How can I feed my kids?

[Larsz]

Sorry for the bait-y title. Just needing suggestions.

I have a surgery coming up very soon on my right arm. I will not be able to properly cook for a while. I’ve meal prepped some casseroles in advance but our freezer is quite small.

I am a single mum and will struggle to cook without my dominant hand. I really don’t want to use the hob as I fear I would not really be much good if anything went wrong and I needed to act.

Please can you suggest things I can pop in my air fryer for meals.

So far I have got:

kievs
frozen fish
fresh soup (carton)
fishcakes
gyoza
jackets
sausages
frozen pizza as a treat
beans on toast

will serve with salad, microwaveable sides/veg

If I buy weekly freezer space shouldn’t be an issue

I want to feed my kids so don’t mind leaning on upf right now. But would love to know what aren’t the worst options.

I do have friends and a sister who will drop off meals here and there. But I do like being self reliant.

Kids are 5 and 6 so can’t really help

Frozen onions, peppers etc are great.

Agree with microwave mash you buy chilled in a packet- so easy! Birdseye do those plastic parcels of mixed vegetables that you just whack in the microwave. Also snap-pots of baked beans and sachets of rice that microwave in a minute or two.

(They are terrible value for money but seem like they would be very useful in these circumstances)

You could make extremely easy meals eg sausages in the air fryer with beans and mash from the microwave, fish fingers and waffles in the air fryer with veg parcel in the microwave, chicken nuggets in the air fryer with rice and veg in the microwave. On other days oven pizza with readymade bagged salad or a nice kids ready meal.

if you have a slow cooker. just make dump bag meals and freeze them before you go into hospital

Baked potato

If you don't already have one, get a deepfreezer, batch cook before, add microwave veg/pre washed salad bags, anything to help! X

Honestly, I would get some microwave meals, pillow packs of salad and boxes of cherry tomatoes for the first few days. It will be so easy for you to manage. No lifting, no chopping, no trying to manoeuvre saucepans or oven trays single-handed.

Or just treat yourselves to a pizza delivery one night!

Go easy on yourself and let your arm recover at its own pace (as much as you can).

Poor you OP! I broke my wrist (well, the ends off the radius and ulna bones where they meet the wrist) in the summer, and I was absolutely horrified how incapable I was with only one hand! It was my right hand, which is dominant, but I am left handed for writing and also for some other things so was not completely useless - but things like cutting with scissors were a total no-no.

I still can't do some of the fine motor skills like peeling potatoes and cutting veg, so I hugely sympathise. I also couldn't put on socks or a bra, or wash my left side - things you just don't think about until you can't do them. I wore one pair of elastic waist trousers for weeks..... Plus housework is mostly impossible!

I agree that feeding family will be hard. I was lucky to have two teenagers and a DH to help, but I was constantly asking them to put on my socks or load/get out/hang out the washing - or even scratch an itch - so felt awful asking for even more support. I couldn't prep food and couldn't put things in and out of the oven, but was fortunate that we could afford a cheap snack out a few times. The rest of the time was mainly basics like jacket potatoes or frozen rubbish. I did make a chilli and a stew in the slow cooker using pre-chopped beef and pre-sliced onions, but I had teenagers to peel and chop carrots, swede, spuds etc.

Years ago we had the kitchen done and had no cooker for a month. I used to buy microwavable vegetables from M&S - which I have never used since but worked for a short time. Might be useful?

I think it really depends how quickly you can use your hand - but if you don't have any other support then I suspect you'll be living on pesto pasta and pre-prepped stir fries for a while. I can only wish you the best of luck, and a swift recovery!

A slow cooker would be really difficult.

So would an instant pot as you need to yank the basket out quite forcefully (at least thats what I have to do with mine).

In your shoes, I'd just keep buying enough easy convenience foods to fill your freezer every few days. Nuggets, chips, fish fingers, frozen peas, potato flakes, precooked sausages and bacon, frozen diced carrots and corn, sliced cheese and deli meats, sliced bread.

If you could afford a big freezer it would be really handy.

You should have an electric tin opener too, that you only need one had to use. You could have tomato soup, baked beans, tinned spaghetti shapes, tinned chili, etc. Tinned tuna for tuna salad or to toss with cooked pasta, tinned sardines...

Big tubs of yogurt that have a snap off lid would be a good idea (the peel off foil ones are hard to manage with one hand).

Buy or make some hard boiled eggs, peel them, and keep in the fridge for egg salad or making sandwiches.

Do you have anyone at all who could help? This will be a very tough recovery period for your little family xxx

For instant pot, read air fryer...

And the instant pot isn't great with only one hand either - the lid has to be pushed open and closed.

Keep things as easy as possible: cooked chicken, microwaveable new potatoes, ready made salad with extra cherry tomatoes.

I can’t help but think an old fashioned toastie maker might be useful.

school lunches for DC.

I broke my left wrist very badly a couple of years ago. Pins and plates. I did as much as possible as quickly as possible to keep my fingers moving. Nevertheless when the plaster came off I couldn’t lift a mug with it alone a kettle.

Changing the topic, you might want to get yourself a couple of over the head bralets (actually easier to step in and pull up). I couldn’t do up a bra for weeks.

good luck

Couscous may help as you can pour on boiling water and let it soak... tinned chicken curry . tinned sausage and beans for emergency...you may find u can use yr hand for short time then rest it after a week or so ..good luck ..if its a struggle ask for help ..there will be a time when u can help them ..

When doing a shop (hopefully an online delivery?) you could buy fresh or frozen chopped veg, eg onions, mushrooms, peppers etc and just throw them in a pot to cook? Wonder if you could get frozen mince as that might not need mashed and broken up the same way fresh mince does? Could be easy enough to make a reasonably healthy spaghetti Bolognese / chilli. Or if not mince, some other protein such as strips of fresh chicken. A slow cooker really does make it easy if you were considering investing.

As people say though, oven prepared food will likely be easier. Maybe things like jacket potatoes and cheese, tuna mayo etc too.

Hope your op and recovery goes well 🌷