Dinner Is a Job With Three Answers: Cook It, Batch It, or Buy It

Dinner comes back every night, and it does not care how tired you are. Most caregivers use three ways to get a meal on the table, often all three in one week: cook it yourself, cook once and reheat, or buy it ready. The job is to decide which meals go to which choice, so that no single night falls apart.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Start with what your wife can eat

Before you plan anything, get any eating or drinking limits written down by her doctor or a dietitian, and keep that page where you can see it. Texture, salt, and fluid rules come from her care team, not from you or a helper. The food plan has to follow that page.

Cook, batch, or buy

Cook yourself when you have the hour and the energy, usually with the meals you already know well. Batch on one day: a pot of soup, a tray of chicken, a pan of rice, portioned into containers with the date written on each lid. Buy ready food for the nights when the day has already gone wrong. Put each meal on the day sheet with its choice, so the job is assigned, not hoped for.

Where a hired helper fits

A hired, in-home non-medical helper can prepare a meal from a list you wrote, heat food, and tidy the kitchen. Give the helper the menu, the place where leftovers go, and the rule for what happens when a meal is refused. Do not hand the helper any decision about what she should eat or drink.

Check the first week

Count the meals you actually made by the end of the week. If the batch day did not happen, shrink the plan instead of adding a new one. Look at the leftover containers: full ones mean you cooked more than one person can finish, and ones pushed to the back of the shelf mean the food is going to waste. Adjust the next week from what you saw, not from what you planned.