Good to hear from you again! I'm sorry your Mom is having heart problems but pleased to read she's home & able to avoid surgery. I think Mrs. Dash may become your new best friend. On their link below are lots of recipes using their various herb/spice blends all of which, I think, are salt & MSG free. Things like lemon chicken over brown rice pilaff (made with just a touch of olive oil, if permitted?), some diced onions & carrots with a small fruit salad makes a good dinner. If Mom is used to highly salted foods it will take 3-4 weeks for her taste buds to adjust...most Americans eat diets very high in sodium & we're so accustomed to salt that we don't even realize how much we're consuming. By limiting the cheese content, Mexican food can be low-fat & still very flavorful due to the spices & chilis. How about chicken enchilladas verde with just a couple tablespoons sprinkling of low-fat mozzarella on top served with a side of refritos...oviously, don't fry them in lard. :) Lots of flavor, low-fat, low-sodium, & high fiber. Use dried bean & cook them yourself...the canned beans are loaded with sodium! I'm assuming she may have limited Omega-3 fish? If so, salmon doesn't require salt & is terrific served on top of a big salad (minus any brassica components) with a few almonds, red grapes, sliced mango, etc. Very good & flavorful meal. For a dessert...try 1/2 banana with Yoplait 'Chocolate-Raspberry' Mousse-Style yogurt over the top! Mom will never know it's not a 'real' dessert. /tricia

Lavender_lass, i very much appreciate your input. There is no right answer, as you know. I am trying to find the best solution with how my household (dis)functions, within our budget, within reason for eventual resale. I would try to find another ding and dent special (thats how i got my current frig) if the new frig solved all of my issues (kitchen issues)! But even with that small space saving on the open door depth I still have to think about the person standing in front of the frig looking for cheese sticks, or was it carrots, or yogurt or something .... And its only 5' deep space. I guess it also comes down to my experience now. Currently, I have the traffic to the potty interupting my frig access and its not ideal. Add in traffic from an exterior door eventually .... I just dont know if the gain is worth it for how we cook/live etc. We had a 36" 2dr, cd frig. It didnt work well for us ( and then it just didnt work). The frig is installed more than a foot away from the drm drwy bc of our fat old trim and light switches. As a result, the 36" frig was in the alcove area more than our current 30" frig. It was about 29" deep with handles (and about 27" w/o handles.) You felt that perpindicular wall in your back when you stood you in front of the frig even with the door closed. With the door open it did take up less space than our current frig. With the door open, the current frig, its about 52" deep. The other was about 44" deep with the door open. Yes, 8" is a lot I agree. But we were 6" more into that tight alcove space so it didnt feel like 8" of space. My 6'4 DH took up more space in front of the old frig too bc he would lean back on the wall. Fyi, our current 30" frig holds more stuff than the old frig. Go figure! Fyi, I loved making raviolis with my grandparents when i was a kid. They had less than 2' of counter space between the sink and their range top (the only counternspace). And they had tiny kitchen table jammed in the kitchen with 3 chairs around. If you sat in a chair you blocked the frig or their 1 cabinet from opening all the way. But, it was always warm and smelled delicious. The reason I am trying to be thoughtful about my kitchen redo is that I want a simple space that will allow me to have those memories with my kids: laughing, learning, getting messy, being close, and making good food together. I know its so corny. But I bet thats what your nieces/nephews like about helping you too.

Some of my favorites are lasagna, meatloaf and making the hamburger/onion mix for all kinds of things, from quesadillas to sloppy joes to pizza or whatever. Another easy thing to do is cook a turkey or two, (or a ham, pork roast or even several chickens at a time, etc) pull all the meat off the bone and freeze in portioned bags. You can add it to pasta, quesadillas, pizza, hot turkey sandwiches or a full turkey dinner. Instant mashed potatoes and canned gravy, stuffing mix, frozen/canned veg and the like make a speedier preparation and a pretty luxurious meal. Oh and frozen meatballs are good for a lot of different things. By themself, as a meat ball sandwich, with spaghetti, in a casserole, etc. Most any casserole should freeze well, especially pasta. I would think a hashbrown casserole (with meat) would freeze well as would rice & meat casseroles. Boneless/skinless chicken breasts are a great convenience food. Use for a lot of different things. And there's always the store deli. Prepared chicken, meatloaf and other items are available for really bad days. Do you have an electric roaster? This would simplify things. Even a slow cooker, though I prefer the roaster for versatility. But pot roast can be put together and cook in the roaster/slow cooker. Soup, stew, chili and more. It doesn't all have to be frozen. Do a double amount and you'll have a second meal for a couple days later. Baking some sausage & potatoes takes little prep work and can cook together. Or steam a head of cauliflower and put some sausages in there with it. Braising ribs is easy to do. Country style ribs are easier (no membrane to remove or bones to bother). Put them in the oven, electric roaster or slow cooker or even do it on the stovetop. Braise them slowly and they're fabulous. An hour before they're done, pop some potatoes in with them and they'll cook together and 15-30 min before you can put in some corn on the cob (frozen saves you some prep work of husking). You can also flatten the country style ribs with a mallet, bread them, fry them and have a pork cutlet with more taste than a pork tenderloin. Is your son able to help with some cooking or at least prep work? Personally I think people do a disservice to their kids by not teaching them at least some basic cooking skills. A pot roast, chili, even a turkey doesn't take a Gordon Ramsay to put on the table. You don't have to be very old to husk some corn or peel potatoes. Perhaps it would be helpful to make out a meal plan. One easy way is to take a two week plan and just continue it. There's the old If it's Monday, it's spaghetti day for a weekly plan but it's really just as easy to do two weeks. Figure out some easy meals. Don't hesitate to make one day a week sandwich and salad day. Or a breakfast for supper day, whether it's bacon and eggs, breakfast casserole or even frozen waffles and brown & serve sausages. Frozen/canned veggies and bagged salads are great. The weekend cooking is a great idea but even when cooking, try to cook for at least two meals. Maybe some of these aren't the healthiest or as healthy as you'd desire, but any of them are far better than burgers and fries from a drive through. And hey, that's not to say that an occasional bucket from the Colonel is all bad either. By combining some freezer action, some simple to prepare meals, especially covering two days, some occasionl take out or delivery, hey, the time will pass quickly and you won't be feeling guilty. And you shouldn't feel guilty anyway. Good luck!

There are so many very very simple things that will allow you to get a meal on the table 20 minutes after you get home. If you don't want to do the long slow cook thing....there are a million things you can do with a piced of meat and a fry pan and 10 minutes, from chicken breast, to thighs, tpo fish filet to minute steak, hamburger....eggs etc. do you know anyone who would walk you through a few meals....like a sautéed chicken breast a potato baked in the micro and some mixed greens sprinkled with balsamic and a little olive oil? Things like hamburger browned in a pan, a can of pinto beans drained and a can of rotel....add some tortilla chips A bag of shredded lettuce, some browned hamburger a can of rotel and shredded cheese on a tortilla. Times when I have been super busy and had a husband and kids to feed, we lived on steaks, chops, fish filets and hot dogs. And if you really don't want to cook there are lost of frozen ready to eat foods that are lots better than a TV dinner. Check out Trader Jo's I know one woman who doesn't cook and she lives on fruit, yogurt, frozen cooked and shelled shrimp, rice cakes, bagged greens and bottled salad dressing and good artesan bread.