Both parents require pureed foods. I puree the food myself but it is a lot of work. I noticed there is an assortment of healthy pureed baby foods in the supermarket. When I checked online for adults I only found expensive frozen foods.
There just isn't a big enough market for it outside of long term care facilities. There was a limited selection available as frozen dinners through my local meals on wheels program, but at $7.50 each I only kept them on hand for those days when modifying a meal was just too much.
Think creatively when planning your meals: things like soups are easily pureed with a stick blender, mashed potatoes, squash and rutabaga are already the right consistency and so are custards, puddings, yogurt. If you want more ideas I have plenty 😜
Have you considered getting something like a Bullet to purée your own food? When I had weight loss surgery 12 years ago, I was on puréed foods for weeks. Before I had the surgery, I bought one of those and a bunch of small storage freezer containers. I puréed and froze enough food for myself for a month. I know my son has one for their baby and it comes with containers for the freezer, but they’re baby-size portions. They got it at Target.
Another thought and an issue which I encountered: I bought good plastic microwave safe containers in which to store the food, but we discovered after a few or more microwave heatings that the plastic became scarred and little bits started to peel off.
Contacting Rubbermaid, I learned that "microwave safe" means only about 30 seconds of heat! So their plastic containers definitely are not microwave safe except for that short time. Even though they were BPA free, I didn't want melted plastic near the food.
I tried others; the best I found were the Anchor Hocking dishes, but they were glass and hard for Dad to handle. So we ended up getting paper plates, in which he could microwave the AH dishes, then eat directly from them w/o removing the hot glass dishes.
Demstress, I went through the same thing. Did a lot of online searching, found foods that were more or less appealing in a pureed form, but the cost was outrageous - sometimes $7 or $8 for a 15 or 16 oz. can, plus equally expensive shipping costs.
And, reading the fine print, I found one site with an exclusion for melted foods. I would assume the noncanned foods were shipped in trucks with temperature control, but for a company to provide options if foods arrived melted....well, that eliminated any confidence I might have had.
So, reluctantly, I did as CW did. I pureed the foods at home in batches and brought them to Dad. Sometimes I froze them, but there was so much fluid that when they were thawed, they became even more watery.
I've read that about 15 million people are dealing with dysphagia. Yet there are no really good answers for the family in managing food prep.
I haven't seen anything in supermarkets, but I did learn that Gordon Foods had meals...and right now I believe that they were pureed but just can't remember. I recall they had a nice little boneless rib meal that I was going to buy.
I nixed the baby food b/c it's so costly, too watery looking, and doesn't provide a wholesome, well rounded mail.
Pureeing was easier to tolerate if I did half a dozen dinners at a time, and listened to upbeat music. Still, I wish it didn't have to be done and always felt guilty presenting such unappealing food to Dad for meals.
Thank you all for your responses and suggestions. I have a stick blender and the bullet. I puree the foods and put them in individual containers. I have a friend help me so we have enough for a week. I was watching my 9-month-old grandson and he has wonderful pureed meals, and I thought why don't they have something like this for the elderly. My problem is that I run out of ideas and asked my friend if she could help. She has come up with some lovely pureed soups and mixed a bit of pineapple for a sweet taste. If you have suggestions on what combinations to puree I would certainly appreciate it. Parents have dysphasia. Breakfast is the hard one for me. I usually make farina or cream of wheat with bananas or applesauce. But would like more ideas. Bless you all!
Demstress, I too went through the need to vary the menus. And, honestly, I forgot them after my father died, but I do have notes somewhere and will look them up.
Right now, the only thing I remember is that I had jello molds and cookie cutters which I planned to use to create seasonal jellos with appropriate fruit...something like making jello with dabs of pureed fruit, hardened in either seasonal molds or a tray from which molded forms could be cut out.
Using an ice cream scoop for molded food like potatoes or meat was a technique used at a rehab center. It was much more appealing than pureed food just put in a bowl.
I have a list of potential "enhancements" in my medical notes. I'll see if I can find them.
