What's on Your Sunday Menu, RNYers?

I'm awake at the crack of dawn thanks to my cat, who needs her breakfast promptly at 5:30 AM regardless of what day it is.

yesterday was fun shopping with DHs MIL and aunt, I found a few things to spend money on. Not much for clothes though as the "outlet" mall we went to wasn't very "outletty" price-wise. Food was ok also, but like I expected, calories were high. Today we're having a cookout and I've made jalapeño poppers to bring.

Qotd: if you could add an extra room to your house and furnish/design it any way you want, without money being an issue, what would you use it for? I think I'd put in a library, with floor to ceiling bookshelves, a fireplace, a couple of cozy reading couches or chairs, and a balcony so I can sit and read outside if weather was nice.

breakfast: protein shake and coffee

lunch and dinner are unplanned--whatever protein things are at the cookout

focus on water today, I didn't drink enough yesterday and feel dehydrated this morning.

"DHs MIL would be MY mom...lol I meant to type DH's mom, MY mother in law. Geez. Go back to bed, Cassie.

I lived on string cheese and yogurt early one, with random egg. There are some savory and less sweet protein powders - celebrate has a chicken soup one, and Janet introduced me to Syntrax (sample pack on amazon!) that has lemonade flavor, ice tea, coffee, etc so not stuck with the chocolate-vanilla-sweetness, etc. I think some people also mentioned wendy's Chili but I can't remember what phase, I think puréed? Also, I did a lot of protein waters, they aren't my favorite now but were very helpful the first couple of months.

good luck and go at your own pace!

I did strained soups with unflavored protein powder added. For the first few weeks post op I couldn't handle sweet flavors, so I could barely gag my chocolate protein shake down.

Tip: heat your soup, and then wait for it to cool to "warm" before adding the protein powder. It will clump up in temps over 130-140 degrees if I remember correctly.

Mother first soft foods were cottage and ricotta cheese (do a search for Eggface's Ricotta Bake from the blog The World According to Eggface, she has lots of recipes for every stage!), tuna and chicken salad run through a food processor to make it smooth, and at the earliest stages I could also tolerate soft white fish like tilapia mashed well with a fork.

It's interesting that chicken is your first allowed meat...many people have trouble with chicken even months out because it's so dense. Fish was my first because it's naturally so soft and moist

Good morning Cassie! My friend I'm staying with and I pinky swore no getting up before 8 today; so I've been reading and drinking water in bed -- that's counts as not getting up right?

QOTD - floor to ceiling library, in a turret room, with several very cozy reading nook, I'd like some of them to be overstuffed couches with lost of pilllows and soft blankets for extra coziness; I've also seen a swing-hammock-reading day bed that would need to be in there, plus it will need it's own mini tea/coffee station so I don't have to descend from the turret for that. Big windows looking out toward the mountains would also be a plus.

I also have a dream, no expenses spared bathroom designed too but the library would be the ultimate!

accountability - 800 calories, 96 protein is what I'm guessing, 12 carbs. Might be a bit higher because I'm estimating some portions of cheese though. Also, my friend made berries and sweetened them with Ethriytol and monk fruit so they wouldn't be sugar sweetened and I did have 2 strawberries, 2 blackberries, and 2 raspberries -- the blackberries were so good. She also made unsweetened whip cream (just HWC beat until it was thick) and I had a dollop of that. It was a nice treat and she was so sweet and considerate!

today will be up in the air but protein first! I know there will be an egg, and cheese, and meat of some kind later in the day.

have a great Sunday all, hope you get to do what you love with people you love even more!

Shoot, maybe we could put an ultimately luxurious bathtub IN our libraries? I like reading in a hot bubble bath