Hi Eddie, congratulations on your new job and i hope the CH appreciates all your efforts in doing this research.
Ok a few things my mother likes, although remember you are working with dementia and what one likes one day one will not like the next sometimes!!!
Scrambled eggs, boiled eggs cooled and sliced thickly - unless they can still manage boiled egg and soldiers!!! Porridge, try oatmeal rather than porridge it is finer and can taste much nicer.
Omelettes stuffed with cheese a great favourite lite lunch.
Bangers and mash, juicy butchers sausages not skinny tough ones (as someone previously mentioned) in gravy with mash, my mother loves mashed turnips (swedes to those south of the border).
Fish pie, not smoked fish, cheese sauce, peas, and mash on top.
Tuna mash, with finely chopped spring onions.
Macaroni cheese, BIG FAVOURITE with garlic bread!!!!
Sausage rolls, mini party sizes, soft broccoli, sadly more cooked than you should but hey ho.
Mince and small chopped veg, in a thicker gravy rather than runny type. With mash pots and pastry squares, small enough to be finger food.
Chicken pie in sauce and the trimmings.
My mother personally doesn't like chips, but does enjoy mashed potatoes, or noisettes of potatoes, potato croquettes and small baked potatoes either with a filling or with a main meal. They must not have a hard skin, and preferably peeled of skin.
Puddings, jelly, custard, fruit crumbles, eves puddings, (this although traditional with apples, she loves rhubard sponge ((please dont make too tart)), pineapple upside down sponge. Steamed sponges and cream/custard. Scottish clottie dumpling (now there's a trial for you!)
, apple pie squares and so on. Any soft fruit and sweet with it. Eclairs are also enjoyed, the choux pastry is very soft. Donuts with jam warmed are very tasty too.
I can not speak for others just my experience. If serving cucumber, please skin it and cube it small. If serving tomatoes again skin as much as possible. Things that we take for granted just cause mass problems for people who still enjoy food but cant understand possibly how to chew through and also as another said dentures are a major problem. My mother has no bottom teeth or dentures, the home is great but this is a bug bare with me that the more often than not forget to put on the denture glue to keep them in place and allow her to eat.
I hope this helps a little. Home baked tray bakes are great, brownies, almond sponge and so on. Drop scones (scotch pancakes), quick easy and lovely hot!
All this is trial and error but if it looks good and resembles what they are meant to be eating then that's all the better. Small portions but well balanced is the most important. Mid morning is a great time for fruit pots, chopped fruit in finger size pieces can be appetising, and even made into a game - not all will eat but my mother likes it this way.
Much good wishes and do let us know how you get on.
x
