To Whole Grain or Not To

With each batch of food I prepare for mom, I struggle with the issue of whether to use whole grains or not. Mom loves her white grains! White rice, white flour, white pasta, all very unhealthy for her. Some of my friends and relatives have scoffed at my concern and say, "She's eighty-six years old--give her the white rice!"

But we know that when she eats the carb-rich foods, it's very hard on her body. Her blood sugar increases when she eats these foods. Especially now that she's a senior, her body is more sensitive to these foods. Here's the adage you can't go wrong following:

Don't eat anything white.

Today, I included brown rice with the chicken dish I prepared. I don't have any white rice in my pantry. And it just seems wrong to buy it for mom. The reason I'm cooking for her is to help improve her health with nutritious foods she can't get by buying frozen foods or expensive meal plans.

I feel the same about pasta. I don't particularly like whole wheat pasta so I just stay away from it altogether. When I need to use flour, I usually use whole wheat pastry flour (it is lighter than all purpose whole wheat flour).

I guess I'm deciding that I will not provide a carb with a meal if it isn't a whole grain carb.

Drop Off Successful!

I finished a new batch of food for mom and dropped it off succesfully downtown. We now have enough supplies to do two complete cycles of drop offs comfortably.

This means that when I drop off an ice chest filled with individual meals in containers, I am given an empty ice chest with all the empty containers inside. I will wash everything up and then we will be ready for the next batch.

The final menu was as follows.

* Sweet and Sour cabbage soup

* Three cheese spinach frittata

* Chicken salad

* Meat Loaf with red wine gravy/roasted veggies/garlic brussel sprouts with cranberries

* Roasted Chicken with apples and onions/Brown rice pilaf/cauliflower n cheese sauce

* Pecan and ww panko crusted Tillapia/Maple-sage-grand marnier acorn squash/garlic lemon spinach

* Pan seared scallops with white wine sauce/sweet potatoes/parsleyed parsnips

I will probably be thinking and planning for the next batch shortly after Thanksgiving.

Food Categories

When planning my menus, I think in terms of categories of food I need to create. Right now, I try to include the following categories:

* Breakfast
* Main  meals
* Soups
* Lunch salads

Mom eats her main meal of the day between noon and 1 pm. She's up by 6 each day, so 1 pm is more than about half-way through her day! She eats breakfast an hour or so after getting up. Outside of her dinners, she needs to snack on healthy entrees that are smaller than a full three-course meal.

Soups are a great small meal for her. So are salads such as tuna salad, egg salad, crab salad. If she has salads and frittatas available in her refrigerator, that is what she will grab for.

It's a little harder to provide enough of these items because they taste better when eaten fresh. They shouldn't be frozen. Also, mom's freezer is like the dead zone: it's so filled with...stuff, she has trouble finding things in there!

Time to Plan

It's time to think about the next menu for mom. She will be needing food by next week sometime. In planning, I have to think about the future and what mom may have going (i.e, visitors, holidays).

In two weeks, it will be Thanksgiving and mom will have a house filled with visitors. Her visitors don't have the same nutritional needs that she has, so they may be eating foods she should not eat. If there isn't food for her already prepared and easy to grab for, she will eat whatever her guests are eating. Historically that has been a challenge for her.

I am thinking this time I will provide a full menu as I normally do, so that mom has ready-to-eat gourmet food throughout the holiday. Also, I want to make sure she has a full supply of food for the week following Thanksgiving so that she won't be tempted to eat any of those left overs that may linger in her kitchen.

Experiment
I had a new soup the other evening at a restaurant. It's called apple rutabaga soup. It's To Die For! I can't find a recipe that duplicates exactly the flavors that were in my soup, so this weekend I'm going to experiment with several recipes and see what I can come up with for mom. Mom LOVES rutabagas! And 'tis the season right now.

She Thoght It Was Meat!

Success! Mom thought the stroganoff was beef! She had no idea--she called to thank me and tell me how absolutely delicious the stroganoff was--in fact, it was the first of the three choices she picked last night to eat. She was flabbergasted when I told her. It was the best stroganoff I've ever made if I do say so.

This time I used seitan in addition to the TVP as the protein base. I chopped it up in bite size pieces about the same size as beef tips. The seitan is amazingly similar to beef in consistency, dense and chewy. Once the consistency is there, the key is in the flavoring.

