need to cook and freeze some meals for my elderly mum, please can I ask for some advice?

[ssd]

can I cook spag bol and freeze the spag and bol together? or can I freeze them seperately?

I can freeze shephards pie can't I?

has anyone got a good fish/seafood pie idea, mum loves fish(I hate it!!) and I'd like to try to cook something fishy for her to freeze(not salmon she doesn't like that).

any help/suggestions much appreciated!

fish pie-
make some cod / other white fish in parsley sauce and top with mash potato and grated cheese.

how do I make parsley sauce? and could I put anything else in it eg. prawns?

ta BTW!!

please someone help!

my mum is 79 and can't cook for herself, so I'm trying to help her, but I'm not great myself......................

any help would be great!

parsley sauce - make a basic white sauce with butter, flour and milk and add lots of parsley (dried will do.)

You can add prawns, and sometimes I also add some chopped hard boiled egg.

Shepherd's pie freezes very well BTW.

Stews are another thing you could do.

Message withdrawn

thanks for the replies girls and the recipies!

she has ordered food from somewhere or other that delivers but she said the meals and soups weren't good. In her days of cooking for all of us my mum was a great cook, really plain but very tasty, so the delivery companies have a lot to live up to!(so have I!!). I'm not a great cook, but I need to help her out with this and so I'm trying to think of things for her that she could just defrost and heat up.

You're right trickortrev, it's not easy with an elderly mum and 2 kids that are young, but hey ho, what can you do? I have siblings but they live 100's of miles away(and aren't much/any use but thats another thread!) so it's up to me. Thanks for understanding, it's hard to explain the pressure to anyone not in that position.....

I think you can be proud of yourself for doing this for your mum, just thought I would tell you because I know alot of families wouldn't bother, too busy or wrapped up in their own life.
How about a bouillabaisse type fish soup, I haven't gor a recipe though, sorry but you could google it. Veggie bake is also a good one to freeze in portions.

Macaroni cheese freezes well - and you can bung in vegetables and fish or chicken as well to vary it abit. Make a big batch and keep some in the freezer for you children as well.

ds3 nearly always has frozen left overs for lunch - but then he may have a less discerning palate than your mum!

What about meat and potato pie? Then all it would need with it is some frozen peas?

Or chilli which could be eaten with a jacket potato?

Or sausage casserole?

Or lasagne?

I think if I was doing spag bol and wanted to freeze the pasta I would do it as a sort of bake, with the pasta underneath, then the bolog. on top and grated cheese on top of that.

Feel for you ssd - we had this issue with my dad, he didn't really cook and we had to fill his freezer for him - he had a carer who did a lot of it but my sister and I did stuff too. I had a bunch of recipes from Good Housekeeping that were designed for freezing and they were easy and tasty. The ones he liked best are below:

Beef Stew with red Wine and Juniper
900g casserole beef
2 bay leaves
4 thyme sprigs
300ml red wine
1tsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp juniper berries
4 tbsp veg oil
250g shallots (these are a shag to peel so I often used red onion instead)
2 cloves garlic
2 celery stalks chopped
200g streaky bacon
2.5 level tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp sun dried tom paste
600ml hot beef stock (used kallo cubes)
250g mushrooms (they specify chestnut ones, but any seemed to be fine)
chopped parsley

1. Put beef in bowl with wine, berries, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorsn and 1tbsp of oil and leave to marinate at least 30 mins or up to 24hrs.
2. Fry shallots in 1tbsp oil until golden and soft, add celery, garlilc and bacon and cook for 5 mins til celery is soft. Put in bowl.
3. Drain marinade and save. Add remaining oilk to pan and fry meat in batches until browned, add celery mix to pan, stir in flour and tom paste and cook for 1 min. Add drained marinade and beef stock. Cover and bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 45 mins. Add mushrooms and simmer another 30 mins or until beef is tender.
4. Cool quickly if you are going to freeze it. Great served with mashed potato.

Creamy Mustard and Tarragon chicken:
3tbsp veg oil
1 onion chopped
1 garlic clove crushed
2 medium leeks, sliced
4 medium carrots, roughly chopped
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
4 chicken drumsticks, skin removed
1 tbsp pplain flour
300ml cider
300ml chicken stock
4 tbsp dijon mustard
200ml tub creme fraiche
4 tbsp chopped tarragon

1. Fry onion in 1 tbsp oil for 4-5 mins. Add garlic and cook another min.
2. Add leeks and carrots and cook for 5 mins.
3. Meanwhile brown chicken all over in another pan using remaining oil.
4. Stir flour into vegetables and cook for 1 min. Add cider, chicken stock and mustard and season to taste. Add chicken pieces, cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20-25 mins until chicken is tender. Stir in creme fraiche and tarragon and heat for a minute or two.

Hope these help. Another thing that freezes really well is quiche - if you use bought pastry, it's amazing easy to make and v nutricious.

And Lakeland (of course) sell those foil trays and lids for freezing individual portions. I find they can be reused a few times before you have to throw them.

thanks so much for ALL replies.

I'm back now, have cooked her 9 things (3 of each lasagne, shephards pie and lentil soup) to keep her going. will try to do this for her when stocks run low!

thanks for all the support on here, really means a lot. don't get much support in rl(apart from dh and a few mates) so it means a lot on here.

ssd x x x

hope she enjoys it!

my mum orders frozen meals from the www?? womens organisation, forget the name. They are reasonably priced and are lovely (in my mums opinion) and she loves proper dinners. Try to find out if there is something similar in your area

TLV, whats the name of the womans organisation, do you remember?

Do you live in Scotland? We're in Glasgow.

ssd - TLV might mean the Women's Royal Voluntary Service www.wrvs.org.uk. I know they do meal delivery. Also, ahve you thought about Meals on Wheels? Does your Mum get any kind of allowance from the Council? They often help with stuff like this, if you qualify.