While on the soft food diet, try to eat meals that include: Soft, tender meat, poultry, and fish. Poached, scrambled, or boiled eggs.
Soft-cooked, poached, or scrambled eggs, egg whites, and egg substitutes are also a good choice for a mechanical soft diet. Desserts: Soft cakes, cookies, and custards are allowed as long as they don't have any pieces of candy, nuts, or seeds in them.
The diet you have been prescribed consists of foods that are tender, mildly seasoned, and easy to digest. While on this diet, don't eat fried or spicy foods, or raw fruits and vegetables. Also don't drink alcohol.
Pasta cooked to a soft consistency. Potatoes and sweet potatoes without skin. Soft fruits like ripe bananas and melon. Pureed berries put through a strainer to remove skins and seeds.
Avoid any foods that are hard for you to chew or swallow, such as the following: Starches: Dry bread, toast, crackers, and cereal. Cereal, cake, and breads with coconut, dried fruit, nuts, and other seeds.
If you're on a puréed food diet, you will eat foods you don't need to chew, such as mashed potatoes and pudding. You can also blend or strain other foods to make them smoother. You can add liquids (such as broth, milk, juice, or water) to foods to make them easier to swallow.
Pasta/Rice Soft pasta dishes such as lasagne, macaroni cheese, ravioli or spaghetti bolognese either home-made or bought ready prepared. Vegetables Fresh, frozen or tinned vegetables, cooked until soft. Mash with a fork or potato masher to make them easier to swallow. Try adding vegetables to casseroles or sauces.
Level 2 foods are able to be easily chewed but must be in small bites; also some textures can be mixed such as found in a casserole dish. Examples of foods are soft-pancakes well moistened with syrup, soft canned fruits, soft cookies dipped in milk, soft meats like fish, moist macaroni, and scrambled eggs.
Meats and Meat Substitutes:
Moist, ground/finely diced meats, poultry, or fish (served with gravy or sauces) Poached, scrambled, or soft cooked eggs. Slightly mashed, moist legumes (baked beans)
Foods that are easier to digest include toast, white rice, bananas, eggs, chicken, salmon, gelatine, applesauce, and oatmeal.
Mash potatoes and soft vegetables with milk and add some grated cheese and egg or mash with houmous and olive oil. Make up instant soups with milk instead of water, and top with grated cheese or cream. Add minced meat, lentils, beans, noodles or pasta shapes to soups. Add cheese and a little cream to an omelette.
Soft cereals. Hot cereals, like cream of wheat or oatmeal. Pasta and noodles. White rice.
On day 3 after surgery, eat soft foods that do not require much chewing, such as macaroni and cheese, cooked noodles, soft-boiled /scrambled/ poached eggs and soft sandwiches. Avoid tough or crunchy foods, such as pizza, rice, popcorn, and hamburger. Avoid spicy and acidic foods.
Some soft food diets recommend soups with clear broth, like Chicken Noodle Soup or Italian Wedding Soup, while other patients are free to eat cream-based soups, like Creamy Corn Chowder or Broccoli Cheddar.
You can eat almost any meat on a mechanical soft diet. You will, however, want to avoid bacon as it does not grind easily along with most lunchmeats. If you want meat that has an outside skin to it, such as bratwurst or hot dogs, remove the skin before grinding the meat.
Deviled or hard-boiled eggs are protein-packed and appropriate appetizers for a soft-food diet. Cottage cheese is a healthy source of calcium and can be served with soft fruits, such as cantaloupe and bananas. Canned fruit without skin or seeds is another option that supplies vitamin C and fiber.