So, the food drop off was a success and mom has about 14 to 16 main meals. Here is the final meal list:

Pot roast with gravy, carrots and onions, and mashed potatoes
Stroganoff with brown rice and steamed green beans
Roasted chicken, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts with raisins and pecans
Chicken/vegetable soup
Two cheese spinach frittata
Tuna salad

I didn't have time to make the parslyed parsnips or the tillapia. I'll start with those two next time.

No Time

Time is now the biggest issue. I do not have normal or consistent hours on my job, and often, I don't know even 24 hours in advance when I'm going to have to work. So for this week, as of yesterday, I did not know I would be working a 12-hour day today! I'm revamping my plans even as I work.

As a result, I will be modifying my menu. One idea I had was to make vegetarian stroganoff instead of beef--I don't have time to go to the grocery store today. They are nearly identical in flavor and my version is much healthier to eat. It's a no-brainer. :)

I made tuna salad for mom as I made it for myself at lunch today.

Recipe
Simple Tuna Salad
1 can tuna in water
White balsamic vinegar
Mayo
chopped onion
chopped hard boiled egg, 2 per can of tuna
S&P to taste

Mom doesn't like pepper so I hold the pepper for her. Sometimes, I also splash a little fresh lemon or lime at the end of mixing to taste. It's a delicious extra layer of flavor!

Hard boiled eggs tip from Martha:
If you are chopping hard boiled eggs for a recipe, instead of peeling them (which is sometimes impossible!), cool them and CUT THEM IN HALF WITH A KNIFE! Then you can scoop out the egg and chop it up.

No more worries about difficult to peel eggs! Magic!

Gearing Up

Looks like Thursday is the target delivery day. Theoretically, that gives me one more day of prep, but realistically, I have a full work schedule, so it's going to be a sprint to the finish, I can just smell it.

I'm thinking I will do batches this time. The pot roast is finished—I'm told by my lucky taster it's fantastic. :)

I'm thinking I will do the chicken soup and the chicken dinner today. I'm thinking I will package things as I finish instead of doing all the packaging at once—that is quite a task all by itself.

I used a different method of cooking my halibut last night: I actually cooked it in the garlic lemon marinade—it was incredible. I might use this technique on the chicken for mom today.

Stay tuned.

Back to the Kitchen

It's time to cook for mom again! She's had a series of guests the past several weeks and hasn't needed new meals. But now she's cleaned out the fridge and is ready for a new batch of delicious food.

The first entre I have decided upon is pot roast. I'm using Tyler Florence's recipe with a few changes of my own. I'm going to use some red wine and vegetable stock instead of water and the fresh herbs I have on hand in my garden right now: thyme, oregano, and marjoram. This meal will also include the carrots, celery, onion, and mushrooms that are cooked with the roast.

In addition, this week I will be making:
Parsleyed parsnips, sauteed and steamed (new technique!)
Roasted sweet potatoes
Frittata, probably spinach
Beef stronganoff
Chicken/vegetable soup
Lemon garlic chicken breasts
Tillapia (if there's time)

I'm targeting Wednesday or Thursday as food drop-off day downtown, depending on my work schedule.

Mission Accomplished

Delivery complete. Mission Accomplished.

Mom lives about 70 miles from me. In good traffic, it takes about 90 minutes to drive there. I got home from delivering at 11 last night. Whew! It was such a good feeling.

Mom is thrilled to have a whole new batch of food. And I got to see the look on her face as I revealed each dish. Priceless. :)

Here is the actual menu:

Sweet and sour cabbage soup

*Meatloaf w/carmelized onion marmalade/mashed potatoes/roasted acorn squash
*Asian grilled shrimp/brown rice pilaf/grilled asparagus
*Roasted pork chops with spiced apples/roasted parsnips, carrots, and potato medley
*Grilled lemon garlic chicken/sliced sweet potatoes/steamed green beans with crispy garlic slices and pine nuts

egg salad

I didn't have time to make a frittata this week. As it was, the entire cooking process took eight hours. The trip took four hours (one hour to visit with mom). I'm trying to pay attention to time so that I can become more efficient.

