Minceperation needed

[PlatinumBrunette]

I’m planning a batch cooking session for my elderly food-fussy mum and need some inspiration for lamb and beef mince dishes.

In recent years, she’s eating less and less, and due to a ton of medical, intolerance, and allergy issues, there’s a lot of ingredients she can’t eat. Thankfully, I’m aware of all these and having cooked for what seems like millennia, I’ve become adept at substitution.

A few months ago, I batch cooked some cottage pie, shepherds pie and chicken. She was over the moon! Aww. So it’s time to start again.

I need to do a shop before I start the cooking conveyor belt and wondered if anyone can give me some ideas on what to include so she gets a wide range of vitamins, minerals, protein and - what have I missed? All in one tiny meat dish. Hidden veg just like I did with my kid!

Nothing remotely spicy. No nuts. I won’t list all the things she can’t have, but if you’ve got any flavour ideas, please let me know.

Finely chopped swede is excellent in shepherds pie

Ohh, I have a marvellous Bobotjie recipe from a South African friend’s mum, it’s awesome. Must make it again soon - not for mum tho, for me!

what are stovies?

Which is why I’m making the shepherd’s pie and cottage pie bases. I just want to give her a little more variety. She’ll get about 40 pots in all, so two servings in each pot.

I has a swede! Hate the thing myself, but it’s her kind of food.

I’ve literally just bought a food chopper to save my hands from all the fine chopping!

I make a savoury mince pie with pre-rolled pastry. It's similar to cottage pie but I'll put frozen veg, usually peas and sweetcorn but sometimes blocks of spinach, in as well. I think it freezes better than cottage pie as I'm not keen on reheated potato.

I don’t put potato on, I just provide the cooked mince dish, already frozen. She’s not keen on spuds, so has a slice of bread and butter.
My childhood, right there! 😂

Chopped mushrooms can be added to mince v easily and a great source of vit d and minerals.

SWEDE To save all the chopping.....place the whole washed swede in a roasting bag with two or three spoons of water. Tie the bag very loosely, making sure there is a good air vent for steam. Microwave for 8 to 10 minutes till swede is soft when squeezed.

BEWARE!! It will be very hot!! Allow to cool, then chop off the top, and scoop out the soft pulp to use as required.
If you don't have a microwave, oven roast the whole swede in a baking dish for 40 to 50 minutes instead. Do it when you're cooking something else for economy!

Check yoootuuube for swede hints.

I use this as a base for lasagne, pasta, meatballs, bolognaise, etc. I do it because my son doesn't like rich tomato flavour so it's a much milder, less acidic flavour compared to standard tomato sauce - and way more nutritious (9 types of veg)!

To make a big batch and freeze:
2 onions, 2 red onions, 2 red peppers, 1 courgette, 1 aubergine, 1 sweet potato, about half a butternut squash and 2 carrots.

Remove skin of aubergine and courgette (so their colour doesnt dull the sauce) plus other skins as normal! Roughly chop them all and fry with lid on for half an hour.

Add 2 tins tomatoes, 1tbsp sugar and some herbs and fry for another half hour. Blend to a sauce.

Fry 2 big (750g) packs of mince - I use a mix of beef, pork and turkey - until browned then add the blended sauce and cook for 15 mins.

Separate into portions and freeze.

When I defrost, I then either use as is for lasagne/bolognaise, or add kidney beans and paprika for mild chilli con carne.

Takes a bit of time initially to make the big batch (but little actual effort) but that would give you loads of portions to just defrost and reheat.

I've just read your post about the size of her appetite so my measures might be slightly extreme 😆- that's the volume I do for 3 of us to stock the freezer so you could probably half that at least - sorry!

I know this isn’t a meaty idea, but I do a very similar thing for my DM. Her absolute favourite is my homemade fish cakes. I make and freeze at home then transport.
She gets one out and leaves to defrost on a baking tray…

Fish pie is her second favourite!

