Hi everyone,
We have been cooking every meal for my mum since the beginning of her struggle with ALS. She is not able to speak, and she is no longer able to chew... she can open her mouth wide enough to stick a toothbrush in and even that gets stuck sometimes, but, she somehow manages to get the food to the back of her mouth with her tongue. It takes time and patience to feed her. Concentration on her part and the part of the caregiver is VERY important. We thicken her liquids with Quick Thick (she will choke without it) and thin her food with stock (to keep the flavour) We have a meat grinder, so she enjoys a wide variety of meats mixed with pureed vegetables (steamed first and then reduced with water/stock) Everything goes into the food processor and gets whizzed around. We usually let the food cool in the pot first and check to see what the consistency is at that point. We then thin the food again if needed. Most of her food is prepared in bulk so that we can bring it to her and freeze some of it to be reheated during the week. For example, We used ground turkey, cranberry jam, carrots, potatoes and the spices that would go into stuffing for flavour. Tossed everything into the food processor and then thinned this with gravy and vegetable stock. Pureed risotto tastes a lot like a pasta dish. Pureed bacon (believe it or not it can be pureed) adds so much flavour to meals. Most meals don't look like food... but, they taste good. Soups are okay with her as long as they are not too thin or thick or have too much texture and cream. I know it seems time consuming and it was for us at first, but, we managed to incorporate that into our lives and it's just routine now. I hope there are some ideas here to help.
Paula