Kitchen Organization Makes for Easier Meal Preparation
A Harvard Business Review researcher surveyed Americans in the kitchen. Only one out of ten adults admitted they love to cook. The other 90% were evenly split between feeling ambivalent or hating cooking. If your parents do not like to cook, they’re in good company. The problem is that dining out gets expensive. If your parents are getting takeout pizza, fast food, or other options every day, they’re spending thousands each year. If they cooked at home, they could slash their expenses. Preparation is a key way to spend less time in the kitchen while enjoying home-cooked meals. Having elder care aides assist with food preparation and shopping could be useful for your loved one.
How do you get the kitchen equipped to make it easy to cook meals? Proper organization of the kitchen is the first step.
High-Use Appliances Stay Out
Elder Care Ventura CA – Kitchen Organization Makes for Easier Meal Preparation
The appliances that your parents use regularly need to be on the counter or easy to reach. These should be the appliances that simplify meal preparation.
A food processor is great for slicing, shredding, chopping, and dicing. Attachments can slice, grate, grind, and spiralize if your parents have a stand mixer. You can also get attachments for making homemade pasta, allowing you to make whole-grain pasta with no added salt.
Arthritis makes it difficult to open a can. An electric can opener that attaches under the cabinets is helpful. Other appliances to keep out are the coffeemaker, a slow cooker or InstaPot, and a blender for sauces and smoothies.
Use See-Through Containers
Foods that you can purchase in bulk can be stored in air-tight see-through containers. Store them on the lower levels of cabinets. Whole wheat and white wheat flour, brown rice, quinoa, and barley are ideal for storing in air-tight containers.
Label the containers and stack them to save room. It also helps to put the cooking ratios for water to grains.
Invest in Slide-Out Pot Storage
Digging to the back of a lower cabinet to access pots and pans is challenging. Instead, purchase slide-out drawers or bins that your parents can easily pull out to find what they need.
Put lids with the pots. If that’s not possible, look for slide-out lid holders to ensure everything is easy to find.
What Elder Care Services can Provide
Do your mom and dad struggle to cook healthy meals? As you age, it can become challenging when dicing, slicing, and chopping require hand strength diminished by arthritis. Hire elder care services to help your parents.
Aides can plan weekly menus with your mom and dad, create a shopping list, and help them shop for groceries and supplies. Your parents no longer drive, but that’s okay. Their caregivers can take them.
Elder care aides can put groceries away after packaging the freezer and refrigerator items. They also cook meals and snacks for your parents and clean up after. Call to learn more.
Sources: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/27/how-much-americans-waste-on-dining-out.html
If you or an aging loved-one are considering Elder Care Services in Ventura CA, please contact the caring staff at Assisting Hearts Home Care today. Proudly Serving the Los Angeles & Ventura County. Call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! (805) 371-0033, (818) 593-0094.
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