Aug 16th, 2024

Author: donich_admin

Wheelchair cooking

I decided to stop being so defeatist and see what I can do in the cookery line from a wheelchair plus standing without putting much weight on my left foot.

First I made a plum crumble.  I just got the first of the new season Victoria plums, and after eating a load of them in their raw state, made a crumble out of them.  I don’t use a recipe for this, I just broke the plums into pieces to remove the stone and put them in an ovenproof dish.  I then put some plain flour, a bit of demerara sugar and a scoop of sugar free muesli in a bowl and rubbed in a bit of butter until it looked like breadcrumbs.  Then baked in a medium oven for about 45 mins.  No need for sugar in the plums.

Then I had some surplus bananas so I made a banana bread.  I mashed up some (there were five small ones) bananas, added two eggs and 110ml sunflower oil and whisked it all together.  I added 150g demerara sugar and 200g plain flour and 2 tsp baking powder.  I mixed again, put in a lined loaf tin and baked in the same oven for around 60 minutes.

These were the outcomes.

I discovered that the door of the grill folded out makes a good mini table at the right height for chopping and mixing sitting down.  The oven door requires even more caution than normal, because ours has a tendency to close of its own volition.  I propped it open with a door stop before putting anything in and out.

That all worked well and the cakes are good.

I’ve also been doing other basic cookery like vegetables (but having the main item from out of the freezer).  This is ok but I will say that I have to take extreme care with lifting hot pans and always only move them very short distances so that I can safely stay in the wheelchair with the pan not over any part of my anatomy while I am doing it.  I’m not risking either my foot or the rest of me by trying to hobble across the kitchen carrying hot pans or plates.