cooking help needed

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hobgoblin

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hi looking for some help my mate has been diagnosed with canser
and his family are as much use as a hole in the head his carer aka his grandson lazy little A hole that he is wont even cook his food

so to my question is there like a beer or lamb stew or such i could make to last him say 4 to 5 days worth he can heat in the microwave

thank you
 
Big pan, big pack of cheap beef- cheek or skirt,loads of chopped carrots, loads of chopped spuds, leek,onions, parsnips/swede, enough hot water to cover, 3/4 oxo cubes, salt and pepper to taste, simmer in pan for 3 or 4 hours then package up into daily tuppaware to be reheated. Could buy ready done mash, veg, bread to mix it up a bit
 
Big pan, big pack of cheap beef- cheek or skirt,loads of chopped carrots, loads of chopped spuds, leek,onions, parsnips/swede, enough hot water to cover, 3/4 oxo cubes, salt and pepper to taste, simmer in pan for 3 or 4 hours then package up into daily tuppaware to be reheated. Could buy ready done mash, veg, bread to mix it up a bit



Sounds like a good old pan of scouse [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
as a back-up make sure he has plenty of eggs in the fridge....scrambled eggs are really quick and easy in the microwave...not as good as a stew but still nutritious.
 
You could stick some red wine in too!
 
Chinese rice noodles are also quick and easy.Into some boiling water with a Knorr liquid stock cube ten mins at most less if you boil the kettle.

Sent from my ALE-L21
 
Big pan, big pack of cheap beef- cheek or skirt,loads of chopped carrots, loads of chopped spuds, leek,onions, parsnips/swede, enough hot water to cover, 3/4 oxo cubes, salt and pepper to taste, simmer in pan for 3 or 4 hours then package up into daily tuppaware to be reheated. Could buy ready done mash, veg, bread to mix it up a bit
How many days is it good for to reheat i have a slow cooker so i would make it in that


thank you all for the ideas
no wine tho he aint allowed to drink
 
I see a lot of friendly meant comments, but please note if the guy is getting chemo his taste and mouthfeel can completely change. In other words, greasy foods like stews simply won't go down and if you manage to eat it, it's extremely difficult to keep it down. If he will be using irinotecan you might want to completely stick with what the doctor advises, as high calorie diets can trigger some serious side effects. Unfortunately foods are quite limited when you'll get chemo, stuff what you liked all your life can suddenly taste horrible.

A quite healthy and easy to digest food for people with chemo is zupa pomidorowa (polish potatoe/tomatoe soup). Very cheap to make, not too fatty and contains everything someone needs. It has some meat (beef or chicken is best), potatoe, rice or noodles (whatever you prefer) and obviously tomatoes and soup veggies. Don't make it too salty, that usually doesn't go down well. He can always add some when it's to plain. It freezes well too.

Other stuff that goes down well is chicken rice, steamed chicken (you can buy cheap oven bags these days), soups. I forgot how it was called, but there's also a lentil based dish indian people make for sick people (not really spiced) which is very good as well.

Don't put stuff in the fridge for 4-5 days. A normal person wouldn't get sick from it, but chemo ruins your whole immune system as well. Just freeze it in containers from your local takeaway. I'm pretty sure they will give or either sell you a bunch of microwave ready containers if you tell them your motivations. Than you're also not stuck with cleaning those out everytime, just throw them away after he's done. If he's on his own, he can even eat from the container to limit the work for him. Pack it in smaller portions, it's easier to reheat and especially in the first couple of days he won't be finishing large plates. It would be a waste if you made a lot of good food just to throw it away. If you freeze it you don't have that problem.

Edit:

By the way, I admire your support. Unfortunately that's not something you can take for granted these days, thanks for that. I can also recommend joining a cancer forum, as there's a lot around cancer and the treatments you will need to understand. The psychological part is really important as keeping someone motivated to fight is the hardest part, even if that person becomes an annoying, cranky, angry ******* after a while. There are complete networks that offer voluntary support to patients with less of a social environment. Cancer affects a lot of people, so there are plenty of highly motivated people willing to help out where needed. Those people can also support you in though times.

I wish you both the best for the coming months. With pride I can say though, survival chances increased significantly over the last decade - so the odds are in your favor!

Please also consider participating in the GEL (Genomics England) project. It does not help you directly, but it will make a difference for our future generations.

https://www.genomicsengland.co.uk/taking-part/
 
I would do vegetable stews, soups and curries.

Easy to cook, tasty and don't go "off" very quickly in the fridge.

System is dead easy:

1, Chop up two onions and fry in olive oil.

2. Select ANY four items from the following list and chop into bite sized pieces:

o Butternut Squash

o Pumpkin

o Potatoes

o Carrots

o Leeks

o Cabbage

o Spring onions

o Green beans

o Peppers (not chilli peppers)

o Any other seasonal vegetable

If you are making a curry add the curry powder to the onions and gently fry for a few seconds.

From this stage onwards, it can be cooked in a Slow Cooker.

Add the four vegetables and then fill the pan with water to the same level as the vegetables.

Add four Oxo cubes. (Any flavour will do.)

Bring to the boil and simmer until vegetables are cooked. (In a Slow Cooker this may be four hours or more!)

At this stage it is possible to:

o blend the mixture into a smooth soup or,

o leave it in lumps as a vegetable stew or curry.

It is also possible to stir in a tin of coconut milk to make it that bit more interesting.

The vegetable stew will last at least three days in the fridge, especially if it is packed into these containers ...

http://www.wilko.com/food-storage+food-preparation/wilko-food-containers-with-lids-x-6/invt/0203979

... which also stack neatly into a freezer.

