I've seen this asked before - my question is a bit more specific. I'm on soft foods now - cottage cheese, blended Soups, even deli turkey if it's soft enough.

Tomorrow night I'm going to Cheesecake Factory. I was planning on sticking with the Soup -- but is there anything else I can have? I've been looking at the menu and other than mashed potatoes I don't really see anything. Any suggestions? Thanks!

You could eat cheesecake- that's soft. Just kidding! Ok, that probably wasn't funny, I apologize. A few months from now though, you can totally have a few bites of cheesecake, enjoy every morsel, and not wake up the next morning feeling bad because you ate the entire cake.

The nice thing about the menu at Cheesecake is that it is literally a novel length long. I can never decide on anything because there are SO many options. I remember recently someone in one of our parties ordered salmon that came with potatoes...both count as soft food, although the potatoes are a bit richer than would be optimal. Most well cooked fish should be fine on the soft phase as long as you chew it quite a bit and eat slowly. The potatoes won't hurt you if you only have a bit of them and you can order them without any butter. If they have a sweet potato option that you can sub-in that would be even better.

If you tolerate deli turkey, I'd think some baked fish might go down well. Baked whitefish was actually my first real restaurant meal. Other than the fact it was heavenly and I wanted more than the few bites I could fit, it was a great choice!

They have the absolutely best potato soup there!

Personally, I'd choose to stay away from potatoes or other starches. I'd ask about the soup of the day. You can have anything that's not starch-based. I discovered that even broccoli-cheddar soup works, as long as you're not also having starches. Also, if you like and can tolerate chili, that's a great choice at restaurants too. A quick look at their menu shows that they offer a white chicken chili. I'd ask for it without the rice garnish. With French onion soup, I just take out the bread and croutons, or ask for it without them. I know you're still in the early stages, but restaurant eating is actually pretty easy. Once you can eat regular food, the formula is: Skip the bread and cocktails, you won't need an appetizer, order a meat dish and replace the starch with a second vegetable, and skip the dessert. You'll still take half of your meat and most of your veggies home for tomorrow's lunch!

You guys are awesome, thanks so much!

Great advise, Thank you all for the question and the answers.

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I have a suggestion too.... ask for a to go box right away (although I bring my own these days - better lids). The reason - I remove the majority of the food so I am left with a plate with the food so I do not overeat. Trust me on this - your old head gets int he way if you see a plate full of food. Remove it from sight so that you are not tempted to overeat.

And.... I use a spoon to eat instead of a fork.

And.... I put the spoon down after eat bite to make sure I get it down before taking another bite.