Food Network star, Rachael Ray says cooking for Seniors and older adults should be spiced up.. not boring!

What about you Phoenix Seniors?  How do you like your food? Tell us! Please share some of your favorite recipes below in our comment section.

Rachael Ray, host of “30-Minute Meals”, teaches us that making bland food flavors for seniors’ is  unnecessary and undesirable. She tells us, “there’s no excuse for making food dull, lifeless and boring, seniors want good flavor. Cook to impress; cook to be excited, or, at the very least, cook to share.”

Ray says that while adult children often assume their senior loved ones need bland food for their digestive health, foods from these older adults’ earlier years actually can offer many important benefits.

“Food helps seniors reconnect with the past,” Ray said.  “As its nostalgia factor ties all of us to where we’re from, it can be a wonderful tool for seniors who have trouble with short-term memory loss, dementia and other illnesses that remove them from the world.”

Food also allows seniors to “travel” via no more than a trip to the grocery store.  Whether your senior is from Russia, Germany, France, Ireland - wherever - serving food native to those places can take them back to things that help make them feel good, whole, happy and excited about living.

Ray, who was raised in a multi-generational Sicilian restaurant family, said she was lucky to share food with many generations.  “There’s something really intimate about many generations sharing delicious food together,” she said.

Greater Phoenix Assisted Living Alternative & Central Phoenix Assisted Living Alternative helps elders and seniors live safely at home. Call 623.583.5868, 602.265.8228 or 480.991.3959 for Home Care and Independence.