Tags: Cooking, cooking with vision loss
Does this recipe sound familiar?
Take one person with vision loss and add two family members who don’t put items back where they belong. Season with a dash of fear of knives and sprinkle with flour and assorted crumbs all over the kitchen. Mix well for a few months. Then place all thoughts of cooking in the oven and leave them there possibly forever. Order in fast food and enjoy your meal immediately.
With vision loss — especially new vision loss, there can be many barriers to putting a healthy eating and cooking plan into action.
You might be experiencing…
Your family might also be influencing you…
If it feels like the hollandaise has separated, so to speak, and you’re never going to get it back together — don’t give up! There are still a few things you can do to whisk you, your family, and your kitchen back together:
Address your fears for your safety by seeking instruction from a vision rehabilitation therapist on the techniques you need to use to be safe and confident while using a knife and working with the stove.
There are also techniques for accurate measuring, cooking without making a mess, finding what you need without help, and knowing what to do when the recipe says “cook until golden brown.”
Second Sense offers individual training in cooking skills for adults with vision loss in the Chicagoland area. If you live elsewhere, you can find similar services near you with www.afb.org. The home page for the American Foundation for the Blind has a service locator feature. All you do is select your state and a complete list of services related to your area will appear. The main agencies to contact are highlighted for you.
Additionally, you can learn to develop many of these new safe practices and habits on your own through Hadley’s independent living courses although these courses do not replace training with a rehabilitation professional.
New knowledge and new skills will give you confidence in your cooking abilities. Over time, your self-assured actions will increase your cooking efficiency.
If you are interested in learning more, we will be posting the second and third parts of this blog on June 15 and June 30:
PART TWO: Identifying Items in the Pantry and Reading Package Information
PART THREE: Healthy Eating Usually Means Cooking from Scratch
Polly is a Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist and is the Director of Rehabilitation Services at Second Sense.
Thank you for these helpful and for me, timely tips!