You know that your seniors’ diet is an important part of your elderly care plan, but that does not just mean planning and creating balanced meals. Snacking is not just satisfying, it can help your aging parents maintain healthy blood sugar levels, supports consistent energy, and keeps cravings at bay. Eating every few hours rather than just focusing on three large meals a day helps keep your parents from overindulging at meal time.
These elderly care recipes offer the tasty blend of sweet and salty flavors along with a crunchy texture that makes these little haystacks delicious and satisfying. Named for their hay-like appearance, haystacks are extremely versatile and can be customized to meet your parents’ taste preferences as well as include ingredients that add extra nutrition to the treat.
The basic recipe is for traditional butterscotch haystacks, but you can use the exact same technique to create a wide range of haystack flavors. Make these haystacks in whatever size you would like, either large so that each serving is one nibble-worthy haystack, or smaller so that you can sample different flavors and feel the satisfaction of eating multiples, which has been shown to help reduce cravings and lower the number of calories you eat. This is also a great snack for your elderly parents to make with their elder home care provider, giving them the mental benefits of following a recipe, the social benefits of interacting with their care provider, and the enjoyment of the sweet treat when finished.
What You’ll Need
1 bag of butterscotch flavored chips
1 bag of chow mein noodles
Large microwavable bowl
Rubber spatula
Wax paper
Baking sheet
Cookie scoop or large spoon
What to Do
Pour the butterscotch chips into the microwavable bowl and place in the microwave.
Microwave for 30 seconds, remove from the microwave and stir with the rubber spatula.
Return to the microwave for another 10 seconds and stir.
Repeat this process until all of the butterscotch melts completely. Be aware that these chips burn very easily so it is important to stir thoroughly after each heating to incorporate the solid chips into the melted chips, which encourages them to melt and eliminates the need for more heat.
Pour the Chinese noodles into the melted butterscotch. These are the crunchy noodles often found on salad bars and located in the ethnic cooking section of most grocery stores.
Use the rubber spatula to carefully fold the noodles into the butterscotch. Do not stir to aggressively as you do not want to break up the noodles.
Place a piece of wax paper on the baking sheet.
Use the cookie scoop or spoon to portion out the mixture onto the wax paper.
Put the sheet into the refrigerator for an hour to set the butterscotch before serving.
Try some of these flavor variations with the same basic technique to create a variety of haystacks, and then experiment with your own blends:
Pretzel sticks and chocolate
Potato sticks and milk chocolate
Miniature breadsticks and peanut butter chips
Try adding in:
Chopped raisins and other dried fruit
Chopped nuts
Sunflower seeds
Chopped peppermint candies
If You Or An Aging Loved One Are Considering Hiring Elderly Care in McKinney, TX, Please Call The Caring Staff At Second Family Home Care At (972) 347-0700.