 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. Welcome to another episode of Long Live La Familia, the nutrition soap opera that speaks not only to our hearts, but also to our stomachs. My name is Keri Bachman and I'm your host for the series. Now if you've joined us before, you'll be familiar with the format that we follow. The episode that you'll see today is broken into three different segments. That allows us some time to get back together in between. Let's talk about what we've seen and apply it to our own lives. Now the focus of our episode today are the two parents of the Sierra family, Grandpa Johnny and Grandma Juanita. The Sierra family are featured in all of our episodes, but today as you might guess, our focus is on issues that relate to seniors. The title is Amida at my age. Now you may say that sounds like there's some Spanish mixed in here and you're right, there is. If you don't speak any Spanish, don't worry. Actually with the English you'll be able to understand everything that's going on and it's a great opportunity in addition to practice your Spanish. We'll be making a recipe today and our featured ingredient is canned salmon. We'll be making a delicious salmon spread that can be used for party food or even for a dinner for two. It's very versatile. Now what if you're not a senior, how does this episode actually relate to you? I'm sure you have loved ones in your family or friends who are older and facing some nutritional issues as they age. So this is of interest to everyone whether you're a senior or no seniors and love seniors. As you're watching the episode I'd like you to pay close attention to the behaviors that the characters are exhibiting. Some of them are healthy and that's really good and some of them are not so healthy. Let's see if we can distinguish between the two. We're going to walk twice as far as you. Slowpoke. Here ladies, I thought you weren't going to make it. The bus was late. Did you put on a blanket? It's a pure distinction. Let's finish our three miles so we can go eat. I also want to tell you about Sebastian. Sarita doesn't even know you're racing him. Yeah, I think so. Juanita, where are we going to eat after walking? I know this place. Where do they make a menu? Exquisito. Menudo, no one makes it at home anymore. Amanda always buys it at Antonio's restaurant. All my daughters know how to make menudo. I'm also teaching my grandchildren. Well, Monique might be ready to learn. But to other granddaughters, Sylvia, Sara, piensas que debemos invitar a los hombres a desayunar. No, let's make it a ladies breakfast only. Sebastian doesn't eat breakfast. Me sorprende que coma en absoluto. Well, he's always so busy with all his little hobbies. You probably noticed a couple of healthy habits in that first segment. Number one, Juanita and Johnny were walking at the mall. Walking is a great exercise for people of all ages, and it can really help in terms of our general well-being and fitness. Now, another thing that was healthy was that they were with their friends. For older people who are old, they can walk with their friends. They can walk with their friends. Now, another thing that was healthy was that they were with their friends. For older people who often have lost spouses or whose children live far away, it's very important to reach out and have that social support network. As we age, it becomes even more critical to look after our health and nutrition. And one thing we can do to make sure that we're going to be healthy is to wash our hands. Now, older people actually are more susceptible to foodborne illness than younger people. And so it's really important if you're caring for an older person or if you are an older person that you keep your kitchen clean, that you make sure your hands are clean when you're preparing food, and that you throw food away that's been in the refrigerator too long. I know that's something common. Okay, so we've got our hands clean. Now we're going to take a look at our recipe. I mentioned that it's a salmon spread and we're going to add the salmon at the end. What we're actually going to start with is cream cheese. Now this cream cheese is a fat-free cream cheese and you'll find that this actually works really well in this recipe. You don't have to use a full fat version. What I recommend with cream cheese is trying a variety of them. We've got fat-free, a store brand, and a name brand. And here we have a reduced fat. Here we have a lower fat even than that. And there are also regular fat cream cheeses. So there are a lot to choose from. We're going to go with a lower fat version. And I say this because actually with older people you're going to have a variety of nutritional needs. Some older people are trying to maintain their weight or lose a little bit of weight. And so the fat-free version of the cream cheese would be a good choice for them. Other older people may not have much of an appetite and so they're going to want to be eating foods that have more calories and so you could choose a higher fat cream cheese. Okay, we've got our cream cheese here. Next ingredient is a little bit of red onion. And I love red onion. Look at the beautiful color of it. And it's also got a really sweet onion-y flavor. It's not real strong like some of the other onions can be. Another good choice here would be some green onion or scallions. I'm going to put in about three tablespoons. It sounds like a lot, but with the cream cheese it actually goes really well. Next we have some lemon juice. I've already gone ahead and squeezed it. And we're going to add just about a tablespoon here. That's about half the juice of half a lemon or one lemon depending on how juicy your lemons are. Now if you want more citrusy taste and you also like a thinner spread you can add more. And our last ingredient, this is my favorite one, is powdered red chili. Being in New Mexico we have a lot of chilies that we can choose from. And this is actually from a friend of mine whose cousin has a farm and it's just fabulous hot hot and tasty chili. I'm going to use a quarter of a teaspoon which is a fair amount of chili. Gives you a little bit of bite. For older people who may not have as sensitive taste buds anymore spices are a great way to spice up food. So we've got all our ingredients here and the easiest way to mix these without getting the mixer out and dirtying up an appliance is just to use the trusty bean or potato masher. And it may take a little while but if your cream cheese is at room temperature which this is, you can see that it mixes together pretty quickly. Okay, that's great. We'll set this aside and finish up in a few minutes. As we're looking at our next episode pay particular attention to the obstacles that present themselves to the seniors in terms of leading a healthy lifestyle. These are things that we all have to confront in our own lives. I'd like some fruit but my tea. Mom, on the way home we need to stop and get masa for tamales. I'll make them tomorrow. You sure are excited about your grandmother's birthday, aren't you? Can you imagine all the stories she has to tell? During the celebration. Why don't you ask her to tell you something else? I swear you're five years all around her. That's why apple juice is the perfect fruit. No need to chew. You don't need other fruits. Just a glass of apple juice. You and your pyramid. This thing is not for us. The pyramid is nothing more for young people because they're still growing. Honey, have you noticed that your grandmother isn't eating very well recently? I don't know, I think her arthritis is getting worse. She lives alone too. Maybe. Cynthia, you hardly touched your food. I ordered these nutrition pills from an infomercial. But they give me all the nutrition I need. Really? Nowadays my stomach's bothering me. I don't even need to eat. Hi, Cynthia. Why are you wasting your money? We'll have to talk to each other later. There were quite a number of obstacles in that last segment leading a healthy lifestyle. Think for a moment about the physical obstacles. Sarita had trouble chewing so therefore she wasn't able to eat the fruit that she loves. Bob's mother had trouble opening cans and so it was very difficult for her to cook. There are also psychological obstacles to eating healthy as an older person. As I mentioned earlier, many older people find themselves eating alone and there's not much incentive to make a full meal and sit down and eat a balanced diet. And finally, there's some intellectual or informational obstacles. You notice that there's some misinformation going on being talked about at that last. You notice that there was some misinformation being discussed at Grandma's table. Her friend thought that she could get all the nutrition she needed from supplements. And that, of course, is something that you need to be very careful with. Not only is it a waste of money many times to buy those supplements, but it also can be unhealthy. Be sure to check with your medical provider. Another informational obstacle is the food guide pyramid. And the food guide pyramid is really a really good tool for eating for everybody. But many seniors take a look at it and say, well, there's no way I could eat that number of servings. Let's take a quick look specifically at the bread group. And the recommended number of servings per day is 6 to 11. 6 servings sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But it's actually not so many. If you get a copy of this, you can go to your local extension office and get a copy of a pyramid similar to this. On the backside, this shows different serving sizes. And that's something important to keep in mind, too. How can you go about getting 6 servings in a day if you're a senior? Well, let's take a look. For breakfast, you can have a small bowl of cereal that counts as a serving. A snack later in the morning toast with coffee, another serving. For lunch, perhaps a burrito. That's another serving of bread. A snack could be crackers and cheese. There you have another serving. And for dinner, you might have rice and chicken and vegetables. And bread pudding for dessert. So that's two more servings. Actually, that adds up to six servings. And that's just in the course of a normal day. You don't have to eat a lot of food to get your servings. Now, of course, the thing to remember with seniors is the calorie needs are generally lower than younger, more active people. So it's important that seniors focus on nutrient-dense foods. And that's what we're going to take a look at here with our recipe. Salmon, as I mentioned, is the main ingredient in our dip, in our spread. And when you open a can of salmon, you'll notice there's some liquid in it. You want to just go ahead and drain out that liquid. And then what I do to make the separation process easier is just dump it onto a plate. Okay. You'll see that this is actually, if you look in the middle part of this salmon, you can find right here some bones. And that's a little bit scary to people who are used to eating fish, but that's one of the reasons that salmon is such a wonderful food. Actually, in the canning process, these bones become soft and edible. So when you're eating the bones, you're getting a source of calcium. For older people who may not... may have some trouble digesting milk, that's a real benefit. Okay, so what you're wanting to do here is just break up the salmon. You see this part here, which is the skin. Actually, that's entirely edible, but it's not going to be very pretty in our dip. So I'm going to go ahead and just kind of scrape that out. If you want to, you can use your fingers. Provided your hands are clean. And get that out of the way. And so once we've got the darker part of the skin gone, just continue flaking. A little bit of it in there isn't going to hurt anything. And in fact, as I mentioned, it tastes just fine. So salmon is a nice fish. If you're not a fish fan, it's not real fishy, and yet it does taste kind of substantial. It's an oily fish, like sardines and mackerel, and the oil in these types of fishes is actually healthy for us. It's another reason it's a nutrient-dense food that's really good for seniors. Now, I like to use canned salmon rather than the kind that you can buy at the meat counter for several reasons. If you buy fresh meat at the grocery store, fresh salmon or meat, it often goes bad before you can use it, if you're living alone at home. Whereas if you buy a can of salmon, you can use as much or as little as you want. Put the rest in the freezer and you're not wasting food. You don't have a chance also of getting some kind of food-borne illness. The other reason I like to use a canned salmon is it's actually wild salmon. And by buying this type of salmon, we're supporting small fishing families in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. The salmon that you buy actually at the counter, is usually farmed salmon, which doesn't have as many of the healthy fats in it and also causes environmental problems. So the canned salmon is really a better bet in a lot of regards. All right, now we've got all of our salmon ready to go here. We'll go ahead and put it right here into the bowl with our cream cheese and the other spices that we added earlier. Look at all of that. That's one can of salmon. Go to the grocery store and look at the fair numbers of types of salmon. I always just buy the cheapest kind. Some of them can be very expensive. Now, for getting here, I want to use the spatula at this point to just kind of gently mix. And in fact, we have a couple of... another ingredient that we're going to add later. So let me just set this aside here for the moment. We're going to go ahead and add our last ingredient now. And the label came off of this, so it's a little hard to tell what it is. But it's horseradish. It's a root that's actually then preserved in a vinegar-type solution. And so when you buy it at the store, you basically can just serve it out in a tablespoon form like this. And I try to take off some of that liquid just so that the spread doesn't get too soupy. Now, I'm going to add two whole tablespoons. And horseradish, if you've never had it, has a wonderfully sharp taste. It's a little bit similar to mustard, perhaps, or if you're familiar with wasabi, which is an ingredient you find at Japanese restaurants. Horseradish is used a lot in Russian dishes. And so it's kind of an Eastern European flavor. What it does here is it balances out nicely the creaminess of the cream cheese and the fat of the salmon, so it makes it taste a little bit lighter. And you can see as we're mixing it up here, this is developing a really nice texture. That cream cheese being soft at room temperature really helps a lot. Now, you've got several options at this point with this recipe. You can serve this as is on sandwiches, for example, or on crackers. Or you can also refrigerate it for a little while and then form it into a log or balls and then roll, and then you can roll the log or the balls in a combination of pecans and chopped fresh parsley. The other thing you can do, which to me is easier, it's like one bit dish cooking, is to go ahead and put the pecans and the parsley all in here together. And that way you can just mix it up and you've got it ready to go. Let's go back to our episode now. And as we're watching the final segment, pay close attention to how this reflects on your own life. What issues do you have as a senior or what issues do the seniors in your life have and how do they relate to the video? Hey, Don Sebastián. You were Ricky. How's Hollywood? Ah, stressful. Trabajar con las estrellas del cine es nada más un problema tras otro. Mijo, you need to