recipes for meals for elderly parents who want meat but i am veggie

[yehudiwho]

right ladies, my dad is poorly and only eating small meals, soup, eggs etc. Mum is not cooking much and having ready meals when she does. That's fine but I want to make stuff for the freezer to give more choice and more nutritious if dad's appetite picks up

mum and dad are old style traditional, meat and 2 veg, most unusual thing they will try is pizza or barbecue sauce so no curry recipes. I want easy recipes for things like stew, pie and casseroles.... with meat . I haven't cooked meat for 26 years so a bit nervous.

Casseroles you can make up as you go along... Slow-cook beef cuts are shin, brisket, skirt and they will take about 3 hours cooking in a cool oven. Chicken thighs (you can get boneless ones) respond better than chicken breast to the long cooking times of a casserole and will take about 1.5 hours. Pad both out with onions, new potatoes, root vegetables, pulses etc. Use stock/wine/tomato passata for the liquid element. This will either reduce over the cooking time to a thick sauce or you can sprinkle in some flour at the start for the same reason.

For pies you can either put a pastry lid on a casserole or make a white (veloute or bechamel) sauce, add some cooked chunky chicken/ham/mushrooms and use that as the filling.

Cottage Pie is a good one for the freezer. Dry fry good quality minced beef with some onion, sprinkle in a little flour and then simmer with a little Oxo stock, tomato puree, herbs, carrots and a few peas added right at the end. Spread in a baking dish, allow to cool and top with mashed potato. Fish Pie is another classic... poach the fish lightly in milk and then use the reserved milk to make a thick parsley sauce. Again, spread in a baking dish, allow to cool and top with potato

thank you, they sound quite reasonably easy to manage even for a veggie , if its slow cooked then at least I don't have to worry about poisoning them! I'm so glad you thought of telling me what cuts of meat , I hadn't even thought there would be technicalities like that. when you say chunks of chicken -would that be uncooked chicken breast cut up ?

sorry just re read your post and you say cooked chicken, can you buy it cooked or do I have to cook it myself? I roast the odd chicken for the family so I do have some meat related skills but not sure how you cook chicken breasts from raw

Chicken is simplest if you do it in the oven ....
small roasting tray (you can have a dedicated meat one)
chicken thighs, breast or chunks ... dash of oil or butter, salt and pepper, cover with foil, pop in oven at 150 for about an hour
scoop out and serve with whatever else you fancy

same can be done with pork loin steaks

therefore minimal handling for you and your pans do not get meat juices on them