Smye

@@Sunshine_Gal, Thank you! And you're very very welcome.

@@Kathy812 and @@Sreeves, Do you think it makes sense to leave the recipes already up as-is, or go back and swap them to the cleaner photo-with-a-link? I'll wait for more responses before taking any action, but wanted to get your thoughts. I want this thing as user-friendly as possible and as users, I think you both with have good insight. @@Elode & @@LipstickLady, any insight from either of you? You both have such an accurate sense of the pulse of the forums and I'd love to hear from you.

@@Kathy812, Thank you! I'm just excited to get to share them. Let me know what you think of the BariBread - it definitely seems to be the most popular recipe. By the by, you're not doing too badly on weight loss yourself - you're well over 50% there!

@@Kristy Haugen Oliver, It can be hard to drink protein drinks - as others have mentioned so many of them are thick, creamy, and can be tough on your stomach. I'm sorry you're having to go through this. Many surgeons will give you free sample packs for some of the protein shakes if you ask - you might want to check with yours. Depending on where you live, you can also ask at your local vitamin/supplement store if they allow returns for drinks that don't agree with you - GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, and VitaminLife will often allow you to 'sample' shakes to find one that agrees with you. It's certainly in their best interest to get you to try 10, find 1 that works and then buy it hundreds of times in the future Have you tried Syntrax Nectar? It's much closer to a juice or tea (the lemon tea is my favorite) than a traditional protein drink and doesn't leave your mouth with that weird felt-like sensation isopure. Also, how are you doing with broths? If you make a hard bone broth high in gelatin it won't be a 'protein drink' at all but is still pretty high in protein. My favorite is the Pho broth here. It takes a while to make but will last you a while, keep you from becoming sodium deficient (a real problem at this stage, believe it or not), is cheap to make, and has plenty of protein for early post-op.

Gotcha, thank you!

@@Sreeves, Thank you for the feedback: Salmon will be coming soon - so far it's only the sushi (though I'll admit that's my favorite salmon recipe by FAR!) Also, to clarify, do you mean you like the egg bake post as-is or that you would prefer to have the recipe posted in full and like the actual recipe?

For those still using/following this thread: What's more useful for you all? Posting the full recipes here in their forum-formatted glory? Or posting an image and a link to the blog as I did with the egg bake?

New recipe posted: Egg Bake - A make-ahead breakfast that'll cover you all week.

@@gardengirlkl, Absolutely! My partner uses the yolks in her GF Baking, so there's no waste for our home, but I've tried it once with the whites from the carton and, so long as your carton contains just egg whites, you shouldn't t have any problem. Mine came out pretty much identical. Everyone: Watch the blog in about an hour for a new recipe - make-ahead Egg Bake for a quick grab-and-go breakfast that's delicious, healthy, and wholesome.

@@jess9395, HA! Thanks for the update, I'm glad your son liked it. I work in a middle school and let me tell you, knowing one of my students' peers gave it a thumbs up is the highest form of approval I could ask for . I hope you like the BariBread! @@Sreeves, Wow, another Washingtonian - it often seems so many of the folks here are 'elsewhere,' wherever that is. Good luck with your soft foods phase - I ate both the Tofu Madras (without frying the tofu) and the Pho broth when I was on mine. I'm also planning to add some recipes for all phases over the next few weeks - let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see. @@hellohealthy, Firstly, I love your handle. Secondly, as with Sreeves, let me know if there's anything you'd like to see that you're missing. I think you might be surprised how many 'soft' and 'liquid' foods you ate pre-op that aren't in the least 'lesser' than those solids we often find ourselves craving. High Protein Clear liquids for example? The broth you eat/ate in so many other dishes.

@@jess9395, can't wait to hear what you think of it! And you're welcome - my goal isn't to have a 'popular' blog, just to have these recipes accessible to as many folks as need it, so I'll absolutely keep posting here to make it as easy as possible to find. @Sunshine_Gal, thanks for putting a link on your blog - now that I know you have one I can't wait to check it out! At some point I would like to hear how you managed to get it to look so nice - I'm not the most tech-savvy person in the world and can't get the CSS templates I've found to work. I'm thrilled to hear the cauliflower crust you tried previously improved with age - I will say I've found that the 'squeeze' step helps not only texture but speeds that process along as well. And lastly, thank you for sharing with your support group and for your last sentence - your feedback is invaluable and helps me a great deal.

