Newsletter for January 28, 2025

Three recipes, two tips, one plan

Intro

Welcome or welcome back to Caregiver Cooking! Here you’ll find recipes, tips, and ideas for helping to manage the load of cooking as a caregiver. This weekly newsletter brings together three recipes and two tips into one plan to support caregivers in their efforts caring for others. This week’s three recipes are shredded chicken, oat cookie or breakfast bars, and ginger lime meatballs with soy sauce.

The plan

Major components: chicken, oat bars
This week’s recipes feature little chopping, something that can be lessened with creative use of already cut vegetables (like green beans), choosing ground spices rather than their fresh alternative, and kitchen tools like mixers. Chopping is not good or bad, it is an activity that requires a sharp knife, space, a cutting board, and is often done standing. Recipes requiring less chopping can make food prep easier or more streamlined if leaving a knife on the kitchen counter is a safety concern or if the repetitive motion gets uncomfortable before the task is complete.

The oat bars are able to use the same base dough recipe and can pivot towards a more breakfast-themed bar or a sweet treat style bar. These are not mutually exclusive, though! Oat bars with chocolate chips can still be topped with nut butter and sliced banana for a breakfast and oat bars with dried fruit like raisins can be drizzled with honey or maple syrup for a sweeter treat. Flexible recipes create options while requiring fewer ingredients to be kept on hand because those same ingredients can feature again in a new role.

Tip 1

Store in bags
Zip top bags, especially freezer bags, are a great option for freezer storage. Filling from the bottom, flattening the bag, and freezing to lay flat is a great way to use your space effectively. Labeling and dating can also be easier, as bags can be written on directly.

Tip 2

Add flavor to accessible foods
Adding flavors to foods you already have in your regular rotation or even in your pantry or freezer is a great way to add variety while also using something that works well for you. This week, canned or frozen green beans cooked in a highly flavored broth bring a different way of working with a familiar food.

Shredded chicken

This recipe makes a lot of chicken, about 12 cups after shredding It can easily be scaled down by half if the total amount of chicken will be more than fits your needs.

Prep time: 5-10 minutes before, 20-40 minutes after including cooling time of 10-20 minutes. Cook time: 45-55 minutes

A flavorful, easy-to-eat option that can feature in sandwiches, wraps, over rice, in tacos, in soup (watch for this in next week’s newsletter!), or even on its own, this chicken is flexible enough to serve in many roles and is great to keep on hand. As a sandwich, this could work hot or cold at lunch or dinner. The cooking method, acid in the tomatoes, and shredding all come together to create a fairly soft texture, which can be helpful if chewing is painful. Serving as a sandwich is a good option for anyone who prefers an option not requiring utensils, which can be especially helpful with dementia^[1] or arthritis^[2].

Full recipe

Add a side of your preferred vegetable

Oat cookie or breakfast bars

This recipe makes about 16 bars

Prep time: 10-20 minutes Cook time: 25-35 minutes

These bars can be directed more towards a breakfast sort of flavor or turned into a sweet treat to enjoy as a snack or dessert. Using the same recipe, change up your mix-ins to adjust the flavor and fill the right spot in your weekly food plan!

Full recipe

Ginger lime meatballs with soy sauce

This recipe makes 12 meatballs for 4 servings.

Prep time: 10-20 minues Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Whether made the night of or in advance, these meatballs are great with rice and side of veggies. By preparing meatballs and rice in advance, this can be a meal that requires less effort the night of, whether “advance” means days before during a longer prep session or earlier in the day when time or energy were more available. Shown in the recipe with bok choy, this would also go well with spinach or sautéed bell peppers.

While the meatballs are baking:

1. Prepare or heat rice
2. Prepare or heat veggie side
3. Assemble and serve

Full recipe

Shopping list

• Rolled oats
• Butter
• Brown sugar
• Chocolate chips
• 1 family pack of chicken
• 1 can tomato paste
• Worcestershire sauce
• 1-14.5oz can diced tomatoes
• Pickled jalapeños if using
• 1lb ground meat
• Panko bread crumbs
• Soy sauce
• Bottled lime juice
• 1 fresh lime (if using)
• Bok choy
• Rice
• Rolls - sandwich, hamburger, hotdog, any will work

Maybe

• Flour
• Baking powder
• Eggs

Spices

• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Ground ginger
• Smoked paprika
• Ground sage
• Cayenne pepper
• Garlic powder

Likely in your pantry

• Salt
• Pepper

Citations:

1. Ciliz, Ozlem; Tulek, Zeliha; Hanagasi, Hasmet; Bilgic, Basar; Gurvit, I. Hakan. Eating Difficulties and Relationship With Nutritional Status Among Patients With Dementia. Journal of Nursing Research 31(1):p e260, February 2023. https://doi.org/10.1097/jnr.0000000000000538
2. McDonald SS, Levine D, Richards J, Aguilar L. 2016. Effectiveness of adaptive silverware on range of motion of the hand. PeerJ 4:e1667 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1667