Batch cooking ideas for ill PILs

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Both my PILs are unwell. Have been doing some batch cooking for them, but have run out of ideas. What can I make them?

Any dietary restrictions or requirements?

Do they have freezer/microwave combo?

What sort of food do they like? Traditional meat and two veg or are they open to different ideas?

No dietary restrictions Sweeping.

They have a freezer and microwave, but I am quite happy to cook every few days for them so they don't have to freeze stuff. My idea is to send DH through with a batch of stuff every 3-4 days, probably Tuesday and Friday.

They are open to ideas, but nothing too hot as FILs illness is stomach related.

Spag Bol, beef stew, chicken curry, chilli, chicken casserole, lasagne, shepards pie, meat pie, fish pie, paella, risotto, pasta bake

What they said ^^

Stuff that's saucy keeps / freezes / reheats really well.

If you're doing pies (shepherds, fish etc) and lasagnes you can buy the foil trays, make it up in those and then freeze. Then shove the whole thing straight from frozen into the oven.

Shepherd's pie, risotto and lasagne, haven't done those yet. I could do a rice pudding too with the risotto rice (they like a pudding, not same batch as risotto).

I could do a butternut squash risotto with chicken and peas in it, then they wouldn't need to cook extra veggies.

That sounds yummy. Do they like gnocchi as that could be another option.

Some more options for puddings:
Crumbles, tiramisu, cheesecake, trifle, treacle sponge, brownies, bread & butter pudding

They do like gnocchi Teddy. And so does DH, so I could do a double batch. Like a gnocchi bake. Mmm.

Treacle sponge. FIL would love a treacle sponge. And MIL would love a tiramisu. I was going to make banana brownies later today for the weekend anyway so I can do a double.

OK you are probably doing these already but "one pot" dishes would probably go down well such as shepherds pie, cottage pie, fish pie with extra veg crammed in.

I'd probably also roast two small chickens and prep some mash in a bowl separately along with prepared salad and dressing in a jam jar so they could help themselves to whatever combo they like.

Finely prepared beef or pork casserole with separate dish of potatoes boulangere? (Bit of strange combination but might work!)

Perhaps a small gammon ham joint and a good thick pea soup to eat in combination.

Have very good easy-ish recipe for a lean pork joint which is marinated and then cooked in marinade plus veg. It's very good to cut and come again. Could do some sort of colcannon as accompaniment?

Fresh veg soup (or chicken broth) each time your dh visits to go in tupperware bowl for fridge for lunches plus bowl of fruit salad cut up fine with sugar/tot of alcohol to keep it fresh.

Apple pie for tea/pudding? With one of those squirty cream things? Or apple crumble? Or rice pudding?

Will keep thinking ... .

Smoked fish pie.
Smoked fish poached in milk, use that milk to make white sauce, flake fish, cut broccoli into small florets, add sauce, cover with mash, I add a thin scattering of breadcrumbs and a handful of grated cheese over the top too. Bake as per a shepherds pie. Very freezable before or after baking, reheats well in microwave or oven.

I used to do this, shepherds pie, beef stew, lamb stew, chicken casserole, and hearty soups for DGran's freezer. She didn't like pasta or rice, but loved "stewy dinners" and roast dinner too (I would sometimes do a roast dinner when visiting and put fresh veg in a pot, and potatoes peeled in another pot for leftover meat dinner next day).

Desserts:
I'd make crumble mix, which I could freeze a big bag of. Then it was easy to make a few small ones when visiting, and sometimes made granny sized ones for her freezer.
Crumble mix is the flour, sugar, butter topping.
Fruit could be
Apple
Apple and blackberry
Rhubarb
Plum worked ok too

Apple pie was loved, and the individual pots of custard were handy for that (like ambrosia).

Fresh brownies or buns were also much loved, not so great for freezer though.

A few pots of homemade soup might be a nice idea. If they are feeling a bit off soup always goes down well and if they have doctor/hospital appointments it's an easy meal to heat up if they come home late.

Leek & potato, made with full fat milk & some grated cheese to go on it is a good one as is a lentil, veg + ham/bacon one.

So far I have done:

Cottage pie with carrots
Beef bourguinon
Honey glazed gammon
Chicken and bacon casserole
Fish pie with peas and sweet corn
Honey and lemon chicken with tomatoes and pineapple
Meringues (with berries and ice-cream)
Apple flapjacks
Pineapple and ginger crumble

They do really like soup Sweeping. I could do a roast chicken, pull off the meat and put it in a Tupperware. Maybe even make up a couple of roast dinners in those foil plates with a lid Fusion. Make stock then soup. Pop in some nice bread from the local baker and they can have soup and chicken sandwiches for lunch for a few days.

Oops - looking at ideas below - think I have gone a bit too safe and traditional in my choices so in addition perhaps:

chicken fricassee with pommes anna
here

crustless salmon sweet potato pie here

zucchini slice
here

And some sort of cut and come again cake to have in the larder for tea times?

