Nourishment Made Tasty for the Huntington's Patient

A soft (pureed) food menu to help caregivers

By Kym Nicholson

Kym's son, Christopher, had Juvenile Huntington's Disease. He was diagnosed at age 3 and died February 25, 1997, at age 11.

Note: These are foods that I have tried personally as well as have fed to my son. Some were more favored than others, but he did eat all of them.

Most foods can be pureed and made to taste good in spite of the tacky consistency, depending upon how creative you are in your preparations.

Breakfast foods:

Any cereal can be pureed. However, sometimes it tastes better if you just warm the milk (as if making a hot cereal) and pour it over and let it set for about a minute. As the cereal absorbs the milk (Ensure can be used and taste great in some cereals) it will thicken, better than if the milk were cold in most.

Pancakes, Waffles, French toast...all of these can easily be made with Ensure (usually vanilla, but others have been tried) in place of the milk or water. They also are more moist and can then be pureed in a processor or blender with fruit or syrup.

Eggs are easily blended as long as they are not over-fried to the point that they have a crispy or rubbery outside on them.

Biscuits and gravy...too easy!!! Just make sure that the sausage isn't over cooked or hard if you have sausage in the gravy. Also, if you take the skin off of sausage links, you can blend them as well (once they're cooked of course).

Lunch/Dinner foods:

Well, now, here's where your creativity kicks in.

Most meats can be processed or pureed, so long as there is a gravy, sauce or something else to give the meat plenty of moisture. Remember, mashed potatoes and gravy are an excellent choice to puree meats with! Just stick them in the processor with the meat, and let 'er rip. Add gravy to desired consistency.

A recipe everyone should try:

Baked Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Ingredients:

Round Steak-tenderized gently and cut into individual size servings
Flour 1/2 cup
Durkee, French's or McCormick Mushroom Brown Gravy Mix (3-4 pkgs.)

Directions:

Flour and brown the steak in oil (not fully cooked!)
Mix (per directions on pkg.) gravy mix in a cake pan
Put steak in the gravy
Bake at 350F for 1-1/2 to 2 hours til tender

Mashed Potatoes...please. Everyone knows how to make these.

This is a wonderful dinner to puree and most people love it. It might cost you 10 bucks to make, but it tastes like a lot more, and is quite satisfying.

Hot dogs, sausages (incl. polish and brats) can also be pureed as long as the skin is removed and it is thoroughly cooked (again, not overcooked). Sometimes they taste better when blended with some applesauce. Also, applesauce is a great compliment with a lot of pork and tastes good mixed with them as well.

Most any vegetable can be blended once cooked. Foods like broccoli and asparagus are easier and creamier if the skin is peeled first.

Desserts:

My personal favorite, as far as creativity goes:

Mix all cake mixes, muffins (even pastries which call for milk) with Ensure (this includes brownies-chocolate Ensure). Blend with fruit or Ensure. Anything that you use milk or water for to make a dessert bread, you can substitute with Ensure.

Puddings...Use ensure

A special Jello recipe for Jello lovers:

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups boiling water
2 pkgs. (8 serving size) or 4 pkgs. (4 serving size) Jello gelatin (any flavor)
1 cup vanilla Ensure
1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding

Directions:

Mix Jello gelatin and water til dissolved (about 2-3 minutes)
Let that cool 30 minutes at room temp.
Combine pudding and Ensure and beat with wire whisk for 1 minute.
Add the two mixtures together and stir
Refrigerate for 2-3 hours til firm.

In case anyone is wondering, my fascination with Ensure is due to the fact the it seems that none of our pHDs can get enough caloric intake, and not only does Ensure cater to that need, but gives them so much more nutrition than milk or water ever could.

Converted to HTML by Renette Davis with permission from the author, Kym Nicholson. Send comments for Renette to her by clicking here and comments for Kym to: curehd@keynet.net

Last updated: Dec. 4, 2010