't care how many people turn up their nose at this. I think the aroma was MARVELOUS. The flavor wasn't half bad either. The texture was...well,...thin mud. But compared to the baby foods? It was like injecting a rainbow straight into my gullet. And I have three more containers of rainbow in the fridge.

I found something I can look forward to. Side benefit...one can of the stuff is supposed to be about two servings (as I recall...who has only half a can of Boy-R-Dee when they open it up? One freakin' can should be a serving) and I'm doling it into four servings.

The habit-eater and food-loving-eater part of me could probably sit and scoop it into my throat until the whole thing is gone. Physically I'm still not hungry. I just enjoyed the experience of my little four ounce cup of ravioli and wished it didn't end. But I'm sure I can have some tomorrow for a meal or two.

Food processor...another item you'll want if you go through with this surgery. Add it to your must-haves list.