The challenge of living with dysphagia involves learning new techniques of food preparation to manage thickness and texture. The temptation to throw everything in a blender to create smoothies or always serving baby food may cause frustration and difficulty swallowing because they may be too thin or soft to swallow easily, not to mention the boredom from overly bland flavors.

Pam Womack spent many years learning just the right food textures and thicknesses to make mealtime enjoyable for her father. Professionally she developed large-batch recipes to serve 5 to 30 people at a time. Her work in creating The Dysphagia Challenge was to bring together her knowledge and training as an institutional dietitian and consultant to long term care facilities and the personal quest to make life for her father more pleasant and flavorful.

The result is a compendium of make-at-home recipes and techniques that teach you how to properly puree and thicken ingredients while retaining the flavors of favorite family meals.

Here is an example that uses your favorite meat salad sandwich recipe: (click the recipe to enlarge)

Learn more about the Recipe Book