Newsletter for January 14, 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 weeks’s three recipes are bean & chicken chili, egg muffins, and rice bowls with chicken & veggies.

The plan

Major components: chicken, rice, beans, veggie chopping

Buying a family pack of chicken is generally less expensive by weight than purchasing multiple, smaller packs. If you are buying chicken breast or chicken thighs, consider buying boneless to reduce preparation time and effort. If already cooked chicken is a better fit for you this week, consider options for refrigerated chicken like this one, rotisserie chicken, or even pre-shredded rotisserie chicken at your grocery store.

Sometimes it works best in your cooking flow to cook more of something once and store it rather than half as much twice. This week, consider that for preparing the chicken, which is seasoned in two different ways but uses the same cooking process. By using the oven, the amount of chicken being cooked can be doubled without increasing the cooking time required. This also reduces the time that raw chicken will be stored in your refrigerator and may help to reduce the risk of cross-contamination. It may work well for you to cook the chicken immediately after bringing it home, it may make more sense to cook double chicken when making the first recipe that uses chicken, it may make sense to cook chicken when preparing each recipe. Any of these may work best for you this week.

What is the easiest way to make rice? Well, that depends! Microwaved, baked, rice cooker, or stovetop all could be the best answer for your situation. If you have never tried baking rice, check out Tip 1 for a simple how-to.

Vegetable prep can take many forms, from a knife and cutting board to a food processor to a dedicated chopping tool like this one by Oxo (Amazon link). When preparing vegetables in advance, plan to store in an airtight container with a paper towel to absorb excess moisture. If storing particularly watery veggies, like chopped cucumbers, changing the paper towel every 2-3 days helps extend the shelf life of your vegetables.

Tip 1

Use your oven Using your oven rather than cooking on the stovetop can create a more flexible cooking environment. A pot or pan on the stove can require more frequent stirring to avoid burning or scorching while the same vessel in the oven can go longer without needing tending. What you do with this flexibility is up to you! Maybe it’s preparing one component in the oven while making another component, maybe it’s packing lunches while dinner cooks, maybe it’s time to take a shower, anything that can fit into that pocket of time. Many things that simmer on the stove, like chili or tomato sauce, do well at 325 degrees in the oven.

Try making baked rice: (1c rice to 1.5c boiling water) Preheat oven to 375 degrees Add (measured) dry rice to a baking dish with a tight-fitting lid Sprinkle rice with ¼ tsp salt per 1c of rice Boil water in an electric teapot, microwave, or on the stove Add 1.5c boiling water per 1c of rice Gently stir to mix Place lid on baking dish Bake 375 for 23-28 minutes for white rice or 40-50 minutes for brown rice When done, gently fluff with fork or spatula

Tip 2

Slow cooker scheduling Slow cooker beans are a great way to customize the flavor and salt level and can be a notable money savings. The key to slow cooker beans, other than time, is lining up the end time with when you will have both the time and the energy to move the now-cooked beans into storage contains as well as do any cleanup required for your slow cooker. Especially if cooking a large quantity of beans, like an entire one pound bag, time the end of their cooking with when you will have the ability to address the beans and get them into proper storage in your fridge and/or freezer. When cooking beans in a slow cooker, think about what ending time will fit best in your schedule. If not all of the beans are going into a recipe, consider the time needed to prepare beans for storage. If there is a second step happening to the cooked beans, such as additional seasoning, consider the time required for those steps. Beans can generally be cooked in advance, which may be a good fit your time and energy budgets.

Bean & chicken chili

This recipe yields about six portions

Meant to be flexible, this chili can flex in proportions or ingredients fairly easily. That could be replacing the protein, changing what vegetables are used, adjusting quantities based on what you have on hand, adjusting spice level to your preference, or using different toppings for variety if making more than a one-meal quantity.

Full recipe

Egg Muffins

This recipe yields about six portions when served with a side such as toast, hash browns, or potatoes

Egg muffins are baked eggs in a muffin pan with some mix ins added. They come out muffin shaped and do not use any flour or flour substitutes. Serving size is generally two per person with a side like toast, hash browns, or potatoes for more complete nutrition. Like other muffins, these egg muffins can be eaten without utensils if preferred, which could be especially helpful for someone with dementia ^{1].

Full recipe

Rice bowls with chicken and veggies

This recipe is designed to be easy to be a batch preparation and easy to both customize and scale.

This recipe can be reworked with different seasons and different veggies for variety using similar ingredients and the same techniques.

Full recipe

Shopping list

• Family pack of chicken breast or thighs OR rotisserie chicken OR ready-to-heat chicken
• Dozen eggs (medium or large depending on plans & preference)
• Rice - one bag or two packages of microwaveable rice or one box of boil-in-bag rice
• Beans - one bag or two cans
• 1-15.5oz can of tomatoes
• 1 bell pepper, 2 if using in egg muffins
• 1 onion, 2 if using in egg muffins OR 1 bag of frozen pepper-onion mix
• 1 bag frozen corn or 1 can of corn
• 1 bunch radishes
• 1 seedless cucumber or one package of mini cucumbers
• 1 bottle of oil & vinegar based dressing (consider one with lemon)

Maybe:

• 1 bag shredded cheese for egg muffins & chili

Spices:

• Lemon pepper
• Cumin
• Paprika or smoked paprika
• Garlic powder OR minced jarred garlic OR fresh/frozen garlic
• Onion powder
• Seasoning mix for eggs, with or without salt

Likely in your pantry:

• Cooking oil
• 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