Easy food/meals to make with one arm!

[Pineda]

I've broken my arm.

Dh is cooking but I'd like to be able to make something for myself during the day and next week he's away for three days. No delivery service here!

Any ideas?! Thanks!

It's not ideal but I'd be going with ready meals.

Cereal for breakfast.

Definitely ready meals

You really will struggle with anything else

Soup
beans on toast
microwaveable rice and cooked chicken / tuna miner salmon

only 3 days… that’s what I’d do

Could you get him to batch cook?

Perfect excuse for lots of cereal and Greek yoghurt and berries - my favourite easy dinner

oven or air fryer dishes

quiche with baked beans
salmon on a tray in the oven or air fryer and a ready prepared salad
chicken, the same as salmon with sweet potato jacket - again the oven or airfryer

soup, those packets of fresh ravioli that you can dump a tub of sauce over. Baked beans. Any sort of pasta with a tub of sauce to be fair. Add some frozen peas for green stuff.

Avoid chopping!

Do a big batch of baked potatoes in the oven before he goes. They'll keep in the fridge for two or three days, then put the ones still left in the freezer and reheat in the microwave.

Get our other half to open some cans of baked beans, soup etc in advance and keep in the fridge. Have some pots of cottage cheese, tuna and mayo, potato salad and prepacked salads in the fridge. Marks do a nice one with ham and egg.

Toast with cheese and marmite should be doable with some nice sliced bread.

Good luck. 😊

Pasta and pesto with ready chopped salad and chicken

slicing is the main barrier. Buy sliced bread, chopped onions and grated cheese and the world's your oyster. Maybe some other ready chopped veg, eg frozen.

I would invest in some really good sharp kitchen scissors, so much easier to cut open a packet of ham or pre sliced cheese, open sliced bread etc. You could then at least make a sandwich! Get your dh to take the foil tops off the milk in your fridge before he goes, so you can make a cup of tea/use for cereal.

Thanks some fab ideas

I'll get him to open some tins and grate cheese before he goes. I can use both hands, just, but can't move my left shoulder/arm

Chocolate
Cake
Chocolate cake

Thats more or less what I've been eating for the past two days 😅

If it works why change it?

I never thought I'd say this but I'm sick of chocolate 😮

A couple of items might help you here:

A dycem mat (stops plates/bowls moving around)

And a chopping board with spikes; something like this

https://www.completecareshop.co.uk/kitchen-aids/kitchen-aids-and-gadgets/food-preparation-aids/derby-bread-board-with-spikes?sku=Q17355

I had one arm out of action for 12 weeks and managed to cook most things using these things (and a bucketload of patience).

The one thing that nearly broke me was trying to chop up a butternut squash (the knife got stuck in it and I ended up having to put it on the floor and put my foot on the squash while I pulled the knife out!)

Opening tins is tricky with one arm

Another vote for ready meals.

My local council offers meals on wheels to anyone who wants it, you don't need to be old or disabled, you just need to be there when they deliver and pay the bill at the end of the month.

Get an electric can opener for tins, I have one that works of the mains but before that I used a battery powered one. Very similar to this one https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8355922

You can also just buy ready prepped food so veg stir fry or mashed carrot with swede.

Do you have children? If not are there any local to you? When your DH is away you could 'employ' a local teen to open jars / tins for you for those days?

I've actually just managed to peel an onion! Then put it in the food chopper with a couple of carrots and some celery, planned to stick it all in the iven with tinned tomatoes and mince for a couple of hours. But cannot open the bloody tinned tomatoes 😕

Are you in a lot of pain?

If not, my Auntie leans forward, putting pressure on things like veggies with her wrist and peels, cuts. Things are cooked in saucepans with minimal water and she drains over the sink. She's had many years of practice mind you as her arm was too tightly plastered (due to break) when she was a teenager, and left her unable to move at the elbow, her arm is slightly twisted and she can't use hand.

Hope your arm is better soon.

Does the can have a pull tab?

Open a drawer, put the can in and close the drawer so it is sticking out.

Use your body to keep the drawer tight against the tin and then use a knife to pull on the tab.

Thanks. I can use my wrist fine but can't move my shoulder forward at all or do anything that makes the muscles in my upper arm move iyswim. So I can use my hand but only if it doesn't jar my arm at all.

I could peel the onion but chopping is impossible

One hand typing and Uber eats