Great meal ideas

Cooking can be quite difficult and time consuming for your loved one, especially if they suffer from limited mobility or loss of vision.

If your loved one is not eating regular meals or maintaining a healthy diet there are some things you can do to make cooking easier for them.

Here are some healthy meal ideas which are easy for your loved one to prepare.

Salads: Salads are fairly easy to prepare and don’t require your loved one to heat up food or use the stove. You can help your loved one create a healthy salad by ensuring they always have fresh vegetables, pre-packaged salad dressing and grated cheese. Your loved one can also add meat into their salad with precooked lunch meats such as smoked turkey or chicken.

Frozen meals: Frozen dinners are easy for your loved one to reheat in a microwave or oven. However some frozen meals can be unhealthy so make sure you read the ingredients before purchasing.

Make meals in bulk: You can encourage your loved one to cook large meals and then freeze the leftovers. This is a great way for your loved one to cook less often and have healthy meals ready to reheat. Meals that work well frozen include casseroles, stews and soups. You can help your loved one by buying them small containers to freeze the meals in. You could also make the meals for them and put them in their freezer.

Easy to chew: If your loved one has difficulty chewing they may need to cook soft food such as soup or mashed potato. To make meat easier to chew it can be ground up and softened with gravy.

Consult with your loved one’s doctor about how to help them maintain a healthy diet.