All the recipes you have done sound delicious Gatto! They are lucky to have you as a dil!

Favourite soup with bread and cheese?

My granny dinners generally had lots of veg in them too, carrots peas and onions in sheep pie, broccoli in fish pie, mushrooms (or peas) and onion in a chicken version etc.

My spag Bol has things like carrots, peppers, courgette, mushrooms, finely diced to hide from DD.

If they could use the oven, perhaps freeze small portions of Mediterranean veggies diced and marinated, so they just have to open the bag, pour onto a tray and roast them? They also freeZe well raw or cooked.

Yes, crumbles Biddy. I could pop some oats on too. Pear crumble with cocoa in the crumble mix. Or maybe mandarins? MIL loves Jaffa cakes so I could do mandarin and chocolate crumble. Or chocolate orange brownies. Local shop has little pots of custard on offer, I will pop down.

They do like soup Magi. Me and DH not keen on it, so I don't make it much. They would like all those you mention lentil, also maybe a smoked haddock one or mushroom, I don't know much about soup as I don't make it.

I do make stock a lot though (use it for casseroles normally). Any more soup ideas?

Oh if they like duck and can face it - then pre-roasted duck breasts are really delicious cold and finely sliced. We usually serve them with pot and celeriac mash which re-heats well, accompanied by chicory salad with honey dressing.

Some sort root vegetable stew with cous-cous (light on the stomach) Nigella (the real one this time) does a good one. Keeps for two or three days.

Nigella's sticky gingerbread recipe always goes down well with poorly friends and keeps well.

Aubergine parmigiana.
Moussaka.
Chicken jambalaya (don't cook the rice all the way or it is soggy)
Roasted meat slices with gravy freeze well and you could parboil chopped root veg and supply in a separate tray for cooking in the oven.
Lentil and gammon stew.
Rosti freeze well and just need reheating in the oven, good with sausages and green veg.
Ratatouille.

Butternut squash soup very easy and digestible. Cut squash in to quarters or eighths without peeling. Scoop out seeds. Put in roasting tray. Oil slices with veg oil (ideally walnut). S & p (or rub in something like Ras-el-hanout spice mix )and bung in high oven for 30-35 mins or so until you can pierce easily with sharp knife and a tiny bit burnt around edges.

Meantime have onions, poss a bit of celery softening in olive oil in heavy based ban. When squashcooked, scrape softened flesh in to onions etc and add stock. Cook on low for another ten mins or so then blend (ideally with electric prong thing!). Dead easy!

In fact, if you are going to be making a lot of soups then I recommend getting a hand held blender as it takes a lot of the faff out of it all.

Delia's standard leek and potato is good recipe too.

Chicken and ham pie?

Make the filling then is you use ready made puff pastry from the chiller section, you can use it to top the pie then freeze it uncooked.

Then defrost when needed and the pastry will puff up in the oven.

Conveniently those foil trays are the same size as the pastry sheets :-).

You could also do things like pasties which freeze well and are nice "hot lunch" food.

Cock au vin is lovely and easy to cook.

Loads of chicken dishes like chicken in white wine/cream and chicken with orange and tarragon.

I tend to think dishes with sauces freeze better.

Oh, I'd forgotten about chicken Fricasse Sweeping. My mum used to make it. And I like the look of that salmon pie. I realise I could do lots of potato topped pies with roots added into the mash as well as vegetables in with the meat/fish. Like a roast chicken pie with mashed potato and celeriac on top. And oatmeal stuffing on top too.

I like cooking Sweeping but keep it simple now as there are lots of food intolerances in this house. So I need help to remember how to cook outside my usual repertoire!

Gingerbread's a good idea too. I could do a pineapple upside down cake with a ginger sponge in one of those round foil trays.

Pies in the same trays Eats. Maybe a steak and mushroom one. With some red wine. Or a fruit pie. A berry pie with those frozen packs of mixed berries. And coq au vin with mash.

There is a deli nearby I could get cheese from Water. We don't eat much cheese so I forgot about it, but PILs do like cheese.

Med veggies and ratatouille also a good option. I could make a cous cous or quinoa salad to go with it Crow.

Thanks for the soup recipe btw Sweeping.

My grandparents love lasagna for this. Also chorizo and spinach soup- which is really easy and filling. Fry off a chorizo sausage and onion. Add any veg- a couple of peppers if you have them and anything else to hand. Loads of frozen spinach and a tin or two of chickpeas and three or four tins of chopped tomatoes. Blitz it with a hand blender so still chunky, but broken down a bit.

I think the original recipe (Jamie Oliver?) calls for stock, but even my grandparents find it salty enough from the sausage. It is super filling and easy to make.

jambalaya, sweet potato and chorizo soup, tuna/chicken pasta bake, irish stew, jacket potatoes with various fillings, hunters chicken and meatballs in tomato and veggie sauce. Little extras like fresh bread rolls garlic bread were always appreciated by my grandma. They are lucky to have you!