Disability Friendly Cooking – Tin Can Cook

Posted on by SingleRheum

Tin Can Cook: 75 Simple Store-cupboard Recipes

1 June 2019 Format: Paperback

This is the 5* review I’ve also posted on Amazon & Goodreads.

Anyone who follows me on twitter will know I’m a big fan of Jack Monroe & her recipes, this is the third cookbook of hers I’ve bought & it’s already loved!

So impressed with this cook book. Written in Jack’s inimitable and endearing style it was intended to help those living on food bank parcels or with very limited budgets to create simple, nutritious meals in a short time and it does this beautifully. Pitched at the novice cook but in no way patronising for those with more experience it’s a lovely read and I already know I’ll be using this lots!

For me personally it hits another sweet spot though, and that’s in spoonie friendly cookery. For those of us living chronic life, suffering from disability and severe fatigue, cooking is a massive energy drain and often impossible. With rheumatoid arthritis in my hands food prep itself is a challenge I could do without, even with years of experience as a chef.

As someone who’s spent years ‘cooking from scratch’ it’s been a big adjustment to buy pre-prepped food without losing control over what’s in it (see ready meals – useful but not every day!). So discovering Jack on Twitter a couple of years ago felt like fate was smiling. I now happily eat tinned potatoes, olives, mushrooms, lentils, chickpeas, fruit, along with frozen peppers, stir fry veg, and spinach. Often cheaper, nutritionally sound and so easy as it’s already peeled \chopped\sliced and often partially cooked, it’s helped me cut down on wastage and save pennies! I also make my own wholemeal seeded bread and pizza bases – with a stand mixer and a slow cooker bread is an effortless wonder.

Additionally as I’ve followed Jack’s books and picked up more of her vegetarian recipes I’m only eating meat a couple of times a week, good for the environment and my budget! Highly recommend this, a fabulous variety of breakfasts, breads, soups, meat and vegetarian main courses, plus desserts will not leave anyone wanting for variety.

I’d highly recommend buying a copy for your kitchen, & if you can afford to donate one to your local food bank too it will be very gratefully received, or you can donate the cost of a copy to Jack’s GoFundMe & she’ll get it delivered through the Trussell Trust.

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My Autumn Soup…

Posted on by SingleRheum

I’ve been asked a number of times to share #spoonie friendly recipes. I’m pretty sure this is my first. But what a great one to start with!

For me there is nothing that says Autumn more than a gently spiced root vegetable soup. It’s comfort food, a cuddle in a bowl. It’s healthy & warming. And so incredibly easy to make! I’ll give rough guides to quantity, but I rarely weigh or measure anything, most of my cooking is about being creative, and using what I have in the fridge/pantry.

It’s also about ability on any given day, & using short cuts where possible. For example I can’t chop hard veg anymore, my hands won’t allow, so my basic food processor is an essential kitchen tool. I sometimes buy pre chopped veg & other prepped foods – it’s often the difference between me having a meal of some sort or eating toast!

(I will try to remember to do a follow up post about some fab kitchen shortcuts if you’re disabled &/or low on energy).

So…. My Autumn Soup

  • 4 parsnips
  • 5 carrots
  • 1 onion
  • 4 pieces frozen spinach
  • 1 tsp garlic
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 good pinch of cinnamon
  • 1 good pinch of black pepper
  • 1.5 pints hot chicken stock (veg is fine too)
  • 1/3 cup of split red lentils
  • 1/4 to 1/2 pint of skimmed milk
  1. Use the food processor to chop or slice veg, (except spinach) it doesn’t matter which, we’ll be blending at the end
  2. Warm the oil in a large saucepan, stir & gently fry off veg & onions for a few minutes. Add in the spices, stir through well then add in the hot stock, and the frozen spinach (it defrosts in the pan).
  3. Bring to a simmering boil, throw in the lentils, stir then cover & reduce heat. Simmer gently for approx 25 minutes. Stir in the milk then remove from heat.
  4. Allow to cool, then use food processor to blitz to a thick soup. That’s it. All done! Easy right?

Today this has made me five portions, at approx 147 kcals each. It freezes beautifully, meaning on low energy days I can have homemade soup in a few minutes using the microwave, and that’s a definite win.

