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My Dad is 80 years old and is getting frail and dangerously thin. My Mom who is 76 is not really interested in cooking. They don't like Meals on Wheels. Does anyone have any suggestions of fattening, healthy snacks/meals I can load up his refrigerator with? The conundrum is, my Mother is getting too thick around her mid-area, which I understand is dangerous for heart-health. Any feedback would be appreciated!

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i make my mother every morning, one yogurt, one banana, and one avocado and i smash it up like baby food. She loves it. Also, cook pasting and then just before it is done, leave enough water do not drain, crack two to three eggs in the boiling pot and whisk away, again leave enough water so that its not thick, it thickens very quickly add some salt and eat up!
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yeh its is used alot to keep elders nourished and probably others who need it as well but it tastes darn good in my coffee; very rich i don't know if i would personally drink it straight.
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ensure must be some pretty thorough stuff. hospice keeps my mother supplied with it ( glucose control type ) . she uses it her cereal instead of milk and hospice says if she is drinking a couple of them a day she wont be getting malnourished.
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you could also use a blender and mix the ensure with icecream for a milkshake type drink especially during warm summer days and evenings
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i had lost a significant amount of weight when mom first moved here (there was always a medical emergency or sickness all of which have been resolved now). I started putting the rite aid and walgreens version of ensure in my coffee (a quasi coffee mocha). I am back to eating but still like my ensure coffee. It is high in calories and I think has protein. I wonder if you baked a cake or other baked goods if you could use the vanilla or chocolate flavor for receipes call for milk. just a thought. The drink comes in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. I used to pour some chocolate over a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a treat for my mom. I suspect you could add banana slices for a quasi banana split.
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So many people with good advice. My Mom lost a lot of weight after my Dad died in December of 2011. Truthfully, she didn't have an appetite. My mom is still somewhat independent enough to heat up things, but not cook. Though when she cooks, I visit her in the kitchen to make sure she understands the directions, etc. But if I try to tell her she is cooking something at too high a heat, she gets really angry. So I have let that go for now. The problem is she has a major sweet tooth. I wish I could switch her over to a low-sugar, healthy diet, but she won't do it. I bought a rotisserie chicken for her last week, and she hasn't touched it.
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whole milk for drinking and cooking
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plain yogurt and fold in your own fresh raspberries, bananas, peaches etc. Peanut butter sandwiches and /or peanut butter sauce poured over baked pork chops or chicken (trader vics used to make it). Mashed potatoes with butter/corn souffe, quiche lorraine. Bernaise sauce placed on top of sirloin stake or even hamburger patties; hollidaise sauce (both of the latter sauces can be made at home), more mashed potatoes. Fresh fruit smoothies, more mashed potatoes. In and out burgers are real beef ---the bun is probably white processed but the beef is excellent unlike McDonalds and his cousins. Bananas. Mashed potatoes. Corn and other vegetable souffles. Let us know what you end up using to get those healthy calories. Tonight mom and I had bread pudding. Yum. Use some multigrain bread. Blend the bread into cake consistency. Bake and let the edles get crispy. Serve warm with 2 small pools of raspberry sauce, a few dollups of whipped cream (the real deal) and add sprinkles of real raspberries. (a Nordstrom receipe)
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cream cheese on fish. crackers. or dominos. its all the same thats some rich fattening stuff. mix it with yogurt, still high calorie stuff..
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My 80 year old mother has a good breakfast, but the issue is that she just wants to snack all day. She will eat a good dinner, she rarely has lunch with the exception of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I leave for her when I go to work. I do leave the fruit bowl out so she could have clementines or bananas. I have purchased the Shakes but she doesn't seem to interested in those. I do get some of the mini snack bars from Glucerna or meal bars. I guess we can just do the best we can for our loved ones. I can't make my mother stop eating, I think that is the one thing she can control in her life. Good luck to you and hang in there.
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I know it's hard, but try if you can to keep MSG out of the diet...it comes in MANY forms, so just google it and you will find a list of all the other names it has...I would list them here, but the list is extensive! This is best for everyone, but it's especially important if your loved one has a dementia. Good luck!!!
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Things like gorp work for my dad. He has learned to mix almonds with raisins and m&m's to create a relatively healthy high calorie mix. Without this he has a tendency to want to live off ensure. Ensure is better than nothing, but it's all corn sugar. Dad literally became addicted to the stuff and almost stopped eating any other food.
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Healthy but fattening: Rice pudding, peanut butter, homemade split pea soup, halva, shepherd's pie, turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes, oatmeal with lots of dried fruit cooked in it, oatmeal cookies.
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Lianru, maybe it's not the fattening they need so much as the convience factor. I spent a day every week or two cooking and preparing meals for my mom before she moved in with me. I bought those 3 sectioned rubbermaid plates and filled them up and froze them. I brought them to her and she just took one out and microwaved them and loved them! I put in anything we would eat like sweet potatoes, chicken, corn, etc. Some plates were solid with covers and I put French toast with syrup for breakfasts, or omelettes. I wouldn't worry about your moms weight, when my mom had her heart attack over 12 years ago she quickly lost 30+ pounds, extra weight was a good thing they told me at that time! I would buy a carvel cake and cut it into slices and freeze them too! It's a lot of work, but great for them. The other suggestions here are also great for grab foods in- between. My mom got so bad she would dial in an extra zero on her microwave and burn those frozen little pizzas so I bought her a dial microwave which solved the extra 0 issue. She now lives with me after 10 years of making her meals for her home, and I make them ( puree) and still freeze them. Her favorite dessert is peaches. I buy the frozen cut peaches and thaw, then cussinart them to a puree
and freeze also. One more thing is protein shakes you can use, the best I found are the HMR 800 ones bought online. Hope this helps!
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Yes all good ideas. My husband cannot prepare/cook his food. SO... we have individual puddings, apple sauce, tiny ice cream drumsticks, junk food like cheetos and chips, those individual bag of cookies (called 100 calorie), cinnamon raisan bread which can be eaten as is, hard boiled eggs, Ensure or Boost, candies, peanut butter, any kind of cracker (saltine like) and cheese (in fridge), also flavored crackers like Cheez Its etc. I am one who does not care what he eats....as long as he eats something. Milk (half and half), orange juice, and other flavors of juice. But I am home most days to make/cook two meals for him.
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Thus far great suggestions.
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All you can do is try. my mom had pancreatic cancer and had a whipple...chemo made her lactose intolerant. I have taken her to a nutritionist to help give her alternate ideas for food, have stocked up on the things she should eat, but ultimately I can't force her to eat what is proper..she lives with me and I have just given up. She likes her sweets and breads. she does eat what I make for dinner, and I try tor control what comes in the house, but it was a losing battle and a fight that was just wearing me out. Mom has all her faculties... she is just stubborn. She has be a dieter all her life, so she says " I shouldn't eat this...I've been naughty..... " I just give up. So far her weight is only dipping down very slowly...
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Your parents' household sounds a little like our house. I read labels and buy the most calorie-dense items I can find for my husband, who definitely needs to gain weight. I really don't need the extra calories!

