How can I feed my kids?

Get a kuhn rikon pull chopper these are really good & dc could help use it with supervision.
Have you got a blender with a grater attachment?
Spag bol with frozen mince as fresh can be stuck in a block a bit.

Either a jar sauce or

• chop bag and freeze onion/celery/carrot mixes now
• add prechopped pancetta eg sold in supermarket in little tubs
• tinned toms. Will you be able to open tins? If not - open now, decant into

Same approach for a curry.
Buy diced chicken.
For onion see above
Premake the dried spice blend now & store in a jar so you just tip some in with the chicken & onion
Tinned toms see above.

When I broke my dominant hand, opening jars was a nightmare. Tins with a ring pull were manageable, tins needing a tin opener were not.
It might not be the cheapest or best, but you might need to rely on things that come in cardboard or plastic packaging. At the least, don't buy loads of jars/cans without checking whether you can actually open them...

Wow I don't even cook all this and I have two working arms! I would be getting the DC to have school lunches then they can make themselves sandwiches or cereal for dinner. Piece of fruit and a yoghurt. It's not forever.

Is there anywhere you could put an additional freezer? Like garage etc? They are often given away on our local FB pages.

Frozen chopped veg is brilliant. Chopped onions, peppers etc.

If you would normally chop fruit for them then you can also get mixed bags (I avoid summer fruits as the cranberries are too tart). Great for putting in porridge or Weetabix.

I'd make sure you have a really decent label or serving spoon so you can empty pans or slow cooker without having to lift too much. Things like draining pasta would be tricky.

Pre sliced rolls like the Warburton's packets, ready sliced or grated cheese.

Pasta sauce in tubs like you get in fridge or frozen from a big batch as opening jars would be hard.

An electric tin opener might be handy if anyone has one you can borrow.

If you treat yourself to an Ocado delivery then Picard does some lovely high quality frozen meals that would be really easy. I realise you have limited space but if you have the lasagne the first night, as it's bulky, then you could also buy some of the gnocchi and a paella, as they come in bags, all delicious and a good size portion, plenty for 3.
The problem with tins and jars is that they are hard to open. These ready meals are easy and made of good quality ingredients.
picard-roast-vegetable-lasagne
picard-gnocchi-with-tomatoes-mozzarella
picard-paella-alla-valenciana
How about a stir fry? Ready chopped veg, chopped chicken, microwave rice. The 6 year old could perhaps help stir it.

Jacket potatoes can be done in air fryer. I would be packet rice, couscous. Even frozen veggies and pieces of frozen cooked chicken. Good old bread and butter with meat/ ready grated cheese and bag of baby cucumbers/carrot and cherry tomatoes.
Would your children like budda bowls?
Frozen veg is great and salad and grated carrots and cheese are brilliant.

I’ve got frozen sliced red onion, peppers, mushrooms, grilled Mediterranean veg and stew veg in my freezer for emergencies. You don’t need to chop.

I had surgery on my dominant hand just before Christmas last year. You have my sympathy...

Kids are really quiet good at doing things with encouragement & supervision. Get them doing things before you go in for surgery. Washing up, opening tins, cracking eggs, chopping easy things (mushrooms and bananas are good to start on)

The other thing I found was how much I could do with my non dominant hand.

Pre chopped frozen vegetables are surprisingly good.

A micro food processor is really useful.

Beans on toast is almost nutritionally balanced

now, before your operation, get a few freezer bags.. dice onions.. dice celery.. finely slice peppers or dice,, dice some carrots.. and freeze them all.. drop the bags on the floor (lol..like I do) to loosen some up.. and you have all your veg for pretty much any slow cooker meal. Also try to find some beans and lentils with pull rings so you do not have to try to use a can opener. jacket potatoes in the crockpot all wrapped in foil.. baked beans in the micro to top with some cheese. Also do a bunch of rice and freeze into portions. can top with anything made in crock-pot. you can also make pasta, drop into icebath. when cold portion and freeze. You got this. Just need to make sure you don't use that arm! also, if money is not an issue, takeaway (or oven) pizza is your friend

I was going to suggest looking at kitchen aids to see what one handed/automatic jar and tin openers are available.

Aldi does a lot of pre-prepped veg in the fresh veg aisle- chopped onions, prepared beans, broccoli, cauliflower etc. As well as various stir fry mixes/ Mediterranean veg trays etc so they could come in useful if you find yourself craving fresh veg! You could pop the Mediterranean veg in the air fryer with some chicken breast pieces or fish

When my mum broke her collarbone, she struggled with opening jars and tins. Depending on what your surgery is, might be worth avoiding them (or getting someone to come round and open stuff then keep in fridge until needed later in the day)

How much can you afford? If you can throw your wallet at the problem, cookfood.net do really nice frozen meals. You could order a week at a time so there wouldn’t be the storage issues of prepping the lot yourself.

You are my spirit animal.

You can buy frozen chopped vegetables.

Frozen chopped veg is a godsend - I'm extremely clumsy with knives! I use very sharp knives to reduce the risk of it slipping on food, but my grip on the food I'm chopping is terrible & whilst the knife is stable, the food often isn't.
We use frozen onions, peppers, mushrooms, spinach (amongst others) in most things.
If you're not convinced, what about one of those boxes with different blades to chop veg? (No idea what they're called though)

Old school meat/fish, potatoes and veg is easy one handed (if not very exciting) if you want to avoid UPF eg roast chicken breasts or thighs, oven cooked sausages, fish fillets cooked in the oven or microwave with microwaved new potatoes or jacket potatoes (premade mash or chips are processed but not necessarily UPF), with microwaved or roast prepared veg. I avoid UPF so I just kept things very simple when I broke my arm.

I wouldn't want to try taking a pasta bake or similar out the oven with one hand nevermind my non-dominant hand. Having broken a finger on my dominant hand recently I found even lifting a kettle with my left hand was more challenging than I expected. And cleaning up was tricky with one hand. The less pots/plates etc used the better.

If you don't want to use the hob those microwavable sachets of pasta will do. They're a bit carp but better than nothing, and only take just over a minute! Dolmio ones, probably in the pasta sauce isle.

Chopped frozen veg is easy. Onions (red and white) are regulars in my house.
A food processor can help you cut things up if you've got the right attachment. But it's extra washing up.
Bags of salad are good for real veg.

It wasn't strictly rude, it was more incredulous, but I can understand it might have stung a bit.

@Larsz
My dd did a cookery course when she was 5 (her older brother was 8 and the teacher said she could do it too).
She was well able to wash fruit and vegetables, chop them and stir saucepans. The teacher said that we completely underestimate children and their abilities.
Allow them to help you.

@Isittimeformynapyet
Excuse me?? Is there any need to be so fucking rude??

Can you use prechopped frozen veg? I use that all the time for currys/chilli in the slow cooker. Really easy to just chuck in

Batch cook some pasta sauces and pop them into ice cube trays, freeze and pop them into bags. Then it’s easy to grab and defrost depending on how hungry the kids are. I try to do this with hidden veg sauces so I feel slightly better!

Frozen lasange is another good one.