Finger Foods
Photo Credit: Trang Doan (Pexels)
Finger food may be the best way to provide nourishment, food enjoyment and the dignity that comes with independence. Some people find cutlery hard to use. Serving food that can be picked up with fingers is often a really good alternative to cutlery. Finger food allows a person to be more self-reliant and independent. This usually means that they enjoy their food and eat more.
Providing meals and snacks as finger foods should not mean too much extra work but it does mean presenting food differently.
It is important to make sure that finger food is easily managed. This means that it is easy to pick up and hold. Food should be easy to bite and chew and it should not break apart or fall to bits when being eaten .
Easy finger food ideas include chunks of vegetables, fruit and cheese. Vegetable fritters, pikelets, pancakes, vegetable pasties and vegetable slices such as zucchini slice, are ideal. Meat can be served as small rissoles or meat balls, small pieces of chicken or other meat, small party pies and small sausage rolls. Any gravy or sauce can be served as a dip. It is probably best to avoid sticky or greasy food. Don’t serve foods that could easily cause choking e.g. cocktail frankfurts, whole grapes, whole cherry tomatoes, nuts and foods with tough or chewy skin such as the skin of some fruit, chicken skin and sausage skin.
It will be necessary to make sure that hands and nails are clean before and after eating and that there are plenty of serviettes available.
The following finger food menu will give you some ideas:
- Breakfast: toast, hard cooked egg, cheese, sausage, banana, milk
- Morning tea: cake, fruit scone or muffin, tea, coffee or milk
- Lunch: small rissoles, potato wedges, small cob of corn, cooked broccoli pieces, fresh fruit pieces, ice cream in a cone
- Afternoon tea: pikelets, cake, cheese sticks, pieces of: soft fruit dipped in yoghurt, tea,
coffee or milk
- Evening Meal: cubes of ham or other tender cold meat, chunks of cucumber, wedges of tomato, bread and butter, piece of cake, pieces of fruit, milk or juice
