Any tips for someone w/multiple diet restrictions?

[SurgiMenopause]

Hi!  I am absolutely serious that I have been diagnosed with these conditions and am not coping well with my diet and could use some suggestions.

I have been told I need to be on a soft diet due to TMJ arthritis issues, which is a source of alot of pain even if I talk a lot, but am not crazy about using a food processor.  I need to avoid many, many things due to interstitial cystitis/IC, I've been instructed, such as most fruit, vinegar, mayo, soy sauce and much more.  The bladder can be very painful if I ignore this diet very much.  Occasionally I drink water w/baking soda before eating an offending item.

I need to avoid certain foods due to severe GERD issues (recent endoscopy showed from reflux esophagitis and gastritis).  One of the allowable fruits on the IC diet is blueberries, but it seems to aggravate my GERD.  Other foods are migraine triggers for me, such as those containing sodium nitrite/nitrate.  I've been instructed to eat a lot of salt, due to POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), but too much salt in the diet once gave me a migraine.  I also have IBS and osteopenia.

Any tips, food suggestions, etc. that I could easily implement would be appreciated.

My current diet looks something like this:

graham crackers and lactose-free milk- breakfast
dinner of chicken nuggets/thin tenderloin breast strips (thicker chicken breast to difficult to chew) or fishsticks/filets are frequent selections along with canned or frozen vegetable or well cooked carrots and perhaps potato or rice or sweet potato
lunch- nut-chopped to smitherines macadamia nuts (about 5), pro-biotic yogurt, a pear/pear halves, popcorn w/smart balance & salt, cheerios w/rice milk

I take multi-vitamin, calcium citrate and magnesium, as well as flaxseed oil capsules.
Suggestions?

[TrudieC]

Can you eat oatmeal or cream of rice?  What about homemade soups.  You can use low sodium stocks from the store and cut up chicken in very small pieces, add noodles or rice and lots of vegetables cooked until soft.  You can even make pureed soups (potato and leek, split pea, squash, etc.).  If you have migraines I would stay away from the processed nuggets and fishticks.  Buy fresh and cook yourself so you have control over the quality and ingredients.  Can you eat beans?  I love making a cannellini (white kidney bean) mash.  Put olive oil in fry pan, add garlic minced and some rosemary and a can of the drained beans.  Mash the beans until they look like mashed potatoes, adding more olive oil as needed to ensure they are moist.  My family loves this.  Good luck!

[SurgiMenopause]

I eat oatmeal (with raisins, though I probably shouldn't) on most Sunday nights.  I don't like to eat it in the morning, as it makes me feel sick then for some reason.  

I had a Mennonite mix from their store of brocolli soup yesterday and my mom made a bean mixture (not our usual fare) of chick peas and some other kind of bean, with pieces of olive and what looked like a lasagna noodle.  I added American cheese, which I don't really want to cut out, because it's my favorite food.

I've had jasmine rice, but how do you make cream of rice?  I'm thinking I'm not supposed to eat garlic due to GERD.  What would be a good substitute?

[TrudieC]

Cream of rice is a hot cereal and you would find it in the cereal section of your grocery store.  It is very creamy and smooth.  The bean mash would be good even if you didn't have the garlic, just ensure you use the olive oil and rosemary.  Check to ensure you can't have the garlic.  I know you can't have raw onions but if you sauteed a bit of onion really well before adding the beans that could be tasty too.

[peekawho]

I often eat quinoa for breakfast...they even make an quinoa flake cereal, too.  Quinoa makes a very easy side dish--you can even make it ahead and simply reheat what you need.  Its a complete protein, too.  

Can you eat fish?  I buy flash frozen fish fillets, simply for the convenience.  Nothing is easier to keep on hand.   You simply remove what you need--no waste!

If you are allowed ground meats, keeping ground turkey patties on hand makes for a quick lunch, if paired with a salad (if you can have the greens).  

I pound out boneless skinless chicken breasts for a super thin, super fast cooking source of protein.  

Trudies white bean mash sounds delish!

Browse some of the dozens and dozens of recipes here, to see what you can or can't eat.  You could probably alter nearly all of them to accommodate your diet.

[SurgiMenopause]

Thanks for the responses!   Garlic and onions are to be avoided with GERD.  Maybe I could put the bean mash on some pita type bread?  I've had cream of wheat occasionally but didn't know there was such a thing as cream of rice cereal!  And my mom, when I read "quinoa", knew what it was and offered to buy some!

I do eat fish sticks and breaded fish fillets, Peekawho, and occasionally a fish fillet without the breaded part (though I like it with).  I have trouble eating salads due to the chewing involved with it.