Sunday tradition inspires Pleasant Meadow cook’s favourite recipe

Dean Smith serves up his turkey roast dinner for March Madness recipe challenge

Pleasant Meadow Manor cook Dean Smith found inspiration in a Sunday tradition when he decided to enter OMNI Health Care’s March Madness recipe challenge.

No meal says “Sunday” quite like a roast dinner, and Dean’s favourite type of roast is turkey. And a roast turkey dinner on Sundays is also a fan favourite with residents of the Norwood, Ont. long-term care home, Dean says.

“I have chosen this meal and recipe because it is, by far, my most favourite dish in the home to create,” Dean explains.

“(It is also) the residents’ most chosen meal for residents’ choice meals, (and) it’s one that hit home for me because I also like it a lot.”

Dean’s turkey dinner features sliced, juicy roast turkey accompanied by mashed potatoes, mashed turnip, sage stuffing and gravy.

The meat, mashed vegetables and stuffing are all layered on the plates to provide an eye-appealing look.

Dean says he’s happy to be able to provide Pleasant Meadow Manor residents with one of his own favourite meals – and having a roast dinner makes for a perfect Sunday for the home’s residents, he says.

“I live in a large family myself – and a gorgeous turkey dinner with all of the fixings always goes down easy with friends and family on a Sunday afternoon because nothing unites us more than delicious comfort food,” he says.

Chris Weber, OMNI’s operations manager of nutrition and food service, says the March Madness contest, which saw 16 recipes compete in a bracket contest where votes were cast each week between April 14 and May 6, was close.

The winning entry was a Mediterranean omelette that was created by Country Terrace team member Josephine Goddard.

OMNI launched the March Madness recipe challenge in March in recognition of Nutrition Month in Canada.

Chris came up with the idea to encourage nutritional care managers and cooks to showcase their most-loved recipes and to highlight the high-quality meals served in OMNI homes.

Throughout March, nutritional care managers and cooks prepared their favourite meals, plated them and took photos that were sent to head office. The photos were accompanied by the name of each meal and its recipe.

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