My elderly mother-in-law (80) is going into hospital for hip
replacement surgery in a fortnight. My father-in-law is pretty useless
in the kitchen so I thought I'd make a stock of freezer meals for them
to eat when she gets out of hospital. I live a long way from them so
this will be a one-off effort. My husband is going up there and will
take the meals I prepare and freeze and put them in their freezer.

I could do with ideas (fairly plain cooking for them). So far I have
made:

* 3 meals of lamb roasts (TV dinner style) with mashed potatoes as
commercial TV dinners don't seem to use roast potatoes so I assume they
don't freeze and reheat well.
* 3 containers of vege soup.
* 1 chicken and mushroom pie.
* 1 chicken curry and rice (F-in-L) and curry and veges (MIL)

Any other ideas? My mother in law doesn't like spicy food. Also, apart
from using cornstarch instead of flour for thickening, are there any
other hints for successful freezer meals? So far I have tried to make
the entire "meat and vege" meal. But I am open to ideas on just
preparing the meat part of the meal.


Thanks in advance
Kathy in NZ

"Kathy-in-NZ" wrote in news:1150099062.955331.155580
@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

My elderly mother-in-law (80) is going into hospital for hip
replacement surgery in a fortnight. My father-in-law is pretty useless
in the kitchen so I thought I'd make a stock of freezer meals for them
to eat when she gets out of hospital. I live a long way from them so
this will be a one-off effort. My husband is going up there and will
take the meals I prepare and freeze and put them in their freezer.

I could do with ideas (fairly plain cooking for them). So far I have
made:



Spag bol and any stews/casseroles go well.




--
Peter Lucas
Brisbane
Australia

'Enjoy today, it was paid for by a veteran'

"PeterL" schreef in bericht
...
"Kathy-in-NZ" wrote in news:1150099062.955331.155580
@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

My elderly mother-in-law (80) is going into hospital for hip
replacement surgery in a fortnight. My father-in-law is pretty useless
in the kitchen so I thought I'd make a stock of freezer meals for them
to eat when she gets out of hospital. I live a long way from them so
this will be a one-off effort. My husband is going up there and will
take the meals I prepare and freeze and put them in their freezer.

I could do with ideas (fairly plain cooking for them). So far I have
made:



Spag bol and any stews/casseroles go well.


I agree. Then there's bean dishes such as chili con carne, and soups with
lots of fillings (i.e. potatoes, meat, green beans, onions, carrtos etc,
small bits of pasta). And all kinds of curries freeze well. Indian tomato
based curries freeze well and are low fat and can be made in low sodium
ways. (I am assumng elderly people might have to watch those things.)

Kathy-in-NZ wrote:

My elderly mother-in-law (80) is going into hospital for hip
replacement surgery in a fortnight. My father-in-law is pretty useless
in the kitchen so I thought I'd make a stock of freezer meals for them
to eat when she gets out of hospital. I live a long way from them so
this will be a one-off effort. My husband is going up there and will
take the meals I prepare and freeze and put them in their freezer.

I could do with ideas (fairly plain cooking for them). So far I have
made:

* 3 meals of lamb roasts (TV dinner style) with mashed potatoes as
commercial TV dinners don't seem to use roast potatoes so I assume they
don't freeze and reheat well.
* 3 containers of vege soup.
* 1 chicken and mushroom pie.
* 1 chicken curry and rice (F-in-L) and curry and veges (MIL)

Any other ideas? My mother in law doesn't like spicy food. Also, apart
from using cornstarch instead of flour for thickening, are there any
other hints for successful freezer meals? So far I have tried to make
the entire "meat and vege" meal. But I am open to ideas on just
preparing the meat part of the meal.