cheer up. Todo se va a reglar con la Becky. It's not my fault. Ella se enoja porque no llego a comer a tiempo. But I've told her, I can't always make it home for dinner. Remember when you were young, Ricardo? Oh, sí, papá. We all ate at the table together. Even now you still continue the tradition, don't you? Sí, comemos juntos con Samuel y su familia casi cada noche. I was like you, Ricardo. I never had time to eat dinner at home. Siempre estaba trabajando. But you were right. You have to provide for your family. ¿De qué me sirve ahora todo ese trabajo? Se me murió mi aurelia. It's been eight years since he lost his wife and all his children live far away. Así es que ahora, se no solo en frente del TV. Or I don't eat at all, since I'm studying and reading. Ve y ama la Becky. Call her. Pero qué sí. Dale, muchacho, Dios mío. Gracias, compadre. Mire, se le olvidó su cellphone. Muchacho tan ugo. I'm hungry. Vente, vamos a comer algo. Where is that bus? ¿Quién sabe? I had was sure nice to eat at today. ¿Cómo me canso de las sopas que siempre me hace mi hija? I know eating the same thing every day gets old. Pero sale bien caro venir aquí. Money for food, money for bus. ¿Qué buscas? Se me perdieron mis lentes. Thank goodness. Amanda and my granddaughter are coming to the store with me. ¿Sí? Ellas te pueden ayudar a leer las etiquetas. Now for my big meal of the day. No más vas a comer esa cosa para el almuerzo. Simon, you'll fill me up with it. Bueno, pero un pan dulce no es lo suficiente saludable. You have to consider what is good for you. Me gusta comer branco y por la mañana. Ya. Yo no puedo comer cereal. I get certified drink milk. So serialized. Well, Olga at work, but she was too busy to talk. Sound familiar? Sí. Ahora es la que no tiene tiempo para mí. But she didn't say to call her later on. So la voy a hablar esta noche. ¿Está bien, Ricky? You got to think positive. It's going to be a good day after all. Todos los días que tengas familia y amigos son grandes. You're right, compadre. Family and friends make life worth giving. What did you take away from today's episode that you can use in your own life? If you're a senior, it may be as simple as making an effort to get out and eat with friends. Senior meal sites can be a great place to get a healthy meal and be with friends. If you have a senior in your life who has nutritional issues, think hard about what the barriers are that they face and try to reduce those barriers. It might be as simple as a doctor's visit or inviting your friend or family member over to eat with you and your family. Seniors have so much wisdom and experience and our society generally doesn't value it very much. So it's really important that the generations try to reach out to each other. Remember in this last segment that one of the women and one of grandma's friends said, oh, I get tired of the same foods all the time and that's a problem with people of any age. So we're going to finish up our recipe here. I've got the pecans and parsley. We're just going to mix gently and that's the benefit of a food like this. It's a little bit unfamiliar. It's a little bit adventurous. But for example, if you like tuna, you will probably like this spread. You can see the parsley adds a really nice color and the nuts will give it a nice crunch. Those nuts also are straight from New Mexico pecan trees. So we have a real benefit in this state of having that right at our doorstep. Now, the way I like to serve this spread, you could use tortillas or any other type of bread, use it as a sandwich spread, but I like to choose crackers for their crunch. And this is a familiar cracker right here. This is a trisket. And I've got a couple of different kinds of triscuits here. Actually, today what we're looking at are reduced fat triscuits and they taste just wonderful. You can also buy the original triscuits or they come in different flavors. But with this dip, you probably don't want a cracker that's too flavorful. Triscuits are nice because they're high in fiber and that's something that older people often need to get more of in their diets. Now, this large cracker right here, one of you may not be familiar with. It's called matzah. And it's actually a cracker that's used frequently in Eastern Europe and by Jewish people. And it comes in different flavors. This happens to be the everything flavor, just like an everything bagel. What you can do with these, they're just an unleavened bread, is you can spread a light layer of this all over the surface, just like this. And go ahead and spread the whole cracker back. Or you can also take the cracker and break it into pieces and serve it more as kind of a dip. So that's two ways you can use matzah. They make a whole wheat matzah, again, that's really high in fiber. Both of these types of crackers have very little fat as well when you choose the reduced fat version. I hope you'll give this recipe a try at home. The spicy horseradish sets off the creaminess of the cream cheese and the juiciness of the salmon. And I think you'll really enjoy it. The preceding was a production of New Mexico State University. The views and opinions in this program are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the NMSU Board of Regents.