Ready meal advice

ooh yes the angel slices go down well here too! Also the non-chilled tubs of rice pudding and various flavours of custard. And an endless supply of jelly babies.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/elderly_parents/3790756-The-Cockroach-Cafe-Mark-2-general-coping-with-oldies
Is the latest in the long running chat thread- loads of wisdom and support and a few laughs.
Another angel slice fan here!(dm) Plus coop trifles.......

I think we are going to buy MIL some food from Parsley Box .
DH took her to dietician again and she has lost more weight . She is down to 6st 7lbs fully dressed with many layers ! She lives alone and manages very well with an hour care visit every day we can’t see her. ( more for company than any physical need .)
She is definitely eating more snack food and not having to defrost food might help ( I know she can cook from frozen but insists on defrosting ) DH takes her out every Wednesday to Marks and Spencer but that’s more for socialising .
I have dropped out of the care picture as I have been having chemotherapy and am waiting to recover enough to have a mastectomy and reconstruction .
My role is to visit when well enough and do the crossword with her and ask Alexa to tell us jokes !

Yes they are based in Edinburgh. My parents live rurally in Scotland so was pleased as they will deliver to them. Glad they sound good.

Parsley Box, I have found much better than Wiltshire.
they have an Edinburgh postcode and deliver reliably.
the advantage is that their foods are stored in a box, at room temperature, until needed then simply microwave, or oven if preferred.
so you can order a lot in, last months, no need for fridge /freezer space.
you don't have to be in when they deliver, they can leave the box outside.

We got Dad a mix. Mistly traditiona british meals. Depended on brother was shopping (morrisons) or me (saisburys occasional m&s). But as he was borderline malnourished we werent worried about calories etc.

I have just started my elderly mum on ' Parsley Box ' www.parsleybox.com
She has tried 7 meals now and liked 6 - result !
The beauty of them is they do not need to be refrigerated or frozen, they just go in the cupboard and the ones she had delivered have a 6 - 8 month sell by date.
Good luck - it's hard to try and do everything you want to do for them !

As others have done, I tend to rotate between the stores as it gets repetitive. But I have also noticed how many of the ready meals get binned in favour of snacks (sausage rolls, pork pies, crisps) and sweet things like biscuits and individual trifles. So I have now reduced the amount of ready meals I get DM a week and increased the amount of snacks instead. I think that means she feels less overwhelmed by 'stuff'.

My issue is milk (I have bored people to death on the Cockroach thread about DM and milk) as she gets through so much of it that I suspect she is actually binning it. So I put some in her freezer for emergencies, which she takes out, defrosts, leaves to go off, then bins.

I really recommend Cook.

Tesco are fantastic for regular orders and you can pay for up front yearly delivery which allows you to pick any slot and have a number of deliveries.
The delivery staff will unpack for you too if registered with them for the service.
Their food options are good and their Finest range has a lot of choice

I would recommend Cook as they do deluveties and the food is excellent. I would second an earlier poster's suggestion of individual bags of mixed vegetables for microwaving.

Try the Sainsburys My Goodness and Be Good To Yourself ranges?

Oh and the bags of steam frozen veg / you can add them on the side to a ready meal then

Try and have some small bits in too. When I worked as a carer often people would refuse meals but could be tempted into say scrambled eggs or a bit of fresh soup (the tub type), a small salad etc people with Alzheimer's often want sweet food even if they didn't like it previously so rice pudding, sponge and custard. Snack stuff too. Obviously you want to keep it healthy but then Calories are definitely the most important thing
Stuff like breakfast cereal that's fortified, if they like that, maybe with a banana on top or some tinned peaches with custard were a big hit!
Frozen jacket potatoes are pretty good too as you can make them quickly

Your post struck a chord Lippy as a few months ago I (and my mum) reached the end of the road which you are just embarking on. It’s exhausting and all-consuming and you must look after yourself as well as your mum.
You may find it’s necessary to manage your expectations downwards. I used to worry about mum not having proper nutrition but in the end it is more important to get calories into them - mum was a complete health freak in “real life” but in her last few months at home I couldn’t get her even to contemplate a garden pea! - she lived on Sainsbury’s ready meals (the same one every day!) and Mr. Kipling angel slices. It’s making me a bit tearful thinking of the lengths I used to go to trying to get her to eat something healthier, all to no avail. Needless to say, once she was admitted to a care home she took to eating everything put in front of her.

I’m sure you will know about this already, but as well as this site I found the Alzheimer’s Society forum a mine of information about every aspect of dementia.

I had meals on wheels for my Nan for a bit - I did have to pay for them but like someone else said it's less than a fiver a day and they plate it up if that's what you ask them to do and also if something were amiss with your mum they report it and it gets fed back to next of kin. Ours was run out of the local day centre so maybe if you were to ring them they could give you more information.

I know how stressful even one extra phone call can be when you're overwhelmed so feel free to PM me and I would happily call and find out details for your area if that's helpful (even though I know I'm a random on the Internet!)

Congratulations on getting the care package approved that's a massive step!

lippy so sorry you are feeling overwhelmed. It’s really tough, and anything that makes life easier works.
We found that mils tastes changed with dementia- would eat things she would not consider before.
Come and join the cockroach thread for gin and sympathy

That wouldn't work with me as I live 700 miles away! (cooking food) also cooking for DC and DH as well would be too much. A nice thought though. Think my family who live closer might pick up some M & S meals for him perhaps to start with

It's got to be better than the tins of stuff he is randomly eating at present!