Bari Omelete Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes You've all had an omelet before. Or, well, those of you who haven't either been living under a rock or else living with an unfortunate allergy (if that's you, I'm sorry, you've got it rough!) have had an omelet. The thing is, most omelets (especially those you get at a Breakfast place) are loaded down with enormous amounts of fat, even more carbs, and surprisingly little Protein. Not to mention all of the additives and artificial junk that gets in there. A classic staple of continental cuisine, the omelet is actually the perfect vehicle for high quality protein and excellent taste. I've left greens out of this one - it's about as rich as they come. For those of you want more greens in your brunch, don't worry, I've got a frittata coming that's chock full. Ingredients: liquid Egg White - 1/4 cup Ham - 1 oz Reduced fat hard cheese (any variety) - 1 oz Reduced fat cream cheese - .5 oz Avocado - 1 oz Raw Yellow Onion - 1/4 cup Preparation: First things first - prep your mise en place. Dice your ham, avocado, and onion. Slice your cream cheese into thin strips and shred your hard cheese. Pop the onion into a skillet and caramelize until thoroughly browned but not burnt. Once you've got your fillings prepped, the easy part begins. DO NOT preheat a non-stick pan (I use a well-seasoned cast iron) for this part. Add your egg white to the pan while it's still cold. Place the pan over medium low heat - going slow is key here. Once you can't see the pan through the egg anymore, sprinkle the cheddar on one half of the omelet, lay the cream cheese along your intended 'crease, and sprinkle the remaining filling on the empty half of the omelet. Once the omelet is mostly opaque, with only the barest bit of runniness remaining on the top surface, use a spatula to carefully fold the omelet over. Don't worry if it breaks, this takes practice. Allow the omelet to cook an additional 1-2 minutes, and transfer to your plate. Top as you will (if you will), just be sure to account for the change in nutrition info. Once you've got this omelet down, vary the filling to your heart's content. I LOVE adding spinach and reducing the amount of cheese a smidge. It's also excellent with salsa and/or bell peppers inside. Oh oh oh, and you'll just about lose it when you try this with a filling made of smoked salmon and capers. Lastly, like most of my recipes, you'll likely need to spread this omelet out over two meals. Nutrition: Calories: 198 Fat: 14 g Carbs: 6 g Protein: 15 g Sodium: 469

The blog is live! It's still a little clunky, but it's up with some photos. It will be undergoing rapid transformation over the next day or two, and then I plan to post a new recipe once each week (Mondays) with periodic 'extra' posts thrown in for good measure. Look for a tour of the Smye Farm this afternoon. http://barideliciousfood.blogspot.com/ Come, follow, cook, enjoy, comment and let me know what else you want to see. Also, I'd love to get this thing off the ground quickly and to be able to share with as many folks as possible - so please post it on facebook, twitter, etc.

@@berthag, do you have access to your NUT and surgeon? They'll have the best info for you. My biggest curiousity is what are your cals, carbs, prot, and fat intake looking like? How are you healing? And are you being careful to take care of your body (the right mix of exercise and rest given your recoup)? Are you getting enough water?

@@gardengirlkl, thanks! Let me know what you think when you get those tenders & Bari-Bread out of the oven. This new life is all about the process, and it sure is a hard one - more we can support one another the better. Those old habits can be so hard to break - it's scary how long we can abstain only to find ourselves sorely tempted all over again when we thought we had them beaten. Let me know if there's anything I, or anyone else on the boards, can do to support you. And keep us posted, we're all in this together!

@@dolphin_girl, thank you for your kind words. Congratulations to you on all you've eliminated already - that's tough work, know that it pays off to eliminate all of that stuff early on. I quit caffeine in November and it made the pre and post-op stuff SO much easier. Do let me know how your adventures go with food moving forward - I'd love to hear what you learn along the way and how I can improve my own process to better meet whatever needs you may have.

@@VSGmary, I'm glad to hear you liked it! Thanks for the update.

@@Debbieduck4, Thank you for reading! When you try the Bari Bread, let me know how it turns out and any thoughts you have. The blog is nearing publication and will definitely be up Monday or sooner. Let me know if there are any foods or classes of foods you'd like to see bariatrified that I'm not already including.

Also, I'm hard at work on the blog. It should be live by this time Monday (though I'm certainly gunning for sooner) with all of the recipes here and at least 3 new ones. It's going to be a little shy on photos at first, but eventually every recipe will have accompanying photographs. I'll be sure to post here once everything is up and running. Thank you everyone for your ideas and support getting it going.

Full Pho Prep Time: 10-15 minutes Cook Time: 5-15 minutes Now that you've got your amazing pho broth, it's time to really make it a meal. What's most fascinating to me about this recipe is how the broth changes drastically when you add the final ingredients. It goes from being hearty, salty and savory to being an herbacious, almost refreshingly light broth with all the comfort and weight of its original form. If you want Pho but don't want to deal with making the broth, you can always use a pre-made beef stock and play with the seasonings. It won't be anywhere near as good, but it will pass if you're willing to play with it enough using fish sauce & cinnamon. Oh, and you DO get noodles. I use noodles from my local Asian food Center (yes, that's the name of the chain) made of Konjac starch - the pulverized root-ball of a lily-like plant that grows in subtropical & tropical asia. When hydrated, the starch forms a lovely noodle-consistency gel that is 90-some-odd percent Water and the starch is completely undigestible. It's a staple in southeast asian cuisine, and happens to fit perfectly into my lifestyle. Just don't try to use them in place of other noodles - they're only a good substitute for rice noodles. Ingredients: Pho Broth - 1 cup Konjac Noodles - 1/4 cup (you can often find these at safeway as Shirataki Noodles) SUPER thinly sliced beef (flank, sirloin, or round) - 1.5 oz (I often use goat and it's great) Lime - 1/4 Chili pepper, sliced crosswise - 1 (optional) Thai basil (it's purple), fresh - 1 oz (use green if you have to) Soy or Mung bean sprouts - .5 oz Sriracha sauce - 1 Tbsp (optional, I just stick with the chili) Preparation: Bring your broth back up to a boil. To slice your meat, it helps to freeze it for 15-20 minutes prior to slicing, you want it nearly transparent by the way. Or your local asian grocer might sell "hot pot beef" pre-sliced. It works very well. Line your bowl next to the stove. Add noodles, then sliced beef. As soon as the broth comes to a boil, pour over beef and noodles. Eat immediately, adding basil, sprouts, and chilis (or sriracha) as you desire. Nutrition (per bowl): Calories: 140 Fat: 6 g Carbs: 6 g Protein: 14.4 g Sodium: 525

