help with budget friendly food for pre-diabetic aunt with intellectual disability

[briggsy's girl]

okies, think the title says it all. i have an aunt (51) who is pre-diabetic (on the cusp if she isnt' careful), has an intellectual disability, and we need to get her eating healthier on a budget (she's on the pension).

essentially, she knows how to cook basic stuff (snags and veg etc) - she lived with my grandparents up until they both passed, and has continued eating the same thing. her vegie intake isn't bad, but she lets herself down with the days she doesn't eat vegies. like, having soup for lunch (from a tin) - not such a bad thing - but she'll add four or five slices of bread with it. she rarely buys decent cuts of meat, more just sausages and things - cos she knows how to cook them. she cooks in too much oil, but given how far away from us she lives (about 30k's from me) i can't "police" her cooking to help her learn alternatives

so, what i need, is some recipes that will be very simple for her, give her variety, healthy, filling meals - and preferably be really budget friendly. i'm spending tomorrow with her cooking up slow cooker meals. we've recently bought her a cooker, and the intention is to get about half a dozen different meals on the go that DH and I regularly cook in our slow cooker (gotta love friends and family that will loan them to us) and show her about cooking in bulk and freezing meals. the aim would then be to encourage her to buy meat and veg for slow cooker every pay day, get half a dozen meals in the freezer, and work from there. so maybe a spag bol this week, braise in a fortnight etc.
and then get her cycling through the frozen stuff every few days and filling in between with healthier alternatives. but, they need to be VERY simple (both ingredients AND instructions) and preferably stuff that can be served with vegies or, in the slow cooker, bulked out with lots of veg so that it's a cheaper alternative for her. tomorrow's cook up will mean her taking a third of everything that we cook to put in her freezer to give her a kick start. we will use the other two thirds for our freezer (well, seeing we're cooking at mum's will leave some for dad!).

suggest away ladies!

oooh, and Col has very basic tastes - nothing with much spice or anything - she just won't eat it.

[alioops]

Our staple is spag bol. What type of bread does she eat? If she is eating white bread only has she tried mulitgrain? Lots of stews would probably be easy for her, just cube whatever you find and throw it in with some water. I think she might also find stir fry pretty easy, and the strips are quite cheap. All she needs is a frypan and plenty of vegies. Does she have much freezer space to buy meat in bulk every few months, like 1/4 of a cow or something?

[christy]

Soup in the SC!! She will be able to freeze it and defrost and maybe blend to make it smooth? We freeze our pumpkin soup (dairy free ) and then defrost it and blend it again to make it smooth again and reheat it gently. I make a huge pot of pumpkin soup or potato soup and freeze kids meals because my kids love soup.

Also if you do spag bol and freeze in meal sizes so all she has to do is make some wholemeal pasta to go with it? You can hide all sorts of veges in it. And she can just put it in some healthy bread for a toasted sandwich if she can't be bothered making the pasta.

Fried rice may be a bit complicated for her.... but if she makes a heap of brown rice or basmati rice (which are both low GI) she can grate veges into a fry pan and add an egg or something, some soy sauce and garlic and the cooked rice and have a healthier meal... We add left over roast chook in ours and some bacon. We also use more spices and stuff, but its easy to make it simply.

[briggsy's girl]

thanks ladies

the plan for tomorrow is to have seven slowcookers plus electric frying pan and boiler on the cook top going. yay for info overload. BUT, the main thing is that she can see they have similar vegie bases and it's just the meat and sauce that changes. if we can get her to see how basic the process is, it will help her get motivated!

so, tomorrow, we're making
spag bol (will add pasta when it's almost done and freeze complete meals - one, cos it's easier for DH when he's away, two, so that col doesn't go and add a heap of pasta and end up eating too much)
chicken bolognaise - basically the same as the spag but use chicken cubes and then she can either reheat in the micro or put it in a dish, throw it in the oven topped with light cheese
braised lamb with heaps of veg
braised beef with heaps of veg
chop suey
potato soup
basic mince mix (basis for cottage pie)
couple of lots of vegie soup

and for lunch we're having the cheats version of meat balls - rissoles made heaps smaller, cooked in tom soup, and served with mash!


i guess mybig thing is making sure Col can have lots of ideas so she can budget shop and avoid living on snags and things


ooh, fried rice falls in the too hard basket - tried to teach her that one a few times and she just falls in a heap (or tells porky pies - like that she cooked it, but actually went and bought msg laden chinese at the shop - it's very hard having her live sooooo close to the shops!)

[HotI]

does she like tuna?

easy, cheap, can be quick to make a meal

[briggsy's girl]

does she like tuna?

easy, cheap, can be quick to make a meal

wont touch it!


not that i blame her = not a fan either...