Cooking for Mom, 93 years young

My Mom loves T.V. dinners that I put in the blender and turn into tasty soups!

I look for T.V. dinners with the highest iron and protein content, add some broth to the blender, add the cooked TV dinner and blend on the ice crusher setting to a smooth consistency.

We call this "soup" at our house. My husband loves "Healthy Choice" soups. I take a bit of the broth as he cooks "his soup" and add it to the blender before adding the prepared, microwaved TV dinner for Mom. My husband adds pirogies to his soup and I have blended them into Mom's soup on occasion.

An easy meal for Mom is blending the TV dinner into a bit of broth.

If I gave Mom the TV dinner she would never eat the entire dinner, perhaps spit out the meat or anything not soft enough. At age 93 I think perhaps one might get tired of chewing on occassion. Via the blended TV dinner into a bit of broth to make the blender work, Mom gets a nutritious soup as every calorie is important.

Swedish meatballs and noodles, salisbury steak and mashed potatoes, all have worked fine to date blended into soup. Mom finishes the entire TV dinner as a big bowl of soup.

If you are preparing meals for an aged loved one that lives with you or anyone needing soft foods and you can not always prepare from scratch, remember the blender!

When I cook a green vegetable, I put it and some of the liquid into the blender and add butter, whole milk, protein powder or non-fat dry milk to make a palatable green vegetable soup for Mom. Green beans, asparagus, broccoli, all work great.

I add cheese to the broccoli for a cheddar cheese brocolli soup.

Mom is a blessing.

Foods for Those Who Can Not Chew

What to eat when you can not chew

Us older baby boomers did not have flouride in our water and tend to have much dental work unlike my sister, a younger boomer, who has never had a cavity!

My 93 year young Mom needs to have her food pureed because her lower denture nolonger has bone to secure it. Her new upper denture is snug as a rug.

I purchased a good quality food/meat grinder and ended up throwing it out.

I had no idea that my simple Cuisinart blender that crushes ice, can be used to prepare wonderful steak soups, pureed barbecue chicken, lovely brocolli dishes whose delicate green color remind us of spring and such delicate flavored soups as green bean. I combine the vegetables with the liquid they were cooked in and either whole milk for my Mom or Almond Milk for my husband who is allergic to all dairy products as he was as a child. I add butter to most foods for my Mom but no fat for my husband.

I have added food grade thickeners, potato, noodles or whatever we are having with our dinner to the blender for Mom's meal. When Mom asked for spaghetti soup, I pondered and thought it an interesting idea. I put about 1/2 cup of cooked spaghetti sauce in the blender, added a few noodles and snuck in a small piece of white meat of chicken (a bit smaller than a deck of cards) and thinned with chicken broth to the consistency per our hospital dietitian's instruction. My Mom enjoyed the soup very much.

Barbecued chicken is also easy to puree into a smooth food. Place about 1/4 - 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (cooked) into the blender with a small piece of cooked chicken.
I added 1/2 of a small cooked potato as a filler to smooth the puree as Mom wants everything to be as smooth as possible, otherwise food bits will get under her lower denture and hurt as she eats. I made my own barbecue sauce on this occasion but think almost any barbecue sauce would work as long as it is not too hot in flavor.

Thankgoodness for "Thick-it" to thicken drinks enabling swallowing for those with dysphasia and protein powder for added protein on days when we have not met our 50-60grams of protein per day as instructed. In our case, Mom is to have 50-60 grams of protein per day.

At 93 years, we are pleased she enjoys food and for the original suggestion of what
to add to Mom's foods, a huge thanks to Stacey == Stacey my Mom loves food again because of Y O U!

Thanks to Stacey's incredible team too!

Mom will certainly enjoy her grandson Andrew's 18th birthday this December 23,
thanks to wonderful, caring dietitians.

If you need additional details don't hesitate to email me at rosa@raskinfo.com