Bill's Favorite Foods

By Gudrun Scott

Gudrun helps care for Bill, who is 33 and has Huntington's Disease.

Last year Bill had all of his teeth pulled (abscessed). He has difficulty chewing and some difficulty swallowing soup-like consistency. He needs to have his chin tucked slightly to avoid aspiration. We thicken thin fluids with Thick-it and we thin out foods that are too thick with cream or butter or water.

I use a Betty Crocker small baby food processor to puree all food. He eats the food right out of the processor so the food does not get a chance to cool down if it is supposed to be hot.

Bill likes to stand and watch me cook. I have to hold him with one hand since he is unsteady. He usually wants a pancake or French toast for breakfast - he decides. We cook this with one egg and heavy cream in oil. Then we add butter to the pancake! It must be over 500 calories. Bill can only eat about 10-15 bites and then he is tired.

Midmorning he eats his second breakfast of cheese/egg omlette - again made with heavy cream and butter and a slice of cheese. This too has to be pureed. If we are in a restaurant we can chop it up with a fork and eat it with the spoon. The other choice for midmorning is an eclair or donut of his choice - pureed with heavy cream.

For lunch he eats the same thing every day: Balogna, cheese slice, bread, and mayonnaise, all pureed. Lately we had to put a little water in to get the thickness to be less.

He likes to discuss dinner options which include: spaghetti and meatballs, chili, taco, etc. - a small number of choices and he decides.

The day is always topped off with a mighty sundae with instant whipped cream, etc. He drinks either apple juice (we need metamucil twice a day in there) or chocolate milk made with lots of heavy cream.

Bill is maintaining his 120 lbs with this regime (he is 5'4"). I counted out his calories at 2,500 per day. I have tracked Bill's weight at the nursing home where he is for three days each week, and he loses 1-2 pounds every time.

Following are some ideas which we use for Bill:

CHEESE CURLS

Cheese curls melt in your mouth and yet they are like potato chips which HD people usually cannot eat any longer. You can dip the cheese curls in favorite potato chip dip. Bill eats this while he plays computer games. He goes thru a lot of them - they are 7 calories each.

I mentioned it to my doctor who he is a gerontologist and he said that he knows patients who live on cheese curls.

HEAVY CREAM

Also, heavy cream - we buy it by the quart twice a week - over 3,000 calories for only $1.50. It tastes much better than Ensure which is expensive and has fewer calories. We converted to heavy cream, milk and flavoring and stopped Ensure. This has been cheaper and tastier and Bill's weight has been maintained and actually he gains weight on this.

FUDGE

At Christmastime Bill could not eat cookies which are so much part of the holidays. Instead he discovered fudge. There was a block of it at a table and Bill would slowly walk around the house and always have a bite of it. This developed into a tradition. Ever since then he has been taking a bite of fudge which is on a side table. It adds to the activity of the day and provides something on the walks in the house.

Bill loves to help cook so he cooks the fudge with me. Lately he cooked up a batch for his sister who also has HD and sent it to the nursing home and she has also enjoyed it. We sent the fudge to her with a spoon taped to the block because I know that in nursing homes they only have those weak plastic spoons that are frustrating. His sister really appreciated a homemade present - so useful too and with pleasure associated with it.

Cooking your own fudge is so much cheaper too!!

We have fudge available at a table and whenever Bill walks by he takes a bite. Only trouble is he drips chocolate flavored saliva - we have tissue papers every few feet. We cut off a piece of fudge with a spoon and that worked well when the fudge was too liquid. However, now that we have perfected our fudge cooking and it comes out more firm, Bill prefers to get a small sliver which is taken off with a spoon and then fed with the finger. He cannot get the fudge off the spoon very well with his lips.

Fudge Recipe

Ingredients:

Half a small can of condensed milk.
Two cups of sugar
A couple of spoonfuls of heavy cream.
About 10 ounces of semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips
A stick of butter
A jigger of vanilla

Directions:

Heat and boil until bubbling. CAREFUL - THIS IS VERY HOT! I stir this while holding on to Bill but I cannot afford any fall at this moment so I only make fudge when I am strong and very alert.
Then add about 10 ounces of semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips, a stick of butter, and a jigger of vanilla - if you add too much vanilla the fudge might be runny.
Whip it all together and put into buttered dish.

Converted to HTML by Renette Davis with permission from Gudrun Scott. Send comments to Renette by clicking here and comments for Gudrun to wrscott@vivanet.com

Last updated: Nov. 28, 2010