Pre-prepared meals for grandparents

[kindai]

So as of today, SS have decided that my grandparents in their 90's need some additional help (surprise, not that we have been asking for a couple of years ).

We already pay a company to help them get up in the morning and prepare their breakfast and for the most part thats all they need, apart from they generally will skip dinner unless a family member or friend goes in and prepares or takes them one.

Part of SS is they will go in on the evenings and heat up some meals for them, so we are looking for recommendations on companies that will provide high quality appealing evening meals, or I guess more importantly, ones to avoid, they wouldnt eat the usual microwave crap so it needs to be high quality, oven cookable.

Suggestions would be much appreciated, maybe you know a gem of a local company or something that provides better than usual quality and doesnt have the same marketing budget as Wiltshire, Okenshaw etc etc

 

[Dis86]

M&S do some pretty good ready-made meals.

 

[Diddums]

M&S do some pretty good ready-made meals.

^This, and at 3 for £7 they're not even that expensive. The quality is really on a different level to the usual supermarket stuff.

 

[eddie101]

You have trust

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

The M&S stuff is decent and way better than the normal supermarket offerings.

You could always batch cook and freeze?

 

[robfosters]

Another vote for Marks here. Their food is levels above other supermarkets.

Lots of traditional meals as well that would appeal to older people, like lamb dinners, Cod in parsley sauce, bangers and mash, toad, Cumberland pie, all that sort of stuff.

Your grandparents could be different, mine however were very traditional, “none of that foreign muck” as they so eloquently put it

 

[kindai]

Unfortunately M+S didnt go down well as that was one of our first tries, I think we need something more "freshly done and delivered on the day" type of service as theyve always generally been used to eating to a very high standard. Obviously its going to carry a premium on the price, but as long as we know they are eating high quality meals its worth the extra over picking at a few bits on a frozen meal and binning the rest.

 

[robfosters]

Unfortunately M+S didnt go down well as that was one of our first tries, I think we need something more "freshly done and delivered on the day" type of service as theyve always generally been used to eating to a very high standard. Obviously its going to carry a premium on the price, but as long as we know they are eating high quality meals its worth the extra over picking at a few bits on a frozen meal and binning the rest.

M&S is about as good as supermarkets get, so it will have to be an online seller like Wiltshire, byRuby, or Oakhouse foods.

 

[Energize]

M+S are overrated tbh, I've had better at Poundland,

 

[NoobCannon]

Will a “helper” really come round and have time to wait for oven to heat up and potentially cook things separate etc.

Thought they were stuck to real strict time
Scales, microwave meals might be all they have time for?

 

[kindai]

Will a “helper” really come round and have time to wait for oven to heat up and potentially cook things separate etc.

Thought they were stuck to real strict time
Scales, microwave meals might be all they have time for?

We are paying privately for time on the clock so to speak above and beyond what social services cover for this reason.

 

[NoobCannon]

We are paying privately for time on the clock so to speak above and beyond what social services cover for this reason.

Ah thats great. Was just a thougth thats all.

Its nice to see someone going out of their way to help old people

 

[StoutMeister]

Any good: https://www.mindfulchef.com/about-us

 

[LeoN88]

Have you thought about using COOK? I used to have them many years ago and the quality and taste was unparalleled in my opinion.

 

[OspreyO]

We pick up a lunch in the local pub for ours. We also used meals on wheels. But they got tired of the latter very fast . Generally you can get one dinner and split it over two days. But like you ours would skip a meal if you weren't watching. Sometimes a heavy soup is a decent alternative or stew.

 

[krooton]

MiL usesuses Wiltshire farm foods, no idea on the quality, but she likes them.

 

[ajf]

Used Wiltshire for grandparents, and myself.
They’re not bad, but if yours don’t like M&S they probably won’t like these, as they do look processed.
Decent selection though.

 

[kindai]

Any good: https://www.mindfulchef.com/about-us

Have you thought about using COOK? I used to have them many years ago and the quality and taste was unparalleled in my opinion.

Will take a look thanks!

Used Wiltshire for grandparents, and myself.

MiL usesuses Wiltshire farm foods, no idea on the quality, but she likes them.

Wiltshire would be a no-go im afraid.

We pick up a lunch in the local pub for ours. We also used meals on wheels. But they got tired of the latter very fast . Generally you can get one dinner and split it over two days. But like you ours would skip a meal if you weren't watching. Sometimes a heavy soup is a decent alternative or stew.

They do have a favorite pub they like to go to regularly, but I think if we started bringing them pub food in they might tire of it much like the meals on wheels.

It is a pain because they have always been very much into cooking for themselves, so trying to balance their newly realized frailty and expectations vs what can be done on a convenience basis is a bit of a balancing act.

 

[Angilion]

Unfortunately M+S didnt go down well as that was one of our first tries, I think we need something more "freshly done and delivered on the day" type of service as theyve always generally been used to eating to a very high standard. Obviously its going to carry a premium on the price, but as long as we know they are eating high quality meals its worth the extra over picking at a few bits on a frozen meal and binning the rest.

M&S also do non-frozen perpared meals for cooking in a conventional oven, but it sounds like it's not going to be what they're after.

At least you know you can ignore every mainstream supplier of prepared meals, as M&S is the best of them.

As far as I can see, the allegedly better quality "meal in a box" services usually supply ingredients, not prepared meals. For example, Mindful Chef (which has already been suggested) do that. You get everything you need for the meal in the box, but you have to prepare it and it's 15-30 minutes per meal. (" The dinners are delivered to your door in the form of fresh pre-portioned ingredients and matching recipe cards in an insulated cardboard box.") Would SS do that? I don't know.

This one is jammed full of advertising babble and very short on information, but I think the meals come ready prepared. The FAQ doesn't state so explicitly, but every image is of an entire meal either in a delivery container or cooked and on a plate and one of the questions is whether you can eat the meals without cooking them, which implies that they're delivered as meals rather than as ingredients. Minimum order is £20, so it's something you could reasonably have a trial of to see if it's suitable. It's not frozen food, although you can freeze it at home if you do so on the day it's delivered. https://www.prepperfect.co.uk/about

This one might also suit and minimum order is £30, so it's also something you could reasonable try out. There meals are fully prepared, but they only deliver once a week (you're expected to home freeze them). They have a individual menu option, where you can pick your own combination of ingredients. This meat with those potatoes and those veg, that sort of thing. Basically, they do the shopping and prepping for you and deliver it as a meal ready to cook. https://www.macromealsuk.co.uk/about/

I'm not recommending them because I haven't tried them (I eat from M&S, sometimes Tesco because there's one near me that's open 24/7 so I can shop in the middle of the night after work and that's convenient). I'm just presenting them as something you might find useful to look at.

 

[vanpeebles]

Another vote for Marks here. Their food is levels above other supermarkets.

Lots of traditional meals as well that would appeal to older people, like lamb dinners, Cod in parsley sauce, bangers and mash, toad, Cumberland pie, all that sort of stuff.

lol, I love all of those.