Am I The Next Food Network Star?

I am sitting here watching The Next Food Network Star and it got me to thinking about cooking.  I am a vegetarian and that means cutting many, many vegetables.  All that chopping, slicing and dicing is really hard on the hands of someone with arthritis.  There are many tips that can help any people with stiff fingers and aching knees and backs.  Below are shortcuts from Arthritis Today that help make cooking easier:

• Use kitchen or cooking utensils with padded handles or grips.
• Instead of standing at your counter or stovetop, pull up a high barstool and sit down to chop, mix or stir.
• Batch cook. Prepare two portions of your protein at a time and refrigerate the leftovers to use in salads or sandwiches the next day.
• When you have a lot of prep work to do, sit at a table instead of standing.
• To accomplish your cutting and slicing needs, purchase an ergonomically designed knife with a large handle. This allows you to have leverage and stability using your body weight to maneuver the knife. OXO makes a line of large handle kitchen items called Good Grips. 
  
• Many times when you buy a bottle of sauce, it needs shaking before opening. Don’t shake it; roll it. If your hands are sore, use your forearm and the weight of your body.
• Buy a mandolin to help you cut vegetables easily.  Just watch those fingers!
• A food processor can help you with big chopping and dicing projects.
• My favorite new item is my microplane herb mill.  You put the herbs in the mill, then just twist the handle and out comes minced herbs.  

 Another great shortcut (and my favorite) is to get someone else to cut up the vegetables for you!  Anytime someone volunteers to cut up the vegetables, don't be too proud to let them do it for you.  Save your hands for something else; something fun!   One of our favorite meals is a tofu scramble but that means chopping and dicing tons of veggies.  I make an agreement with my partner that she is going to do a bunch of the chopping and I will stand there and do the stirring and seasoning.  That way I don't have stiff hands the next morning.

I guess I will not be The Next Food Network Star anywhere but in my own home.  In another post I will write about nutrition and how my food consumption changed.  Yum!

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