Meals

[Daisy55]

Does anyone have any ideas for meals for one , that are easy to prepare . My husband doesn’t eat a meal now , he has to have small snacks . By the time I get to evening to do my meal , I am so tired with all the caring I don’t know what to have . It’s so easy to resort to a ready meal .

[sassy59]

Good morning Daisy, as you say it’s easy to resort to ready meals. I love fish which is quick and easy to cook or I’d probably search online for inspiration. Jacket potatoes can be done in a microwave or oven of course, I also love good quality sausages.

Hopefully others will reply with some good ideas soon. Xxxx

[Hidden]

Find a bit of time one day to cook a batch of mince. It will then be so easy to turn it into a shepherds pie, spag bol, etc. Chicken breast can do the same - cook half a dozen and turn them into different things, pop the whole lot in the freezer and defrost one every day. Your husband could have little portions of these whenever he needs a snack too.

[FredaE]

dont despise all ready meals. the better ones are fine and firms like Wlitshire farm food deliver frozen food to your door and cater for low salt diets as well as small appetites.

Ready meals may not be as good as what you can cook for yourself but they are a lot better than finding yourself eating chocolate biscuits at ten at night because you are just too weary to eat a decent meal let alone prepare and cook it.

[Shirleyjill]

What about omelettes. They're easy and quick. Jar of curry sauce with meat of your choice. And rice made in 15 mins. Tuna jackets easy to prepare 1 hour in the oven though.

[AnneandChris]

I agree with the previous comments. Try to batch cook and freeze down individual meals if you can.

Pasta is quick too with stir fry vegetables stirred through with some melted Philly it Boursin is good too.

Keep on keeping on

Anne

[magic1309]

Hi daisy ,as someone else has said m&s do a great quality range , my mum really likes them ,

[Gambit62]

Ready meals are a part of my diet - I tend to eat them with a batch of vegetables done in the microwave - which is quick and easy and using frozen veg means that I can make sure I have a good variety of vegetables each time. I generally have half a portion of the ready meal and split it over two days - so just reheating the next day.

However, I'm aware from having been ill in the past that even that can sometimes be a challenge. At that point I switched to more cereals, fresh fruit and stuff that I didn't have to cook.

Cooking in batches and then freezing is a good option as well.

[Hidden]

For best flavour and meal satisfaction I'd say that, if you can it's better to home cook. I'm with 'exhaustedwife' and am a great fan of batch cooking and separarating into portions for home freezing.

I don't know your particular likes and dislikes, but good hearty soups and stews are great and can be easily be defrosted and reheated for a fairly quick meal.

Rice freezes extremely well if you want to precook it ready to serve alongside and of course a jacket potato goes well alongside most things.

One thing I did often as a 'singleton' in the past was to visit the deli counter in a bigger supermarket and buy a couple of thickly cut slices of good quality ham, cooked turkey or chicken breast and then eat those with a baked spud and a side salad. Filling and tasty.

Minced beef can be made into so many things, from chili, to bolognese sauce through to curry and cottage pie, so is really versatile. Eggs are fast and quickly beaten up into omelettes with a variety of fillings possible from cheese, to cooked vegetables.

And then there's good old macaroni (or other pasta shapes), made into macaroni cheese (which will also freeze readily).

Taking a few hours out to do the prep every so often and using the freezer, will take the sting out of coming home tired and needing good food quickly.

[barbs47]

Hi Daisy55 do you have a slow cooker? I make up a batch of Bologna’s sauce divide it into single portions and freeze it. I can then get one out in the morning and do various different meals eg. Heat and put over a jacket potatoe, add to spaghetti, make a lasagna. I also make batches of stew and soup. They are like a ready meal but home cooked and I know what is in them. Barbs x

[FredaE]

Footote to ready meals.

I have always cooked for someone else as well as me, Must make a diference because after my husband died I continued to do so but found that although there was nothing wrong with it, I just did not fancy what I had cooked and kept throwing it away uneaten After a while I gave uo and bought Waitrose 3 for £7 ( not their top of the range) and ate them with extra veg. Because there were no ingredients in the house or cooking to taste I lost quite a lot of weight over the 6 months this went on. I suppose it is a sort of seefood diet. If you can't see food, you don't eat it

[Dolly114]

I am in the same boat, with my mother not wanting to eat the same food as me anymore or eat much at all and she used to do the cooking anyway. For a while I have been buying ready meals, but found they were either too small a portion or just not very tasty! So, last week I purchsed a slow cooker for 2 people. It means I can cook a meal one day and freeze half. It does not take long to prepare the food. Either fry off the meat and onions or just throw it in the the pot. Then another day make something else and again freeze half. So I do not fill my freezer with lots of the same things, but do have a go to meal if I am really busy. So far it's been chicken casserole with bacon and another one with various types of mushrooms and then chilli con carne and today I'm even making rice pudding in it - I'm quite pleased with my purchase!

[FredaE]

Slow cookes are amazing. Steamed puds esp Christmas pud,lemond curd, creme caramel and all sorts of slithery milk/egg desserts which go down well with people with poor swallowing and little appetite. You can add cheese, egg or cream chocoate, fromage frais and creme fraiche to all sorts of things if you need to make food easy to swallow and calorie rich and dont have to stand and stir it to make sure it does not curdle or go lumpy. Not all at once of course

[Hidden]

Yay, FredaE, you beat me to this! I suddenly thought a little while ago that I hadn't included my trusty old friend the slow cooker for helping with that evening stress of getting in from work and being too tired to do more than a sandwich. A slow cooker's even better than that, isn't it? Nothing quite like throwing in a few ingredients first thing in the morning and opening the door in the evening to an appetizing smell of a hot meal that's ready, with no more to do than lift the lid, ladle it out and eat it. And, as you say, definitely useful for those with minimal appetite and needing small amounts of softer food.