Cooking for a friend after surgery

[jagermiester]

I have a coworker that is going to have open heart surgery next week. I am planning on making him a few meals for the freezer so that his wife can just heat them up and focus her attention on him. I have some things planned out but thought I would shoot across your bows and see if you guys had any cool ideas.

[vandeman17]

depends on what he likes but I am a habitual meal prep person. I like making a crock pot pulled chicken stew that freezes well and reheats even better. There is also the ol faithful of some kinda of spaghetti or meat and tater hash.

[92xj]

Lasagna. Easy to make, easy to heat, easy to eat , easy to store leftovers, taste amazing as long as you don't make it wrong. We do one at least monthly for friends family and others in need of focusing their attention elsewhere besides meals. Use oven ready noodles and Italian sausage.

[7mmfan]

Chili is a great option. High protein, low saturated fats/cholesterol for a post open heart surgery patient.
 
Pre-cook some chicken and vac-pack them. They can throw the whole bag in a pot of hot water and 30 minutes later they have chicken. Throw in some instant brown rice, or those steamer veggie packs and that's an easy meal.

Fajitas can be made the same way. Vac-pack meat/veggies/onions, and reheat them in hot water. Just need to add the tortilla and whatever condiments they want.

Make stew or soups and freeze in mason jars. They can zap them in the microwave for a couple minutes.

Those are a few ideas.

[WapitiTalk1]

depends on what he likes but I am a habitual meal prep person. I like making a crock pot pulled chicken stew that freezes well and reheats even better. There is also the ol faithful of some kinda of spaghetti or meat and tater hash.

Great minds I guess....... I was gonna recommend home made chicken soup, a beef (deer, elk) stew, and a batch of tasty spaghetti sauce.  You can cook em and freeze them in some plastic containers and all your buddies wife needs to do is throw them on the burner and heat em up (and, obviously, boil up some basketti noodles).  An easy to make side for said dishes would be to buy a large loaf of French bread from the store, some garlic butter, and send that along with the dishes to heat up in the oven.  You're a good man Charlie brown for helping your buddy out while he's out of the game for a bit after surgery 

[onmygame]

I suspect most here could rattle off meals and recipes for hours, yet most would be at a loss for words if the question were what not to make - because....all food is good in our book.

You might spend a short amount of time reading up on post open heart surgery diet assignments before plotting the slew of meals you intend to prepare.

I suspect green veggies like broccoli, kale, etc would be out due to the high vitamin k content that is known to aid blood clotting - a no no when he is likely on a blood thinner to reduce clots and strokes.

Also, I would guess certain dishes high in fat content would be frowned upon.

You might even consider speaking with his Mrs ahead of time - as she will no doubt have the very best suggestions based on their own eating preferences.

Good on ya for stepping to the plate for you friend.

[fishngamereaper]

I suspect most here could rattle off meals and recipes for hours, yet most would be at a loss for words if the question were what not to make - because....all food is good in our book.

You might spend a short amount of time reading up on post open heart surgery diet assignments before plotting the slew of meals you intend to prepare.

I suspect green veggies like broccoli, kale, etc would be out due to the high vitamin k content that is known to aid blood clotting - a no no when he is likely on a blood thinner to reduce clots and strokes.

Also, I would guess certain dishes high in fat content would be frowned upon.

You might even consider speaking with his Mrs ahead of time - as she will no doubt have the very best suggestions based on their own eating preferences.

Good on ya for stepping to the plate for you friend.

  spicey food is going to be a no no as well.

All good ideas for good meals but he will be pretty restricted for a while. Good on you for stepping up.

[Fl0und3rz]

Spaghetti sauce, frozen in ziplocks.

Chicken enchiladas.

Shepherd's pie.

Soups and stews, canned.

[Boss .300 winmag]

Tater Tot casserole.

[h20hunter]

Smoke a few chickens....pull the meat, seperate,  and freeze in 2 serving bags. Add that to good brands of canned soup for ease of prep and you got good eats. Go a little further and make a big ol pot of chicken soup using the smoked chicken carcass for broth, seperate,  freeze in two serving tupperwear....mmmmm hmmmm good.

[jagermiester]

Thanks guys keep em coming. I think right now I am going to do a batch of Italian chicken stew and a batch of Chili. Maybe a couple more.

[NRA4LIFE]

Another suggestion for Lasagna.  Freeze it in portions for the size of family and it is really easy to heat up and eat.  Almost any casserole is good too.  My wife and I had a friend with terminal cancer a while back and we cooked for them every week for nearly 6 months before she passed away.  Anything you can just microwave is golden.  Another thing they really appreciated was frozen,  precooked bacon and/or breakfast sausage for quick morning meals.  Just think quick and easy.

[Twispriver]

I've done this a couple of times for friends and family recovering from surgery or chemo. What worked best for these folks was soup that I made and canned in pint jars with the pressure canner. On a Saturday I would make three big pots of soup and he able to provide them with 36 healthy meals that just needed to be heated up. Most recently I did this for my father in law after abdominal surgery last fall and made potato/ham, ham & navy bean and chicken vegetable.