What are good dishes to prepare someone who just got out of the hospital?!
What are good dishes to prepare someone who just got out of the hospital?
My aunt is getting out of the hospital today. She has been in there for almost two weeks and had a major surgery. She is still in need of major recovery time so I wanted to prepare a handful of meals for her to have in the fridge/freezer so she basically just has to "heat and eat". She doesn't have any dietary restrictions. I'm looking for meals that are easy and quick for myself and will freeze and reheat nicely for her. Any suggestions?
Answers:
Vegetable soup, lasagna, any sort of casserole, chicken & dumplings...that's really sweet of you...
Most casseroles - meat with vegetables and /or pasta will reheat nicely. Also soup is easy.
I do this one- it can be cut into 6 pieces and reheated after freezing either in the microwave or in a sauce pan with a little water.
Spinach Quiche-400 oven-10" pie plate
One package of frozen spinach defrosted and drained thoroughly
1/2 dried onion
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1-1/4 cup soy milk or milk
3/4 cup Bisquick or jiffy biscuit mix
2 packs of eggbeater (equaling 4 eggs)
Spray pie plate with Pam
in a pie plate combine spinach, onion and cheese.
in small bowl beat remaining ingredients- eggs Bisquick and milk until smooth- add to stuff in pie plate.
bake 35-40 minutes until a knife inserted comes out clean.
cool slightly and slice in 6 pieces. if wrapped in parchment paper or wax paper then in foil it makes it easy to pop out and heat up after frozen.
very nice of you to do this for her- it is very exhausting coming home and recouping.
Pasta seems to freeze well. The very best thing I got when I had a baby was lasagna roll-ups. It takes some time to make them, but soooo worth it, and portion controlled, where you can take out as many as you want or need. Preparing them is easy, just takes some time.
Boil the lasagna noodles as package directs.
Big cottage cheese container and shredded mozzarella cheese -- mix these together in a bowl -- (some pple put parsley flakes in for color but my kids hate anything green).
Put foil down on your counter, lay the cooked noodles out flat, put a very light layer or globs of the cheeses on them, then roll them up. (My mom puts a big glob on one end then rolls them up) I put them directly into a freezer bag, four or five to a bag and then freeze them.
Time to eat? Take out as many as you want, microwave them until thawed out a little, get a jar (because it's resealable) of spaghetti sauce, pour over however much you want, microwave until warmed through. OR you could put them in an oven at 350 for like 30 minutes or so. COVERED in both. They are wonderful!
(yeah, they're meatless, unless there's meat in the sauce -- I supposed you could put meat in the roll-up, but I've never tried that yet)
I usually put however many needed in a casserole dish for the "first" meal and the rest in freezer bags for next time. Give a couple of jars of sauce, and she's set. We got a bag of salad and frozen garlic bread too, but the roll-ups were the best!
The other things we make and keep in the freezer for ourselves is - I always make a triple or quadruple recipe of gumbo, chili, or vegetable stew or soup, even enchiladas.
(We usually buy lunchmeat that comes with those Glad containers, but before that we bought them, so we have a LOT of them). Put these recipes in them, you have a large or double serving to take out and microwave until hot.
One of the healthiest, tastiest meals is a good bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup. It's easy too! In a large pot, lightly brown your cleaned, cut up chicken (I use a couple of skinless breasts cut in pieces), in 1/4 cup of Mazola corn oil. Once browned, I add some chopped onions and chopped celery (about 2 cups of each) and let this all smother until vegetables are wilted and chicken is cooked through. Then I add about 2 - 3 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, I add my noodles, I use # 3 spaghetti, but you can use fettucine noodles, or whatever you prefer. I also add a couple of sliced carrots for extra vitamins. Salt and pepper and a bay leaf for rich flavor. Once carrots are soft, it's ready. Add a ham and cheese sandwich toasted on the side. They will be healthy and happy! Enjoy!
One thing to consider is that hospital food seems to be very bland, and overly salty and sweet. (My mom had major surgery last year and couldn't wait to get home and eat some real food.) So make things that are definitely tasty!
Also, consider that surgery tends to slow the GI tract, so some prunes or prune juice available would be nice.