Freezer Meals for Seniors

When I had my first surgery scheduled almost 2 years ago now, I prepared for 8 weeks of relative immobility by making freezer meals. The easy way to do that at the time was simply to fix twice as much every dinner for about a month and put the extra in the freezer. I soon realized that this was also a solution to the 'empty nester' problem of the difficulty of making the transition from making enough food for a large family to making a meal for just the two of us.

Soon I realized that this could also be a solution for my parents who are finding it harder to cook for themselves. They do fine with things which can be quickly cooked, like potatoes or other vegetables, but entrees are difficult.

Now, every couple of months I have a cooking day or two and pack the food into their freezer. When choosing what foods to make, we had to consider several things. First, we needed to make foods they can easily eat and that they like. Second, foods need to be types that can be frozen without ruining them.

It is easier to have a day to cook large quantities of food. It makes a mess in the kitchen, but just one mess instead of a new mess for each day. Today I cooked and deboned 2 chickens and packed the chicken pieces and broth to be used to make chicken and noodles. I also made porcupine meatballs, round steak with tomato and onion sauce, round steak with mushroom gravy, and something our family calls frikadillars. The frikadillars are placed in snack bags and then the small bags are put into larger gallon bags. The other more liquid items are packed in small freezer containers which I reuse. Another entree I make sometimes is thin-sliced roast beef with gravy, but we did not need any of that today.

For the frikadillars, I mixed close to 5 pounds of hamburger with onion, fresh sage, crushed soda crackers, eggs, milk and seasoning.



Then I formed the meat into little patties and fried it. Since my parents don't eat much, one patty each is plenty for their meal.



By the time I finished, I had 75 containers of food, some of which will provide more than one meal.



Once in their freezer, it is easy for them to select an entree for their dinner.