recipe book for my father in law

[dreamylady]

My FIL has been losing weight and feeling tired and we are concerned he's not looking after himself very well since his wife died 3 years ago.

He's quite a proud man and there's little we can do to advise/help (I would like to make sure he's going to the doctor but not sure how he'd react, and he doesn't tend to take much notice of our advice because we're young uns )

But we did wonder about getting him a recipe book for christmas as he can cook what he knows to cook, we're just not sure he's getting a varied diet and that maybe he struggles with being bothered to cook just for himself.

He's a fairly adventurous eater - he enjoys chinese and west indian as well as traditional british food. Doesn't have access to very exotic ingredients but does shop in a big supermarket where they sell 'world' foods.

So I suppose we need a book with quick, simple but interesting dishes made with easy to obtain ingredients. Any suggestions?

What about Nigel Slater Fast Food?
Lots of varied stuff in there, yummy and quick to do.

Ainsley Harriot's books are quite good for slightly unusual foods eg west indian, curry, chinese etc but made easily, quickly and with supermarket ingredients.

We bought my very reluctant to cook FiL Jamie's Ministry of Food book a couple of years ago because MiL was going into hospital to have an operation and he would have to fend for himself.

It is very good for the basics and is very simple to follow. Here

Does he like cooking? because if not, then no matter how good the book is, he won't use it.

If you can afford it, I'd suggest something like a shop of healthy frozen ready cooked meals he can just shove in the oven rather. But obviously, that only works if you're able to spend a bit of money.

When my grandmother died, we put together a hand written note book, with details of how to cook the sort of dishes she used to make (she was a very good cook). That way, he could make the meals he liked, and it all tasted as he expected it to. He lived another 15 years, and was not a bad cook by the end, although any visiting female was still automatically expected to cook when visiting him!

While he would probably have eaten better on ready meals, he was way too tight to pay for them. We did fill his freezer when we visited, with pre-prepared shepherds pie, and things of that type. (And then had to have the discussion about not re-freezing them, when someone switched the power off to the freezer..)