Cooking Made Easy
History/Background
For a number of years, I worked for people with developmental disabilities in their homes, teaching them independent living skills. One of the primary skills I taught was cooking, and I was always on the lookout for resources to help. After some diligent searching, I was able to find picture cookbooks to assist the people I worked with who could not read. The results were wonderful! They began to cook independently.
However, I could find no resources for the people who could read. Standard recipes were too confusing for them to follow without my help:
- They didn't understand the abbreviations.
- They would only complete the first part of a combination step.
- They didn't understand what cooking terms meant (i.e. "brown the meat" or "parboil the potatoes").
- The recipes assumed some automatic cooking knowledge they didn't possess (i.e. size of pans needed, or to peel an onion before chopping it).
- They could only do one step at a time, whereas many recipes required fast-paced, simultaneous actions.
- And so on.
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The Response:
Since I could find no resource that addressed these needs, I began to experiment with creating my own:
- I assumed no automatic cooking knowledge.
- I began each recipe with "Wash hands."
- I ended each recipe with "It is done."
- I put an ingredient list at the top (designed specifically for shopping).
- I also added a utensil list, to be gathered before beginning the meal.
- I coded the recipes according to level of difficulty, so people could "work their way up."
- I also added "cost of ingredients" codes, so they could choose recipes within their budget.
- I wrote very detailed steps, with specific directions (i.e. size of bowl needed, what utensil to use, what part of vegetables to keep & which to throw away).
- And so on.
I brought these new recipes to work and offered them to people to try. Whenever they got "stuck", I noted where they were on the recipe, and what additional direction they needed. I then went home and re-wrote that step. Eventually, they stopped asking me for help. With my recipes, they were cooking independently!!
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The Result:
What began as a cooking resource for the people I worked with, is now Cooking Made Easy, available worldwide!
Here are some of the people it has helped:
- People with developmental disabilities
- People with learning disabilities
- People with traumatic brain injury
- People with autism
- People with down syndrome
- Children, Teenagers
- New parents
- Staff who are beginning cooks
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