Cooking

Wow, that’s any tough question that probably you’re the best to answer over random lemmings.

But I’ll play. My thoughts as someone who has never been limited like that are ….. its the preparation more than the cooking

• electric can opener if you don’t already. My first thought is how do you open those cans one handed.
• rice cooker is dump in two ingredients and forget it until dinner. It’s like 15 minutes so you can be making the rest of dinner in the meanwhile
• knives are tough. Someone suggested a mandolin but mine is clearly two handed operation. Perhaps one of those larger ones built into a bowl? I guess you want something that is secure in the counter
• mini food processor/chopper. I always found the full sized ones Overly complex for most tasks, but the mini ones are great. Single button, parts go in the dishwasher.
• one skillet meals. They seem easier to me, but even if not, your selection of meals is probably important. Internet can help with recipes if you can think of a search term
• mini potatoes. I can’t stand instant potatoes, but can understand it’s a hassle to peel and cut. Mini potatoes, or generally cooking baked potatoes, are great with less prep work
• my far out thought of the day: glass top stoves suck. I transitioned from gas to induction last year, and it’s nicer in several ways. But now I can’t stir or mix without holding the pan to keep it from sliding around

You can make pasta. Take the pasta out of the water with a pasta spoon, throw it into the pan with premade sauce and veggies. Tadaaaa

Break your other arm and have your stepmom cook for you.

Mashed potatoes seems like it would be pretty hard to stir one handed, so credit to you for that. Thinner soups or things you can boil and drain would probably be an easier choice, so you don't have to keep hold of a pot while stirring.

Things which keep their shape and that you can fry in a large flat pan and use tongs to move about, like the spam, are probably going to be much easier and safer overall though.

If you can afford one, a mandoline that is heavy or you can fix to a surface is something that will be useful even if your arm improves, they make chopping vegetables fast - but can be risky if you're not paying full attention. I have one similar to this, but the more industrial ones are even sturdier.

If that isn't an option, pre-cut frozen veg are usually not hugely more expensive than fresh, and are often more nutritious than stuff on the supermarket shelves. Tinned tomatoes or sauces are easy to throw on pasta too, which doesn't need any real stirring - just be sure to only cook smaller pots so they're lighter to deal with. Tinned beans are also great, my go to meal is that plus tinned tomatoes, a bunch of dried herbs/spices, and whatever veg I've got around at the time. You can fry some meat, throw in the rest, let it heat through and you're good to go.

If you have an oven, a whole cob of corn in-husk is 30 mins. You can throw it in there, walk away, then after 30 take it out of the oven. Just gently tug the silk out from the top, which will now come out easily with no real mess, and you can then pull down the husk to use as a handle while eating.

Don't write off microwaves either. Washing a few potatoes and nuking them for a few minutes per potato will get you a perfectly good meal base that you can load up with whatever. Microwaves are my go to for the frozen veg to help bulk out anything else I cook too.

My speciality is not arm-based problems but I've had to change a lot about how I cook for medical reasons, so hopefully some of this is helpful to you too. Good luck and I hope you don't need to adapt for long!

You'll be all right

Husband use to make a lot of frozen dinners when he was a bachelor. He also made a lot of pasta though. He has access to about 1.5 arms with his cerebral palsy. Use useless arm to hold pasta sauce to chest, twist open with good hand. Everything else was easier to open and cook.

I never have needed to cook with jist 1 arm, but I guarantee if I had to, I'd be making crockpot meals. Just dump everything in the pot in the morning, turn it on, let it slow cook all day.

Split pea and lentil soup. Get dried green split peas and dried red lentils. Put them in a pot, pour in water, add stock or salt and some dried parsley and thyme, bring to a boil then simmer for 1~1.5 hours.

Cheap, filling, healthy, and a lot of filler ingredients work in it if you want to change it up. I'm recovering from a crushed ankle, on a crutch so I've had to figure out one handed recipes to a degree.

Another good one if you have a rice cooker - coconut milk, lime juice, peanut butter and some sugar. Melt it all together, have it on rice. Again, something that's adaptable for adding other ingredients.

I've been practicing cracking/opening eggs with just one hand for the last year. Good to know one of my favorite breakfasts of spam and eggs could still be on the menu.

I got Korean BBQ flavored Spam out of curiosity the other day so you're inspiring me to actually try it.

I can't find it now, but I saw a video just yesterday of a lady with one hand chopping onions and some other items. She had an implement on the counter with pins facing upward that she could stick half an onion on while cutting it.

I'll keep and eye out for it, but in the meantime searching for "one handed cooking" on youtube will get you a ton of interesting things, from gadgets to methods of dealing with prep.

If you break your legs, it's hard to cook orangutan.

Tell your left arm to get a job.

Look into adaptations! I have an electric jar opener and an electric can opener. After a friend got frozen shoulder, I got her a couple of rocker-knives and a pair of tong-spatulas (a pair of tongs, but with spatulas instead of grippers at the end). There are plates and cutting boards with little upright prongs on them, to hold things in place while you cut them with your good hand. There are also things like the slap-chopper or magic bullet, those box-dicers where you slap the lid down, etc.

Essentially -- you know all those late-night commercials with the weird kitchen gadgets? Those aren't actually weird, they're intended for handicapped people. But they know if they market them as being for handicapped people, sales drop. But if they market them as weird convenience devices, when someone needs them, they look at them in a different light and they make the sale.

I'd also suggest searching the web: I know I ran across some disability blogs, where people talked about their adaptation and techniques and where people discussed which products worked or didn't.

Oh - if you like wearing jewelry, they make little magnets that clip onto the ends of necklaces and bracelets and such, that make putting on jewelry one-handed easier.

My first thought: how'd you open the cans? But I guess you must have an electric can opener.

Well, whatever you're doing, it looks like you're doing it right!

If you can open a spam can then you should be able to cook anything. This photo is pretty depressing. Grab a cook book and get to work.