For 2 years I fed my MIL at least one meal a day. She was in a nursing home and because of strokes had difficulty chewing and managing food in her mouth. They put her on a "mechanically soft" diet itw as called....and pretty much everything was chopped in the cuisinart....and things like tomato soup had mashed potatoes mixed in to make it thicker so she could manage. ( but for some reason she did just fine on tea and coffee and other things out of a glass or a cup..) Things need to be of a pretty much like baby food consistancy. Sometimes they would puree the meat and it would be a stiff nasty clod....but with the addition of some beef or chicken broth or some tomato soup, it would become easy to swallow. She ate and seemed to enjoy, pureed spaghetti and meat balls, macaroni and cheese and even green salad....that about caused me to gag, but she said it tasted good as she had been so long without a salad. Think...scrambled eggs, cooked cereal with lots of cream and sugar, blended fruits, ice cream, puddings, pumpkin pie filling, pureed veggies. Because of her age, think ofs easoning things like eggs like pizza....and remember if there are "pieces" she has difficulty managing in her mouth, sometimes mushing it up with broth will help a lot....and tiny things like orzo or alphabet noodles just sort of slide down. And for my DH I made him a high calorie shake... 8 oz whole milk 1 envelop of Carnation Instant Breakfast, chocolate fudge is best 1 T Carnation dry milk powder 1/4 cup egg beaters ( the equivalant of one egg) A scoop of a high calorie chocolate ice cream ( I used Hagen Daz) A bit of vanilla...1/4 tsp Blend and serve. I estimated about450 calories or more and about 20 or more grams of protein....and it's delicious! Linda C

Gazpacho is nourishing as is bean and bacon soup from the blender. Mashed potatoes are easy and better if you make them thin best if you use some beef stock or chicken boullion. Cream of wheat and cream of rice are easy to eat but better if you put in some ground up fruit or even ground ham/beef/chicken. Tell him that he has to roll the food around with his tongue for a bit if he can't chew. The enzymes in the mouth are very important for digestion and if he just swallows not all of the nutrients are absorbed and the stomach has to work harder. With what is going on with him he doesn't need to have indigestion too. Nancy

I can relate to how you feel! I'm fighting the same thing. He had a heart attack in Jan. and won't try different things. He hates vegetables. Once in a while he'll eat a little corn that's it. His idea of a balanced meal is anything with lots of sugar. One thing our cardiologist told us was stay far away from ANY kind of red meat (lean or not) and limit the fat to 10 to 20mg. daily. So that leaves fish and chicken and how many ways can you fix that. He's also a steak and potato man so there's another problem. He hates anything with tomato and also won't eat fruit. Maybe there's a little place in heaven for wives like us who are trying so hard to hang onto our hubby's just a little longer,huh? Don't give up. Just keep trying to fix small amounts of different things so you won't feel too bad when you have to throw it out or eat it yourself and maybe one day our hard headed husbands will wake up and realize that we CARE. Library has lots of things also. Wish I could be more help but it may help to know you are NOT alone. Thanks for letting me vent my frustration and good luck to you.

THANK YOU, LAVENDER, for alerting me to the danger of glycation. My best dinners were made in a slow-cooker (low heat with plenty of liquid), rather than fried !! Here's the link to my Pinterest slow-cooker recipes: THANK YOU, VAPORVAC, for setting a good example of hot whole-grained cereals for breakfast. I used to do the same, but neglected that, thanks to eating my kid's pickiness. https://www.pinterest.com/clonewar/slow-cooker/ My sister convinced me to buy a pressure-cooker, and it WAS HORRIBLE IN TASTE. The temp. was so high that it ALTERED FOODS and made everything stinky, be it cooked beans, meat, or soup. I used that a few times, and never again !! I boiled chick-peas in that pressure-cooker, and it stank so bad my kid complained loudly & I trashed the whole mushy pot. Compare that to aromatic chick-peas boiled with low-heat over the stove top, which retained its firmness & flavor. I use the microwave to quickly heat up food (with liquid) to zap out germs, rather than long cooking high temp. like pressure cooker which destroys food. Cooking food to death is not a good idea. The high-heat destroys proteins 1st, but microwaving vegetables with water for a short time to kill germs .. that still retains nutrients and beans & peas are still bright green. I checked on the nutrients retained with microwaving veggies vs. steaming veggies, and microwaving FOR A SHORT TIME IN WATER retained more nutrients, with less loss in water. My personal measure stick for AGE (advanced glycation end-products) is HOW MUCH JUICE I NEED TO DRINK to chase away the "stinkiness" or "rancidness" of high-temp. cooking or over-processed foods. More juice = more calories. http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2014/11-nov/foods-high-in-ages.html Which foods are high and which are low in AGEs. Protein-rich foods: Red meat and cheese tend to have the most. In descending order, chicken, fish, eggs, and legumes have less. Grains: Boiled grains, such as rice and oatmeal, and sandwich breads are low in AGEs. When grains are processed into crispy brown crackers or fatty cookies and sweetened with sugars, however, their AGE content can soar. Dairy: Milk and yogurt are low in AGEs, but when moisture is removed and fat is concentrated (as in cream, butter, and cheese), the AGE content rises dramatically. Fats: Vegetable fats tend to have fewer AGEs than animal fats. Animal fats are also more likely to be high in unhealthy saturated fats. To further reduce AGEs, cook foods at low temperatures and with lots of water-based moisture by steaming, stewing, poaching, and braising. Stay away from fried foods. deep-fried chicken has more than six times the amount of AGEs than steamed chicken. When you grill meats, marinating your food in an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar before cooking it will reduce AGEs by up to half. http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2014/11-nov/foods-high-in-ages.html