Changing it up

Any combo of root veg &/or squash works brilliantly, I don’t think I’ve ever had one fail me and I’ve been cooking variations of this soup for years.

I love lentils, & they’re a great source of protein, fibre & potassium. If you don’t like them I promise you won’t know they’re there, but for me they add a lovely thickness to the soup. If you really don’t like them you could add a couple of potatoes instead, they thicken well too.

Spices are fun to play with, I love the North African flavour of cumin, turmeric & cinnamon. It just adds a little kick without being ‘hot’. But you could easily swap for ground ginger, smoked paprika or chilli, don’t be afraid to experiment a little.

I like to keep this pretty healthy hence the skimmed milk, you could use full fat or even cream & croutons if you’re feeling decadent!

This easily changes to vegan by changing the stock to veg & leaving out the milk. I’ve heard coconut milk is a nice addition but I’ve not tried it yet.

Comments welcome as always, let me know if you try making this 😊

Mandala Metaphor…

Posted on by SingleRheum

We all know what Mandalas are, right? Those pretty round pictures that come in mindfulness coloring books? They have a number of interesting historical meanings, they are said to be a visual metaphor for the innate order and beauty of the universe, as well as metaphors for political, psychological and social statements. Buddhists, who patiently create them in coloured sand tend to use them as a metaphor for transformation and enlightenment.

It’s the transformation and enlightenment aspect that has grabbed me today, though not in that particular order. It’s fascinating to me that this little enlightenment has come through the form of the mandala, which has made me reflect on transformation. Sometimes the universe sends what we need 🕉️

Below is the link to a video that was shared today by the lovely Lene – please do follow her @TheSeatedView , you won’t regret it! It starts at 7m32s so you can see the exact segment we were viewing, which very beautifully shows hand exercises in the form of mandala shapes – clever and easy on the eye.

However… I watched, then went back, paused, watched again and all I could think was ‘are they really bending their hands that far?’. Yep, I can confirm they are, I’ve viewed it verrry closely. And what hit me was that they hadn’t searched the country for four models with “super-hand” abilities, this was how other people’s hands move. All the time, without them even thinking about it.

I tried. And my hands can’t do these movements, and trying hurt. I’ll be honest, I welled up for a moment. The enlightenment here is that I’ve simply failed to consciously notice over the past couple of years just how bad my hands have become. So in a way it was like a sudden… revelation. Almost a shock. Weird huh?!

I think a lot of that is down to the very gradual nature of the transformation (you knew I’d get there!). Had I gone to bed last night with my hands of three years ago, and woken up with my hands of today I’d have been screaming for doctors to fix me. Over three years I’ve slowly made adaptions, changed the way I do some things, stopped doing others, used tools to support etc.

A mish mash of coping methods that has added up to my odd ignorance of just how bad they’ve become. It’s mostly that the RA damage to my tendons and enthesitis have massively restricted my movement, leading over time to loss of hand agility and strength. So I wanted to review exactly what coping methods I use… And to share the extent of how much RA has changed a myriad of small daily tasks to raise awareness. They might even help you, bonus 🙂

  • Changing the bed – my cleaner does it, I can’t even put a quilt cover on or stretch on a fitted sheet
  • I have no grip strength – earlier I needed to open a flat plastic tray of bacon, I made the mistake of trying to grip the corner & pull the plastic film up – rookie error, that finger thumb grip kills me. Its like opening a yoghurt pot or a carton of milk, teeth or knives are needed
  • Kettle – I no longer can use one. I have a Breville One Cup, and when I fill it with water I have to use a plastic jug half filled and use both hands to hold it to pour
  • Tin opener – can only use electric one, the other was binned long ago
  • Jars etc – I have an amazing rubber square from my OT which will grip much better than I can, but occasionally I can’t even open with that & I give in or grab a neighbour
  • Cooking – am slowly giving it up, I last peeled & chopped veg a few weeks ago, then sat down & ordered some pre prepped food & some ready meals. Of course I also can’t move hot saucepans, another reason to keep it simple & safe
  • Cleaning – getting a small stubborn stain out of the carpet recently lost me the use of my wrist & elbow completely for three days – from now on my lovely cleaner’s job if needed
  • Sewing – not that I do loads, but machine only, small movements for hand sewing & even pinning hems really hurts
  • Reading – my biggest love but damn, holding a book is hard. Moving more & more over to my kindle app on my tablet
  • Dressing, washing, doing my hair… the only way I can can dry my hair is to drop my head down and use my knee to support my arm holding the hair dryer. It’s complicated 🙄😅
  • Writing by hand for longer than about three seconds… 🤣

