Don't know if you will be able to fill their freezer with those limitations, but you could take a roasted chicken or meatloaf with a medly of lightly steamed squash and peppers plus a fresh salad. Those items would last them several days and all they would need to do would be to slice some chicken or meatloaf, add some veggies to the plate, cover it and nuke it until warm. The fresh salad they could keep in the fridge.

You could also make them some chicken or tuna salad, get some fresh fruit and some cottage cheese for a light lunch. I would keep your list to very simple foods in their most basic form - no sauce, nothing highly seasoned.

You could pre-cook and individually freeze chicken breasts, turkey slices, lean beef (ground or roasted).
Combine with cooked, then frozen green beans, carrots, mushrooms, other vegggies they like.
Maybe a very small amount of roasted or mashed potatoes (flavorful ones like Yukon gold or baby reds).
Half veggies, 1/4 meat, 1/4 starch. Make TV dinners in microwavable containers.

Broth based soups like chicken/rice/veggie, beef/barley/mushroom can loaded up with healthy, low fat, low cholesterol veggies. And they freeze well.

Quiche freezes well and can be made from EggBeaters to cut the cholesterol, load with salmon and spinach! You can make it crust-less to further "healthify" it. LOL

Make your own "McMuffins", Double Fiber or Thomas Light english muffins, light or fat free cheese slice, scrambled eggs (or just whites, or Eggbeaters), slice of canadian bacon.

Pre-cook some oatmeal, cool, mix with plain yogurt, fruit (or sugar free jam) and sweetener of your choice. Package in single-serving containers.

You can make a decent crisp from fresh fruit (sweeten only if needed with a diabetic approved sweetener). Topping from oatmeal, canola oil, sweetener and a little cinnimon or nutmeg. Bake in smaller containers so it can be "dessert for two".

Keep plenty of healthy "snack" stuff around like fresh fruit, veggies pre-prepped, fat free dips, salsa.

Bagged salad is a quick addition to Meat/Starch to make a meal.

I would keep the serving sizes small. They can always have more. Your mom may not have much of an appetite after surgery. Dad won't be tempted to eat too many carbs!

God Bless you for helping!!!

Deanna

rhome, you definitely have some challenges here and your poor sister, I feel for her.

So, let's see. Meatloaf has been mentioned and freezes well, I've frozen it in muffin cups to make "individual" meatloaves and you could use turkey or ultra-lean beef. Cabbage rolls freeze well, make 'em with brown rice and lean meat, but the tomato sauce is out, so they could be cooked in beef stock.

Mashed sweet potatoes and squash also freeze well in those muffin cup servings, as do mashed potatoes as an occasional treat.

I've frozen swiss steak successfully as well as salisbury steak, whole grain pancakes and Sol's zucchini pancakes.

Soups do freeze well, as do many homemade whole grain breads, I'd probably make dinner rolls so they could easily be taken out and used individually. And stock up on those microwave steam packages of frozen vegetables, easy and quick but still healthy.

Deanna is right, fruit crisps can be made easily with an oatmeal topping and a bit of artificial sweetener and bagged salad in this instance is a good thing.

Good luck. Your family will be in my prayers.

Annie

Thank you, thank you for the prayers and the ideas! You might see why things didn't tumble to mind, since around our house we use a lot of tomato sauce and we like things spicy. I love the single serving, muffin cup idea...Could work for a lot of things, I bet. I definitely have some things to start on over the weekend. Again, thank you. I knew I could count on this crowd to put some heart in and help me think.

You've gotten good suggestions re: the food, but I wanted to mention something else.

Do your parent have help? Given your description of their health issues, they should probably be able to qualify for home health aids, at least while you mom is recouperating. If they're on Medicare, most of the cost should be covered, as long as there's a medical reason for the help. Home health aids will help with: personal care, laundry, light cleaning, will fix meals, can do shopping if necessary.

Please--discuss with your parent's dr. He/she can right a script for health aids, and if you have other questions, the visiting nurse association in your area will be very helpful in getting things set up, with the least cost to you. But even if you have to pay, home health aids are inexpensive. We chose to have one out a couple of times a week to help mom with bathing, household tasks, etc, and it was only 30-40/hour. Well worth the cost, and when you have that kind of help with the 'chores' you can concentrate more on enjoying your parents, and helping keep them entertained and happy. With the aids caring for mom and cleaning her apt., I did her grocery shopping, had time to just sit and visit, and to take Mom out to lunch at least once a week. The aids were truly a Godsend.

It's not easy being a caregiver--take whatever help you can to make the job easier. I managed my mom care, shopping, finances, etc for 13 years before she died and now I'm about 6 months into doing the same for my aunt Although her health is bad enough, we needed to find her a place with round the clock care. Even so, I'm on the phone with the nurses at the facility at least 2-3 times EVERY day, on top of visiting several times a week, shopping, making medical arrangements/decisions and trying to untangle her fiances.

You'll manage just fine, but you are wise to try to plan ahead to make things as easy as possible. Good luck to all of you.

Thank you, Azzalea. I know to keep that in mind as I watch my FIL struggle with my MIL, who has dementia...He is in over his head, but just won't accept the idea of in-home care. My parents, up to this moment, have been quite independent and are mentally capable. My ds, who lives minutes from them, and her almost adult daughters have been able to help when the needs arise. Also, unfortunately for him, but fortunately for them right now, my db's work has been sporadic to rare, and he stays with them when he's not on the road. He's not a cook at all, though! Anyway, I will talk to my sister talking to the dr about help for after the surgeries, as she is the one who goes along on dr visits.

Well, one other thing, I feel I have to mention, after reading your post.

It's almost universal, that at that stage of life, change is a huge enemy to our older relatives. They almost NEVER accept easily even those things that will make life easier and more pleasant for them. Sometimes you just have to step in and insist (even better, if you can get their dr. to suggest or insist--they seem to submit easier to changes if they're 'ordered' by a medical professional). Anyway, every time we did something for Mom to make her life easier--she balked, complained, tried to put her foot down. But my feet are bigger. And you know what? Once she got used to the 'new' way? She almost always liked the change. She definitely didn't want the home health aids coming in--but once she got used to the idea, and developed a relationship with the girl who came most frequently, she loved having the extra help and extra company.

You are heading into a time when you may have to look at this as parenting your parents. You may have to make decisions and arrangements that they don't want--simply because it's the best choice for them now. I could see my mom's strength failing. I wanted her to be able to conserve her energy for things more fun than cleaning the house (she LOVED going out to eat, and we all made sure we got her out several times a week, right up till the week she died). And, of course, I was concerned about her safety getting in and out of the tub--as well as the fact that she was becoming less, well, fastidious about her hygiene. It made her life so much easier to have the help.

The best to you, I really do know how worrisome and difficult this stage of life is, and unfortunately, the mantra we all have to remember when going through it is, "Today is as good as it's going to get". So very sad to see our elder loved ones living so long that they cease to be able to enjoy life as they knew it.

Rhome, if you'll be doing this more often than not, purchase some different sized open glass containers - think the smaller pyrexes and pie plate types. Give them a light spray of a cooking oil like Pam. Line them with plastic wrap, and place the food inside after it cools. When the food is frozen, you can pop the contents out and finish wrapping them as an individual or "for two" servings. I usually then put a second covering of stick free foil. Label, placing like packets in one zip lock bag. Then your glassware is free to re-use. This is good for when you need a larger size than a muffin cup provides.
When they are ready to eat, they can grab these packets out of the freezer and place them on a plate (and you can give them the same exact container it was frozen in making it easier still). When the food just stars to defrost in the microwave, they can remove the plastic and finish heating. I know we shouldn't be microwaving with plastic, but you only do it till the food just starts to defrost and releases from the plastic - it's not even getting really hot.

If you use the whole wheat noodles, you can make simple pasta dishes that are non tomato, with a very light, low fat cream sauce on them and those freeze well too.

As for the meatloaf - I have a recipe which calls for putting lots of finely chopped carrots and zuchini into the mix, and it really helps to get those extra veggies in. I mean you can put a LOT in there and it's really good.
I second soups! So easy to cook and they freeze so well.

Also wanted to add that you can put just about anything in a pocket.

I used this recipe for 'hot pocket' dough:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/651717/how_to_make_homemade_hot_pockets.html?cat=

(I added extra flour, because it seemed really wet. It still came out beautifully).

Or you can get store bought dough. It wouldn't be too many carbs because it's just a thin layer. Maybe you'd even luck out and find a tube of whole wheat dough. You could fill it with whatever healthy stuff you wanted-- grilled chicken and veggies, egg whites and spinach, whatever. You could even leave the dough raw when you freeze them, and they could cook them in a preheated toaster oven. It wouldn't be any more work than reheating, but it would taste fresh and nice.

You're really nice to help them out. I hope everything goes well.

Thank you for the additional suggestions. I will keep these all in mind, as I'm sure they'll be needed over the next months, not just this once.

They apparently had meatloaf variations a couple times already this past week, so this weekend I'm starting with whole wheat rolls, clam chowder, bean and ham soup, a sort of sweet and sour chicken with wild rice, pork chops with apple-zucchini compote, and hamburger patties with roasted onions and zucchini. I'll also take along some cottage cheese and fruit, as well as prepared green salad. If I have time, or if the kids join in, maybe we'll add an apple-huckleberry pie (with appropriate sweetener) and some oatmeal-blueberry muffins. 2 meals of each of those main dishes should fill in gaps for whatever my sister plans and make sure no one has a reason to go hungry!

But, like I said, all suggestions are welcome and much appreciated to keep up some variety over the weeks/months ahead. My kids are jealous of some of the things we're making to take away...Maybe I need more variety around here, too!

I can't add to what has already been suggested but I do want you to know that you are an angel! I can't imagine the challenges you, your family, and your parents are facing. These situations certain affect everyone so take care of yourself too.

Oh, my...Thanks, but I am definitely not an angel...Just a daughter. My sis is doing SO much of the work. And my mom...Well NO way to repay her, but to do a little of what she modeled so well and so lovingly all these years. She was always a very willing volunteer to spend a week any time a grandchild was born or when a mama of little ones was feeling under the weather. She, just this past April, even offered to come stay if I would feel more comfortable leaving to attend a 3 day conference with my dh. Dad was always at the ready to lend any of his skills, of which he had many, and is so glad to share his knowledge now that his body won't let him dive in to do things himself. My parents also always took such loving care of my grandparents, visiting, taking them on day trips, planning special day brighteners or events. Fixing a few meals is so little considering what I've seen from them. :-)

rhome, you are a good daughter and you've learned something it takes many of us a long time to recognize, to appreciate your family while they are still here for you to appreciate.

I hope everyone recovers well and quickly and your Mom's surgery goes off without a hitch.

Annie

Thank you, again, and it's all because I had good teachers! I've been blessed with amazing and very loving grandparents and parents.

My 5 yo ds put a hitch in my cooking schedule today by spiking a fever over 102 and being very fussy with headache and sore throat (who could blame him)...But seems to be feeling much better now that he 'emptied' it all over the living room floor this afternoon! (Fun) So back to cooking for me. I have pork chops, sweet and sour chicken, and navy bean soup frozen so far. :-)

A good way to keep their freezer stocked once you get a few things done (if you can spare space in your own freezer in between visits)is to just make extra when you cook foods appropriate to their diets for your own family, and then freeze meal sized portions to take on your next trip.

Often, elderly people don't have as hearty an appetite as they did when they were younger and more active, especially if they have illnesses or conditions that hamper them. Because of this, many things they used to enjoy get crossed off their menus. I mean, what are they going to do with an entire meat loaf, a whole ham, a turkey, or even roast beef or pot roast? They'd be eating it for weeks!

So, if you make roast beef for your family, a few slices in gravy would freeze quite nicely, along with small portions of mashed potatoes (I note they go easy on carbs). Add a small portion of some frozen peas once the meat and potatoes are frozen, and you have a home made tv dinner! You could even freeze it all in inexpensive foil containers, cover it with foil. This could stack neatly in your freezer until you can visit to replenish theirs.

Great idea, Rachelellen. A good and practical way to not have to repeat the marathon special cooking sessions too often. I will tell my sister this, too. Seems so obvious and simple now that you mention it, but it somehow hadn't occurred to me. Thanks.

I agree, rachelellen, that's a very good idea.

I'll also add that breads and muffins freeze very well, so if you bake a loaf of bread for yourself, or some dinner rolls, biscuits, etc., a double batch is just as easy and can go from your freezer to theirs.

rhome, I hope that child of yours is all recovered, and so is your floor!

Oh, and be sure to label anythign that goes in the freezer with a name of the item and cooking instructions. It's a pain to tear the foil off everything and peek to see what it is, then seal it back up.

Annie