Thanks in advance
Kathy in NZ

I used to make meals for my Mother like that before she moved to a
retirement home two weeks ago. I have made meatloaf with mashed and
veg, homemade soups, stews, sliced roast beef with mashed and veg,
sliced pork tenderloin with scalloped potatoes and veg. Basically
whatever I was cooking for dh and I, I just made extra, or froze what we
would normally have for leftovers the next day. hth.....Sharon

Kathy-in-NZ wrote on 12 Jun 2006 in rec.food.cooking

Any other ideas? My mother in law doesn't like spicy food. Also, apart
from using cornstarch instead of flour for thickening, are there any
other hints for successful freezer meals? So far I have tried to make
the entire "meat and vege" meal. But I am open to ideas on just
preparing the meat part of the meal.


Thanks in advance
Kathy in NZ


Pasta type dishes freeze ok...Mac and cheese, spaghett or a hamburger
helper pasta casserole type dish.

lasagna, Pot pies, salsbury steak, If you walk down the frozen prepared
food aisle at the grocery you'll get a mess of ideas. A favourite of my
mother's was hot chicken, turkey or beef sandwhiches just freeze the
gravy seperately.

No mention of rice dishes...Rice based casseroles, rice and mixed veggies
and meat...say lamb or chicken...kinda a 1 pot meal.

Sides...potato gratins are fairly easy to make and go well with most
meats and other veggies.

Stew?

Seafood?

baked or breaded or stuffed pork chops?

But at that age usually they are set in their ways...so what would they
like to eat or what would they normally eat?

Perhaps a questionare needs to be distributed to them... kinda a
weekly/monthly menu ideas? Something like a list of meats, style of
cooking, degree of doneness...Pet peeve foods... a won't eat list. And
the same for veggies.

That way they'll eat the food and you won't be working in vain.

--
-Alan

Kathy-in-NZ wrote:
My elderly mother-in-law (80) is going into hospital for hip
replacement surgery in a fortnight. My father-in-law is pretty useless
in the kitchen so I thought I'd make a stock of freezer meals for them
to eat when she gets out of hospital. I live a long way from them so
this will be a one-off effort. My husband is going up there and will
take the meals I prepare and freeze and put them in their freezer.

I could do with ideas (fairly plain cooking for them).
(snippage)
Kathy in NZ

You've got a good start! But there's no reason you can't freeze roasted
potatoes. Ever seen frozen fries? Same idea

Do they like lasagna? It freezes well and can be portioned in individual
servings in freezer bags.

Sharon suggested meatloaf; that would be good with mashed potatoes and gravy
and perhaps some frozen peas.

How about grilled or broiled pork chops? Or something like chicken piccata
and freeze it with pasta (yes, pasta freezes perfectly fine).

Jill

Kathy-in-NZ wrote:

Any other ideas? My mother in law doesn't like spicy food. Also, apart
from using cornstarch instead of flour for thickening, are there any
other hints for successful freezer meals? So far I have tried to make
the entire "meat and vege" meal. But I am open to ideas on just
preparing the meat part of the meal.


Well, this site has ideas for freezing food, what freezes okay and what
doesn't, but they aren't gourmet meals.

Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to send wrote:



Well, this site has ideas for freezing food, what freezes okay and what
doesn't, but they aren't gourmet meals.

Lettuce does not freeze.

I am not a big fan of lettuce, but I like Mesclum. I buy it once in a while
by the pound, more likely by the quarter pound. My wife says that it keeps
better if you get it in one of those tubs. I usually get about 50 cents
worth and get 2-3 small salads out of it. Last week I made the mistake of
letting her come shopping with me. After much nonsense I gave in and let her
get a small tub of Mesclum for $3.99 instead of my usual one tongful of it.
The next day I went to the freezer to get something out for dinner and there
was my tub of Mesclum. It does not keep in the freezer. :-(

Kathy-in-NZ wrote:
My elderly mother-in-law (80) is going into hospital for hip
replacement surgery in a fortnight. My father-in-law is pretty useless
in the kitchen so I thought I'd make a stock of freezer meals for them
to eat when she gets out of hospital. I live a long way from them so
this will be a one-off effort. My husband is going up there and will
take the meals I prepare and freeze and put them in their freezer.

