Budget Take and Bake Meals for Ill friend

[ah1126]

These are delicious! I get compliments everytime I make them:

Chicken Enchiladas
2 chicken breasts
1 1/2 C shredded cheese ( cheddar or mexican blend)
1 can cream of chicken soup ( I sometimes use cream of celery)
1 C sour cream
1 small can green chilies
1 pkg ( 10 count) flour tortillas
Simmer chicken breasts in water until done. Shred and mix with 1 C of the shredded cheese. Fill tortillas with the chicken mixture. Roll and place in 13 X 9 baking dish. Mix soup, sour cream and chilies. Pour over tortillas. Top with remaining cheese. Bake @ 350 degrees for 35 minutes. These can be kept refrigerated or frozen for later use.

Prayers to your friend and her family. You are really sweet for helping her out. I just had a good friend that was diagnosed last year. She had a double masectomy and is now doing great.

Do you think this would work ok without the Sour Cream??


If you could find a good deal on a roast you could do pot roast with potatoes and carrots.

 

[blackforest]

My standard is: Chicken and Noodles
Mashed Potaoes
Green Beans
Blueberry Muffins

And I like the idea of throwing in some pretty disposable napkins and plates too!

The nice thing is that I double everything, and we have it for dinner also.

So when we have this meal, everyone wants to know who's sick!

 

[maddiesmom0116]

What an awesome thing to do for your friend. I'm a 4 year breast cancer survivor and I can tell you that chemo tends to be the hardest part.

If I can make a suggestion, rather then just send a meal 1x a week, how about you & your friends finding out when her "bad" days are after chemo and each of you doing a meal for those 2-3 days. My bad days after chemo were days 3 & 4 (but depending on her type of chemo that could vary). I had 2 bad days and then the next 1-1/2 weeks until my next chemo I was (unfortunately) perfectly capable of cooking...and cleaning and working and laundry.

Our local Safeway has nice deli pizzas for $5 on Fridays. Combine that with a green salad, some garlic bread and maybe some grapes and that would make a nice budget meal.

Best wishes to your friend.

Thank you for the suggestion, I will find out the days best for her. Is there anything they told you while going through the chemo you should eat more of, so I can try and incorporate it into meals, like beta carotene, etc...

Thank you

 

[annsteere]

And I like the idea of throwing in some pretty disposable napkins and plates too!

The nice thing is that I double everything, and we have it for dinner also.

Love the idea of sending some pretty disposable plates and napkins.

I try to avoid disposables. I have garage sale 8X8 and 9X13 pans that I use to deliver meals. They have been delivered over and over and over.

When I was doing a meal once a week over a long haul, my friend put the dirty one into a grocery bag and then into her freezer. I picked it up when I delivered the next meal.

But, cheerful plates and napkins would be a great touch in this case. If I'm delivering to a smaller family, they'd also be a great way to use up the paper "leftovers."

Thanks for the idea!

 

[sameyeyam]

Thank you for the suggestion, I will find out the days best for her. Is there anything they told you while going through the chemo you should eat more of, so I can try and incorporate it into meals, like beta carotene, etc...

Thank you

Sometimes it's hard to find something that tastes good to eat during chemo, so you just tend to sort of graze and try to find something that doesn't taste like tinfoil & soggy cardboard!lol. Some types of chemo literally destroy your taste buds and what might taste good one week won't taste good the next week.

I did drink a lot of Carnation Instant Breakfast. It was a good way to get a fair amount of vitamins & minerals when you didn't feel like eating a lot. Tasted better then Ensure and also much cheaper. Although I really only had a few days a month when i didn't feel like eating. Also, meat didn't taste very good to me, so I ate a lot of nuts to try & get more protein.

My doctors told me to just eat a normal healthy diet. The only things off limit were items like sushi, undercooked foods, etc. Basically anything that could contain bacterias that a damaged immune system couldn't fight off. Also I could not take any type of supplements without their prior approval. One time a friend gave me some blackberry shake supplements that were good for immune system health and helped repair free radical cells. My doctors told me not to drink them because they were trying to kill cancer cells, not repair them! But other then that, pretty much any foods are ok.

 

[lunalibre]

Try spaghetti pie. It's even easier than lasagna. It's also very easy to double.

Baked Spaghetti Pie
-------------------

1/2 pound spaghetti
2 large eggs
1 15 oz container part-skim ricotta cheese
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan
italian seasoning/basil/oregano
1 cup marinara sauce
1/2 cup mozzerella


Cook spaghetti and drain.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350. Grease a 10" deep dish glass pie plate. In large bowl, beat eggs with a fork. Stir in ricotta and parmesan until well blended. Add in a few shakes of italian seasoning/basil/oregano if desired (I always do). Add spaghetti to cheese mixture and stir until well coated. Pour spaghetti into pie plate. Top with marinara, then sprinkle mozzerella and parmesan over all.

Bake 25 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes for easier serving. Serves 6.


*Notes: This wasn't enough marinara sauce for my family, but the original pie plate size doesn't leave room for more sauce. I usually bake mine in
a 10 x 10 casserole dish. The pie isn't as thick, but there's plenty of room in the pan for the sauce we want, and I can also add extra toppings like chicken and not run out of room. If I add extra toppings, I bake it for 30 minutes instead of 25.

This recipe can be doubled and baked in a 9 x 13 pan, but it needs to bake for 50 minutes - 1 hour. Cover with foil after 30 minutes or else the cheese gets too brown.

If you want to freeze the casserole, assemble it up to the point where you would put it in the oven. I've never tried baking it frozen. I've always defrosted it in the refrigerator first. If the casserole is cold, it'll take more like 45 minutes to an hour to bake. Be sure to tent foil over it so the cheese doesn't get too brown.

 

[dizkids]

Tacos are well liked and SOOO EASY.

Cook ground beef or ground turkey with taco seasoning and then they can reheat easily in microwave.

Bring boxed tacos and toppings. Bagged shredded cheese, sourcream, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes.