[For Seniors] Easy and Delicious! Snack Activity Roundup
Eating—meals and snacks alike—is one of life’s pleasures for older adults as well.
Snack-making activities are very popular and are offered at many senior care facilities.
However, for staff, choosing ingredients and coming up with recipes suited to older adults—such as how to prepare them—can be challenging.
In this article, we introduce easy-to-make snack ideas for seniors.
We’ve gathered many recipes that can be made together around a table or prepared easily using a microwave.
You can make delicious snacks without using hard-to-chew or hard-to-swallow ingredients.
Please give them a try with everyone together!
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[For Seniors] Easy and Delicious! Snack Activity Collection (111–120)
steamed pork bun
With the spread of convenience stores, nikuman (steamed pork buns) quickly became a quintessential winter tradition.
Variations like anman (sweet red bean buns), pizzaman, and curry-man—derived from nikuman—are now standard items too.
How about making and eating nikuman together? They’re surprisingly easy to prepare.
For the dough, you’ll need bread flour, cake flour, baking powder, dry yeast, salt, sugar, and so on.
You can also make them using a bread machine or pancake mix.
For the filling, the basics are ground meat, onion, bamboo shoots, and shiitake mushrooms.
You can also customize them to your liking—shrimp buns or yakisoba buns are great twists!
[For Seniors] Easy and Delicious! Snack Activity Collection (121–130)
Strawberry jelly cake
The vivid red of strawberries really makes you feel that the weather is warming up and spring is near, doesn’t it? This cake makes the most of that bright red look, with a soft, jelly-like texture that leaves an impression.
Crumble cookies for the base, then pour in a mixture of milk, sugar, and gelatin warmed together to form the foundation, and arrange strawberries on top.
Finally, pour in clear jelly, chill until set, and it’s done.
You can enjoy the pure taste of the strawberries themselves, so it’s a good idea to adjust the flavor of the jelly to complement them.
Soy milk shiratama with kinako and kuromitsu
Shiratama sweets are popular with people of all ages, from children to adults.
Here’s a very simple shiratama treat: soy milk shiratama with kinako and kuromitsu.
As the title suggests, you only need four ingredients: soy milk, shiratama flour, kinako, and kuromitsu.
Mix the shiratama flour with the soy milk, pinch off bite-size pieces, and drop them into boiling water to form dumplings.
Let them cool slightly, plate them, then drizzle with kuromitsu and sprinkle with kinako to finish.
You can use store-bought kuromitsu and add as much as you like.
It’s a highly recommended snack known for its delightfully chewy texture.
Isobeyaki made with tofu
This is a healthy isobeyaki-style recipe made with tofu, making it easy for seniors to enjoy.
Put 300 g of firm tofu into a plastic bag and mash it, then gradually mix in 10 g of tororo kombu.
Next, add a pinch of salt and 1 teaspoon of olive oil, and mix again.
That completes the dough.
Divide the dough into 8 portions, gently roll them into balls by hand, arrange them in a frying pan heated with sesame oil, place nori on top, and pan-fry.
Finally, season with a sauce made by mixing mirin and soy sauce, and it’s ready to serve!
transparent cake
Here’s an eye-catching idea for a transparent cake.
As the name suggests, this cake lets you see right through the inside.
The “sponge” is actually made with gelatin, so you can easily make it by simply mixing and chilling.
It looks beautiful topped with fruit, and you can also embed fruit inside.
There are many ways to decorate it, so try coming up with your own original design.
Note that gelatin takes time to set in the fridge, so keep that in mind.
Strawberry Awayuki Jelly
How about trying awa-yuki-kan, a fluffy and mysteriously airy jelly that melts in your mouth like snow? Awa-yuki-kan is a type of Japanese confection made with agar and egg whites, named after awa-yuki—“light snow”—because it disappears as quickly as spring snow.
The key to achieving its fluffiness is whipping the egg whites with a hand mixer to incorporate air until they become a pale, meringue-like foam.
It’s easy to make by folding the melted agar mixture into the meringue and optionally mixing in bite-sized pieces of strawberries.
It needs 2 hours to chill and set, so be mindful of your time when making it.
Cupcakes with ice cream
Microwave cupcakes that are easy to make are also great for snack activities with seniors! It’s a fun idea that turns out surprisingly professional using a popsicle and pancake mix—definitely give it a try.
First, completely melt the ice cream bar in a cup, mix in the pancake mix, and microwave for 2 minutes.
Next, lightly decorate with whipped cream, sweet red beans, or similar toppings, and you’re done! If you divide up each step among participants, everyone can enjoy making them together, so give it a try.
