Cooking for my sick mother

retro:electro

Hello! So I'm a novice at cooking and there's only a handful of things that I can cook and I seem to be repeating them over and over and both me and my mother are getting somewhat tired of them. I live with my mam and she's currently undergoing chemotherapy so I try to make sure she has a nice hearty meal every day. So far I've been cooking a lot of stews and casseroles, lamb, beef and chicken. She also likes meatballs and I make these from scratch and add tin of tomatoes and pop it in the oven. She likes the kind of dishes that come from the oven and have the potatoes and veg all in the one. I'm running out of ideas though and she's not one to like anything fancy, just plain regular dishes but ones that don't take half the day to make and will keep her belly happy. I should add that she doesn't really like pasta either, she's a spud woman! And chicken wouldn't be her favourite but she loves lamb, beef, pork etc.. Any ideas? Thanks x

TeletextPear

Would she eat something like a shepherds pie, or fish pie?

Stheno

Shepherds pie?

retro:electro

Yes she loves shepherds pie I had forgotten about that one actually! Thanks!

dee_mc

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7865/crispy+topped+cottage+pie Something like this could be nice, and a good way of using up leftover roast beef or lamb if you didn't want to use mince? Or a regular shepherd's/cottage pie would be proper comfort food too
Lemony roasted veggies with chicken might go down well too, I brown some halved chicken breasts in the pan, add the juice of a lemon, cut the lemon in 4 then add the lot to chopped carrots, parsnips and halved/quartered baby potatoes that have been roasting for 10 minutes or so, sometimes with a little cajun seasoning and sometimes with just salt and pepper. I usually cover it with foil for the last while to prevent the veg getting too crispy. Quartered bell peppers work well in this too, added about 15 minutes from the end.

Faith

How is she with heat and spices?

Things that come to mind are roast dinners, goulash, fish cakes, fish pie, curries if she'd eat them, burgers or meatloaf, risottos, lasagna, chicken and mushroom pie (or any variety of pie) or beef stroganoff.

grey_so_what

Hi anna, I hope your mam's health improves, fair play to you for looking after her....:)

Here's a link I used when doing similar....The tummy is a very delicate organ when cooking for during and after chemo....I hope this helps..recipes were something I used as a guide as everyone's taste level is different as to what they can tolerate.

http://www.chemocare.com/chemotherapy/health-wellness/tips-for-managing-eating-problems.aspx#.VFAWUWfp-So

yellow hen

Hi,

I just saw this launched on the HRB site and remembered this thread. It might be useful for you OP.
http://www.hrb.ie/index.php?id=642&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=563

Qualitymark

Sounds like Delia Smith's main cookery book is what you want. Great thing about this is that the recipes work. And it's full of delicious things.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Delias-Complete-How-Cook-collection/dp/0563539070/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418804865&sr=8-1&keywords=delia+smith+how+to+cook

(or here's one secondhand, cheaper, from Kenny's in Galway):

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=13136885844&searchurl=tn%3DHow+to+Cook%26an%3DDelia+Smith%26sts%3Dt%26kn%3DIreland

If your mother likes Indian food there's a very nice Indian chicken dish in there.

Loire

A Chicken noodle soup might be good also if your mother doesn't have a large appetite on a particular day.

Loire.