I add lentils - just bog standard dried red lentils to mince dishes, for the extra protein and I stir in some frozen spinach to just about anything be it curry or lasagne - in it goes . No one complains to either addition as I slow cook mince based dishes for so long the lentils just melt into oblivion as does the spinach

It's getting harder and harder now to feed my own mother. 86 and whilst she will happily eat cake, biscuits and chocolate, her teeth never seem to work on anything else. She is the only person in the world who can find fat on turkey breast. She now prefers soft food and picks about the veg and whilst she once used to love a madras, the slightest hint of spice now she will be saying - it's too hot. Still her teeth work very well on a cheeky Chinese and fish and chips :)

If she likes livers and kidneys, that's great as they pack SO much nutrition into a very small volume of food - excellent for those with bird-like appetites to get in a lot of protein, iron, all sorts of vitamins and minerals and kidneys have loads of omega-3 as well I think. In addition to the meatballs you could try:

• bolognese enriched with chicken livers (recipe here, the first one just called "ragu": www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/dec/08/classic-elizabeth-david-recipes)
• sauteed chicken livers with marsala and grapes
• chicken liver pate
• devilled kidneys on toast (www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2016/jun/09/how-to-cook-the-perfect-devilled-kidneys)
• steak and kidney pie
• kidneys, bacon and mushrooms with red wine (like a coq au vin)

Corned beef hash/stew would be good

recipe I use (adjust quantities as needed, you can’t really mess it up!)
fry off some onion until soft, add chopped peeled potatoes and chopped carrot, just cover with water, bring to boil and simmer until soft with oxo cube, lea and perrins, pepper as needed or whatever gravy based stuff you have
when everything is soft add cubed corned beef and stir that in
if it needs thickening then Bisto powder or mash some of the cubed potato up in it
some people add swede, I have brown sauce and pickled red cabbage with it

I'm not the OP but that recipe sounds fab. Thanks for sharing.

As a pp said, frozen spinach is much easer than fresh.

I usually do a bolognaise with lots of veg, finely chopped - onion, carrots, celery and mushrooms. All chopped in a food processor.

What does she like?

Not a recipe, but I'm going to suggest getting some of this. It provides all the proteins and amino acids you get from meat. One 30g scoop contains 28.9g protein. I add about half a scoop to main meals. When cooking with it, it works best if you make a paste with cold water then add some hot liquid, just as you would with cornflour.

Most non-athletes need around 50g protein a day. When eating only one small meal, or even the small meal and a light lunch, it's quite hard to get enough of it.

peaksupps.co.uk/products/beef-protein-isolate-95-hydrobeef

Goddamn, I forgot the mushrooms!
just finished my online order. Ah well, still got some time.

This is incredible! Thank you - I absolutely loathe swede, but got one for her and was dreading chopping it.

Thank you for taking time to write this. Truly appreciate it. This is just the kind of bulk cooking I will do.

She lives on fish, which she cooks just fine herself, which is why I do the meat thing for her. She can’t stand long enough to do much more than put something in the Aga. Basically she CBA with the faff of preparing anything much else.

We swap, I give her mince dishes and she gives me a bag of fish from her fish-lady. Win win!

I rather fancy a fishcake now!

Aw, she sounds quite similar to my mum, although Mum’s never had a curry in her life.
Mum’s diabetic - as well as all the other issues - so she can’t even have treats and she has a really sweet tooth. So anything I can do to keep her fed is a bonus,

I was so excited about cooking her liver and bacon, but thankfully double checked with her earlier - nope, she doesn’t particularly like them as they remind her of wartime (yes, she’s being awkward!)

So, I quickly removed them from my online order. We also weren’t sure if they’d freeze and reheat - a bit concerned they may end up like squash balls.

Well, yum! Thank you so much - I’ve never actually had corned beef hash, so this is going in my recipe box.

its not easy is it?

Remember when step dad was that age and mum was fit to cook for themselves still, and it was the same old - teeth didn't work until it was rubbing - of Duff as he called it . The rows at the dinner table ::(
So I try to incorporate as many meals as I can that I know she will eat. Tea tonight, roast chicken salad with jersey royals - she ate the spuds, pushed the tiniest bit of salad around the plate and just seen the cats bowl is full of chicken

But she has bought 3 cherry Maidera cakes - and one is gone already