Recipes During Chemotherapy

Asparagus and Potato Soup

Makes eight (1 cup) servings

4 cups diced peeled white potatoes (about 4 large ones)
1 cup of chopped white or yellow onion
4 (14 ounces of asparagus), drained or you can boil your own
1 teaspoon minced or sliced garlic (depending on if you can handled the acid)
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated skimmed milk(Soy milk or Coconut milk)
Salt and pepper if you desire

Serve hot or warm

In large pot, combine potatoes and onions in salt water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook about 15 minutes until tender, drain. Add drained asparagus and garlic and mix as soup.  If its difficult to eat like that you can use a food processor and mix it until its a pureed. Add milk as desired.  Refrigerate left overs.

Nutritional information per serving
Calories 136, Protein (g) 9, Carbohydrate (g) 26, Fat (g) 1, Cal. from Fat (%) 4, Saturated Fat (g) 0, Dietary Fiber (g) 4, Cholesterol (mg) 2, Sodium (mg) 644, Diabetic Exchanges: 1 starch, 0.5 skim milk, 1 vegetable.

Doctor's Notes:
Rich in Vitamin C

Source: "Eating Well Through Cancer" 

Heather's Vegan Black Bean Dip & Organic Chips

Makes six-eight (6-8) servings

1 bag (1 lbs) black beans
salt and pepper if you like
1/2 white or yellow onion
1/2 red bell pepper (depending on if you can handle the acid)
1/2 green bell pepper
2-4 gloves of garlic
1 lbs of corn tortillas

Grape or Olive oil

Serve warm as a dip with chips

In large pot combine salt, pepper, black beans, garlic and bring to a boil for about 1 1/2 hour. Add water as need and stir.
While beans are boiling, take a large frying pan and cover the bottom with about 1/4 of grape or olive oil and put on a medium to high heat. Add oil as needed.
Cut tortillas into quarters and place in frying pan until golden brown and flip over until golden brown (30 seconds or so) on the other side.  Place in a boil with paper towels to absorb the excessive grease. Continue until you have  finished the entire 1 lbs of tortillas. Do not throw out or wash the frying pan! Your going to use it to "re-fry" the black beans.


Once the black beans are done boiling DO NOT DRAIN! Slowly use a large spoon and transfer the black beans over to the frying pan.  Let fry for about 1-3 minutes and then add the broth as desired.  Turn the stove down to simmer for about 2-4 minutes while using a (insert word-oops!) to smash.  Let cool and serve topped with sliced onions, red & green bell peppers.  Also add cheese if you like! 

From Adelaide,RN in AZ

I had chemo for breast cancer late last year and found it hard to eat most things - let alone cook.

Avoid too much meat as it will taste horrible - chemo changes your sense of taste and it will affect your sense of taste.

Keep things really basic, I found steamed veg (I have a veg steamer) one of the few things I could handle. Also fish was very good too. Especially on the day I had chemo as I could not eat much else. My partner would just buy fish and chips and I would eat the fish with some home made tartare sauce and a few chips.


Tartare sauce
A couple tablespoons thomy mayonnaise
some capers and cornichons chopped
a squeeze lemon juice and a couple pinches sugar


Pasta bakes are very quick and easy try this -

Bechamel(white) sauce made with 300ml milk
200ml Tomato passata sauce
500g chicken thigh fillets
1 packet pasta that the kids like (spirals, tubes etc)

Heat the oven to 180C
Cut up the chicken into chunks, toss in a bit of olive oi, place in the bottom of a large baking dish and put in the oven for 10 minutes or until tender/ just browned.

Meanwhile cook the pasta until al dente, drain well and put aside.
Combine the Passata and the bechamel sauce and season to taste.
Remove the chicken from the oven, mix in with the sauce. Then add the cooked pasta and stir through to coat evenly.

Sprinkle some grated cheddar and parmesan cheese over the top, put back in the oven and bake 30 mins.

serve with a tossed salad.

Try having fruit smoothies in the morning - especially banana as they are a high source of potassium which you will be needing.
This is my basic smoothie

1 banana
a spoon of biodynamic yoghurt
milk
vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon sugar
some ice cubes

place all in a blender and whizz until smooth.

I also kept packets of frozen berries in the freezer and used these too and whatever fresh fruit I could.

other combinations for smoothies (using the basic milk and yoghurt base)

Orange and banana - 1 small orange and 1 small banana

Honeydew melon (not rockor cantalope) and a few sprigs mint.

Get your friends to make things like minestrone and other soups that can be frozen and taken out and reheated. Jaime has heaps of minestrone recipes.

Depending on the chemo they give you, one thing to look out for is indigestion/acid reflux. One of the steroid medications, predniselone, has this effect. It is supposed to give you a feeling of well being. I still threw up non stop for three days after chemo so it didn't make any difference for me.