I’m sure there are other people things that will occur the minute I publish this, but frankly I’d bore myself, you get the picture. Yeah, so my hands, pretty crap and mostly painful. So I definitely won’t be doing the Mandala hand workout anytime soon.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the very clever beauty of it. Namaste 🙏💜

https://www.pscp.tv/w/bZo90nR3LTcxMzA5MjM2NHwxTW54bmVhZXp2akpPRqjkRT1-GsBc73pklr4lZ3TaiR4bYZj_G6gv3S73Mew=?t=7m32s

Emotional Eating…

Posted on by SingleRheum

I’ve been thinking today as I sorted out my sewing box (how many buttons?!) and my stationery box (how many pens?!) about the how’s and why’s of my relationship with food, and what lies behind it.

I don’t know anyone, overweight or underweight, who doesn’t have problems with emotional eating, and in some ways I think it’s the hardest thing to step away from. Unlike with heroin or crack or alcohol where one just abstains from the substance to deal with the addiction with food we can’t, we all have to eat to survive.

And these are deeply ingrained behavior patterns melded into our psyche as children then carried through to adulthood where they become a subconscious belief – the belief that certain foods make us ‘feel better’.

What do we do with a crying baby? Feed it. How do we cheer a toddler out of a mood? Food. What do we reward children with when they clear their plates? Sweet food. (two lots of issues there – we are all trained not to ‘waste’ food from an early age so we stop noticing when we’re full). What do we have as treats on special days, holy days, birthdays? Food, food & more food.

It’s no big shocker that we associate food with comfort more than anything else. When we eat that bar of chocolate or packet of biscuits we are unconsciously reaching back through time to our first feeds, when food also meant being held close, safe & loved, with no worries or cares. That’s a really strong pull, and in essence it’s what we’re fighting.

I don’t know what makes the difference between people who have a healthy relationship with food and those who don’t. People who can have two chocolates and put the box away for another time. Maybe it’s nurture, maybe nature. I’m sure the answer would be worth millions!!

But I do know my eating issues started in my early twenties, and I’ve had them ever since. I can look back at times when I was really happy and the weight fell off, and then sometimes when I thought I was happy and the weight was piling back on anyway.

For years I’ve watched furtively as slim people ate chocolate bars or ice cream and thought “well they can have them, why should I go without”. Yes they. They (the slim people) are obviously a race of aliens with incredible willpower. Except no. They simply view food as fuel, enjoyable fuel but without the emotional baggage we attach to our eating.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know what it isn’t for me. Diets. Shakes. Low Carb/fat/protein. Intermittent fasting. Atkins. Weight watchers. Banning sugar. Spending three mornings a week at the gym. Yes, I’ve done all of these plus others over the past twenty eight years. And I’ve lost weight. And on it has gone again because I haven’t tackled the cause. My mind.

So for me the change I make now has to be permanent, and yes, if that means I calorie count for the next twenty years so be it. Because I can’t be trusted not to. Interestingly I’m not finding this hard. Difficult yes, but not hard.

I’m rediscovering a love for fruit and salad and veggies cooked well with flavour. I’ve found a wonderful organic granola that has no added sugar or fruit and its gorgeous. I’m remembering to reach for grapes or a carrot or a rice cake if I’m peckish. I’m actually planning meals on the days that I can cook, and enjoying preparing them.

Believe me when I say I could happily ditch this tomorrow, go back to eating mostly crap and put weight back on in a heartbeat. But you know what? I want this more. I don’t want to have to use an extender on plane seat belts. I don’t want to keep looking for the sturdier chairs. I don’t want to keep wearing shapeless tunics because they ‘cover the bumps’. And I don’t want doctors to be less concerned about my symptoms because they look at me & see fat. I want to remove that excuse from their arsenal.

But most of all I want… Leather trousers, 50th birthday 😎👖👢💛

As always comments & opinions are my own and not a substitute for speaking with a medical professional