Meal Planning for Seniors: Tip 6

Are You an Overwhelmed Caregiver? Meal Planning for Seniors is Easier with These 8 Tips!

If you are overwhelmed as a caregiver, I am sure that there are many responsibilities that you have on a day to day basis that add to your stress.  Meal planning for seniors is one way to make your daily activities more manageable while providing balanced and nutritious meals for your senior.

Tip Six:  Meal Planning and Mindful Presentation

Cultivating an environment of mindfulness while preparing food will lessen the stress of meal preparation. I know from experience that seniors like their mealtimes to be interesting.  I am not just talking about the food, but also the place setting. Make sure that the environment is conducive to eating by setting the table or tray with a tablecloth or place mat, napkin, real flatware, nice plates and bowls, and even a flower if one is available. Paper plates are easy but not nearly as pleasant as real china.

When you're ready to present your colorful, attractive meal to your senior, make sure that the lighting is bright enough so they can see what they are eating. Appetizing meals are an important part of seniors’ lives and vital to their physical and emotional well-being.

If you like this tip and are interested in receiving the rest of the 8 tips on meal planning for seniors, please subscribe to my blog!

If you are looking for a comprehensive way to learn how to improve your skills as a caregiver, then watch my Caregiver Culinary Training Intro Video, or go straight to my Online Caregiver Culinary Training Course.

Meal Planning for Seniors: Tip 5

Are You an Overwhelmed Caregiver? Meal Planning for Seniors is Easier with These 8 Tips!

If you are overwhelmed as a caregiver, I am sure that there are many responsibilities that you have on a day to day basis that add to your stress.  Meal planning for seniors is one way to make your daily activities more manageable while providing balanced and nutritious meals for your senior.

Tip Five: Dinner at Lunchtime 

As caregivers, you may find it frustrating and difficult to try to meet the nutritional needs of a senior who may not want to eat consistently, or whose likes and dislikes may change on a daily basis. Don't worry if their diet is not as balanced as you would like; good days will make up for not-so-great days.  

Pay attention to the time of day when your seniors seems the hungriest, if it helps, write it down each day of this week to see if there is any consistency.  If you see a pattern, try to prepare the biggest meal of the day around the time that they are going to eat the most.  This may be in the morning or in the afternoon instead of dinnertime. It's okay to have a sandwich or bowl of soup for breakfast or have breakfast food any time of day.  As always, offer favorite foods any time of the day!

Remember: repetition in meal planning isn’t necessarily a bad thing (Tip 2). As long as they enjoy a certain recipe, and their overall diet is well-balanced, feel free to repeat a favorite food or meal. In fact, if there’s a specific food that your loved one prefers, you can base your recipe search around that ingredient.

If you like this tip and are interested in receiving the rest of the 8 tips on meal planning for seniors, please subscribe to my blog!

If you are looking for a comprehensive way to learn how to improve your skills as a caregiver, then watch my Caregiver Culinary Training Intro Video, or go straight to my Online Caregiver Culinary Training Course.

Meal Planning for Seniors: Tip 4

Are You an Overwhelmed Caregiver? Meal Planning for Seniors is Easier with These 8 Tips!

If you are overwhelmed as a caregiver, I am sure that there are many responsibilities that you have on a day to day basis that add to your stress.  Meal planning for seniors is one way to make your daily activities more manageable while providing balanced and nutritious meals for your senior.

Tip Four: Plan Meals that Require Minimal Preparation 

Select recipes for meals based on how much time you have for dinner prep and clean up. If you have free time in the morning but always are stressed or busy in the late afternoon, consider using a slow cooker. Slow-cooker recipes can free up several hours in your day. 

If it’s the other way around and you only have time in the afternoon try making meals baked in foil-pouches. Not only are they delicious, but they're quick and easy to prepare and require minimal clean-up. Fish or chicken with chopped vegetables are the easiest to prepare and they have a short cooking time.  

For the best results every time, plan for all three meals when cooking for your senior, if you don’t plan for breakfast and lunch along with dinner, you’ll be more likely to skip meals and make bad choices.

Bonus Recipe: Breakfast Spinach Salad

For a simple and healthy breakfast or lunch idea, simply top a handful of fresh baby spinach with a chopped hard-boiled egg, chopped Canadian bacon, chopped tomatoes, a splash of olive oil and little raspberry vinaigrette. Serve with a whole wheat pita or toasted english muffin.  Spinach is an excellent source of vitamins, fiber, and calcium.

If you like this tip and are interested in receiving the rest of the 8 tips on meal planning for seniors, please subscribe to my blog!

If you are looking for a comprehensive way to learn how to improve your skills as a caregiver, then watch my Caregiver Culinary Training Intro Video, or go straight to my Online Caregiver Culinary Training Course.

Meal Planning for Seniors: Tip 3

Are You an Overwhelmed Caregiver? Meal Planning for Seniors is Easier with These 8 Tips!

If you are overwhelmed as a caregiver, I am sure that there are many responsibilities that you have on a day to day basis that add to your stress.  Meal planning for seniors is one way to make your daily activities more manageable while providing balanced and nutritious meals for your senior.

Tip Three: Special Diets and Restrictions 

When the senior you’re cooking for has health issues that require a special diet, meal planning can be more complex.  To begin, review any dietary restrictions that they have received from their physician or dietician, and compile a list to keep on hand.  Use your list as a guideline when choosing simple recipes.  Next, do an online search of their condition, plus the word "nutrition" to find more information that you can take into account when meal planning. 

Example Search Terms: "diabetes nutrition" or "congestive heart failure nutrition." If you have any questions about what you find, ask your senior's health care provider for clarification.

Finally, try to focus on what they can have rather then what they can’t.  

Example: If you’re cooking for a senior that is gluten intolerant, focus on types of vegetables that can be used as a substitute for pastas. I recommend using different kinds of squashes like thinly sliced or grated zucchini and baked shredded spaghetti squash, to substitute for pasta in dishes like lasagna. They’ll be surprised by the satisfying texture and taste!

For a good list of food substitutions for the health conscious Click Here:

If you like this tip and are interested in receiving the rest of the 8 tips on meal planning for seniors, please subscribe to my blog!

If you are looking for a comprehensive way to learn how to improve your skills as a caregiver, then watch my Caregiver Culinary Training Intro Video, or go straight to my Online Caregiver Culinary Training Course.

Meal Planning for Seniors: Tip 2

Are You an Overwhelmed Caregiver? Meal Planning for Seniors is Easier with These 8 Tips! 

If you are overwhelmed as a caregiver, I am sure that there are many responsibilities that you have on a day to day basis that add to your stress.  Meal planning for seniors is one way to make your daily activities more manageable while providing balanced and nutritious meals for your senior.

Tip Two: Gather Information & Input

Appetizing meals are vital to your seniors' physical and emotional well-being. Gaining their input in the kitchen can make the difference between whether a senior eats well or not, and it also gives them a sense of independence when making the decision about what to eat.

Instead of guessing or making meals that you would prepare for your own family, get to know what your senior really likes. Checkout their cookbooks and ask them about their favorite recipes or any special dish they used to make for themselves. If you don't get much feedback, try bringing a simple recipe cookbook or food magazine with lots of pictures and allow them to choose recipes that are appealing.

Even if they can’t help prepare the food, have them in the room when you’re cooking, talk to them, let them smell it and see what’s going on. It may not only increase their appetite, but it will help you come up with new menu.

A Quick Wholesome Soup Idea:

Chicken soup is a great place to start. Ask your senior about their favorite noodles and use it to make a dish that will be sure to please. I recommend a low-sodium chicken broth, lean chicken breast meat with fresh chopped carrots, celery and a dash of dried dill to make a home made-ish soup that is quick and easy to put together and so much more tasty and nutritious then canned soup.

If you like this tip and are interested in receiving the rest of the 8 tips on meal planning for seniors, please subscribe to my blog!

If you are looking for a comprehensive way to learn how to improve your skills as a caregiver, then watch my Caregiver Culinary Training Intro Video, or go straight to my Online Caregiver Culinary Training Course.

Meal Planning For Seniors: Tip 1

Are You an Overwhelmed Caregiver? Meal Planning for Seniors is Easier with These 8 Tips!

If you are overwhelmed as a caregiver, I am sure that there are many responsibilities that you have on a day to day basis that add to your stress.  Meal planning for seniors is one way to make your daily activities more manageable while providing balanced and nutritious meals for your senior.

Tip One:  Be Aware of Appetite Changes

When a senior is struggling with eating or the desire to eat, the difficultly with their appetite might mean the meals you’re planning for them are too complicated or just too large. For someone with a limited appetite, too much food can be unappetizing. I find that a small portion on the plate is a good place to start. Also try keeping the meal plan simple; if you’re serving a casserole type dish make the salad or side dish uncomplicated. Just a whole wheat roll or a single serving of raw sliced carrots or celery might be more appealing and encourage a better appetite.

If you like this tip and are interested in receiving the rest of the 8 tips on meal planning for seniors, please subscribe to my blog!

If you are looking for a comprehensive way to learn how to improve your skills as a caregiver, then watch my Caregiver Culinary Training Intro Video, or go straight to my Online Caregiver Culinary Training Course.

Cooking for Seniors at Home

All about “Cooking for Seniors at Home”

As a personal chef doing business in Southern California since 2005, I serve a large variety of clients; working couples with and without children at home, singles and seniors. Senior clients requiring specialty diets have become a focus for my service and serving the senior community is a priority for me. As an advocate for the health and safety of seniors, I reach out to the community with educational programs and as a member of local and national organizations that serve to improve the quality of life for caregivers and their families.

Many times over the years my personal chef service has been called by a home care company with a request to provide a dinner service for one of their clients. The family and client is usually very grateful for the caregiver’s service, but a big compliant is that they just couldn’t stand their cooking, or they weren’t comfortable with what they saw happening in the kitchen.

In 2011 I developed Caregiver Culinary Training^™ for in-home care providers.

The program is based on my first hand experience as a personal chef serving seniors in their homes, and interviews with care givers asking what information and tools they needed to enhance their food service performance. I learned that home care aides needed more than a lesson in perfecting the art of chopping carrots and that a day of cooking lessons in a commercial kitchen wasn’t really what they needed to improve the quality of their food service. Most caregivers are the cooks for their families and often aren’t familiar with the diverse American diet. Rarely do they receive any training in food safety and sanitation.

My approach for this training program is to teach a version of my successful personal chef service. It teaches how to safely and effectively prepare meals in a short amount of time in the client’s home realizing that meal preparation is only part of the duties they are performing for their client. Practical advice and time tested methods for multi-meal preparation are explained and demonstrated.

Cooking for Seniors at Home, Caregiver Culinary Training™ provides a complete program for caregivers, teaching them the skills and information they need in culinary basics and meal planning guidelines, senior nutrition and specialty diets, cost effective grocery shopping strategies, and food and kitchen safety, complete with a personalized Certificate of Achievement upon completion of the course.

Keeping seniors healthy, with quality food prepared by well-trained caregivers…that my mission!

www.cookingforseniorsathome.com