Any ideas on soft foods for elderly mom to eat besides the usual mashed potatoes, applesauce, ice cream?

You can get a NINJA machine from Walmart or Amazon for about $50. Prepare a daily milk shake using Ensure or other nutritional drink plus about one or two cups of ice cream, and add a little milk to make the drink smoother. The nutrition drink comes in various levels of nutrition and can provide about half of the nutrients for daily living for an elderly person, depending on activity, and the ice cream can boost the caloric intake to provide energy and alertness and maintain body weight. The NINJA is a well engineered system and the containers and covers can be washed in the dishwasher and used daily. It takes about five minutes to prepare the drink that is delicious and satisfying. I have been doing this for my wife for six months and she has regained quite a bit of her former weight. She is not on soft foods and eats one hot meat and veg. meal at noon in addition to several snacks during the rest of the day. She starts the day with about one third of the shake and finishes the rest of it during the day. She has a light supper and fruit around 6 pm. At one point my wife seemed not able to swallow and we had tried several foods before settling on the NINJA, but somehow the swallowing ability seemed to return to her; we don't know how but it saved her life.

Deviled eggs or egg salad, my mom loves both, so easy and something different

Look on the Gerber's shelf in the supermarket for alternatives, also.

I make my 90 year old mom, chicken soup, and different beans. I add proteins (steak, pork etc) then purée them. I meal prep once a week for her, portion out lunch and dinner for the week. They are delicious, I add lots of produce to give her a balanced hearty meal. That’s how I got her to eat again.

Puddings and jellos and squashes and soups with breads in them. Custards, and shakes and thick smoothies. And as the CountryGal says, almost anything can be made into puree, even my infamous Buffalo Hot Wing Pasta Sauce and noodles.

Here are some suggestions: Bread pudding, turkey meatloaf, eggs,
omelets, casseroles, bananas, avocados, cottage cheese, smoothies, homemade cream of tomato soup, shepherd's pie, mashed sweet potatoes. Salmon pie without crust Look online for some recipes with these ingredients. Make sure water intake is good to prevent dehydration on a soft diet. Hope you find some good recipes for your mom.

Once you start to think about it there are lots of foods that are ordinarily soft

squash and rutabaga are often served mashed
polenta with your favourite pasta sauce
serve those mashed potatoes cold as potato salad
refried beans
hummus
almost any soup can be whizzed with a stick blender and seems like normal food
custards, both sweet and savoury
pumpkin pie (without the crust)
rice or tapioca pudding (cooked very soft or pureed if needed)
yogurt
oatmeal or cream of wheat with lots of brown sugar and a pat of butter
those little cups of applesauce come in lots of different fruit combinations

Countrygal, there are many resources online if you google "pureed food for seniors+recipes". Will you be making the food or someone else? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUTOY-MQzU0