My new friend, the blender

Here is my new buddy, my Vitamix blender.  (By the way, the blender itself is 5+ years old and not as new-looking as the one in the photo.) I am one week out from my surgery, and the first few days home my diet consisted of:  Siggi's yogurt (like Greek, but "Icelandic" style), applesauce, and chocolate pudding (in order to get down my incredibly bitter and horrible crushed medications).  Just barely bites of each, and sips of water between.  And a very small amount of Big Train Fit Frappe protein drink. Yikes!  This part is harder than I thought it would be...I really need to make a chart for water, food, protein shakes, vitamins, and medications.

After a phone consult with my nutritionist yesterday, I got brave enough to try blending up low-fat cottage cheese.  (As a vegetarian, that was one of my primary protein sources pre-surgery.)  She suggested putting some tomato soup in it, but I didn't have any--however I noticed a jar of portobello pasta sauce (low-fat, low-sugar) so put some of that in.  It was actually good!  After blending it, I heated it briefly in the microwave.  I could only eat about 1/8 of a cup, but it was yummy.  Today, I extended my blender experiments by blending up a can of Vegetarian 99% fat-free chili.  I took a careful bite (it was spicier than the cottage cheese mix), but it went down fine.  You have to not look at it too much, but having something hot to eat kinda cancelled that part out. :-)

I'm up to 392 calories and 35 grams of protein today.  Still a ways to go, but significantly better than my first few days back from the hospital.  I'm also down 8 pounds!