I'm hungry!

It was only after the surgery that created the J pouch was off my food and whilst still in hospital.

I was I advised to eat bland food for maybe a week, but once my stoma output had returned, I was encouraged to return to a normal diet, although my appetite had not completely returned for a good few weeks, even when I got home.

My go to food then, which I'd never ate before or since, was 3 or 4 slices of Spam ?

After may be 3 or 4 weeks, my appetite had completely retuned and I ate absolutely anything.

6 months later and after takedown, I'm told to return to a normal diet as soon as possible but rather than eat 3 set meals per day, I should snack continuously through out the day (what the Hospital refers to as grazing).

After maybe 2 to 3 weeks of grazing, I was back to more or less eating 3 meals per day.

Try meats, like rodizio style.  Or pizza/burgers.  If tomato annoys you creme fraiche is great on a pizza. Go easy though, let yourself heal, if say at least a month. 

Baked potatoes (6 minutes in the microwave oven +/-) and either a sharp cheese or other 'tasty' sauce or cream with chives...I like mozzarella and a tablespoon of tomato sauce too...cheap and easy. 

The other one was heating up a bowl of tomato sauce and add parmesan cheese or other tasty cheese and mic for another minute...dip corn chips ( very pouch friendly) into it...made for a very easy snack.  

Anything chicken...ground, grilled, baked, boiled....with a bit of chicken broth and tiny pasta (chicken soup is great for the soul!)

Sharon 

If you don't feel like cooking, go to the supermarket and buy a whole rotisserie chicken and make several tasty, nutrious meals from it.

Use kitchen scissors or sharp knife to take apart the chicken so that you have large slices of the white meat, dark meat, wings, thighs, etc. Anything that is left pull it apart with your fingers. You know pulled pork sandwiches?  Same thing. Use the large slices of chicken to make sandwiches with interesting breads or croissant, use garlic mayo, bacon flavoured mayo, or turmeric mustard, or pesto. If you want fresh crunch in the sandwich, PEEL a cucumber and add slices into your sandwich or have on the side.

If you don't want a sandwich, just pull apart the large pieces into small bits and make chicken salad. Mix with mayo or pesto, add *finely* chopped celery, whatever dried herbs you have around, *finely* chopped green onions, and you have a chicken salad. Remember to finely chop any raw vegetables because you are early days and you don't want to risk a blockage, or frequency. 

Cook any pasta you like, add pieces of the chicken, a big spoonful of pesto, grate some cheese on top. I go with pesto because for a small amount you get big flavour, and it's easy to make or just buy a jar of pesto and keep in the fridge. Pesto added to soup, sandwiches, scrambled eggs, plain toast, or any cooked vegetable will boost flavour. Try microwaving a potato, then add pesto, or grated cheese. Scrambled a couple of eggs, add the rotisserie chicken, some finely chopped green pepper or onions, cheese, bacon mayo, and you have an easy omelet.

New j pouchers have to eat bland foods in the beginning but it does not have to taste bland.  Add flavourings, spices, dried herbs, flavoured mayonnaise, anything to boost the flavour. When you're ready to reintroduce salads or cooked vegetables in small amounts, you could buy a package of cooked roast beef from the deli (or cook your own roast beef at home and carve away), pick up some salad greens, and make salads with beef using a strong blue cheese dressing, add canned mandarin oranges. Or add strips of roast beef to cooked pasta, toss with fresh squeezed lime or lemon juice, soy sauce, cucumber, garlic powder, honey, olive oil.  Add strong flavourings and you won't notice the bland food. You have to proceed slowly for now. My surgeon's advice when I started reintroducing foods was to chew everything very, very thoroughly.