Need premade meals ideas

[Finster]

Long story short..
The Wife's cousin has some health issues that prevent her from doing a whole lot around the house, including any large amounts of cooking.
Her caretaker husband recently hurt his back and is somewhat immobile, so life is a bit of a struggle for them right now.
We are looking to make some meals for them to help get them through the next few weeks.
Looking for ideas that will store (freeze), and reheat well, with minimal effort.

I'm already planning to smoke a pork butt and some ribs. (I could vac seal and they could reheat via sous vide)
Probably make some meatballs and sauce. Wife is making some mac and cheese (not sure that will freeze well, so probably a small batch to be eaten over the first day or two)
Wife also mentioned making some broccoli / cheese soup that she knows they both like. not sure how that would freeze either because of the dairy.

We would appreciate any ideas you all can offer...

[Hulagn1971]

Smoke some chicken thighs. Vacuum seal them up and freeze. Easily reheated via sous vide. Nice, hot, moist and tasty!

[bbqLuv]

You're doing good. Pork butt/pulled pork is versatile, and it reheats well.
Costco has vac sealed sour dough French bread that cooks up in only a few minutes. They have a shelf life of 3 months.
Stews, casseroles, hearty soups area a good option too.

Sheppard's pie? Simple and tasty, and can be portioned and frozen.

[Draznnl]

Chili immediately leapt to my mind.

[WI Bubba]

Anything pasta based will freeze and sous vide well.
Meatloaf, stir fry, casseroles, Mexican dishes if they can handle putting it in a tortilla, gumbo, chicken and rice in all it's iterations.

As long as you are using a sous vide to reheat, even thing like homemade alfredo sauce can be reheated without breaking the sauce. I do a white chicken roll up with lasagna noodles, alfredo sauce, a touch of goat cheese, shredded chicken, and plenty of mozzarella that reheats beautifully. You can also use it to stuff manicotti noodles and it's easier to put together.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sour-cream-noodle-bake0-2145182

Some things like a tater tot casserole will do better reheated in an oven, but that's another one that is easy to assemble and freezes well.

Pot pies are also a great option for the oven.

The real trick is to vary the flavor profiles so it doesn't feel like you are eating the same thing every meal. Italian chicken one day, Asian beef the next, American casserole the day after. Whatever you make, I'm sure they will just appreciate the fact that you cared enough to help.

[texastweeter]

Casseroles like pot pies do well. I have had good luck with chili, and stuffed peppers. Soups as well.

[bbqLuv]

Stuffed peppers--Thanks for the tip
Haven't made a stuffed pepper in a long time

[LA Pork Butt]

A stand by for us is red beans and brown rice. We cook a pound with andouille sausage in the instant pot and brown rice in the rice cooker. For us serving size is one cup of beans and sausage and 1/2 cup cooked brown rice. For us it makes four meals for two. We freeze it in serving size until we are ready to eat it. Microwave heats it.

[LA Pork Butt]

As Hulagn1971 noted above chicken thighs. We grill boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut them in strips and freeze them in 8 ounce vacuum sealed packs. They can be put on bread to make a sandwich, or make tacos, or served with a vegetable and starch of choice.

[cruiseplanner1]

I do the same only smoke whole split chickens then skin, debone and freeze what we don't eat. I do three or four at a time to make it worth my while babysitting that stick burner

[Duanessmokedmeats]

Some chopped brisket vacuum sealed in half pound to pound portions.
Unfreeze then warm in a pan, or microwave. Put on a bun, corn chips, tortillas...

[Alan Brice]

Or slices. Individual freezes and reheats very well. Can be added to Mac n chee or open faced with jar gravy mebe a steamed veggie.
Soups or Chili with or without beans.

[jfmorris]

Your plan is sound, but unless the caretaker who is also having issues of his own is a sous vide guy I would package in ways that can be microwaved or defrosted and baked in the oven to reheat. Example - I vacuum sealed a while back a fully smoked rack of ribs IN FOIL (inside the vacuum bag). I cut the plastic 6 months later and baked in the oven in foil for an hour at 250, opened the foil and let the sauce set for a few minutes at 350, and the ribs were pretty much perfect.

[N227GB]

That's a technique I'll have to try.

[jfmorris]

N227GB My memory recalls it took longer than expected to reheat the ribs at 250, and that I may have cranked the temp 30-40 minutes into the reheat. If I had to do it again I would probably just go 350, open the foil after 30 and check the ribs, if reheating from frozen. There reason they were in foil was that was how they had been put in the fridge as a leftover rack of ribs before I decided to freeze them... but it worked.

[cruiseplanner1]

Interesting procedure. Will have to remember that one

[SheilaAnn]

Great suggestions! One of my besties had surgery, and I cooked up a storm. Chicken pot pies, simple red sauce for pasta, chicken Chile verde, chili, beef stew, pasta fagioli, minestrone, and of course….. chicken noodle soup!

[SheilaAnn]

And if you do some basic bone broths, not only do you have bases for anything, you also have nutrient dense broth as well!

[Manxman]

In addition to some of the great ideas already mentioned we cook and portion freeze a variety of curries such as Thai Green, Thai red and Chinese using the same process for Chicken, Beef, Pork, Prawn and Vegetable curries. Very easy to reheat which takes about the same time as boiling up some rice.

[Brian_M]

In a pinch, there are companies that will ship fresh meals. Some of them have fairly low introductory offers and prices. We gifted a set of meals to someone at Christmas. They said they were very good.

[Oak Smoke]

I just checked, if you search for microwave vegetables on the Walmart site there are quite a few to choose from. There is microwaveable rice in several flavors. There are kits for different salads. That leaves you with providing the protein. A nice pot roast, some fried chicken, grilled hamburger patties, and grilled pork chops come to mind. You can put together some well balanced meals without having to cook up everything.

[TomfromtheSoo]

For a side dish, whatever kind of beans you or they like. Boston type navy beans, pinto beans, black beans, Mayocoba or pinquito. Good shelf life in fridge and they freeze well.

I’ll have beans and toast for breakfast at least a couple times per week. Microwave beans, toast bread, done.