ideas for home made or shop bought ready meals for elderly vegetarian?

Pazu

I order from Wiltshire Farm Foods for my elderly mum who is also vege. The meals are a little dearer than Mr T but have a better nutritional content. They are a very reliable company. A carer comes in and gets mum breakfast at about 10.30 then comes back at 5.30 to heat dinner. I was told that carers only did personal care but when it became obvious that she couldn't cook herself they suddenly became able to cook!!! Cheaper than putting her in a home I suppose. HTH.

charliee_3

my nan gets the wilshire foods, she finds them ok, some better than others, but the potions are small, she doesnt eat much but she supplements them with extra veg. My mum has had them with her a couple of times and thinks they are disgusting though.. i suppose they will never be like homecooked, but better than nothing

id just put cheese in everything to get the calories up.. jacket pots should freeze fine..the pub i used to work in used to buy ready baked potatoes that you just had to heat up in the microwave and they were lovely.

i know its not exactly OS but iceland sells a lot of 'cook from frozen' food like chicken and so on.. might be worth looking at? i havent seen them, but ive seen the adverts

sillyvixen

stef240377 wrote: »

I looked into having meals delivered for my uncle when it was apparent he was not eating properly and it was getting difficult to make sure someone could take meals to him every day. There are a few companies out there btu the one i looked at was Wiltshire Farm Foods, link - http://www.wiltshirefarmfoods.com/

They have sections where you can select smaller meals or vegetarian etc. It would have proved a waste of time for my uncle as he 'forgets' to do himself a meal.

my grandad used wiltshire farm foods and although he was a carnivore i can vouch for for the veggie stuff - he would keep a couple of veggie meals in the freezer and invite me round for dinner after church when my parents were on holiday (normally my mum would do sunday lunch for him and send a meal home).. they were ok and as they came with veggies and potatoes were perfect for a kitchen challanged man in his late 80's - he even discovered some meat free dishes that became firm faves and would have a couple in his normal fortnight delivary - just for a change!

BitterAndTwisted

If your gran enjoys them I'd be thinking of whipping up some vegetable soups and freezing them in individual portion-sizes. I just made a huge vat of butternut squash soup this afternoon and plan to do just that. Mushroom soup can be whipped up in about 20 minutes or so.

Cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese, fish pie, pasta with tomato or creamy sauces, veggie lasagna, aubergines in tomato sauce with mozzarella and parmesan, ratatouille

Raksha

Vegetarians can be low in iron, so look at green leafy veg, like Broccoli and good old spinach to keep her iron levels up - low iron can mean anemia. When my Dad was alive he suffered badly with anemia, and one of the symptoms was confusion which could easily be mistaken for Alzehiemers

foreign_correspondent

Raksha, that is a very good point, thanks, she has been anaemic in the past - I may combine your suggestion with bitterandtwisted's and make some broccoli and stilton soup, and some spinach soup - easy to eat and iron rich!

ETA - I have just been to asda and have had a look at their ready meals - I think some of the kids 'great stuff' ones may suit her, and are lower in salt etc. - oops, no, just looked nline and they need to be cooked from chilled - from frozen would be far easier!

ubamother

Can I just say hooray to the OP for being so lovely?
Often the elderly have small, picky appetites, so big portions can be very offputting for them. Small but calorie dense portions may seem more appetising - cheese, cream, fats all add calories. Your frozen cheesy jackets could be mashed up with cream as well as cheese for example

misskool

these people do nice ready meals
http://www.cookfood.net/

they are a bit expensive

mumofjusttwo

Morrisons are doing a quorn shepherds pie at the moment for £1. Some of them have quorn MOCs. with 50 p off etc so good value too.

Portions aren't too big so may be ideal.

MrsE_2

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

If anyone can recommend any good shop bought ready meals too, I would appreciate it, for times when I am too busy to cook, and to add variety - I wondered if M & S do anything nice? (price is not too much of a factor here, it's more important that we get her eating well!)

Waitrose do a nice range of small ones (does she have a small appitite? My mum does).

They are always on offer, 5 for the price of 4 I think.

My Mum likes the cook! range, but they are limited to the south east

http://www.cookfood.net/menu/mealpacks/microwave-meals-for-one

They seem expensive, but one will do her two meals.

ETA my mum is very fussy & very picky & doesn't really "enjoy" eating. If you gave her Tescos ready meals she just wouldn't eat them & wouldn't care either.