They are easy to clean and will contain a full meal for someone who is hungry.

I hope this helps and give our regards to your mate. :thumb: :thumb:

(I also hope I haven't missed out any of the steps! It is late and I have enjoyed some St Peter's Red Ruby Ale!)
 
When my Mum was having treatment and I was looking after her the go to was scrambled eggs on toast. As per comment above she struggled to keep things down. I used to make stews in the slow cooker too, it'll be good for a few days after but you have to be really careful with bugs etc. I.e. Use freshest ingredients you can and try to cool it is as quick as possible. Re-heating needs to be done til piping hot as well.

If I was you to make it easy I would get different meat mince and try to keep it lean.

One that always went down well was;

Packet of chicken mince,
Tin of chopped tomatoes,
Finely chopped onion,
Diced potato,
Chopped mushrooms.

Stick it all in the slow cooker and put 2 cans of water (use tomato can). Put it on night before and give it a good mix so mince breaks up. In morning mix it all again and either keep warm in there until serving it or portion it up and cool it as quick as you can.

You can quite easily change the meat and veg to whatever they fancy.

Hope this helps and good luck to you both.

Mark
 
Another microwave "quicky".

Crusty bread (or toast) and a small Camembert.

Take the Camembert out of the carton but keep it in the paper.

Loosen the paper at the top.

Place the Camembert on a plate and cook it in the microwave on full power for 30 seconds.

Prod it with your finger to check that a) It is hot. and b) It is soft. If not one or the other, cook it for another 30 seconds.

When it's hot and soft, open up the paper, use a fork to break open the top of the Camembert and eat all of it by dipping in the crusty bread or toast.

Enjoy! :thumb:
 
How many days is it good for to reheat i have a slow cooker so i would make it in that


thank you all for the ideas
no wine tho he aint allowed to drink

If you use wine or beer in cooking and it gets heated by simmering or hotter for a long time all the alcohol is evaporated off. So you can cook with wine or beer. How about a beef and ale casserole?
And casseroles and stews are only fatty if you use cheap cuts of meat. Use rape seed oil (now often sold as 'cooking oil' - look at the label ) or olive oil if you want to be really picky with browning the meat.
Plenty of recipes on the BBC website.
How about a home made mulligatawny soup to tickle the taste buds, easy to eat too.
 
It's not necessarily about good fat/bad fat. It's the mouthfeel of greasy/oily foods. With soup you can easily skim it off, with stews it's usually more or less suspended. Same goes curries with (coconut) cream.

Also a lot of very common household spices like pepper, paprika, chilli, cinnamon and leeks like leek, onion, garlic and chives suddenly are no longer edible as your intestines become oversensitive due to the chemo's side effects. Also persons might have a very dry mouth, so some dry foods like sandwiches won’t go down. Also due to the lack of saliva, they are barely producing amylase.

The worst part is changing tastes. Very boring food like scrambled eggs, slow cooked chicken, potatoe or pea mash are usually still OK.

As the stomach and intestines are effected by chemo, please take precautions with the food storage. Bacteria multiply rapidly so what might be perfectly fine for a normal person to eat on day 3 can give food poisoning to someone with chemo.

He should also be getting a list with foods to eat or avoid by his doctor, it's best to work from there.
 
There are companies such as Wiltshire farm foods* who will deliver frozen food to elderly or sick people, a weeks worth of meals at a time. You take them out and microwave. Really useful for people on their own and good value .

* I have no interest in this company except I used them for my Dad who had Alzheimers a few years back, I am sure there are others out there but look them up for a sample menu.
 
There are companies such as Wiltshire farm foods* who will deliver frozen food to elderly or sick people, a weeks worth of meals at a time. You take them out and microwave. Really useful for people on their own and good value .

* I have no interest in this company except I used them for my Dad who had Alzheimers a few years back, I am sure there are others out there but look them up for a sample menu.

thank you but Wiltshire farm foods is way to expensive would cost him like £40 a week but thank you for the info i will pass it on to him


i am making note of all the info your kindly giving i may not answer all of you but i am making note of your advice thank you
 
When you work out what he can('t) eat, do a big batch at once and make some different meals that share a lot of ingredients and freeze them. This will allow you to buy in some quantity which can save tons when something is on sale. Not sure what his financial status is, but even if he's flooding in money he can better keep as much money in his pocket for distraction. If everything goes smoothly, he'll still be out of the running for a while. There's a lot of waiting and sitting around, so some good books are nice to have too.

If he has a low income, try hooking him up some someone from the city. (Not sure how that's called in English). Cities usually have budgets for people with minimum income and medical difficulties. In the best case a part of the care and travel can be subsidized. Here you even have budgets for 3rd party care gives (like you) to aid with buying ingredients, travel, expenses. If it's possible you can usually find something about it on their website too.
 
Have a look at "Maggies centres" too. They're for helping people cope with cancer and their friends and family too. They have coffee mornings and general meetings etc. They will also have specific mornings and links on website that will also help.

https://www.maggiescentres.org
 
thank you all for the help he is going to ask the doc what he needs to eat
 
Big pan, big pack of cheap beef- cheek or skirt,loads of chopped carrots, loads of chopped spuds, leek,onions, parsnips/swede, enough hot water to cover, 3/4 oxo cubes, salt and pepper to taste, simmer in pan for 3 or 4 hours then package up into daily tuppaware to be reheated. Could buy ready done mash, veg, bread to mix it up a bit

Yep...! That's the way to do it. I would just say - do proper mash and use proper veg, not the pre-prepped stuff. Use a good ale to replace the water. And how about dessert? :whistle:
 
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