Still in the recovery phase

So far I haven't had a lot of energy, physically or mentally, to spend on creative liquid meals. At this point, I'm just trying to get past the immediate post-surgery recovery period, then I'll focus on eating good (liquid) food.

Last night we went out to dinner. We went to Fuddruckers, since we all like to eat there, and I know that they have good milkshakes. They also had really good chicken tortilla soup.

The soup was very flavorful and spicy, and did not have large chunks of chicken or tortilla floating in it. If I'd not been on a liquid diet, I might have been disappointed in how very much broth there was. But for me now, it was perfect. And the strawberry milkshake was fabulous.

Friday I threw some chicken stew in the blender. And while that was okay, it wasn't really something which I find myself craving. Or necessarily wanting to eat again any time soon.

Tomorrow I'm going to make Tom Ka Gai, without actual chicken. I'll just use broth. Really flavorful soups, like Tom Ka Gai, or lemongrass, or hot-and-sour, are what sound very good to me right now.


I really miss crunching. Air-popped popcorn and a glass of wine is one of my favorite snacks to have in front of the TV one or two nights a week. And while I haven't had wine since the surgery (due to the narcotics I'm taking), I'm realizing that a lot of the appeal of drinking wine comes from the crunchy, savory foods that I eat while drinking.

Moving from junk crunching to healthy crunching

Last week was all about crappy food. Well, not ALL about crappy food, but I certainly ate things that I wouldn't normally eat with such regularity. Potato chips, cookies...I even bought a single-serving bowl of Lucky Charms cereal!

This week, I've got that out of my system, and I'm all about the good stuff. I'm going shopping today to stock up on a week's worth of fresh fruits and veggies, and salmon filets and chicken. Okay, and maybe I'll have a hamburger, too.

Diet? What diet?

It seems funny to me now that one of my first thoughts after meeting with the oral surgeon yesterday was, "Oh, no! Now I can't do the "You On A Diet" diet." Because that diet involves food which is, well....non-liquid.

I've been reading the book and getting all geared up to start it, with plans to go shopping for supplies this week. And Elysabeth just checked the book out from the library and is planning on doing it, too. I told her yesterday she'd have to do it without me and report back on how it goes.

I think by early June I will be seriously craving the fresh fruits and veggies and nuts and whole grains which are a big part of "You On A Diet."

Crunching as fast as I can

I met with the oral surgeon today for my second pre-surgery consulation. This time I had the CT scan results, and after viewing those, Dr. Burger informed me that, following surgery, I would need to be on a liquid diet for 2 months. This will be a preventative measure, to avoid any possible jaw fractures from chewing. My impacted wisdom tooth has an abscess, and that has destroyed enough of the surrounding bone that a fracture is a good possibility.

So, after my initial dismay at hearing of a possible broken jaw, I have been researching liquid diets. There are a lot of websites out there dealing with this. It's amazing that so many people have had to do this same thing, for similar reasons.

Suggestions for things to drink range from smoothies to liquified "normal food" entreés. I found one website put together by a chef who'd had his broken jaw wired shut for 8 weeks, and who'd come up with a bunch of liquid recipes. The funny thing was that they were regular dishes, but they nearly all ended with, "put in blender and liquify."

I'll be reporting my pre-surgery research here, and also posting as I go along through these 2 months.

I'm trying to resist the urge to eat lots of crunchy junk food in the next couple of weeks.