Let's Get Cooking!
Cooking and baking tools to support vision impairments and learning differences
|
|
|
Ah, sweet cinnamon rolls and birthday cakes, or savory stir fry recipes and soups. Making your own food can be so delightful and so essential. Chefs and bakers adapting to vision loss, cognition changes, and different learning styles may have difficulty seeing or judging the numbers on measuring cups and spoons or kitchen tools like the thermometer and scale. Cooking is multisensory so why can’t the equipment also be? We’ve added more kitchen accessories to our A.T lending library. Check out these tools at home for measuring spices, liquids, foods temperatures, and weights:
|
|
|
The Welcome Industries Visual Measuring Cups (amazon.com) are uniquely shaped to represent the measurement as a fraction of a pie, like how lots of folks learned fractions in elementary school. The cups come in 4 sizes: 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup, and 1/4 cup. They are made in the USA, by a women-owned company. Made of BPA-free, shatterproof, durable Tritan. Free 30-day trial from the A.T program and find on Amazon for $24.
|
|
|
|
Image Description: Text in the center reads: “the shape tells the size.” From top left to right, 4 blue circles with the words 1 cup, 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4. Each circle visually represents the fraction written inside it using lines to segment the circle. From bottom left to right, 4 clear plastic measuring cups with handles: 1) a circular cup filled with milk, 2) a half circle shaped cup with a brown sugar inside, 3) a cup in the shape of a third of a circle with sugar inside, and 4) a cup in the shape of a circle quadrant with oats inside.
|
|
|
The Welcome Industries Visual Measuring Spoons (amazon.com) also use shape to uniquely distinguish the sizes from one another. 1 tablespoon looks like a diamond to distinguish it from the whole circle teaspoon and its pie fractions: 1/2 teaspoon and 1/4 teaspoon. Free 30-day trial from the A.T program and find on Amazon for $22.
|
|
|
|
Image Description: Text in the center reads, “the shape tells the size.” From top left to right, 1 blue diamond and 3 blue circles with the words 1 Tbsp, 1 tsp, 1/2, and 1/4. The diamond and first circle are whole, the next circle has a vertical line down the middle, and the last circle has a right-angled line to show a quadrant. From bottom left to right, 4 clear plastic measuring spoons with handles: 1) a diamond-shaped spoon with a red spice inside, 2) a circular spoon with a green spice inside, 3) a half circle shaped spoon with a yellow spice inside, and 4) a spoon in the shape of a circle quadrant with a red spice inside.
|
|
|
The Kizen Instapen Pro Talking Kitchen Thermometer (amazon.com) reads aloud temperatures, in Celsius or Fahrenheit, of baked goods, meat, oil, syrup, infant formula, and beverages. The large, backlit LED screen also shows the number in large print. The thermometer comes in black or red and has a magnetic back to store it on the fridge and a hole to hang with other kitchen tools. The thermometer body is 6.2 inches long and with the probe, 10.5 inches long. Free 30-day trial from the A.T program and find on Amazon for $19.75.
|
|
|
|
Image Description: The talking thermometer is a banana shaped, white plastic tool outlined in black with a thin, metal spear folded down against the tool body. One side of the tool has a hole. It has an illuminated, blue, rectangular screen currently reading 83.0 degrees F. Flanking the screen are the words Instapen Pro voice and 3 buttons for light, voicing, and calibrating/Celsius/Fahrenheit. The thermometer’s box is at left and above is a cheat sheet for common safe food temperatures.
|
|
|
The Cirbic Talking Kitchen Scale (amazon.com) speaks aloud weights in milliliters (ml), grams (g), ounces (oz) or pounds (lb). The scale also has a large screen with a large font. Try using the visual measuring cups with the scale to measure liquids. Use a scale to make measurements precise especially flour for baking. It measures 6 inches x 8.5 inches and takes 2 AAA batteries. Free 30-day trial from the A.T program and find on Amazon for $32.98.
|
|
|
|
Image Description: The rectangular, black plastic, talking scale has a square, silver weighing area and a screen showing 0.00 oz. The company name Cirbic is above the screen and 2 oval, white buttons are beside the screen.
|
|
|
Be sure to also check out our A.T library for visual recipe cookbooks featuring fewer steps, pictures, and larger print. Find more ways to enjoy cooking and baking by reaching out to an A.T consultant for ideas.
|
|
The contents of this newsletter were submitted by Quinby McLellan; A.T Consultant serving Chittenden, Grand Isle, and Franklin Counties.
Contact the Vermont Assistive Technology Program by calling 1-800-750-6355 or by emailing dail.atinfo@vermont.gov. For more information visit our website (www.atp.vermont.gov). And if there is a topic that you'd like to see covered, please feel free to let us know!
Check out past editions of our newsletter or subscribe to future newsletters using the Subscribe button below!
|
|
|
|
|
