Adapted cooking with the founder of Ms. Wheelchair Utah

Meet Meg Johnson, the hip/2012 version of the happy-go-lucky housewife and she’s doing in all on four wheels. Her injury was a wild one; in 2004, Meg leaped onto a boulder that wasn’t stable enough while she was hiking. The fall broke both her femurs, her arms, collar bone and C7 vertebrae (ouch indeed).

Now home and queen of her domain again, Meg is making some of the best how-to videos for quads/wheelchair-users I’ve ever seen. Did I mention she founded the Ms. Wheelchair Utah pageant too? Yeah, she’s all warm and fuzzies.

The adorable Meg lives in a farmhouse in northern Utah (with her just as adorable husband Whit). After returning home, the number one thing she wanted to do (after learning how to put on makeup) was how to do everything around the house again. Well, mastered it she has, and now she’s sharing her tips in “Meg’s Movies,” a series of 1 minute videos showing how she does everyday things around the house. She’s the most bubbly quad I’ve ever seen and they’re ALL super fun to watch (all 30+ of them).

One of my favorite is “Making Eggs” focused on adapted cooking, where she whips up delicious scrambled eggs (using leftover mushrooms) for she and her husband’s breakfast. I LOVE how her first step is something I always do too: Put an oversized cutting board on your lap (as your most important “counter” space). And she shows how she licks her fingers to get the eggs out (cutest trick ever), how she cracks them deftly (love her pinky scoop method) and how she plates it all on her cutting board/lap. She is too good, too good.

And her other how-to videos are just as fun: How to pick up cracked eggs (ha), how she ties an apron, how she gets into her house, how she gets into her Subarau Baja using a wheelchair crane/lift, how she goes grocery shopping, even how she cuts and paints her toe nails. And here’s a great video of her speaking at a graduation ceremony, (motivational speaking is another thing she started doing after her injury).

Sometimes a little hearth and home can be the best medicine. Creating beautiful things, enjoying the salt of the Earth, cooking, being useful again, it all helps heal the soul. Meg has definitely got this figured out.

What piddly things around the home do you get the most joy from doing? Have you tried adapted cooking?

Watch the videos!

– Meg’s Minute Movie – Episode 2: Making Eggs

– Meg’s Movie Minute – Episode 1: Tying an apron

– Meg’s Movie Minute – Episode 9: Painting Toe Nails