KNITTING WITHOUT PAIN!
VEGETARIAN QUINOA- STUFFED PEPPERS
1. Call 516.333.1481 (Long Island) or 212.472.1000 (Manhattan) to talk with your occupational therapist and discuss your pain and symptoms. 2. Your occupational therapist may suggest exercises or precautionary measures to relieve or avoid pain. GET THE HELP YOU NEED TODAY! • Drink a lot of water: being hydrated helps all of our tissues feel betterwith use. • Change your knitting method: Continental or Portuguese knitting methods have been shown to require less movement of the hands and shoulders, thus decreasing some of the stress. Look these methods up online – there are tons of videos! • Change your equipment: Using wooden or square knitting needles can help decrease the strength you need to hold on to your project bymaking them easier to grip. When you can pick projects that use larger diameter needles. Also, use the shortest needles possible to decrease the weight placed on your hands once the project gets bigger (or instead of short needles use interchangeable cable needles so that the cable can distribute the weight. Knitting is a favorite hobby for many Americans, one that takes a combination of practice and determination to get beyond the initial learning curve. But did you know it also has some added health benefits? For example, it is proven to boost self-esteem, lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, and reduce cortisol levels (stress hormone)? It’s true! But this relaxing activity can also make aging or injured hands hurt. This seems to apply to almost all hobbies, doesn’t it? So, what should we do, just give up? No! There is always a way to modify our activities and hobbies so that we can live our lives to the fullest. If you are an avid knitter, try some of the following techniques to helpwith upper extremity pain (many of these can be applied to any type of repetitive activities): • Take frequent breaks: Doing anything for hours on endwill make you sore. Cut hobby time into smallermore frequent chunks of time vs. longmarathon sessions. • Use the best posture possible for the task: Back straight, shoulders down and back, use pillows to support your arms as needed and to support your work so that you don’t have to look down so much.
Ingredients
• 6 medium red, orange and/or yellowbell peppers • 1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil • 1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups) • 1 tsp. minced garlic • 1 tsp. ground cumin • ¾ teaspoon chili powder • 2 tsp. minced chipotle chiles
• 1 Tbsp. adobo sauce from can • 2 cups cooked tri-color quinoa • 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed • 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes • 1 c. frozen corn • ¼ tsp. salt 1½ c. shredded pepper Jack cheese
Instructions Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut off stem end of each bell pepper. Chop the pepper tops to yield 1 cup. Remove and discard seeds and membranes from peppers. Bring about 1 inch of water to a boil in a large saucepan fitted with a steamer basket. Add the peppers; cover and steam until starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Remove the peppers and set aside. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and the chopped pepper tops; cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, cumin, chili powder, chipotles and adobo; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1minute. Remove fromheat and add quinoa, black beans, tomatoes, corn and salt; fold untilwell combined. Stand the peppers upright in an 11-by-7-inch baking dish. (Trim the bottoms, if necessary, to keep the peppers upright.) Spoon about 1 cup quinoamixture into each pepper, packing it in tightly. Cover the stuffed peppers with foil. Bake the peppers until warmed through, about 10 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle the peppers evenly with cheese. Bake, uncovered, until the cheese melts and browns slightly, 5 to 8 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
3. If further assessment is needed to find the cause of your paint, your therapist can schedule an appointment with you.
Made with FlippingBook HTML5