Welch Smoothies

When you're on a special diet of not chewing and are lazy, you try to find solutions. 

Stuff you probably pass by, now seems useful.  Like this Smoothie pack.  

It's a very good on-the-go solution.  It does come out like smoothie, if you put it in the freezer, it'll be slushie.  I will say, it is pretty flavorful, very fruity as expected from Welch.  This is a strawberry & banana, but they have 5 flavors total.  I will say, stacking against a true banana & strawberry fruit blended smoothie, you can feel that there are lot more sugar and artificial flavors than the real deal.  But if you're on-the-go, and don't plan on bringing a bullet with you wherever you go.  It's a small price to pay.  

Personally, I'm staying with the natural fruit and add protein powder as needed to make do.  The artificial bits are a tad overwhelming for me.  But good alternative to have in case I'm in a pinch.

Welch Smoothies

https://welchssmoothie.com/products

 

Chocolate Mousse

For a sweet tooth like me, dessert is a must.

Came across this at Whole Foods in their dessert section.  

It's their chocolate mousse.  Honestly it's pretty rich.  One cup basically take me 3-4 times to knock it all down.   But it's definitely milk chocolate to the max.  Very delicious.  Not something you can have all the time, but definitely is nice.

 

Houston Club

Just because I'm on a soft food diet, doesn't mean that I cannot eat out.

One of the neat places I got to go to was Houston Club.

It is up on top of One Shell Plaza in downtown.

It does have a neat view.  Too bad the day we were there was a tad cloudy.  But each table has a set of binoculars for you to check out how far it goes.

We started with burrata, which comes with tomato marmalade and crispy prosciutto.   Crispy prosciutto was a first for me.  But the burrata and tomato jam was nice.  Good taste and came thru very nice. 

Then we ordered Lobster Mac & Cheese.  I love Lobster anything, so no complaints from me.  The cheese was the cheesiest which has Cheddar & Fontina.  And the pasta just sits nicely in there.  

For entree, we did the Shrimp Risotto, its crab risotto with sun-dried tomato, and asparagus on the side, and you can see the saffron powder there.  It gives it an ump, and kick it up a notch.

While I mainly had the carbs, not the protein, it was still delicious.  Plus with the view, it's a great meal to boot. 

Here's a fancy plaque to say that they're historic even though they've moved several times now.  This location in particular was the main dining room for the Shell Executives 'back in the day'.  Now, it's a club for the tenants in the building.  So you do need to have a membership in order to get in.  Not to mention, if you don't, you have to take different elevators and twists and turns to get up there.  So if you're 'in the know', then you know. 

Up here, besides bar and dining, every day happy hour has food buffet style for members.  But they also have various meeting rooms, and private phone booth for any work calls you need to make.  They also have social events like Mother's Day brunch or Cinco De Mayo events.  So it's more social and business oriented. 

Houston Club

910 Louisiana 

top floor

Houston, TX 77002

https://www.invitedclubs.com/clubs/the-houston-club

 

Organic Daybreak Blend

One of the main ingredients for smoothie that is popular with my smoothies are fruit.

Saw this one at Costco, and it has decent mix of fruits. 

What I like about this too is that there's a seal for easy open and close.

As usual, add milk, sun butter, protein powder, and collagen powder.

This came out nice and voluminous, with all the add-ons, it came out pretty filling.  Totally worth doing.  With the 12oz milk it yields 16oz with the fruit.  Give that a try.

 

Teahouse

Drinking bubble tea with no bubble is my current state.  

But instead, I'm just going to do a cream blend.  

This time, I did the red bean cream blend.  By red bean, we meant adzuki bean.  It really is mimic Red Bean Ice from the Cantonese restaurants, but instead of condensed milk, they do half and half instead.  Don't get me wrong, it's sweetened no matter what, so if you wish for it to be less sweet, it's pre-made, they just blend it with ice ahead of time.  That said, it's very filling, so if you get one pretty much keep you full for a while.

Teahouse

http://teahousebeverage.com/ 

 

Blendables

Went to HEB and found Blendables - about $2.06 per pack.

They have 11 flavors available but check your store ahead of time. 

I will say, I'm not a fan of grapes, so need to take a closer look next time.  But even if they said it will make two 8 oz shakes, it really isn't that much.

We ended up adding frozen avocado to it, so it's green.

Of course, we added some collagen and protein powder too. 

This is super convenient for busy parents, it's all set ready to go.  My only complaint is that I do 2 of these a day, so with 1 pack basically only make 1 shake will need 2 a day for me.  Also will try other flavors and see how the measure up.  This one is pretty popular flavors and almost commonly found flavor combo.  Of course, what you add after is up to you too. 

Blendables 

https://www.heb.com/search/?q=blendables

 

Blendtopia Pops 2

Last time I had the Mango Pops, 

This time I am trying the Superberry Smoothie Pop.  

They come in on-the-go size.

a box comes with 6.

We waited to melt all 6 and yielded 16 oz.

It has apple, banana, strawberry, açai, cauliflower, lucuma (no idea what that is), lemon juice, apple juice, beet juice, chia flour.  It all came out very nice.  The whole thing blend together is basically ice-pops blend, but came out nicely.  Give that a go!

