Ok, I have four children and I just am wondering how its going to be when I am at the liquid/mushie stage trying to feed my family. Do any of you have a plan of action as to the running of your house, most of all dinners? Just curious. I have put some spagetti sauce in the freezer and taco meat, but thats only for a few days. I just think that its going to be really difficult to prepare meals for the family while on the post op diet.

Seriously, I didnt find it hard at all. Its only a few weeks. I made separate meals for myself for the most part, I ate from memory a fair bit of lentil dahl, lots of mashed veges with gravy, but I did also feed the family spaghetti bolognaise and blended up the sauce with some extra tomatoes, and a few bits of spaghetti for myself, plus I made a huge batch of lentil and vegetable Soup which I froze in portions.

Mushie meals are so simple, its really easy just to put on extra vegetables with the family meal and add some cheese for Protein kind of thing. Nothing to stress over at all. And its over in two short weeks or so.

My husband is doing the meals- the smell would get me so I ordered prepared food from "Let's DIsh" and now he can make it for him and kids

See the way I'm thinking is not only the smell. Just having to prepare it, I'm sure I'll be cranky, then to my kids either complain or not eat. I don't know if I'll be able to handle that without totally freaking out and not being able to chew. But I guess that will be the first test in coping without lots of food. I am a pretty organized person. My surgery isn't for 3 weeks, I am trying new meals until the preop so I can store more in my freezer.

I have two critters (kids, but active ones, so we call them critters - they take it as a compliment ), 10 and 11. The 11 YO and I go to Dinners by Design (DBD), one of those make-it-and-freeze-it places. It's been fantastic. We started it two months ago, for this very reason...I wanted to test-drive it to see if it might make my life easier post-op.

I still have 3 wks left before surgery, but I am sold on this concept. We'll go on the 23rd (my date is the 26th), put together 12 meals (we half-size the 6 meal deal so we get 12 total; each "full" meal serves 4-6 people normally), and pop them in the freezer. Each night I cook something, and my DD decides what to take out of the freezer for the next night. All the ingredients are provided by DBD, so I don't have extra stuff around to tempt me to pick at. Also, by 1/2 sizing meals, there are no leftovers for our family of 4 (I'm on pre-op liquids mostly now, so I have a few bites at most for dinner).

The items are pretty quick to cook, and since I'm not putting them together last minute, I'm not tempted. We add some veggies or whatever as sides, and I'll be able to have those post-op, mushed up (side note: I love my magic bullet).

Hope this helps!

Alyssa, do you have a support person who can help with dinner? I got banded last week and I honestly have NOT prepared a meal for anyone since. My husband has made dinner every night so far. Before my surgery, I found this great note pad in the Target $1.00 section. It has all the days of the week on it. On each day, I wrote down the meals that he could serve. On the back of the paper. I made the grocery list with all the items that we would need for the meals, kids lunches,etc. I have enough of them for four weeks and I figured by then I should hopefully be able to prepare some meals or he can reuse them. Good luck to you!! You will do great!!!

Well, right now I'm on Medifast and still having to feed everyone. I'm just eating at the same time as they are and honestly, it hasn't bothered me too bad. They're stuff definitely looks more tempting than mine is, but this is a short period of time and soon I'll be able to have more than just tasteless soup.

My husband is taking the week of surgery off and my mom is too, so yes I do have support. Now that I am thinking about it, I'm going to save my frozen stuff for when they go back to work. I'll let them deal with the feedings of the "animals".