Six Small Meals a Day, 250 cals each

[OakLeaf]

Well, my experience with tofu is the opposite ... it's never all that fresh in the packages from the grocery store, and it sours pretty quickly. Personally I wouldn't eat it if it's past the expiration date, or even if it's inside the expiration date but the water is yellow and bubbly or sour. Silken tofu in the shelf-stable packaging probably keeps a long time, though.

It depends on what you want to do with it. If I want a squash or carrot bisque with tofu, I just break up the cake into chunks after the vegetables are tender, throw it in and blend the whole thing with a stick blender (don't forget to pull out the bay leaves or bouquet garni before blending - btdt and it wasn't pretty ). For burgers, I drain it, then squeeze out as much water as I can by hand, then just crumble it and mix it with the other ingredients. Pretty much the same thing for quiche. For sauces or dressings, you'd want to blend it smooth first and then mix in your other ingredients and warm it.

Don't go overboard with soy though. It can aggravate PMS and other estrogen-dominance issues. Some is good IMO, but there's such a thing as too much.

[Blueberry]

Oak -

Very interesting - maybe I've been lucky? In any case - I always use the smell test first

[ny biker]

I eat margarine on my waffles every morning. It's supposedly made with yogurt, and I think the calories per serving are a bit lower than some other brands. My parents use margarine made with olive oil, but that brand isn't available here.

[tangentgirl]

Trader Joes makes a really good seasoned and baked tofu.

[sookiesue]

For a couple of quinoa recipes, check out the blog "101cookbooks" by Heidi Swanson. "Heather's quinoa" is easy and tasty, and could last a few days in the fridge if divided up into smaller portions. I've never bothered with roasting the tomatoes, but I'm sure that would be tasty. The "Double Broccoli quinoa" is great, too - but it might not be great for you depending on how broccoli affects you gassy-wise : ) You could skip the cream in the recipe or use silken tofu to make the pesto creamier.

She also has a recipe in her book "super natural everyday" for quinoa patties, if you can find it at a library. I found them a little bland (sounds like that would be good for you), but pretty tasty and easy to keep a bunch in the fridge for snacking. Seems like you could easily add in flavors that you like to make it suit your preferences.

Consider trying tempeh instead of tofu if you are looking for a non-meat protein. I find it easier to cook with because it stays firm and has a chewier texture, you can use it anywhere you'd use meat. I use it in burritos, chili, stir fry, everything when I want a protein blast. Again, you have to consider how this (and tofu, actually) would affect you, gassy-wise.

Best wishes and a speedy recovery to you.

[szsz]

Hey Roxy,
I actually prefer tempeh over tofu and what I do is cut it into cubes or strips and then marinate it (again with the white wine, but you could use soy sauce, or whatever flavors you like.) If cubed you can grill it on skewers and it is nice and "meaty." In strips I add it to a pasta dish or just some sort of sauce. Tempeh is also a soy product but it is fermented and less processed.

Garbanzo beans (canned, no salt, organic) are also a great easy meal, just heat up with some sort of tomato sauce.

As for tofu, there is a great brand made here locally in SD (named something like San Diego Tofu). I like to crumble it up and toss it in a pan with scallions, tomato -- whatever -- for a tofu scramble. The trick to tofu in this manner is to press the water out of it; wrap it in a couple of clean dishtowels and lean on it. Then it will crumble or slice nicely.

Whole foods has a sort of tofu scramble that they sell in the deli -- try a bit there to see if you like it.

[tangentgirl]

Man, for a carnivore, I sure know a lot about meat substitutes.

Roxy, the farmer's markets in the LA area have this Korean vegetarian food booth. It's as close to a chain as you'll get at a farmer's market - McTofu? They are at most markets I see, so I wonder if they have them over by you. Might be a SoCal thing?

Anyways, they have a few varieties of both tofu and tempeh, among other things. Dang good stuff. Probably nice if you need to mix it up.

Ok, off to microwave some veggie corndogs. Would it be wrong to dip them in leftover TG gravy?

[alexis_the_tiny]

I eat multiple little meals a day. My way of doing it is to nibble a little here and there. Some granola and yogurt here, a fruit there, some veggies, some pieces of chicken or fish somewhere in the day. At some point, I manage to cover all the major food groups in the entire day, usually eating one or two food groups at a time. If there's a meal, I usually eat about a third or half of it and save the rest for another day.

