JCPSLP Vol 20 No 3 November 2018

Nutrition, swallowing, mealtimes: Recipes for success

Resource review

Howells, S., & Griffith University Master of Speech Pathology Students. (2018). Beyond the blender: Dysphagia made easy . E-book. Griffith University, Queensland. (Free to Download from: https://griffith. edu.au/griffith-health/school-allied-health-science/ learning-and-teaching). Kate Rennie Living a life with dysphagia can be complicated. It requires changing the way one eats and drinks; it is an alteration to one of life’s great sensory and social experiences. Eating and preparing food at home can be difficult and requires extra planning, preparation and equipment. For many, placing a meal in a blender is a simple, though unappetising, option. In my clinical practice, I have spent countless hours speaking with clients, carers and families about how to modify their preferred foods to enable safer intake, but also to retain the taste and enjoyment for food and to continue to make meals a shared experience. I was very excited when I was asked to review this dysphagia cookbook as I enjoy recipe collections (generally) and am always keen to find simple recipes to share with my clients to help facilitate creative cooking that caters to their swallowing needs. Beyond the Blender: Dysphagia Made Easy presents a collection of 30 modern, simple and visually appealing recipes for those with swallowing problems. This e-book is described as a passion project for Simone Howells, lecturer in speech pathology at Griffith University, and the master’s students she worked with from 2014 to 2017. It addresses a need for appealing, achievable texture-modified diet recipes. The collection divides food into three categories: food that is soft; food that can be minced and is moist; and foods that are pureed. This book does not explain dysphagia and does not provide any further detail about the texture-modified diet categories, so it does assume the reader understands their swallowing needs. Each category has six savoury dishes and from three to five sweet recipes. Importantly, there is a beautiful photo of most of the completed dishes consistent with the modified texture, presented in the style of food magazines. The diet texture categories are also separated by an attractive double-page photographic spread. The photos invite the reader to enjoy the taste and smells and to be excited about cooking the dish. A variety of cuisines are represented with selections such as creamy pumpkin pasta (soft), Thai green curry (puree), Japanese style meatballs with vegetables (soft), burrito bowls (soft), sweet potato shepherd’s pie (minced and moist) and butter chicken (minced and moist). Desserts include delights such as nutella and banana French toast roll ups (soft), pavlova (minced and moist) and Mars Bar cheesecake (puree).

While the puree recipes do use a blender, they encourage attractive presentation and the use of shaping, sauces and spices to maintain interest. Simple symbols are used to indicate the number of servings, time required, level of difficulty (easy, medium or hard) and storage. Gluten and dairy free options are indicated throughout. The book is available as a PDF which means it is simple to choose a recipe with a client and print, avoiding the loss of quality that comes with photocopying pages from a book. Each recipe has a clear ingredient list with commonly available foods and spices. Steps are numbered, clear and logical, catering for someone familiar with cooking and following a recipe. Beyond the Blender presents simple, easy-to-follow soft, minced and puree diet recipes with a variety of readily sourced, inexpensive ingredients, using its layout and photographs to activate the senses and excite someone to prepare a delicious (texture-modified) meal. I would also use this to encourage someone to use the techniques and ideas for modifying other recipes and to build confidence and interest in cooking. This book aims to bring “the joy of eating back into the lives of people with dysphagia” and I look forward to testing this in practice with a confidence that it will do so.

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JCPSLP Volume 20, Number 3 2018

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology