Help! Need quick and easy recipe ideas for DD who is doing chemo and has lost her appetite.

[hazlinh]

DD(9) has just finished her first round of chemo and I have to cook fresh meals for her for the next 4-6 months as her immunity is very low right now, so we have been told to only feed her food that has been freshly-cooked and not sat for more than one hour so she has been forbidden from eating takeouts unless we know it is freshly-cooked. This is a huge challenge for me as I am not much of a cook and we are used to eating out or having takeaways (yes bad mummy I know).

To make it more complicated, the chemo has caused DD to lose her appetite and she doesn't want to eat her usual favourites, like pasta, cheese, salmon...

Has anyone had this before? Any recommendations for any (quick and easy!) recipes that are tolerated by chemo patients? I also don't have an oven :(

I seem to remember that you're outside the UK? It's just that the dietary advice you've been given is completely different from what we were told when DS was on chemo 2 years ago. We were told no blue or mould-ripened cheeses, no pate and no shellfish but apart from that I think everything else was ok. Some hospital wards banned takeaways and cooked rice. We certainly weren't told to avoid raw fruit and veg - in fact, at one point, the only things DS would eat were ripe pears, melon and cucumber! - but I guess advice may differ if you're in a country where the tap water could pose an infection risk.

I totally second the advice to talk to your hospital's dietitian if possible - ours specialised in paediatric oncology and was very helpful. Our concerns were mainly about limiting DS's weight loss (a combination of fatigue, nausea/vomiting and mucositis pretty much killed his appetite) and we were told to enrich his food with butter, cream and olive oil and to let him eat whatever he fancied, even if that was chips and ice cream every day! Despite all this he had a naso-gastric tube for pretty much the whole chemo course and we supplemented his diet with small, frequent feeds of, e.g. Fortini or Infatrini. DS was considerably younger than your DD, though, so I don't know how relevant all this is to your situation!

Some great suggestions here. I hope she's feeling ok in herself Hazlinh. Does she have any other side effects form the chemo, or just a loss of appetite at the moment? Swallowing is ok, and no sore mouth?
If she doesn't feel much like eating then calorie dense foods are best, and you want them as high quality if it's all she's eating.

Smoothies can be really helpful. Try this recipe:

1 tablespoons of peanut butter
1 teaspoon of cocoa powder
1 ripe banana (this should be ok raw, as it's peeled, but check if you're worried)
300ml of full-fat milk
1 tablespoon of maple syrup

Blend it all up in a liquidiser if you have one, adding a few ice cubes if she has a sore mouth. A straw is also good if her mouth is sore. It's chocolatey but has some protein from the peanut butter, and is generally high in calories. You can double all the ingredients except the milk to make it more like a chocolate pudding to eat with a spoon. Obviously higher calorie/protein compared to its volume that way.

Soups are good, lukewarm rather than hot if she has a sore mouth or ulcers. Add some peanut butter when blending to up the protein content, as this will make her energy levels more stable, and increase the calories per spoonful.

I hope she's doing ok. Has she got much more to get through?

Forgot to say, second the dietician referral. Her team needs to know about her loss of appetite.

I don't know if anyone's suggested it, but could you get one of those halogen ovens that you pop on the worktop? They don't take up much space but are really useful, then you could do things like shepherd's pie and the like.

My fave comfort food is corned beef hash - a layer of corned beef, then cheesy sauce, then mashed potato on top, put it in the oven for a bit. Quite bland but really tasty all the same!

Love to your DD.

Sorry for the late reply! Things have been hectic with dd's treatment!

Huevosrancheros, ooo crème caramel sounds yummm but I have not got a steamer....

Wilsonfrickett I must google sachet smoothies.. I have no idea what they are! Have never seen them in Singapore where we are.

Jamnan, yes I have now got a slow cooker! Thanks for the tips

Baconketchup she loves couscous! But I never seem to be able to cook it properly with hot water....:(

Blingloving, hehe wish you could come and cook for us! :) Tried making mushroom soup, she liked it! She can only have cooked honey...not sure re yoghurt, will check with her doctor. Never thought to serve shepherds pie like that, silly me.

Mumzy, yes she is allowed McDonalds if we request for them to make a freshly-prepared burger or nuggets or fries for her. They always oblige. But I feel as if we should try and cut down on McD, it is usually the only thing she will eat and I can't help but to wonder if it is not good for her :(

Thanks to everyone for all the lovely recipes and ideas! :)

lisa, how are you and dh? hope everything is ok...we are in Singapore...

mackerella, yes! you have a great memory, we are in Singapore. Sorry, to clarify, we are not allowed raw veg, but she is allowed fruit that has been freshly-peeled. she is not allowed berries and other fruit that can't be peeled as the skin can harbour bacteria. I think Singapore tap water is safe to consume, we are given filtered tap water at the ward. so ripe pears and melons are ok..though I think dd's doc would not allow cucumber as it is a veg?? DD is not allowed takeout rice either, as most places prepare them hours earlier or use leftover rice for fried rice so there is potential for infections. She is allowed homecooked rice which is cooked within the hour. I dunno, these things are very confusing! This is DD's second bout of cancer, during her first time she was treated in Malaysia and there were fewer restrictions too!!!! The current restrictions are supposedly taken from the St Jude Childrens Cancer Centre in the US....
Her transplant doc says to let her eat almost anything she wants..whereas her leukaemia doc advises to try and give her healthy home-cooked meals mainly...so...yes very confusing....

Stase, thanks for the suggestion! She was ok, just loss of appetite...hardly any mouth problems...I did inform her team of the loss of appetite and they said it was normal with the chemo..

Kernowgal, a friend is giving us a toaster oven...a bit small as we don't hv much space here...but will see how it works!

How's she doing?
I wouldn't worry too much about the macdonalds. If she's lost her appetite, any food that fits the rules has got to be better than nothing. As long as she's still getting some fruit & veg at other meals.

How about salads? Is she allowed salads?
Lettuce leaves, spring onions, carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, etc.
You could mix in some freshly cooked egg/chicken/meatballs.chickpeas/beans whatever convenient for protein.

Hope all goes well and she recovers soon.
You could chop onions and other vegetables and keep them ready in the fridge for later cooking.
How about stir-fries?
Stir-fried vegetables like broccoli with garlic are good with pasta.
Chicken soup made with onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, and celery is most strengthening and helps immunity.
Vegetable juices like carrot, beetroot, cucumber, wheatgrass, are excellent.
Vegetable soup with croutons or garlic bread is yummy.
Zinc is good for immunity, and you get it in pumpkin seeds. They make a nice snack.
Your love and prayers and cheerful nature are the biggest help in recovery. She will be fine.

Sorry I just read about her not being allowed salads and raw fruit and vegetables.
You could make a salad and then cook it in soup, and she could enjoy that. Different vegetables would vary her meals. And they cook fast.
Stewed fruit with custard is yummy. Apples absorb toxins.
She should drink a lot of water.

My advice is to learn to make her favourites takeaways; if she can have them make them. Keep a list of what she does admit to fancying and try and keep stock to make when she wants it. Soups are very easy to make.

I would recommend good food magazines website have amazing recipes.