Robert had his wisdom teeth removed on Thursday so he needs to stick to soft foods for up to ten days. Me, being the type of person that I am, starting researching and planning foods that I could make for him a month ago. The biggest challenge was not sticking to soft foods but rather that he couldn’t have warm foods for the first few days. You quickly realize that the only soft foods that are good cold are dairy and fruit based - ice cream, smoothies, popsicles, yogurt, etc. That gets old pretty fast. We stocked up on storebought applesauce, yogurt and a few jars of baby food (pear and squash, not lasagne with meat sauce or any of the other horrifying flavors.)

I bought some frozen mixed berries, bananas, and plain yogurt to make smoothies. Yum! Smoothies are quick, delicious and healthy. I should make them all the time. I’ll put my smoothie recipe on elliemay.com soon. The other big issue for Robert was coffee! To solve this problem, I started brewing extra strong coffee and chilling it. Then, whenever Robert wants/needs coffee, he just adds milk and enjoys a homemade iced latte.

For dinners, I decided to experiment a little. Friday night, I made Cold Avocado Corn Soup with Cilantro Oil from epicurious.com. It was actually very good. I’m not a fan of cold soups and was afraid that this one would end up tasting like a bowl of thin guacamole. Not so. The roasted corn added sweetness, the avocado and sour cream made it nice and creamy, lime juice provided tang and one unseeded serrano chili made it spicy! I would make this again but probably serve it warm with corn chips for garnish.

Last night, Robert was able to have warm foods so I made congee - Chinese rice porridge. To make congee, you cook rice in lots of water for a long time until it basically breaks down and forms a porridge. Because this was for Robert and I wanted to make him feel better, I actually made it with chicken (sorry, vegetarians, but there really is no substitute for real chicken broth. People who say that foods are just as good without it are just kidding themselves. I’m still not going to start eating meat though.) I made a quick stock with chicken, scallions, ginger and garlic and then I added jasmine rice and cooked it for 1-1/2 hours. I minced the cooked chicken and added it back into the soup along with some soy sauce and then I topped the bowls off with a garnish of finely chopped scallions, grated ginger and sesame oil. This was very, very comforting and tasty.

This week, I will be making Potato-Watercress soup, Thai Pumpkin-Coconut soup, Indian Red Lentil soup, Polenta with Tomato Sauce and Grated Zucchini and finally, Dover Sole with Celery Root Puree. Not a bad sounding menu, don’t you think? Much better than Gerber’s Vegetable Ham at least.

Go Seahawks!