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.

I’ve just bought a food processor to save my hands from chopping all the veg!
what does she like? Well, she was very complimentary about the last batch of mixed mince dishes I made, but I don’t follow recipes so made it up as I went. Which is now a problem as she’s expecting a repeat. Oops!

Food has never been a love for her - eat to live, rather than live to eat. All the things she loves she can no longer eat (sweet things, mainly) so she’s got a bit down on it all in the past couple of years.

Thank you so much for the recommendation.

Oh crikey, that’s a lot of cake!
Yes, it can be frustrating as hell. She never really did much cooking when I was growing up - I was doing it all from about 10 while Mum and Dad went to work. Dad died over 20 years ago and shes not able to get to a decent supermarket any more.

I love turnip, which is probably what you call a swede. I buy it about two days before I plan to use it and leave it out (not in the fridge). I have a sharp knife and chop it with that. You'll never chop it straight from the fridge. I love it cooked with carrots until it's tender and then mashed together with some butter and pepper.

Ahh, the turnip/swede confusion! To me, a turnip is a small, white, peppery root. I’ll eat a turnip.
Swede is a big, orange, rock hard root that’s often fed to livestock 😆

If your mum eats pork then maybe a Ragu Bianco would be nice as an alternative to bolognese https://www.theburntbuttertable.com/easy-ragu-bianco-delicious-white-bolognese-sauce/

There’s a nice receipe online called cheeseburger gnocchi. Basically a mince and
gnocchi bake.

Aye, us kids did the cooking from an early age as well

Another 2 cakes have come into the house

Tonight it was one chicken goujon, a small spoon of each - peas, potatoes and carrots

But she's been in and out of the kitchen all night getting ice cream and cakes

Its so hard

For a while I was relying on soup to get the veg in her, then she said she didn't like soup. The understairs cupboard is a shrine to Heinz - tins of soup galore - and its not me buying it :)

This looks gorgeous, thank you. I’ll save it for another batch as she just wants red meat this time.

I’m saving this one for me, glorious! She wouldn’t eat it unless I chopped all the gnocchi up, which is sacrilegious!

Oh that’s heartbreaking 😢 Although she still eating more veg than my mum!

I forgot some key ingredients with my online shop today, so I’ll get cooking next week - it’s too hot this week, anyway. Thanks to everyone here, I’ve got some great ideas for more variety.

Moussaka with lamb mince is lovely.

Obviously chilli (doesn't need to be spicy)

Meatballs or burgers (either mince would work)

Shepherds or Cumberland pie. Those are really popular with my elderly mum. And you can add carrots, peas etc for extra veg.

Lahmacun which is like Turkish pizza. You can use shop bought flatbread and use a bit seasoned ground meat on top with finely chopped tomatoes and herbs, and other veg.

Cumin always brings out the flavour of mince so I usually use a bit of that along with herbs and garlic in seasoning.