Home Care in Monmouth Junction NJ

Getting into the kitchen and cooking is a fantastic way to stimulate your parent’s mind, encourage social interaction, and improve their nutrition. The tasks of the kitchen, however, can be time-consuming and frustrating, which might cause your parent to not want to do as much preparation and cooking as they could, potentially negatively impacting their nutrition and health. With a few simple habits, your parent can save time in the kitchen, enjoy preparing their meals and snacks more, and even maximize their grocery budget.

Try these 5 simple habits for after grocery shopping to save time in the kitchen:

• Clean out the refrigerator. Before you put any groceries away, make sure that you go through their refrigerator and clear out any expired or otherwise unusable food. Move food that your parent is keeping to the front of the refrigerator.
• Rotate items. Whether you are putting food away in the refrigerator or in the pantry, make sure that you put new items behind the old items. This will ensure that the older items are used up first, minimizing waste.
• Wash produce. If you have purchased items that need washing prior to eating, do that now. That way your parent can use them whenever they want to rather than needing to wash them ahead of time.
• Prep foods. Take some time to do prep work wherever possible so that your parent can simply use ingredients as they need to rather than taking the time to prepare them as they go. This can include chopping raw vegetables to be used for snacks or in recipes, dividing large packages of meat to store some in the freezer and use others in recipes, or dividing out smaller portions of foods.
• Store together. Using meal planning is a fantastic way to help you encourage your parent to eat a healthy diet. When you get home from the grocery store, go through your meal plan and arrange ingredients by the recipes that your parent or you will make throughout the week. This will make it easy for your parent to gather everything necessary for simpler, faster cooking.

Starting home care for your aging parent can be one of the best decision that you can make for them as a family caregiver. Through a personalized set of services designed by the in-home senior care services provider to specifically address your aging parent’s individual limitations, challenges, and needs, your senior can stay safer, healthier, happier, and more comfortable as they age in place while also maintaining more independence and achieving a greater level of activity. When it comes to helping your parent save time in the kitchen, this care provider can help them to organize and prepare their groceries so that they are better primed for your parent’s cooking, snacking, and other tasks. This can help them to ensure your parent gets the nutrition that they need, saves time, and uses their grocery budget effectively.

If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring home care in Monmouth Junction, NJ or the surrounding areas, please call Independence Home Care today at 609-208-1111 for more information.