Has anyone used Magickitchen.com for home delivered meals?

I have been cooking for my elderly father for about a year now, and am looking for an alternative. He doesn't cook, and has no interest in learning (he's 84 years old).

Breakfast and lunch are under control, it is dinner that we are trying to figure out. My 2 sisters and I are going to have him over for dinner a couple nights...but doesn't anyone else have any ideas?

Oh, one sister is vegan. The other sister would rather go out to eat than cook.

Thanks for any ideas! :roll:

Cook meals ahead, freeze them so DD can shop through his freezer and microwave his dinners? :D:D:D

That's what I've been doing for over a year now. Looking to get out of the "job" of doing this. His freezer only holds about 24 single serving freezer containers = 3 weeks of food. So I'm cooking every three weeks :?

What a nice daughter :thumbup: A big chore, so hopefully you can come up with a better solution.

You may have local options that are less pricey. There is a local company where people can go to create several meals in a couple of hours. It's set up assembly-line style. Here is a link to one in our area:
http://www.letsdish.com

There may be one with an option to create individual meals.

I think this would be considerably less expensive than having meals shipped in. The three sisters could take turns once a week going in and assembling a week's worth of meals for your Dad.

Edit: I started looking at some of the details on the website, and I see that they have ready-mades. That might be an even better option for you. I think at this particular place they change the menu every week.

Disclaimer: I haven't actually done it, but I know this place has been in business for about 5 years now so there must be lots of other people that use it!

At his age does he have any contact with the services? Maybe he would qualify for some extra help from them, and take a little of the responsibility off you?

Great idea, only too far away :cry:

I'm in California ---west coast. Looked on the website, and they don't offer an option for delivering/mailing the meals and no stores at all in California.

the only thing I found was "meals on wheels" which delivers meals to his house...but he has to be homebound and unable to drive ----- which he is not.

Does he qualify for meals on wheels???

Found this that might help you locate a similar business near you:
http://www.easymealprep.com/main/direct01.php

Did a control/f on California and found 11 matches (with some of those having a chain of stores). This will at least give you some names to check out.

Fresh and Easy has some pretty good prepared meals that can be microwaved. Also, you might find some suitable options from Trader Joes, Costco, or Whole Foods.

No, he is pretty healthy. He has to be housebound and unable to drive in order to qualify.

I checked out that site, there are two in my area. 1 is closed (it says "for now"...whatever that means :roll: and the other just offers easier ways to prepare meals..not prepared and just reheat.

Thanks for the info though :?

Fresh and Easy sounds like a good option, but they don't have any stores in my area just yet. I heard there is one opening in July though.... :thumbup: :lol:

Trader Joes might have some good options as well.

My father also has heart problems and has to watch his sodium intake - 2000 mg per day or less :-( Some of the prepared meals these days have almost that in one serving :!: But I will be on the lookout to see what I can find for about 500 mg per serving.

Thanks for the ideas! :thumbup: :lol: :thumbup: :lol: :thumbup: :lol:

I really don't have any different ideas for meals but I do have a suggestion/warning for you. I was makig and freezing meals for my MIL in addition to buying her the soups and other canned food that she liked. It took me awhile to figure out that she was no longer able to figure out the microwave and was putting the food out for feral cats that roamed around her house. When I was cleaning out her house after she went into an assisted living situation, I found 5 pans that she had burned food to a black crisp in and tossed under the kitchen sink. So try to assess how he is doing with those kinds of task as he continues to age. Good luck in your search.

I don't know how Picky he is but there r some frozen meals that r lower sodium. Dh needs low sodium and I found a few. When u make ur own meals can't u freeze small portions of it in ziplock bags to take over. U could freeze 2 of each keep I to use for later. Ur sisters won't come over and have girls day and help make meals once a month?

I am just curious, what would he do on his own? Would he not eat, or eat junk food?
It sounds like he is in pretty good shape mentally if he is still driving. Does he do his own shopping?

What about hiring someone to go in and cook an hour or so aday? or a few days a week it would give him companionship and a fresh face to tell all those stories to. what I make for dinner there is usually enough left over for lunch.

Have you considered:

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

They offer individual frozen meals. The food is good also. They have sites across the US.

We have a huge Sunday dinner every week with MIL and FIL. I cook tons of food and send them leftovers home. They do not mind leftovers and manage to get 2 more meals out of them. I sometimes cook an extra dish that i don't put out for dinner so they can have something different one night. Also when my MIL was in the hospital we had to deliver dinner to FIL about every night. He eats early and I get home from work to late to feed him. I would cook one night, put his dinner in the fridge, then the next night that one got delivered to him as I was cooking again. Some meals don't stand up to that and we had to think about what we were cooking. Its very hard to do on a long term basis. Good luck!

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

We feed MIL and she pretty much eats what we eat (as long as I portion hers out before I add the pepper!). I like to cook some "staples" of our diet in quantity and freeze so that I don't have to make a meatloaf (for ex.)every time we want one.

