Operation Garbage Plate Update

Last Thursday was dilation procedure XI. Unfortunately this one didn’t move me any farther past 16.5 MM. However there has been an exciting new discovery in my quest to swallow. Up to now snacking was pretty much limited to a select group of cookies with lots of water. The plus of this was they were and are one of my go to portable temperature stable foods. The downside is that sometimes when you are just hanging out watching TV you would like to have a more typical snack food… say popcorn. Currently popcorn is not one of those things that I can really eat. Every so often I will attempt a few kernels but it never ends up well. Not well in this case means cough fits followed by random particles coming out my nose the next hour. Once again not quite as popular as you would think in a group setting.

Now enter into the picture Chesters’s Puffcorn, butter flavor of course. These are butter popcorn flavored and shaped puffs that have a similar texture to cheese puffs. I was at someone’s house the other night and these were there so I thought what the heck and tried one. Sure enough taken one at a time I can actually eat these. They dissolve in your mouth. They have a butter popcorn taste without the swallowing downside of real popcorn. That Chester guy really knows what he is doing. They are not all that great in the calorie department but they are still a plus.

Another recent discovery is the Starkist lunch packs. These are packages designed to be a lunch kit. They come with a small can of tuna, package of mayo, package of relish, some crackers and a spoon to mix it with. You just open up the can, add in the mayo and relish and mix it up. Then put it on the crackers. My initial intent was to just eat the tuna, that I can sort of kind of do. Instead being the daredevil that I am I gave the crackers a try. They had just the right stale texture that kept them from reforming to a plug in my mouth when eaten along with the tuna. I was able to eat the entire package. By package I mean the food items, not the spoon and container. Admittedly it took about a half hour and fell below my normal per hour calorie goal but it still broadens the list of portable food items that I can eat. Way to go food engineers with the specially formatted long shelf life semi stale crackers. Hmmm… I wonder if they could use that in an ad . (Note to self: Contact Starkist with new ad campaign idea.)