My goal is to produce the most exciting food for mom in the most time economical way. I don't want to sacrifice the wow! factor for mom to take less time. The wow! factor makes it fun for me too.

For me, this is an expression of love, shared with my mom. It is also an act of creativity that allows me the freedom to spontaneously create something out of nothing. I LOVE this! it's the light in my life, the best day in my week. I'm aware every time I cook for mom that I'm lucky to have this time; it's a luxury.

Time to Cook!

Mom's running out of food. It's time to cook again. I went grocery shopping today; tomorrow I will cook!

The menu is as follows:

Sweet and sour cabbage soup
Spinach frittata

Grilled lemon garlic chicken/Sweet potatoes/almondine green beans
Meat loaf/mashed potatoes/roasted veggie medley
Roasted pork chops with grilled apples, roasted rosemary potatoes, and acorn squash
Grilled Asian shrimp, brown rice, grilled asparagus

Egg salad

If I have time, I might make some popovers---they are one of mom's favorites.

Frittatas

One of the things I try to include in every batch of food is a frittata. Mom loves them. It's the first thing she digs into when the food arrives. Mostly though, she eats them for breakfast, the perfect way to start her day.

A frittata is like a quiche but without the crust. Frittata is an Italian dish. However, the Spanish have their own version, which they call the tortilla; it is cooked the same way as the Italian version. The traditional Spanish "omlette" is made with potato and garlic, yum! It is often served in bars as a tapa.

The French omlette is different in a couple of ways: First, it is folded over at the end; second, it is completely made in a pan on top of the stove. A frittata is made in two stages, first on top of the stove, then it is finished in the broiler.

It's taken me a long time to get the hang of making a frittata, but now that I "get it," it's a great and simple method of cooking with just about any ingredient you have in the fridge. It's a terrific"garbage" dish to clean out the fridge!

Mom's favorite is the spinach frittata.

Three-Cheese Spinach Frittata
Turn on broiler to medium level (#3 on 5 point scale)

(All measurements are approximations. Use your best judgment!)
6 to 8 eggs
Half and half or milk to loosen the eggs (1/4 cup?)

6 to 8 oz spinach sautéed or fresh

4 slices havarti
2 handfuls shredded mozzerella or 4 slices fresh mozzerella
1/4 cup grated parmesan

chopped onions (1/4 cup?)
Garlic pwd or salt to taste
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil

TOOLS
1 oven proof sauté pan (larger size, not small--I have used both stainless steel and teflon, teflon is easier)
1 rubber spatula

Begin by prepping all your ingredients and arrange them near the stove because the cooking process goes quickly.

* Mix the eggs and the half and half or milk with a wire wisk or fork.
* Chop onions (use fresh or sauté depending on what you like).
* Melt butter and oil together in saute pan.
* When bubbly and pan is hot, add the eggs.
* Treat the eggs at this stage as you would an omlette. Use the spatula to gently lift the edges and push underneath to keep the egg mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
* When the eggs are setting a bit (not too much!), add your other ingredients, the spinach and onions first, then havarti and mozzerella cheeses.
* When the eggs are half way set and done, slip spatula underneath the mixture all the way around to loosen it from the pan.
*Remove from heat.

* Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top.
* Put frittata beneath the broiler flame.

After two minutes check to see how it is doing. You don't want it to brown too fast. The object is to cook it slowly under the broiler. When it is finished (about 4 to 6 minutes), it will have puffed up beautifully and will have browned nicely on top.

When you remove it from the broiler, slide the frittata from the pan to a platter or a flat serving surface. I slide it into a round shallow container for transport to mom's house.

You may serve a frittata hot from the oven or cold in a picnic or lunch box. It's such a versatile dish.
Enjoy!

Schedules

It's been about ten days since I delivered the last batch of food to mom. Since then, she's had a few things happen in her life that have altered her normal routine. She wasn't feeling well for the past week. And then, one of my brothers and his family came to visit her over this long Labor Day weekend. As a result, she hasn't eaten my food as frequently as she would normally do.

This is a regular part of mom's life: disruption to schedules. She's used to it being the mom of eight kids! That's one of the things that makes other food alternatives difficult to find: the scheuduling requires a lot of administration time that would almost as difficult as cooking the food ourselves. Really a schedule for mom is probably the exception to the norm. And there is nothing mom loves more than having her children, grand children, and great grandchildren come to visit. When they do, mom eats with them at restaurants or they do the cooking.