In my freezer I keep meatloaf,spagetti sauce, chili meat, steak in gravy, beef stew (MIL fav), pock chops/green beans in mushroom soup, ham/bean soup, turkey meat/broth for pot pie or soups and (NOT for MIL) shredded chicken/sauce, shredded beef/sauce and chili verde. And usually 2-3 kinds of soups.

I try to do a crockpot of something as soon as I finish the last one from the freezer. Sometimes I have a kitchen day and make up 2-3 big batches of food for the freezer.

I guess I just have trouble with your comment about HAVING to cook every 3 weeks as I cook nearly every day (and like to). But the way that I cook means a majority of dinners don't require much time as it starts with something from my freezer. Likng to cook doesn't mean that I WANT to spend a lot of time on it all the time :-)

We make our own TV dinners.... out of this and that we have left over ( we do this for when we travel in our camper... so we don't have to cook whiel traveling)

Schwan icevream now sells frozen meals and delivers them right to your house. Sorry I don't know what they cost but if their food is as good as their icecream it minght be a though. You can Google them and find out what they have

Our local grocery store has a delivery option with a pretty expansive deli/prepared meal section...meatloaf, cabbage rolls, chicken dishes, etc. different every day. Perhaps your store has one too.

As a caregiver for my mom who is 90 I found out that the older she got the less she cared about food. Only dinner she would eat would be the meal she ate with us. It's almost another full time job caring for elders and it became much easier when she moved in with us.

Yes, we changed our lifestyle drastically and yes we had children to care for, too.

We tried home delivered meals and they were terrible. Goofed up the order. It as a mess.

There is NO easy answer when caring for elderly. Believe me. We looked.

Yes Angel food ministries was what I was going to suggest. Also is there a neighbor close by that you could hire once a week?

Thanks for the tip, my dad mostly heats things in the microwave as he too has a tendency to "forget" that he has something on the stove. The only thing he heats on the stove is oatmeal on occasion and then he has to stand there and stir it constantly. Lately he has gone to just eating cold cereal. :P

Contact your local services for the aged..In Ohio its your local council on aging. They have a bunch of resources they can refer you to so you get the help both of you need!! Maybe a local place where he can take himself for dinner..and the company of others his age. He may eat better if its a social setting. But eventually you will need the help of others sometimes so you don't burn out, and there's nothing wrong with it. Its hard to look after our parents, and hard for them to be looked after. I wish you strength for the journey.

Well said. :thumbup:

Actually, he would just go out to eat. He does his own shopping now that my mom has passed, but he still does not cook.

We were out today buying some frozen meals for him (that I had coupons for) and he pointed to a sit-down burger joint (I think it was called Diamond burgers) and he said "don't get a burger there - it was $11 for a burger and fries". Before my Mom passed, they NEVER went out to eat.

:lol: So this in an update on the situation ... thanks to everyone who commented and offered suggestions!

We contacted the local Senior center, and they have a weekday meal program where they serve lunch and ask for a $5 donation. Warm, homecooked meal and lots of interaction. "Lots of old people there" he told me :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: "Dad, you're old too! You're 84!" I told him....."No, older than that"! :lol: :lol: :lol: My father does not think he is old...he will probobly live to be over 100 years old.

Then I checked the grocery ads for sales on frozen meals. Smart Ones (by Weight Watchers) and Healthy Choice were on sale and had alot of options that had a sodium content of between 500 - 700 Mg sodium per serving/box. I paired those with coupons that I had, so he got 20 meals for an average of less than $2.00 a meal. Then I found out that Walmart has the same selection and cheaper than the grocery stores sale ads! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

So, he is set for 20 days...and we will see how that works for him. Lasagna, chicken parmegan, meatloaf, salsbury steak, swedish meatballs, oriental chicken, and others. Hopefully they are tasty enough and satisfying.

Sounds like a great solution! Will be interested to hear how this works out longer term! My brother goes to a senior center for lunch every day and has made lots of friends there.

it's great to hear about a senior being able to stay in his own home and enjoy life. Tell him from me, Rock On!!

:thumbup:

Latest update.

The Smart Ones and Healthy Choice were not "substantial" enough and he had to have 2 in order to feel full. Not a good option!

Senior center works great for lunchtime meals. He goes there 3-4 times a week, gets a great homecooked meal and gets to socialize.

We brought over one of our older freezers to store meals and I cook all day to make meals for him. Week before last I made 64 meals and filled up both of his freezers. He has a variety of 4 or 5 different meals which are quick and easy for me to mass produce.

Taco soup, spaghetti with meat sauce, chili with chicken, vegetable beef soup. I also grill a large package of hamburger patties and turkey burgers. Then put 4 or so in a freezer ziplock bag that he can take out and reheat for a burger.

He has requested lasagna for next time, so I have been looking for recipes that I think would be tasty to add to the mix.

My sister also has him over to dinner every Sunday and sends leftovers with him.

He has learned to make scrambled eggs and sautes zucchini or yellow squash to add in.

Very interesting discovery this has been, too bad there are not more healthy choices for the seniors.

glad to hear everything is going well!!