Any sweet recipes to suggest?

[Guest Fodao]

Howdy. My Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer about 2 months ago, and he's been on the chemo for 4-5 weeks now (no radiation therapy at this point), and he's not eating much. Surprisingly it's not nausea; he says that nothing tastes good (though knowing my Dad and his inability to state things plainly, this may just be nausea in Dad-speak).

Since he's gotten pretty lethargic, I've been cooking at his place 3-4 times a week trying to find something he likes, but after last night's failure with homemade baked mac-and-cheese, I'm sort of stuck. I talked with him a bit and tried to ascertain what the problem was.

He said everything tasted "bland" and nothing had flavor (which surprised me; the mac-and-cheese was made with sharp cheddar with that in mind). However, I remember that when we went to try a chinese buffet the other day, he didn't eat anything but a few helpings of ice cream.

He said sweet stuff still tastes good - ice cream, hot chocolate, yogurt.

So anyways, has anybody had any experience with this wanna-eat-only-sweet stuff thing, and more importantly, do you have any recipes for meals with sweet themes that are a little more nutritious than buckets of icecream?

Oh, and he's a bit of a redneck when it comes to eating, so it has to be down-home country-style cooking. The potatoes had better have gravy and parsley is only for decoration. I nearly got lynched a week ago for trying to serve some linguine with kale and white beans in.

Thanks.

[Ry]

What about rice pudding? Would he eat that? Hey it's got rice, eggs, and raisins so has to have some nutritional value. Egg nog? Also, Carnation Instant Breakfast is a good source of nutrients. Just trying to think of sweet things with a little protein.

Lot's of great sweet recipes in our new cookbook too -- Andrea would love to sell you one. Let us know what works for your dad.

[Guest Fodao]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Rice pudding...that's genius. I'll have to do that today or tomorrow.

Not sure about the nog, though, since he's immunocompromised. Course the storebought stuff's probably pasteurized, huh? Guess I could check the label next time I'm at the store.

Thanks!

[marym]

You can also try pasta with a meat sauce using a good amount of sugar. And chicken or short ribs using a sweet chile sauce. One sauce that might work is using caranberry sauce and tomato sauce on pork or chicken.

Good luck.

Mary

[ztweb]

My dad LOVED watermelon. They weren't in good season always and we had to pay a mint, but he would ALWAYS eat watermelon when everything else failed.

[Littlegirl]

My mom seemd to enjoy the sweets too even when other things did not go down well. It could also be because her doc emphasized that he did not want her losing weight and she knew the sweets would help keep the weight on too. I second the Carnation Instant Breakfast idea. Mom could not stomach the Ensure or Boost drinks after awhile but Carnation seemed good for her. I was thinking Bread Pudding sounded like a good alternative but sorry, I don't have a recipe. I would stock up on the ice cream and other quick and easy sweet stuff she is willing to eat.

Karen

[mary colleen]

Fodao.....here's one for you. Always goes over well at my house, and it is sweet. It's very easy,too. (You can use a pork loin or a pork roast.)

Note: You may also want to give yogurt based fruit smoothies a try - very easy, and you can sneak a lot of good nutrients into them.

INGREDIENTS

2 (1 1/2 pound) pork tenderloins

seasoning salt to taste

2 cups apple juice

1/2 cup apple butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Season the pork tenderloins with seasoning salt, and place them in a 9x13 inch baking dish or small roasting pan. Pour apple juice over the pork, and cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil.

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. While the pork is roasting, mix together the apple butter, brown sugar, water, cinnamon and cloves. After the hour, remove pork loins from the oven, and spread the apple butter mixture over them.

Cover, and return to the oven for 2 hours, or until fork tender.

[ernrol]

It’s nice to be able to eat what we consider healthy food, but when it comes to cancer, if we are not able to eat certain foods then it is more important to eat whatever we can to maintain weight. I was fortunate and never lost my taste or appetite.

Rich chocolate shakes, ice cream anything. Ask him what he will eat then make sure he gets enough of it.

I lost 4 pounds the first week and then turned on an eating program that put 20 pounds on. One of my favorites was an English muffin with lots of organic Almond Butter and a little jelly on it. This is really packed with calories. Most nuts are very high in calories. Keep trying till you find something he really likes to eat. Make sure he knows how important it is to maintain his weight. Keep us poster.

Stay positive,

Ernie

[Guest Fodao]

Wow guys, I really appreciate the responses. Lots for me to work with. I'm going to have to print this out and get at it. Might even spawn some ideas of my own!

[Kathleen1]

For my Mom, chocolate or strawberry ensure worked great. For whatever reason she liked it. Try adding ice cream to it and make a shake. Another thing that worked well was fresh baked cookies. For a time saver I would buy the peanut butter cookie dough from the grocery store and bake a few cookies each night. She ate them up with a glass of milk.

the main thing with my Mom was to eat WITH her. She always ate better with someone. So I would get home from work and say "let's have us a snack". That made it more fun.

She did complain that things didn't taste as good but we tried to make it fun.

Another thing was cream of tomato soup and I always put shredded cheese on the soup after it was put in the bowl. She liked that a lot.

Keep trying!

[Gwen, Daddy's girl]

My Dad is still on his pecan pie kick. It has to be homemade, something in the storebought ones feels like it burns his mouth.

Nuts make a nice rich snack.

[Judy-OK]

Fodao ... I can sympathize with your dad and his taste buds. Everything tasted like metal to me. I had no one to cook for me so when I was too tired or weak I would make me a malt. Ensure was better than Boost for some reason but to a half a can of chocolate Ensure I would add three scoops of vanilla bean ice cream, three tablespoons of malt powder, a dash of vanilla and some extra hershey's chocolate syrup. Blend it in a blender and it actually tastes pretty darn good with all kinds of nutrients from the Ensure. I managed to put weight on during treatment. If he prefers another flavor go for it just add the malt powder and vanilla flavoring.

[Kathleen1]

I just remembered another thing my Mom liked very well, French toast. Wishing you well.

k

[cindi o'h]

graham crackers with peanut butter and a thin slice of banana? That one suited me and wasn't ALL that bad.

[kamataca]

A southern gentleman would certainly like his tapioca pudding, right? We've also had success with many varieties of ice cream shakes....you can put all kinds of high caloric and protein treats in those.

Good luck and let us know what works best!

Kelly

[Guest Fodao]

Thanks again for the great suggestions, everyone. I'll have lots to try now.

Fortunately, weightloss isn't an issue (as of yet), I just figure better eating is better healing and all that jazz. He was a picky eater *before* the chemo, so it's been a bit more of a challenge now that his tastes have been dulled. Lots of good ideas for me to try out, though, and they sorta give me a reason to cook, which I like to do anyways.

[vassar36]

Fodao,

You might want to try this one out: I usally don't give up this recipe but of course will for this board, My friend who taught me it called it "Man Trap" Chicken,, she said she used to make it for her boyfriends if she thought they were keepers.

Anyway, you get thin sliced chicken, cut it up into strips. Get out a bowl of olive oil and in another bowl put 3 parts flour; 1 part sugar; and sprinkle some crazy salt on it. Mix that up. Set oven to 450 and get a casorole dish out. Put alumin foil on the bottom of the dish (this is where you'll lay the chcken out and willmake clean up very easy) Dip the chicken pieces in the olive oil and then roll them in the flour surgar salt mixture one at a time. Place them in the cassorole dish and bake them for about 30 - 45 min. Make mashed potatoes add a bit of sugar in them too. This is my husband's favorite recipe and he requests i make it once a week. Add more sugar for a sweeter taste if nessecary...good luck there are plenty of great recipes on so far so i guess you'll have lots of cooking to do.