Done and Dusted

Wine Braised Pork Chops with Acorn Squash and Brussel Sprouts

The first meal drop of 2010 is done and dusted! It feels so good to be finished with the cooking and know that mom's food is on its way to her door.

We had several weather delays this time. Snow and ice prevented me and my brother from making the trip last week. Each day we had to delay was frustrating because I knew mom needed a new supply. Fortunately, my brother and sister live close by and could make sure she had plenty to eat in this kind of situation.

The delay forced a few menu changes. Here is the final menu that mom will receive today:

*Pea soup with bacon

*Carmelized onion, spinach, and cheese frittata

*Walnut cranberry chicken salad

Entrees

*Lemon garlic halibut/sweet potatoes/asparagus

*Steak Diane/mashed potatoes/broccoli w/cheese sauce

*Broiled chicken thighs/spinach/rice pilaf

*Wine braised Frenched pork chops with Apple and onion compote/acorn squash/brussel sprouts

2010 First Meal Planning

Now that the holidays are behind us, mom will be needing a fresh supply of food soon.

During the holidays, mom had a lot of guests and her eating pattern was different than normal. She has about 4 meals left from the last batch. The trouble is she lives in a snowbelt region and it's been snowing there for 8 days! Getting the food to her in time will be a challenge.

Over the holidays, I gathered up most of the containers and brought them home. It took three loads in the dishwasher to clean them all!

I have developed a preliminary menu and have done 80% of the grocery shopping. So I will be cooking within the next three days.

TENTATIVE MENU

Spinach frittata
Split pea soup
Rotisserie chicken salad

Chicken paillards/asparagus/sweet potatoes
Garlic herbed rib eye steak/green beans almondine/mashed potatoes
Pork chops/acorn squash/spinach
Grilled halibut with lemon sauce/rice pilaf/roasted brussel sprouts

Now let's see if Mother Nature can give us a break in the snow so I can deliver the food...

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!