Blendtopia Pops

https://www.blendtopia.com/products/superberry-smoothie-pops 

 

Japanese Instant Soup

One of the thing about on soft food diet is to find ways to make it easy.

I found this instant soup at the local Japanese grocery store.  One pack comes with 6 soups and 1 add-ons.

The packs are small but the flavor is mighty.

So the problem is, per instructions, between the pack, the add-on, and instructed water amount, it yielded that little soup.  So needless to say, I had to double up to make it something substantial.  Flavor-wise, it's nice and salty, like a dinner soup would be.  

Everything is evaporated, and the soup is in powder form.   If you were to mix it at work with hot water, it's do-able.  It makes a good snack but not a meal.  Flavors are pine nut, miso, and onion (but not the French style).   Go check it out at your local Asian grocers aisle.

 

Homemade Smoothie

So a smoothie win here.

We added frozen avocado, banana...

16oz of milk, a tablespoon of almond butter, we added a scoop of collagen, a scoop of protein, and for flavor, added a scoop of Shakeology.  That seems to be the winning combo. 

Give that a try.

 

Sesame Shake

First, let me declare before we start that this is a Smoothie Fail.

I saw somewhere that they were having Sesame Smoothie.  I thought, yeah, why didn't I think of that.

So we poured in the Chinese Sesame Dessert soup, hoping to thicken it up with banana, and milk.  That was still very thin.  

So we dug up a thing of coconut smoothie pack.

Big pack comes in 4, they are frozen, so you do need to defrost before putting them together.   We even added avocado, cream, and to no avail.  

It was black, can't taste any sesame, but lots of fruit.  Going back to the drawing board.

 

Honey Flower Sweets

What happens when your birthday is right after your accident that impact you from eating solid food?

You have a very thoughtful friend that takes that into consideration and get something you can eat.

This is a cake from Honey Flower.

Very pretty, it's like something you see on TikTok or on YouTube, where they make it very pretty flowers.

From top, you see the the petal works, all done inside the gelatin.

Side view, you see the 2nd layer as mousse cake, and the bottom was a cookie bottom, which I had to skip.

If you look at it this way, I can basically eat 95% of the slice.  The flavor was guava, and it smell delicious. 

it's super helpful that the whole thing doesn't require any chewing and it is all pretty.  I think this is one of the prettiest cake I've ever received by far.  If the techniques is what I see on social media, then this cake is way worth having.  The amount of work the baker put in is no joke.  The flavor also is not overwhelming, just a small hint.  Have a cup of coffee, it goes well together.

You can DM or email them to order.  She does have coffee, chocolate, coconut, guava, mango, strawberry and other flavors to choose from.   They do small 4in cakes, which is great for smaller households.  Or big ones for a party.  Worth checking them out.

Honey Flower Sweets

https://www.instagram.com/honeyflowersweets/

 

Smoothie King

Part of the Soft Food diet must include smoothie of some kind. 

Where else would you go, but Smoothie King.

They have frozen fruit at the ready, and your drink is made to order.

The smallest size they've got is 20 oz, that is still alot of liquid.  I got the Pineapple Surf, it has strawberry, Kiwi Apple Juice blend, whey powder.   When it's so hot like this weekend, that works out perfectly.  If I were to make it better, Iw Ould add some peach, but otherwise, it works just fine.

You can pre-order and then swing by to pick up.  Or else, the wait time usually are pretty fast.

Smoothie King

2617 W. Holcomb Blvd

Houston, TX 

713-661-1663

https://www.smoothieking.com/

Keto Chow

You know, I'm not aware of so many meal replacement powder out there in the market place.

Keto Chow is truly design meal replacement deal.  Like the others, it gives you nutrition info on powder itself, so whatever you add keep track of them and tally it up for more true caloric intake. 

This is the Cookies & Cream version... as you can see, no cookies to be had.

We added, like the others, milk, banana, and almond butter.  It does thicken up, and you are really filled before it's time for another meal.   

Just checked out their site, they have alot of flavors to offer, and soup too.  You can do a one-time purchase, or subscription, you can also buy bulk.  It's actually a pretty good product, flavor is decent, and again, depends on what you add.  I wouldn't mind trying another one.

Keto Chow

http://ketochow.xyz/

*not an advertisement

 

Shakeology

During this ordeal, I'm grateful that friends were helping me and giving me ideas.

One of whom had shared some Shakeology for me to try before buying.  It does kinda taste like yummy chocolate milk for the chocolate one.  So I decided to get the sampler.

There are actually 2 types of samplers, one has whey protein and one doesn't.  And as it goes they always have chocolate, vanilla, and coffee flavor and variation thereof.

Got the chocolate one, we mixed it with almond butter, banana, and 12oz of milk.  We did went ahead and added protein powder, because the portion in the pack was too little.  And also added collagen.  

Texture came out more like a thick chocolate milk than a shake, per se.  Because it's meant to be a meal replacement, it does get filling.  If you're counting calories, keep in mind that the powder might said whatever, also count what you're putting in there with the mix so that the count is more true.

I will say, I like this for its convenience.  I can bring a pack, a shaker, and find milk, and shake it along for a meal, though it'll be lighter in texture.  Or, I can add whatever and thickens it up like a milk shake.  I'm down with that.

Shakeology

https://www.teambeachbody.com/shop/us/shakeology

*not a paid advertisement*