My mum has stopped being able to cook, it’s a combination of osteoarthritis in her hands and the increasing frailty, she currently has carers come in twice a day but they will only microwave meals. Ma’s preferred food solutions to her non cooking issues has been things that she can heat in her air fryer which we bought when we were worried about oven use. (It’s this one and it’s great.)

My real difficult is that Ma has lost all appetite and hasn’t been eating, which can’t help, I spent last week making sure she ate and we came up with a menu plan of things she would eat that could be microwaved and I cooked and froze a bunch of them. We did have a bit of a fight about amounts of food and so we compromised, she eats 4 times a day but small portions.

Dinners were: Lentil Bolognese and Pasta, Hot Stew and Rice, Pesto Pasta, Mint and Courgette Soup, Tomato and Feta Pasta, Cheesy Lentil Muffins.

Everything else can be eaten cold but is organised so the carers can help her find it.

Breakfasts are easy because Ma has the same thing everyday anyway. Toast and jam at the weekends and yoghurt and fruit during the week. So I’ve portioned that up.

Lunches are a cooked chicken thigh with tomatoes and cucumbers and there is an afternoon snack of a muffin and a banana.

My current working plan is that I do the meal prep on Saturdays and cook one thing for the freezer so that we can rotate them in.

Any suggestions of food that can be cooked ahead and frozen that aren’t pasta based can be microwaved and taste good would be appreciated!