My mom does this thing where she crumbles firm tofu, mixes it with chopped water chestnuts, shitake mushrooms, carrots, spring onions, soy and some kind of binding agent, shapes them into little patties and deep fries them. You could probably do something similar, but pan fried in very little oil or baked, those things are real tasty. You can blitz silken tofu into a cream real easy, just drain all the water out and dump it in the blender. I like to add cocoa and honey in the blender for a chocolate pudding.

[OakLeaf]

Those sound similar to the spinach and tofu burgers I make. I use frozen chopped spinach just to save some of the hassle of prepping - cook it according to the package directions, then cool, drain, and squeeze the water out by hand or in a cheesecloth - mix it with the crumbled tofu and seasonings (I like marjoram, dry mustard, minced garlic, salt and pepper) - for a binding agent I like Ener-G egg substitute - shape into patties and pan fry about five minutes a side, smashing them flat with the spatula once or twice. I do eat real eggs and you can use an egg in this recipe, but to me, the egg flavor overwhelms the spinach and tofu, so I prefer the powder.

[smittykitty]

Roxy, glad to hear you're back home and getting better!

Check out the American Heart Assoc. They are really into low fat. You might find something helpful there. We bought one of their cookbooks several years ago when our cholesterol levels went through the roof. They have some good recipes.

For spreads, we use Smart Balance products: spread, mayo. We use light or fat free everything: dressings, spreads, yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, milk. Also, Egg beaters and I Can't Believe Its Not Butter spray (made from buttermilk). And really, a little goes a long way. Spread lightly.

This stuff won't taste the same at first and yes the texture is a bit different, but you are so committed that you are going to do just fine. Soon you will be like us and you will soon prefer the taste/texture of the healthier foods you are now eating. I now don't care for the taste of ground beef.

Keep us informed on your progress and hope your feeling better every day.

[ny biker]

Yes, Egg Beaters, I thought about that the other night while I was out taking a walk. I used to make Egg Beaters omelettes for dinner all the time. IIRC, 1 small container is the equivalent of 3 large eggs and it has surprisingly few calories, like 120 I think.

[Susan]

Some suggestions:

Easy to prepare and very low in fat: any kind of vegetable cream soup. Since you have to avoid anything that causes gas, maybe choose things like Pumpkin soup, Zucchini soup, Tomato-soup.
Recipe for any kind of vegetable soup: roast an onion (use 1/2 teaspoon of oil), add the vegetable of choice in small pieces, add enough water to cover it up, add salt and pepper. When the vegetables are soft boiled, put it in the blender to get a creamy soup.

I regularly eat an egg and a little bread for lunch, I guess that could be ok for you too?

Easy dinner: Roast lean turkey/chicken or fish in very little fat in a pan, add vegetables (Zucchini, carrots, spinach, bell pepper...) and let them get soft. Cook a little Quinoa or Bulgur and add it to the vegetables.

I guess it's easier to for example eat 3 meals that are higher in calories and 2-3 meals that are very low in calories.
So a typical day would be :
Small Oatmeal for breakfast
Snack: 1 Fruit or dried fruit (I like dried plums) and 1 or 2 nuts
Small lunch (Egg/ Makerels in tomatosauce/ vegetable soup/ cottage cheese and bell pepper/leftover from dinner)
Snack: 1 Fruit or dried fruit and 1 or 2 nuts
Dinner (recipe from above)
Snack: plain yoghurt (or soy yoghurt - I'm not sure if you have to avoid milk in general?) with some berries from the freezer or a little honey

1500 calories isn't much for 6 meals a day, so you have to be careful to eat very small portions for the main meals. Maybe you could get away with only 5 meals, which makes it a bit easier?
It will be much easier if you stock some good choices for snacks.

I hope you get well soon

[channlluv]

Thank you, Susan, Alexis, Nybiker, smittykitty, tangentgirl, oakleaf, and everyone else who had chimed in. I really appreciate your input.

I've been eating much smaller portions - my stomach can literally only handle about a quarter of what I used to eat, so the six small meals has been an easier transition than I'd thought.

Sauteed veggies with eggs has worked well, as did the whole grain spaghetti with chicken marinara. I haven't tried anything really fatty, and I've been taking it slow on reintroducing regular food. I've been eating a lot of apple sauce. Apple sauce, I've found, works well as the in-between meal snack.

I haven't had anything raw yet except a small bit of banana. I'm looking forward to getting back to salads.

I'm still on no activity other than walking, but I've been doing quite a bit of that. I walked about a mile yesterday. Slowly.

There is still fluid on my pancreas and taking a deep breath hurts, so I'm really taking it easy. I wouldn't have thought it would take this long to heal. I don't think I took this long getting over my C-section.

Roxy