Beef Pho broth Prep Time: 25 minutes Cook Time 2-24 hours Before you read any further - note that this is an involved recipe compared to most of what I post - but it is also my very favorite! If you're not a pho phan (HA!), or have never tried pho, find a good pho place (it will be the one with very few customers not recently immigrated from southeast asia) and try some before undertaking this endeavor. Bring a friend to eat your noodles as you won't be eating those, but the broth is heavenly. I'm only posting the broth here, but will post the full-meal-deal shortly. Also, you can always buy the broth at a local pho joint and then assemble at home using the full pho recipe below - though then you don't know exactly what you're getting. Oh pho, how I love thee. I grew up eating southeastern asian cuisine. Despite mom's affinity for McD's, I learned to eat with chopsticks long before I could handle a fork and spoon. And of all the foods I ate, none tastes like home quite like a steaming bowl of pho. But those stinking rice noodles have WAY too many carbs for my diet, and the broth seemed impossible to make (or so I thought.) I spent three years trying to perfect pho but could never make it like Ngdom used to when I was a little. When I made the decision to have surgery, I was determined to figure out how to make pho before going under the knife so that, in those first weeks post op I could have some amazing, high Protein (yet, high protein) broth to look forward to on the other side, even if I had to wait on the noodles, beef, herbs & onions. I reached out to the local vietnamese community, met with several pho chefs, and finally achieved this pinnacle of success. To make it perfect, you're going to have to do the 24-hour minimum simmer on your broth and use 100% fresh spice, but a 2-hour simmer will do in a pinch. Lastly, whatever you do, DO NOT use premade pho stock, the pho paste that comes in a jar, or the bouillon-cube-style pho seasoning you find at some stores. It's downright NASTY! Instead, you can often find pho spice packets at your local asian grocer that look like teabags - these are a good timesaver if you don't want to assemble your own - but use 2 if you do this as these spices are pre-ground and thus have lost much of their luster. Ingredients: Onions, halved, skin on - 2 Chunk of gingerroot, halved lengthwise - 4" Beef bones (ideally knuckle, leg, or oxtail) - 4-5 lb Water - 6 quarts Cinnamon stick - 1 Coriander seeds - 1 Tbsp Fennel seeds - 1 Tbsp Star anise, whole - 5 Cardomom pod, green, whole - 1 Cloves, whole - 6 Noniodized salt - 1.5 Tbsp (halve if using regular table salt) Fish sauce (vietnamese, NOT thai, use that for other tasty dishes) - 1/4 cup Sugar (I know, I know, but here it's used as a spice, not a sweetener) - 1 oz Preparation: Turn on your broiler and move the rack to the top position. Place your ginger and onions on a baking sheet cut-side-up. Brush with a smidgeon of olive oil and broil until they just begin to char. Then turn over and continue until this side just begins to char. Fill a very large pot with cool water. Boil your bones on high for 10 minutes, then dump the water, rinse the bones & rinse the pot. This will help limit the "scum" in your final broth. Take a small spoon and scoop out most of the marrow if you can. Toss that also. It's good for you, not good for broth. Fill the pot with the bones and 6 quarts water. Bring to a boil and lower to a simmer. After 5 minutes, skim off any 'scum' that rises to the surface with a fine mesh strainer, ladle, or spoon. Take all of your spices and put them into a cloth or mesh packet. You essentially want to make a teabag to steep these spices but don't want them left in your broth when you're done. You can use a clean dishtowel and a paperclip if push comes to shove. Even an old (and sterilized) sock - this is what my favorite chef downtown used. I'm not kidding. Add ginger, onion, spice packet, sugar, fish sauce and salt to the broth and simmer for 2-24 hours. If you're going for the long simmer, be sure to top off the pot every few hours so you don't burn the house down. I typically put my pot on top of our woodstove (we use wood to heat our home) overnight, top it off once in the morning, and then finish at about noon. Also, periodically come back and scrape off any 'scum' that forms on the surface. It's all good stuff, but makes for a funky texture to your broth. Taste your broth, if it's off, you can add more salt or fish sauce until it's perfect. Heck, even a little lime juice might just mean perfection. If you're not feeling like it's beefy enough, you can put in a hunk-o-beef (chuck is best) for an hour or so to increase the beefiness, then remove and either feed to your chickens or use in a stew later. The catch here is now you'll have to start over with the 'scum' skimming. Allow to cool to room temperature, strain all solids out of your broth and then refrigerate. This will cause any fat in the broth to solidify on the surface - you can just pluck this off the top. You'll notice your broth is completely opaque, this is because you've got a TON of Gelatin (which is pure protein by the by) in your broth and WOW is it tasty. At this point, you may wish to simply reheat and sip servings of just broth. GO FOR IT! This is excellent stuff in phases 1 & 2 to help you get protein in while still sipping broth. It will also keep you from getting lightheaded from a sodium deficiency. Divvy out into separate portions, freeze what you don't plan to eat within a week (it freezes wonderfully) and enjoy. Nutrition (per cup): Calories: 70 Fat: 4 g Carbs: 1 g Protein: 6.4 g Sodium: 424 mg