Before stroke I loved cooking but on busy work days felt that cooking an evening meal was a burden. Oh how stroke can change your perceptions! Over many months I worked hard at rehab to try to regain the skills needed to cook a meal, including conserving the energy needed to even try. What have you found helpful?- please add to the comments Some of my ideas for foods for one handed cooks include: ask a friend who wants to help to peel and slice or peel and chop onions, and freeze them for you. Onions are tricky vegetables to wrangle for stir fries or other meals succumb to packaged pre-cut vegetables. It might not be something you do long-term (and if it is -that’s ok) buy frozen prepared vegetables. Frozen vegetables are as nutritious as fresh vegetables and you can check country of origin online (pssst! Birdseye frozen vegetables are mainly grown and processed in Australia) if you can’t cook yourself make sure that your loved one, family or carer knows what you like. This can be hard if you have aphasia but facial expressions and uneaten food communicates volumes if you care for someone who has experienced stroke it’s important to know if they have any specific needs in relation to food. The stroke survivor’s Speech Pathologist can help you here if you can and want to cook, it’s a good idea to do most of your food prep in the morning before fatigue takes hold. Cut, slice, peel and chop as much as you can and refrigerate in containers for later cooking embrace the slow cooker! If there was an electrical appliance meant for stroke survivors, their loved ones and carers it was the slow cooker! Put in your main ingredients (meat, chicken, fish, legumes), add your sauce and vegetables and eh voila you have dinner. Prepared and on at 10am, emitting beautiful aromas all day and ready at 6pm. What’s not to love? You can add rice cooked in a rice cooker, couscous, bread, steamed potato or sweet potato and know every dietitian in Australia is happy! buy pre-cut meat, chicken, fish and pre-processed legumes. Chopping and slicing is hard but you need to do it if it’s one of your goals for using your hand and arm. For the rest of the time go easy on yourself and develop a relationship with your butcher and deli manager, enroll them in your ‘support team’ and tell them why you need your products chopped/sliced. So many food retilers revel in supplying customers with ‘bespoke’ needs. Canned legumes like lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans and white beans are the most economical, convenient and tasty sources of protein around. Add them to other dishes or make them the feature. We love Chilli Con Carne with just kidney beans and no beef mince and with rice; Chille Con Carne with no beef on top of microwaved or baked potatoes, with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, grated cheese and greek yoghurt on top exult eating raw! It’s so trendy – but even if it wasn’t who wouldn’t like to eat a vegetable like sugar snap peas or celery raw? Smoothies are great too. Amazing flavours. Talk to your speech pathologist about options for taste sensations!