A lot of older adults experience declining mobility as they age, so I thought we’d tackle the topic of accessible cooking. March is National Nutrition Month, so this will be a good way to close out the month. These are some general tips, I can expand on these at a later time as well.
Slow Cookers
Slow cookers can be a great tool for people with mobility difficulties because slow cooker recipes can involve no cutting and no ovens. Often the cutting is the hardest part of cooking for people, depending on how much mobility they have in their hands. Also, even in the case that people can technically use knives or the oven, they may not feel comfortable using them. And this can be a great way to use precut frozen vegetables.
Air Fryers
Air Fryers are a great way to cook without ovens, they can be a lot faster than using ovens. There are again a lot of frozen foods that can be cooked well in the air fryer, and there are also some great air fryer recipes online. The great thing about air fryers is that they are pretty user friendly.
Smoothies
Smoothies and other blended foods like smoothie bowls can be a great way for older adults to get fruits and vegetables in their diet in a way that again requires minimal chopping. Most people have a blender already, and there are a lot of recipes for smoothies and smoothie bowls online. These are also good for meal preparation, you can make a few days’ worth of smoothies in a morning and then keep the rest in the fridge, covered of course.
There are lots of ways we can adapt our cooking routines to our changing needs. I hope this post provides a little bit of inspiration for you.
Written by Brigid Stakelum
