Recipes needed for super fussy person...

[pamplemousse]

...a 91 yo!
This is my carer job and I do the shopping and cook lunch (and everything else too!).
The lady is losing weight and has no appetite so I am trying to make her nice dinners. They did have those ready meals on wheels things but she didn't really like them, they were grim. She used to cook huge banquets for hundreds of guffawing army folk so is quite into home cooked food, eeek!
So now what she doesn't like - pasta or rice.
I make her the following all of which she enjoys; bangers and mash, cold meat and salad, cottage pie, can't think of any more... awful!
Any ideas would be appreciated, my brain is tired. I'm veggie and have a fussy 3 yo and omnivourous to cater for at home and my recipe finding energy is dwindling!

Sounds like she enjoys quite traditional food (not too surprising...) - how about chops or grilled chicken. Stews would probably go down well too, but I guess that might be tricky for time? Could you make one and freeze portions to reheat?

Good solid soups?

Does she have a freezer?

Toad in the hole. You can make small amounts of that - easy.

Partially cook sausage on grill.

Make some batter for 1 person use 2 eggs - what I do is break the eggs in a cup, measure mentally where the egg came up to, then measure out the same volume in milk and flour. Whisk together with some salt. Then heat some oil up in a dish/pan in the oven as hot as it will go. Then put the batter in, then plop the sausages in. Put in hot oven until cooked.

Lnacshire hotpot - basically cottage pie but with sliced potatoes on top, not mash.

Cauliflower cheese, can serve that with a baked potato.

Gammon (this gammon slices in supermarket) with boiled potatoes and parsley sauce.

Steak and kidney pudding - the ready made ones to serve one, with mashed potatoes.

With veg on side - carrots, brocolli, green beans, peas. Thin older people prefer veg cooked a bit softer than we do nowadays (ime anyway)

Stew - cook onions, swede, potato and diced braising steak very long and on low heat with beef stock and seasoning. Serve with dumplings.

Fantastic thanks so much! I think she'll like those ideas, and you are right about the veg GOML, mushy is good!
Yes she has a freezer BBTB.
What do you do with a gammon slice? Is it ready to eat from the shop? Or does it need to be hot, ew, of course it needs to be hot no? Does diced braising steak come in a pack called that? How long is long?!
Clueless veggie sorry!
Thaaaaanks :)

Pamplemousse - if you go onto the BBC Good Food website and put in ingredients it'll come up with the recipes for you.

(not that i'm lazy or anything lol)

Get those packs of gammon steaks and it will have instructions on about frying / grilling them for X minutes. It's easy.

Yes, you should find packs of braising steak in the supermarket - or ask them at the butcher's counter.

Long = several hours.

You buy the gammon slices in the same place as you get bacon from - it comes in packs of 2 slices usually. Quite reasonably priced as well. If you go to a butcher you may be able to buy just the one slice. You just cook it like bacon - in a frying pan/griddle, dry fry on each side for about 4 mins or so depending on thickness. Serve it with a fried egg for full retro value!

Re braising steak - it is labelled on the packet as stewing/braising steak, you can buy it ready diced or in a steak which you just chop up. For old fashioned stew, chop onion and fry for 5 mins or so, chop up swede and potato and mix that in with onion, stir in the braising steak (don't let it go brown, can go tough) with a teaspoon or so of flour with salt and pepper. Then I splash in some worcester sauce and a dollop of mustard, then fill with some beef stock. Cook on low for a couple of hours (or slow cooker) until veg and meat tender. You can then cook some dumplings (instructions are on the side of pack, easy peasy) or can thicken it to soup consistency by taking out 1/3 of it and blending it, before adding back in.

I supposed you need some easy to eat stuff which is high cal - perhaps do some puddings as well, such as apple crumbles which you can freeze in small portions, to serve with a ready made pot of ambrosia.

Definitely try some casseroles and stews - here's one I put up a few months ago. I serve it with couscous but you could do dumplings or potatoes.

Fish pie or fish cakes?

You can bake/roast individual chicken portions, with a roast potato even, and serve with veggies (I'm assuming a full roast is too large for her).

Thanks so much for the recipes GOML, very helpful and I will try them all!
Thanks BL too, will try a stew now it seems to be winter already it seems appropriate.
I would say thanks to BBTB but can't be arsed to type it lol ;) Will check out the website
Thaaanks
:o

Would she eat cornish pasties? You can buy the pastry ready to roll then cook up some mince or diced beefsteak (not braising as it's too tough - mince is the easiest.) Fry up finely chopped onion with it, then dice spuds, swede, carrots into the mix and cook in and serve with peas or salad. Could make about 6 small pasties from one roll of pastry and freeze the rest for other days. I usually cook the filling first so the pasty only has to go in for the 20 mins it takes to cook the pastry.

Hmmm...

Fish pie
chicken casserole and champ/colcannon
chicken with creamy sauce and new pots
Gammon and cauliflower cheese
broccoli cheese
Mackerel/salmon fillets with creamy peas and potatoes
Cheese and bread "gratin" and other savoury bread and butter puddings
Full english?
Baked potato with tuna and sweetcorn or chilli, coleslaw, etc
salady main with a substantial pud like crumbles, pie, tarts, cake!!
Chicken and mushroom pie
Pastry dishes like spinach and feta tart, quiches?

All the old people I know seem to love smoked haddock! My mother cooks it in milk in the oven somehow and then they eat it with plain boiled potatoes or bread and butter