Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

Not wishing to go into too much detail because the emotions are still raw but my father passed away recently due to cancer and his widow, my stepmother is currently being looked after by other family relatives. She knows at some point she is going to have to start living on her own back in her own house but she is worried about what to do about nourishing meals because my father always used to cook the meals being an ex chef. My stepmother does know how to cook but being 83 and a bit frail, she knows in her heart she just has not got it in her to prepare freshly cooked meal every day so she is looking at ready meals for one.

She asked me about ready meals because she knows I have had them for work for a number of years, I buy Icelands ready meals for one and from experience I know many of them taste awful and am worried that my stepmother is not going to like them due to having freshly cooked meal everyday for the past 40 odd years that she has been with my father.

Therefore my question is, can anyone please recommend a place or a brand where my stepmother should look for ready meals for one. Something that she can easily pop in the microwave or the oven, heat up and is done and will not taste awful.

many thanks
Rog

Re: Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

Hello Rog, so sorry to hear of the recent loss of your father.

Regarding meals for one for your stepmother, would she be interested in having meals delivered to her door from someone like Wiltshire Foods?. I've heard they have a good reputation, all she would need to do is heat the meal up.

In case you're interested, here is a link https://www.wiltshirefarmfoods.com/about-our-food

..... and a link to send for their brochure if you wish to see it - https://www.wiltshirefarmfoods.com/brochure

Re: Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

Dodge, I agree with Mags.
I used to get Wiltshire Farm Foods delivered to my Mum, and they weren't bad at all. I remember they did about 300 meals to choose from at the time.

As I recall, they do tiny meals for small appetites, medium size meals, then large portions for the big eaters.
They also do low fat dinners, and vegetarian meals too.
A pretty good selecton of puddings too.

The delivery man used to be very pleasant, and would even pop them in the freezer for Mum if she wanted.

Have a look at Mag's link, see what you think, or you can send for a catalogue if you prefer.
Good luck.

Re: Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

My sister used to buy M&S meals and frozen vegetables for her mother in law who was widowed then broke her hip and wasn't very mobile .

Even people who can't cook can defrost a frozen meal and some vegetables.

She tried Wiltshire Farms but didn't like them.

Re: Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

You could make your own

I live on my own, and although I can cook and am fairly capable, I have a similar sort of problem

Make up a large batch of stew - various stews & casseroles; mince & onions; chunky veg soup; thick pea & ham soup; you get the idea
Dispense them into individual portions in freezer bags or suitable plastic tubs and store them in the freezer
The disadvantage would be that I don't think you could just get them out and go straight to the microwave; I get them out in the morning or let them thaw out overnight

A quick & easy meal is to buy frozen fish in sauce, just boil the bag, and frozen mixed veg out of the packet into a pan & simmer briefly

Have a look through the chilled ready meals and the freezers in supermarkets, they're not all curries

I've had a look through a Wiltshire Farm foods catalogue, it looks interesting, though I haven't tried any myself

Depending on where you live there might be luncheon clubs which would bring a bit of company as well, and possibly more friends and outings

Meals on Wheels?

Re: Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

Dodge, Google "Parsley Box. Com". Strange name I know BUT, they are the best I've ever come across and you don't need to buy. Just have a look you won't be disappointed, I wasn't and when I'm at my own home for a visit I always use them.

Re: Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

That's what I was thinking but I wasn't sure if they were still going

Re: Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

Here's the government link

https://www.gov.uk/meals-home

Re: Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

With all respect for the advice given so far, I suspect in reality there is a little more to this.

Perhaps we are looking at the problem from our own position and what we would do, but I feel it it might be a bit different for Dodge's stepmum.

Dodge himself said . . .

" She knows at some point she is going to have to start living on her own back in her own house but she is worried about what to do about nourishing meals because my father always used to cook the meals being an ex chef.
My stepmother does know how to cook but being 83 and a bit frail, she knows in her heart she just has not got it in her to prepare freshly cooked meal every day so she is looking at ready meals for one."


So this lady is 83, frail, and only just lost her husband.
She is probably also not looking forward to going back home to an empty house for the first time.
I think these things need to be considered.

Personally, if it were my Mum, I would not expect her to immediately carry on like nothing has changed.
If she cooked fresh meals from scratch every day, she would also have to shop for ingredients, or organise deliveries. Is she able to do this?
You've got to have the will power, interest, and motivation, and I don't think it sounds like this poor lady has got much at the moment.

I would find her some nice easy meals to cook, just till she got some confidence back and more used to her situation, and eating alone.
Everything will be very different for her now, and I would make her life as easy as possible for her, at least till I saw how she was getting on.

Better a ready meal, than no meal.

Re: Ready meals for one - advice needed for a relative

A very understanding and thoughtful post, thankyou MUPS, also thankyou to all who posted suggestions, it was very kind of you.

At the current moment my stepmother spends all day with her own son and his family (stepmother already had two children before my father married her). The only thing she does alone right now is go to bed at night. In the morning her DIL (daughter in law) picks her up in the morning, has breakfast round her sons place and stays there for the rest of the day. Her DIL does all the cooking, basically she just see's is as one more mouth to feed at the dinner table (they have two children themselves).

Whilst my stepmother is enjoying the time being with her son and his family, she knows she cannot stay there forever and needs to start living her own life again. This is why the topic of food came up because as with what all other things she is having to go through right now with the recent loss of her husband, she knows she does not have the strength to lift pots and pans and whilst she does not like to admit it, one of the things she knows she's going to seriously struggle with is preparing food because it is something both she and my father did together during their 40 yrs of marriage together and I think she will struggle emotionally being in the kitchen alone for the first time having to prepare a meal with her husband not being there.

Getting food in is not a problem because her son's family does all the shopping for her. Her and my father did not have large pension pots so money was always tight. They would buy many things from tesco's that they like but in doing so, when you cook your own food, you get acquired to the taste of freshly produced meals and suddenly finding your self in a situation where you going to have to face having ready meals can be a bit daunting because I am sure many of us here that have had ready meals can testify that many of them are poor quality and taste horrible.

All the supermarkets do their own ready meals and they also sell branded ones. I think it's going to have to be a case of buy them and see which ones she like. I will of course pass on the suggestions put forward in this thread and will see how it goes.