Celebrating The Holiday Season
The holiday season is a wonderful time of year that is enjoyed by our residents regardless of their cognitive ability or mobility level. Therefore, its important to incorporate menu items that can be enjoyed by all.
Seniors who have trouble managing all of the complexities of eating with a knife and fork, enjoy the simplicity of eating with their hands. The benefits of offering your residents a variety of finger food menu options not only helps to simplify meal time but will assist in increasing their food consumption while giving them a sense of autonomy.
Residents will enjoy this coming holiday season with the following ideas and suggestions for a “Festive Finger Food” Menu! Serving some of these items with a dipping sauce, dressing or other flavouring may help to moisten the food and will not only make it easier to swallow but tastier too.
Festival Finger Foods
Shaved Ham & Apricot Mustard Slider, featuring Maple Leaf Easy Carve Ham
Pulled Chicken Slider, featuring Maple Leaf Pulled Chicken
Beef Sliders, featuring Schneiders Broiled Beef Burgers, 2oz
Cranberry Turkey Wrap, featuring Maple Leaf Sure Slice Turkey Breast
Roast Beef Mini Submarine Sandwich, featuring Maple Leaf Sure Slice Roast Beef (for this recipe use a small brioche dinner roll)
Small Sandwiches, featuring any of Maple Leaf’s Sliced Deli products (Healthy Selections, Sure Slice & Mainstreet Deli)
Crispy Phyllo Wrapped Hotdogs, featuring Schneiders Roller Grill Wieners (7”, 6” or 5”)
French Onion Meatballs on a Bun, featuring Maple Leaf Broiled Meatballs (for this recipe use a small brioche dinner roll)
Meatloaf Sandwich, featuring Maple Leaf Healthy Selections Meatloaf (for this recipe use a small brioche dinner roll)
Breakfast Sausage Sandwich, featuring Schneiders Pre-Cooked Sausage Rounds
Cheesy Country Sausage Roll, featuring Maple Leaf Country Sausage
Maple Leaf Fully Cooked Chicken Tenders
Maple Leaf Chicken Dippers
VEGETARIAN Finger Foods
Falafel with yogurt dipping sauce, featuring Mina Halal Fully Cooked Falafel
Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage Sausage
Sides
Veggie sticks (be careful of foods known to be a potential choking hazard)
Potato wedges, Silver Dollars, French Fries, Sweet Potato Fries
Desserts
Fresh Fruit such as melon balls, banana slices and strawberries
Mini Tarts, Muffins, Cookies, Brownies, Pound Cake strips
Mini Pudding, Mousse, Yogurt Parfait
Events & Activities
Get your residents into a festive mood with the following fun-filled yet simple activity ideas perfect for this holiday season:
Decorations: Decorate with decorations made by your residents such as snowflakes, snowmen, poinsettias, paper chains and lights. Be sure to ask your residents to help out, they’ll love being involved in decorating their home.
Music: Listen to classic holiday music and host sing-a-longs.
Decorate Cookies: Get your residents to decorate sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies and other baked goods for the season.
Create Festive Collages: Cut holiday pictures out of magazines or make copies of family pictures from your resident’s childhood. Have the resident arrange them and use them as decorations.
Scent Therapy: Familiar scents can evoke detailed memories of the past, such as pumpkin, spruce, etc.