So, I am thinking about my next batch of food, but I have a breather because she still has lots of food stashed in the freezer. That's one of the reasons I package the food as I do, so mom has flexibility.

Feedback

Spoke to mom today--she loves the food! Success. Woo hoo!

She keeps talking about the chicken salad--a BIG hit.

Very simple recipe, didn't do anything fancy with it. Did include celery, but very finely minced because mom has expressed in the past that she doesn't like celery.

I think she THINKS she doesn't like celery because the large chunks are too crunchy and chewy for her. She didn't mention the celery today, just raved about the chicken salad.

RECIPE
1 Roasted chicken cut up into nice chunks
minced onion (1/2 CUP?)
minced celery (1/4 CUP?)
mayo to taste
lemon juice (to taste)
salt to taste

That is IT. The key is the roasted chicken; the flavor comes from the way it's cooked.

One thing did not work; the puff pastry got soggy. Mom didn't complain mind you; she loved the TASTE. The pastry had sucked up the beurre blanc, which was delicious. But not what I had intended.

Note to self: puff pastry doesn't travel well. You have to serve it immediately. Not a good candidate for meals for mom.

NEXT MENU
Possibilities
Meatloaf
Crab cakes
Shrimp
Grilled chicken
egg salad
Fritatta

Done and Dusted

The drop off was successfully completed this afternoon with precision timing! I called 5 minutes before pulling up.

My nephew was standing at the appointed place when I pulled up, just as we had planned. The ice chest sat next to me in the passenger seat. He reached in, pulled it out to the sidewalk, and closed the car door. I was off and away from the curb in less than one minute!

The whole thing round trip took a little more than 30 minutes. Woo hoo! It was such a rush.

I finished! It felt like such an accomplishment, such a relief. And mom will receive her food by evening, enough food to last her for the next 10 days or so. Each container has enough food to last her at least two meals, sometimes three, salads and soups even more.

The final menu:
Cream of asparagus soup (1quart)
Coq au Vin/onions, mushrooms and carrots/roasted potatoes (3)
Seared scallops in puff pastry with champagne beurre blanc sauce, asparagus, and parsleyed potatoes (3)
Tilapia/green beans almondine/sweet potatoes (2)
Chicken salad (1 quart)
Spinach fritatta (8 servings)

I couldn't find the pearl onions for the Coq au Vin, so I had to settle for regular sweet onions. I'm sure it tastes just fine. The beurre blanc was made with champagne vinegar. It has a sweetness that is divine.

The scallops are the most delicate dish I made this week. I probably won't make that again for a while. But I saw Tyler Florence do the ultimate seared scallops in puff pastry and just had to make it for mom--mom adores scallops. I think she will really like Tyler's version.

I am a taster. I always taste what I cook for seasoning and obviously to see if it's edible. The one thing that is frustrating to me as the cook is that with the meat and poultry dishes, I can't taste my work. I really don't know how it tastes when it leaves my kitchen.

If my honey is home when I'm cooking, he tastes for me.  The rest of the dishes passed the taste test. But today, I don't know how the chicken tastes or the chicken salad.

It's a great feeling. Mom has food and she will enjoy eating. That thought is very happy making. :)

Protocol!

Okay, the schedule with my brother has been set; we have a food exchange protocol established! ETA food handoff pm CST, the loop.

I realized this morning I need more packaging supplies:
* Enough containers so that I always have a full set (15 2-section meal containers) here at the house.
* Extra ice chest as well so I can swap them out when I deliver downtown.
* Special markers to label the boxes for mom. She needs to be able to ID the food at a glance.

It's going to take some time to work out the logistics. In the meantime, it's roll with the surprises.

I'm still debating which chicken dish to make this time. I'm thinking I might switch it up with the coq au vin since I made chicken tenders last time...stay tuned. I love not knowing! Surprise even to myself!

Night Before

I'm cooking for mom tomorrow and finalizing my menu and my last-minute grocery list--there's always things I've forgotten. Usually I try to wing it and make do without extra runs to the market, but sometimes, if it's a crucial ingredient, I have to run out.

