Hospitals are no fun. Unless you are coming home with a baby... but even then, the hospital part isn't so great. And the food. Seriously, they really expect you to get healthy on some the food they serve?
This week my 86-year old dad finally called Uncle and agreed with his orthopedic surgeon that the time had come for his knee replacement. Dad is a tough guy and really hard to keep down, but anesthesia and he aren't best buddies.
Taking a little longer than others to expel the drugs from his system, yesterday's anesthesia brought waves of nausea to his otherwise very successful surgery. For a man who never misses a meal (and yet he maintains a proper and fit weight), hospital food left a lot to be desired in his queasy state - they brought greasy meatloaf, butter slathered mashed potatoes with puddles of gravy and wished him Bon Appetit. All a no-go in his book and he stuck with one Saltine cracker.
He maintained he needed nutrition, not just calories, and I set to putting together something that brought a nutritional punch, helped with potential constipation issues due to pain meds** (see note below), but yet remained tolerable on the still slightly off tummy.
And with a few super foods and a medium sized bowl I created just the concoction.
Already a favorite, almond butter and maple syrup bring a tasty base that blends beautifully with rolled oats and flax. Chia seeds add much needed potassium, magnesium, iron and calcium, and vanilla extract? Well, that simply brings a taste of heaven to the mix.
Rolled into balls, these little bites pack the nutrition punch I was looking for, but it wasn't until my college boy arrived home from the gym and I ran down the protein profile for him that I discovered they are also irresistible.
Filling his summer days with hours at the gym, my son has morphed his body in ways I can reminisce about from my younger years. Craving protein after his workouts he often turns to chicken, but touting my plant-based diet I've been teaching him plant-based protein sources and he's actually been listening.
Hearing almond butter, protein powder, oats and chia as I ran down my ingredient list he readily reached for one of the little balls topped with a tiny square of dark chocolate on top. His eyes spoke before his words, and he proclaimed them "Awesome Balls" as I scampered to save a few for my dad.
Back to the hospital, the balls did indeed tempt Dad's appetite, and along with a bowl of organic blueberries and grapes he finally turned the corner and pushed those anesthesia meds from his system.
Seeing his roommate's eyes move from dad's Awesome Balls to his plate of chard and chicken we simply had to share, and my job was complete. Moments later I left the two octogenarians chatting about their combined 122 years of marriage, heart surgeries and now new knee joints all while saying "Huh?" every few sentences as neither of them had their hearing aids in.
Funniest thing ever though, was walking out the door as the nurse entered and hearing the roommate say, "Hey... have you seen his Awesome Balls?" Chuckling all the way to the car I think that night nurse had her hands full with those two.
solved our breakfast issue with its small 
