Need Help Substituting

Please help! I start my mushy phase tomorrow for 3 weeks and my Nutritionist is on vacation. She has laid out a beautiful 3 week meal by meal program,but there are some foods that I just don't eat on it. I was hoping that some of you could help me with suggestions for substitutions. I know there is a method to her madness and that's why certain foods are listed with certain meals for nutritional values,but there are some foods I just don't like and some I just won't have time to prepare. Here is the list:

Soft Boiled Egg- Can I do Scrambled or Hard Boiled?

Poached Egg-See Soft Boiled Egg Above

Ricotta Cheese- Can I do Cottage Cheese? Or can I heat the Ricotta like in Lasagne? How is it cold?

Butternut Squash- Not a fan at all. Please Help on ths one!

Turnip Greens-

Creamed Spinach-Any other veggies?

Swordfish-Can I just get a broiled or Baked type of filet(flounder)?  Not a big swordfish fan

Halibut- See Swordfish above

Kidney Beans (mushy)- How are these actually? I was told to make a Turkey Chili and Magic Bullet it instead.


Can "turkey /chicken breast: ground minced dark meat with gravy" be substituted with Turkey/chicken chop meat or turkey/chicken burger?

Can I substitute mashed potatoes and baked potatos for convenience?

I really appreciate the fact that I have a place to ask these questions,I know some of them are trivial,but I wanted to make sure I asked everything. These forums have helped me tremendously and I hope to someday repay the favors.    
          
I am also looking for some ideas on how to use my new gadgets. I bought the Magic Bullet and a new Crock Pot so I am looking for some crock pot recipes that are healthy that I am allowed to have. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanx
Neal

 

My favorites at your phase was Taco Bell's Pintos and Cheese, I lived on them!!  Also cottage cheese, baked flounder, couldn't do scrambled eggs (for some reason they made me sick) but I did alot of boiled eggs.  I liked to smash the yoke up with a little light mayo.Sorry I can't help you out with the veggies, the only thing I eat is green beans so good luck with that!

Hi Neal. It is great that you are asking for help and there are alot of folks here that can help you out. I am 7 months out and have learned to be very creative. My doctor and nutrionalist were pretty much a 'as tolerated' state of mind.. I set rules for myself though, since I had diabetes pretty bad before the surgery. Lots of protein, mostly in shakes, and very low carbs. No rice, flour, pasta, potatoes or sugar. Some beans though, which seemed to sit ok.

In the beginning, I bought fat free canned refried beans and heated it up an topped with chedder cheese. I also made soups. For fish, I found that tilapia worked very well. The more meaty fishes were too much like eating lead.

For eggs, I found that egg beaters settled much better than whole eggs. At seven months out, I still find it hard to eat regular scrambled eggs. I do use eggs in recipes, like custard, and have no problems.

Ricotta chesse is pretty good cold. I would think cottage cheese is interchangeable. The ricotta cheese has more calories, but at this phase, you probably are not getting too many calories in so that should not be a problem.

Vegies... Cauliflower or broccoli could be smashed up with butter or cheese.

Seems like a zillion years ago when I had my surgery. I hope some of this info helps.  Terry

I have seen several people who heat up and add a touch of spaghetti sauce to ricotta and cottage cheese for a fake lasagna. I can do tuna pretty well. I was told to stay away from white potatoes too many carbs and starches. As well as peas,and corn. I love broccoli cooked well and I got a recipe from the cook that does Diners Drive ins and Dives that uses cauliflower instead of potatoes and my kids didn't really notice the difference when doctored up.  I myself did better with a over medium egg cooked with olive oil spray mashed up. And all kinds of canned beans are now done in a low fat versions that helps alot as they are super high in protein.  You can do soft cheeses at this stage too or I was told I could.  I did lots of things done healthy them ran through my bullet. Now that I can actually eat solid foods now I am so looking forward to trying several of the great recipes on here.

Neal. 
Use a can of drained (but not dry) tuna, a little pickle relish (if you like it) and a small spoon of mayo and throw it in your bullet.  It purees it a bit making it easier to eat.  Also, consider adding a hard boiled egg to the mix.  I did this during mushy for great protein.

To add to the comment of a previous poster, I started with EggBeaters my first week on mushys.  I heard they were easier to tolerate, and for me it worked.  There are only seven servings in a container and by the time I was done with that, I was ready for real eggs.  I eat an egg almost every morning, omelet style with something on it.  My fav is cream cheese and salsa, but canned chicken and cheese is good, too.  I think the idea is to avoid hard-cooked eggs that are in large pieces because even chewing the egg, it stays solid. 

Ricotta cheese has the same protein as cottage cheese, but it doesn't contain curds.  Like a previous poster said, they are interchangeable.  However, Ricotta is milder and you can add things like SF syrups or SF/FF instant pudding powder to it to make it flavored for a canoli type dessert.   My favorite way is to heat it up.  Here is Eggface's recipe for Baked Ricotta and other puree ideas.   I am on solids and still eat this at least once per week coupled with a meatball or small piece of Italian sausage.  Yummy!  Also, watch your spaghetti sauce because they all contain a ton of sugar.  I have actually found my stores Private Selection label Marina sauce to contain the least amount of sugar.  I shop at Kroger. 

Squash can be made in to soup and contains a lot of vitamins and has a slightly sweet flavor. I don't know what to tell you here unless you like creamy soups. 

All Greens are loaded with calcium and generally tasty, if cooked with meat or meat fats.  (IMO)  Again, it is sort of soupy.  At this stage I wanted more solid foods not liquids. 

I think the idea with Swordfish and Halibut is that they are fairly mild fishes with the right Omega 3s and high protein.  Just pick a fish you like and cook it well.  Please watch out for bones.  

As for your substitution questions, you can do what ever you like.  I think the idea is that you avoid unnecessary fats that can be found in processed foods.  Do what tastes good, what you can tolerate and avoid the pre-made, processed foods that contain a lot of fat to add flavor. 

I love baked potatoes because I can add some cheese and sour cream.  I don't add much butter any more.  The potato inside is as soft and good as any mashed potato you can buy, too.   Talk about easy to make, wa**** and throw it in the oven for an hour or the microwave for 7 minutes.  Viola! 

I wish you the best of luck with all your new kitchen toys and food adventures.   I still try to introduce one new food per day to my diet just to test the waters.  That way, when I do go to a restaurant, which I have done about 4 times since surgery, I am not afraid to try something off the menu. 

Sara
 

Mashed cauliflower is my favorite... I blend it with a little bit of low fat cream cheese, and chedder cheese, salt, pepper, and I add powdered fat free milk to everything to up the protein. YUM. If you make sugar free pudding, you can also add powdered milk to that to make it high protein. Talapia is another fish that is awesome, I ate that very often on my soft diet, but my number 1 staple was fat free refried beans with chedder and hot sauce (choloula).