Tomorrow I am planning to make the crab cakes, grilled chiken, grilled asparagus, sauteed spinach, roasted potatoes (done this evening), spinach fritatta, chicken salad, deviled eggs, seared scallops with the beurre blanc sauce, roasted parsnips, and perhaps a chicken soup, we'll see--ohhh, I have enough  asparagus to make a creamed asparagus soup....mom would swoon over that; she adores creamed asparagus soup!

I have a lot of work to do tomorrow as well, so I may have to cook some tomorrow and finish up on Wednesday or do it all on Wednesday. We'll see how it works out coordinating with my brother.

The plan is to coordinate with my brother to drop off the packaged food in an ice cooler at the end of his day, and he will take it on over to mom. She and my brother live pretty far from me, but my brother works near enough for me to save a lot of time by doing a drop off. This will be our first attempt. I hope it's a go!

I feel excited inside, like I'm revving up for a 10K. It's a rush. :) Always there's the lurking question: will mom like the food this week? Gosh, I hope so!

Timing Food Prep

Last week I went to mom's house and cooked for two days. Basically I made her three dinner choices, two lunch options, and about 5 breakfast servings.

The dinner entrees were:
1. Beef stroganoff, rice, steamed asparagus (3)
2. Sauteed panko chicken tenders, brussel sprouts with raisins and pecans, roasted sweet potatoes
3. Vegetarian meat balls baked in marinara sauce with mozzerella cheese

For lunch: a batch of tuna salad, which she will eat with lettuce (I hope!) (3)

For breakfasts: spinach and three-cheese fritatta (she loves fritattas) (5)

All of these meals are packaged in see-through containers and labeled. My estimates of how many meals she will get out of a batch are always low because mom doesn't eat large portions and usually makes each "meal" last for two meals. I freeze many of the meals so they will last for at least 10 days.

Now I am thinking ahead about what my next entrees will be. I live a very busy lifestyle and so I need to be efficient in the way I plan the meals and the cooking. Obviously I can't just make extra food for mom when I'm cooking for us here at home; I use a lot of meat substitute products that I worry she would have trouble digesting.

The vegetarian meat balls were an experiment I tried this week to see how she would react. When I told her what it was (as she was leaning over the finished casserole dish), she backed away from it! Timidly she tried a taste and was wowed; she loved it! That was heartening and I will make her more vegetarian entrees in the future, but gradually work them into a weekly menu plan. Mom usually loves whatever I cook. It's very happy making!

Right now for next week, I'm thinking crab cakes, tillapia, seared scallops with beurre blanc sauce, and grilled chicken breasts; asparagus fritatta; and some kind of salad material.

Last night I experimented with Tyler Florence's and Julia Child's beurre blanc recipe and it was to die for! Mom will love it. I can't wait to see her reaction!

Mom often calls me after she's finished a meal to thank me. Sometimes she cries she is so happy. This is a priceless experience for both of us.

The Begin

My mom's name is Trish. She has eight children, of which I am the oldest. Five of us live here in the Chicago area and three live around the country. Mom also has 15 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren.

After living for twenty-two years in Florida, mom recently returned to the Midwest--for me, this is a godsend because I get to see her regularly now.

Lately mom needs a little help with cooking meals. So I am helping out by cooking full three course meals, packaging them up, and delivering them to her house.

I ADORE doing this for her. And she ADORES eating my meals! It's a wonderful experience for both of us to share.

This is my space to describe my experience cooking for my mom and to record the details of this undertaking. I will include the most successful recipes as I go along.

The first problem I encountered in cooking for mom was that she eats meat. I do not. The second problem is that she likes to eat too many foods that aren't good for her (don't we all!) Mom has a sugar sensitivity and needs to watch her sugar/carb intake. When she does, her sugars are steady and normal. When she eats too much ice cream and chocolate, it shows in her blood sugar readings.

My goal is to create nutritious and delicious meals that she will love eating. It is NOT my intention to put my mom on a diet. It is NOT my goal to turn my mother into a vegetarian. It is merely my intention to create for my mother balanced and healthy meals.

So, I am for the first time in a very long time cooking meat in my kitchen. It's quite a change for me and my kitchen.