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If you’ve read my About Me page, you’ll know that my husband has Parkinson’s Disease. What you might not know yet is that food — specifically what food — seems to make a real difference to how well his medication works.

We discovered this almost by accident. We bought ice cream one week and noticed his off periods were longer and harder than usual. The following week, I made ice cream from scratch — same dessert, completely different result. His medication seemed to work better, and the off periods were noticeably shorter. We’ve seen the same with butter. Store-bought versus homemade — real difference.

We’re not doctors, and we’re not making any medical claims. Every person with Parkinson’s is different, and what works for us might not work for everyone. But when something as simple as cooking from scratch seems to make a difference, it’s worth paying attention to — and worth sharing.

So this week we’re cooking the way our grandparents did. Whole ingredients, nothing processed, nothing with a label full of numbers. Michael Pollan said it best: “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food.”

Here’s this week’s menu

🥩 1. Steak, Roast Potatoes & Greens

Ingredients

  • 2 beef steaks (about 250–300g each)
  • 4 sausages (for kids)
  • 1 kg potatoes
  • 1 head broccoli
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper

Method

  1. Heat oven to 200°C.
  2. Cut potatoes into chunks, toss with olive oil and salt.
  3. Roast 40–45 minutes, turning once.
  4. Steam broccoli and sliced carrots 5–7 minutes.
  5. Cook steaks in a hot pan 3–4 minutes per side (depending on thickness).
  6. Cook sausages in the same pan or oven 12–15 minutes.

🍝 2. Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients

  • 500 g beef mince
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 carrot (grated)
  • 1 zucchini (grated)
  • 700 g tomato passata
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 400 g spaghetti (homemade spaghetti)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper

Method

  1. Cook spaghetti
  2. Heat oil in pan, cook diced onion and garlic.
  3. Add mince and brown well.
  4. Add carrot and zucchini.
  5. Stir in passata and tomato paste.
  6. Simmer 20 minutes.
  7. Serve over spaghetti.

🍗 3. Roast Chicken & Vegetables

Ingredients

  • 1 whole chicken (1.6–1.8 kg)
  • 1 kg potatoes
  • 3 carrots
  • 1 onion
  • 1 zucchini
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper

Method

  1. Heat oven to 180°C.
  2. Place chicken in roasting pan, rub with oil, salt, pepper.
  3. Chop vegetables and place around chicken.
  4. Roast 1 hour 20 minutes (until juices run clear).
  5. Rest chicken 10 minutes before carving.

🍳 4. Eggs, Tomato & Toast

Ingredients

  • 8 eggs
  • 8 slices bread
  • 1 tbsp butter or olive oil
  • salt & pepper

Method

  1. Cook mushrooms in butter until browned.
  2. Fry or scramble eggs.
  3. Toast bread.
  4. Serve eggs and tomato on toast.

🥧 5. Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients

  • 500 g beef mince
  • 1 onion
  • 1 carrot (diced)
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 cup beef stock
  • 800 g potatoes
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • ¼ cup milk

Method

  1. Boil potatoes 15 minutes, mash with butter and milk.
  2. Cook onion and mince in pan.
  3. Add carrot, peas, tomato paste, stock.
  4. Simmer 10 minutes.
  5. Place mince in baking dish, spread mash on top.
  6. Bake 20 minutes at 180°C until golden.

🥪 6. Toasted Chicken Sandwich Night

Ingredients

  • 2 large, cooked chicken breasts (or leftover roast chicken)
  • 8 slices bread
  • 1 tomato (sliced)
  • Cheese
  • butter and mayo

Method

  1. Slice chicken thinly.
  2. Butter bread.
  3. Layer tomato, chicken, Cheese.
  4. Toast sandwiches
  5. Cut toasted sandwiches in halves.

🌭 7. Sausage, Egg & Veg

Ingredients

  • 8 sausages
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 zucchini
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 onion
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper

Method

  1. Cook sausages in pan or oven 15 minutes.
  2. Slice zucchini, carrot, onion.
  3. Cook vegetables in olive oil until tender.
  4. Fry eggs.
  5. Serve sausages with eggs and vegetables.

Final Thoughts at the End of the Week

Week one is done. The results were encouraging; we didn’t have any extended off periods, which is noticeable. The standout observation is the homemade pasta. Made simply from Flour, eggs, oil and salt, it seems to cause less disruption to hubby’s medication compared to store-bought pasta. Whether that is due to the preservatives or something else entirely, we generally don’t know at this stage. But it’s a pattern that we keep coming back to.

The steak was unfortunately a write-off as hubby has dentures and found it too hard to manage.

Due to having enough leftovers, we didn’t have the sausage, egg and vegetables.

Having leftovers felt very in the spirit of how households actually ran in the 1950s anyway.

Links

Continue to Week 2

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