Blogs

6 December 2018

By Jakki Dodds 

Since having a stroke which has left me with a residual hemiplegia, I have some trouble in the kitchen with meal preparation and such, but a girl still has to eat right? So, in the 6 years or so of living my new life I’ve found a few things that help make these jobs easier, some of which might be helpful for you too: 

Since having a stroke which has left me with a residual hemiplegia, I have some trouble in the kitchen with meal preparation and such, but a girl still has to eat right? So, in the 6 years or so of living my new life I’ve found a few things that help make these jobs easier, some of which might be helpful for you too: 

1. Electric peeler-I have quite a hard time holding a potato to peel it, but then I discovered this and it’s a game changer! Just pop the potato on the spikes and press the button and voila, peeled spud.  
2. Egg cracker and yolk separator-If you like a good omelette or just baking anything with eggs in it, you may have found that breaking an egg one handed is quite challenging. This item not only does that but can also separate the yolk and whites. 
3. Etac Meal prep board-this is something that’s on the Independent Living Centre display floor and it’s been useful in many ways; if you saw the AT Chat Tech Tuesday Live post about kitchens you also would have seen it demonstrated on there. I find it useful for holding things like butter containers whilst I scoop out butter and wedging other things up to stabilise them in the locking holder. It helps with slicing vegetables that are difficult to hold (the reversible spikes section is also handy for this) and holding bowls with thick baking mixture in them while you stir. 
4. Homecraft plastic spread board-for a long time after my stroke I completely avoided eating normal bread as it was just too damn hard to butter it or put any spreads on without destroying it! But this is great as you put your bread on it and the corner edges stop your bread from moving away while you spread your toppings. I can enjoy toasties again! 
5. Fantastic Fries chip slicer-With the difficulty slicing things, I found this at the Spud Shed and it’s great not just for potatoes but other vegetables as well. You just pop the peeled potato in and then push down on the top to slice it up into fry sized pieces in an easy motion. 
6. Jar Popper-This was also in the AT Chat Tech Tuesday Live post about kitchen AT, and it makes opening jars soooo much easier, as it breaks that initial seal that makes it really hard to open. Once it makes that satisfying pop sound, I find it will almost always open with ease. 
7. Silicone colander (Vebo)-This is another thing that I recall seeing in the ILC’s kitchen display and it means not having to remove a hot saucepan to take it to the kitchen sink to pour boiling hot water out. You just put your veggies in the silicone colander inside the saucepan and then you can cook them inside that and simply lift the colander out when they’re done, leaving the hot water behind to deal with separately once it’s cooled. 
   
   One other thing I think is worth mentioning is that for many of the kitchen aids before I buy them directly from the first link of the supplier I initially see them on, when I want to decide if they would be helpful for me, I do a quick search on a website called https://www.aliexpress.com/. Frequently I’ll find the exact same thing or very close to it, but at a fraction of the cost. When you’re on a tight budget, saving those extra dollars can make quite a difference, so I recommend checking this site for alternatives before purchasing from the first place you find them. 

Useful links 

• Spreading boards: NED database, NED database. 
• Vegetable slicers: Kitchen Ware Superstore, NED database, NED database. 
• Egg cracker: Aliexpress. 
• Vebo: Dreamfarm.