Saturday, 2 November 2019

Saturday 2nd November - Mostly pots of puree

Like this;

Mostly half-and-half carrot and potato. These will go in the freezer when they are cool enough, and then the testing begins...

It has been quite a long to work out how to manage all of this; my god-mother is 91 and on the whole is very well able to do what she can do. But she has decided that all the home-delivery foods are inedible - we brought a sack home of rejected foods from her freezer at her request and binned them yesterday - wasteful? Yes. Did we want to eat them ourselves? No. Not even as soup, to be honest.

So I think we are going to have to try and deliver home-made equivalents, with more flavour.

This is step one - vegetables.

So there are so many questions...

Will they come out of the moulds? We can try the bendy silicone ones if these don't work.

How long do they need to be reheated for?

How do we go about heating them in the microwave?

We have had to think long and hard about what she will be able to manage this safely. The current plan is to use this egg-poacher;

as there will be no problem about clips on the lid, or remembering to open the vent. I will use the two potato-only portions as testers; somehow get them out of the bun tray, and then find out if they fit into the poacher, work out how long they need in the microwave to heat up.

If all goes well, we will move on to experimenting with slow-cooked meats. Then we will be able to supply her with a bag of frozen portions of vegetables, and a bag of frozen portions of meat. The idea is that she puts a veg in one cup, and a meat in the other, zaps them for however minutes and - hey presto - lunch. A very small lunch - there are about two tablespoons of gloop in each portion. But at least it is food. A major consideration is that everything has to be gluten-free.

I'll get the next batch of rice pudding done in the next day or so. She had three defrosting in the fridge ready for supper and breakfast and lunch!

The state of the Brambly Hedge kitchen makes me feel much better about the state of ours. Look! It's okay to have every shelf filled and all sorts of bits and pieces wedged into every space and balanced in all the corners. You can stash bags and baskets under the table and leave bowls of fruit lying around on the floor. It doesn't matter if there are cracks in the plaster or washing draped everywhere. What a relief.


  1. Why not check out some of the websites aimed at young Mums freezing food portions for littl'uns - you might find some helpful ideas.

  2. Thanks for the suggestion - we have tried some of these with her when she couldn't swallow at all earlier this year (they were able to fit an oesophagal stent which has been marvellous). One issue I have discovered is that the nutritional needs of babies are different; they need more carbs and less protein. Also she was missing garlic and onions and strong flavours! So we plan slow roast beef and lamb with plenty of oomph!

  3. Oh yes, it's so important not to make food too bland for older people.