I could do with ideas (fairly plain cooking for them). So far I have
made:

* 3 meals of lamb roasts (TV dinner style) with mashed potatoes as
commercial TV dinners don't seem to use roast potatoes so I assume they
don't freeze and reheat well.
* 3 containers of vege soup.
* 1 chicken and mushroom pie.
* 1 chicken curry and rice (F-in-L) and curry and veges (MIL)

Any other ideas? My mother in law doesn't like spicy food. Also, apart
from using cornstarch instead of flour for thickening, are there any
other hints for successful freezer meals? So far I have tried to make
the entire "meat and vege" meal. But I am open to ideas on just
preparing the meat part of the meal.


Thanks in advance
Kathy in NZ


My parents are permanently in that state, and SIL and I kep them
supplied with stuff. They like non spicy, easy to eat food. It is a
mistake to give them full sized pies or casseroles - much better to have
individual serves. My parents are inclined to eat a little bit, leave
the rest lying around, heat it up again (inadequately) a couple of days
later and eat another little bit and so on - they don't believe in food
poisoning, but I'm afraid I do.

Individual shepherd's pies in ramekins, pasta with meatballs or just
mince and veggies in Italian tomato sauce, stews of any kind, risottos
of various kinds. Just about any kind of soup.You might consider dessert
- rice pudding and apple crumble freeze well.

It can't be true that roast veggies don't freeze well, because you can
buy them. However, they probably have some sort of special coating, and
it might be easier to just get them a bag from the supermarket.

Good luck!

Christine

The ideas from others are very good. In addition, may I offer the
following (and these have been very successful). Steak and kidney
thickened with cornstarch rather than plain flour. This
reconstitutes very well indeed. You can make pies with meat
interiors and these also freeze well.

I make meat balls (not very spicy - but you can add whatever you like
- and then when thawed out I cover with a good brown onion sauce or
brown gravy and reheat. These are really very good. And easy.

Meat loaf freezes very well indeed. And so does sweet and sour pork
- only the pork part mind you. This may not appeal to elderly people
of course, but again I have used a brown gravy rather than the Asian
sweet and sour sauce.

Elderly people tolerate rice dishes very well indeed. And fried
rice is very good when frozen - using finely chopped bacon and finely
chopped spring onion, frozen peas and corn and chopped capsicum for
colour if you like this. Add an egg or two when frying this up and
some soy sauce, and I'll bet they love it. I introduced my 98 year
old mother to this and she was absolutely rapt.

Good luck from another Kiwi.

Cheers

Daisy

Carthage demands an explanation for this insolence!

To Daisy, and all others who replied

Thanks so much for all those fine ideas. Today I put in a big effort
(Saturday, so a day off work). I made a big steak casserole which
became (for the parents-in-law) three generous containers of casserole
only, plus a steak pie; I made an apricot pie; and in the oven at the
moment roast pork and veges are cooking. Yes, I am going to freeze
roast veges this time -- potatoes, kumeras and boiled peas.

Kathy in NZ



Daisy wrote:
The ideas from others are very good. In addition, may I offer the
following (and these have been very successful). Steak and kidney
thickened with cornstarch rather than plain flour. This
reconstitutes very well indeed. You can make pies with meat
interiors and these also freeze well.

I make meat balls (not very spicy - but you can add whatever you like
- and then when thawed out I cover with a good brown onion sauce or
brown gravy and reheat. These are really very good. And easy.

Meat loaf freezes very well indeed. And so does sweet and sour pork
- only the pork part mind you. This may not appeal to elderly people
of course, but again I have used a brown gravy rather than the Asian
sweet and sour sauce.

Elderly people tolerate rice dishes very well indeed. And fried
rice is very good when frozen - using finely chopped bacon and finely
chopped spring onion, frozen peas and corn and chopped capsicum for
colour if you like this. Add an egg or two when frying this up and
some soy sauce, and I'll bet they love it. I introduced my 98 year
old mother to this and she was absolutely rapt.

Good luck from another Kiwi.

Cheers

Daisy

Carthage demands an explanation for this insolence!