Malnutrition is a big problem for seniors. There are a lot of things that contribute to malnutrition in seniors like medications that cause appetite loss, depression, or difficulty cooking and preparing healthy meals. If your senior loved one isn’t eating enough and you’re concerned about malnutrition some simple meal prepping may make it easier for your senior loved one to eat the healthy meals they need. A home care provider can help prep meals and encourage your senior loved one to eat. If your senior parent doesn’t already have a home care provider now is the time to find out more about the many ways that home care can help seniors.
You can also use these tips to prep meals ahead for your senior loved one:
Keep It Simple
The number one rule of meal prepping is to keep it simple. Meals should be simple and easy to reheat. Choose a menu for the week the incorporates many of the same ingredients so you can prepare a big batch of the same ingredient at one time. You may also want to build a menu around whatever vegetables are in season so that you can buy them at the farmer’s market in bulk instead of searching for them in the grocery store.
Pick A Meal Prep Day
Do meal prep on the same day each week. Schedule out a few hours to cook and prepare all of the meal ingredients. Your senior loved one would probably enjoy helping you prep their meals and cooking together will be a fantastic thing for the two of you do together. Make it an event and turn on fun music and really enjoy the time spent together.
One Protein, Two Veggies
If you don’t want to prepare full meals and your senior parent isn’t the kind of person who wants to eat a large meal a smart way to prep is to prepare a bunch of different proteins like shredded chicken or ground beef and then prepare a bunch of different veggie options and a few sauces and just put them all in the fridge and freezer. That way all your senior loved one has to do is pick out one protein of their choice and two veggies of their choice for a meal. It gives your senior loved one the freedom to choose what they want to eat for each meal.
Don’t Forget Snacks
Make sure that you are also prepping snacks for your senior loved one. A great way to prep snacks is to put individual portions of things like chips or pretzels or popcorn into plastic baggies and store them in a cupboard so that when your senior loved one wants a snack they can just grab a baggie. If there’s no room in the pantry or cupboard to store snacks you can use a plastic shoe organizer hung on the back of the pantry door and put a snack bag in each of the plastic sections.
Source: https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/what-to-know-about-malnutrition-in-older-adults#1