Soft Food Diet Ideas

Use this handy list of Soft Food Diet Ideas for your loved ones eating soft food for medical reasons. If you have to feed anyone a soft food diet then you know how bland and boring a “soft food diet” can feel to them.

Whether your loved one is new to braces, has had an adjustment, had oral surgery or just regular surgery then they’ve probably been told to eat a soft food diet.

BUT they want crunch, they want chewy, but most of all what they want, is to eat like they ate before braces or surgery came along.

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And as their parent, or loved one, our job is to provide them with healthy(ish) choices to get them through the painful parts of whatever has restricted them to a soft food diet, especially after kids first get braces or after an adjustment.

This list of Soft Food Diet ideas will definitely help you through those first few days after getting the news someone you love, even yourself, needs a soft food diet.

To be clear this post is not going to give you ideas for a clear liquid diet, that is something else entirely! This is more for soft food meal ideas like mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, milk toast and the like. For those tender mouth days after oral surgery or braces adjustments.

The list is loosely arranged in a “meal list” breakfast, lunch, lunch box lunches for school, dinner, and snacks, but mix it up because when you’re on a soft food diet you need all the fun you can get. So try breakfast for dinner, smoothies for breakfast, and pancakes are NEVER WRONG

Soft Food Your Way

And of course, mix up this list of soft food diet ideas as needed or desired.

I only tried to separate them into categories to make finding ideas easier. You’ll find a couple of the ideas in several places because sometimes leftovers make the best lunches and snacks.

Breakfast Ideas:

• Scrambled Eggs
• Plain Yogurt with Jam or Jelly
• French Toast
• Pancakes–soft and well-buttered, cut well
• Cereal soaked in milk
• Milk Toast
• Fried Polenta
• Soft Boiled Eggs
• Poached Eggs with very lightly toasted bread
• oatmeal, cream of wheat, cream of rice

Lunch Ideas:

• Soups leftover homemade or I really like Pacific Foods Soups
• Quesadillas
• Refried Beans
• Baked Beans
• PB&Js (on soft bread cut in small pieces)
• Pasta plain or with sauce
• Cottage Cheese
• Potato Salad
• Pasta Salad
• Stewed Fruit
• Soft Dried Fruit like plums or raisins-make sure they’re very soft
• Egg Salad

Lunch Box Ideas:

• soft PBnJ, no crusts
• yogurts or go-gurts
• soft canned fruits
• leftover soups in the thermos
• bananas
• bottle of water to wash things down

Dinner Ideas:

• Macaroni and Cheese
• Chicken and Rice–long-cooked, super soft, add green peas
• Pasta plain or with sauce
• Baked Salmon
• Soups–homemade or I really like Pacific Foods Soups
• Sloppy Joes (use forks and knives)
• Meatloaf
• Soft Cooked Quesadillas
• Chicken and Dumplings
• Pasta Salad
• Potato Salad
• Milk Toast
• Cheese and Broccoli Soup
• Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
• Mashed Sweet Potatoes
• Baked Squash
• hamburger gravy over baked potatoes

Soft Food Snacks and Sides Ideas:

1. Plain Yogurt with Jam or Jelly
2. Go-gurts
3. Smoothies
4. Apple Sauce
5. Bananas
6. Cottage Cheese
7. Pudding
8. Custards
9. String Cheese
10. cream cheese on soft bread
11. Soft Cheese (like the wedges or circles)
12. Canned Fruit
13. Rice with soy or salt and pepper
14. Spanish Rice
15. stewed fruit

I know this list isn’t complete, what is missing from this list of Soft Food Diet Meal Ideas for Anyone Wearing Braces? Leave me a comment I am constantly trying to improve this post and I always welcome help for these lists!