JimmyDean foods produces precooked sausages that can be heated then pureed. I added those to breakfast meals for protein.
There's one site that did have some good ideas about food presentation. I think I have a brochure; I'll check it out later tonight.
BTW, I was feeding my great nephew from a jar of turkey and sweet potato baby food on the weekend and I thought it tasted pretty good, and using the plain strained fruits and veggies as ingredients in other dishes or on their own with added seasonings might be a good way to cut back on some of the prep work.
Great ideas ladies. Demstress, did you ever check out YouTube for pureeing ideas? Give it a shot. There's videos about EVERYTHING! Even hamsters farting! I know, I'm still hoping to mature 😁
Hormel has a variety of pureed meals and thickened drinks. You can order them online. I bought the drinks for Dad many times, and he liked them. I did not try the meals.
I've been looking for the Hormel purees and it looks like they can be bought through amazon or walgreens if you are in the usa. While at first glance the price seemed reasonable - $3.50 per dinner - the nutrition content listed calories at 260. Unless your loved one is eating very little (like my mom) it would take several to make a meal. And it kind of looked like they had just thrown the whole meal in a blender and put it in a bowl, not kept the individual components separate. When you see the amazing things that can be done with molds and presentation that seems... extremely disrespectful to the needs of those who must live this way. By comparison Simply Puree in the UK looks amazing.
As somebody already mentioned, do check out the dysphagia videos on YouTube, they are inspiring!
Think creatively when planning your meals: things like soups are easily pureed with a stick blender, mashed potatoes, squash and rutabaga are already the right consistency and so are custards, puddings, yogurt. If you want more ideas I have plenty 😜
Contacting Rubbermaid, I learned that "microwave safe" means only about 30 seconds of heat! So their plastic containers definitely are not microwave safe except for that short time. Even though they were BPA free, I didn't want melted plastic near the food.
I tried others; the best I found were the Anchor Hocking dishes, but they were glass and hard for Dad to handle. So we ended up getting paper plates, in which he could microwave the AH dishes, then eat directly from them w/o removing the hot glass dishes.
And, reading the fine print, I found one site with an exclusion for melted foods. I would assume the noncanned foods were shipped in trucks with temperature control, but for a company to provide options if foods arrived melted....well, that eliminated any confidence I might have had.
So, reluctantly, I did as CW did. I pureed the foods at home in batches and brought them to Dad. Sometimes I froze them, but there was so much fluid that when they were thawed, they became even more watery.
I've read that about 15 million people are dealing with dysphagia. Yet there are no really good answers for the family in managing food prep.
I haven't seen anything in supermarkets, but I did learn that Gordon Foods had meals...and right now I believe that they were pureed but just can't remember. I recall they had a nice little boneless rib meal that I was going to buy.
I nixed the baby food b/c it's so costly, too watery looking, and doesn't provide a wholesome, well rounded mail.
Pureeing was easier to tolerate if I did half a dozen dinners at a time, and listened to upbeat music. Still, I wish it didn't have to be done and always felt guilty presenting such unappealing food to Dad for meals.
Right now, the only thing I remember is that I had jello molds and cookie cutters which I planned to use to create seasonal jellos with appropriate fruit...something like making jello with dabs of pureed fruit, hardened in either seasonal molds or a tray from which molded forms could be cut out.
Using an ice cream scoop for molded food like potatoes or meat was a technique used at a rehab center. It was much more appealing than pureed food just put in a bowl.
I have a list of potential "enhancements" in my medical notes. I'll see if I can find them.
JimmyDean foods produces precooked sausages that can be heated then pureed. I added those to breakfast meals for protein.
There's one site that did have some good ideas about food presentation. I think I have a brochure; I'll check it out later tonight.
Demstress, did you ever check out YouTube for pureeing ideas? Give it a shot. There's videos about EVERYTHING! Even hamsters farting! I know, I'm still hoping to mature 😁
As somebody already mentioned, do check out the dysphagia videos on YouTube, they are inspiring!
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