Dove and Magnum ice-cream bars are high-calorie. I get them for hubby, and buy 100-calorie treats for me. Like Mommag, I add butter or olive oil or sauces to everything I can reasonably get by with. (Hubby followed a heart-healthy diet for 30+ years. This is a huge switch for us.) Cheese spreads and dips add calories to raw veggies or chips.

Hubby likes V-8 juice. That is not exactly "fattening" but it has more caloires than tea or water. Hubby does not like Boost or Ensure, but they are fine basis for a milk shake with ice cream and some fruit or peanut butter.
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would they eat oatmeal? you can premake it and add things like cinnamon (supposed to lower blood pressure), raisins, cranberries, nuts (if they have teeth). Then they can just heat it in a microwave. Also cut up things like watermelon and other such melons, oranges, apples, pears. If these are already prepared for them it makes it easier than if they have to peel, cut, etc. fig bars (find the ones with the lowest sugar/salt if diet requires this), lowfat/low sugar yogurt with fruit in the small cups, I have started buying soft cheese with low sodium (swiss, colby jack, havarti from the superstore deli.) cheese makes a good snack and you can also leave a cut up salad. But things do get spoiled fast so someone needs to monitor what's in the fridge. A simple dish is poached salmon which is not too expensive if your elder only eats small amounts. I have the fish dept cut it into 3-4 oz strips and if you don't plan to use in right away, you can wrap in foil and freeze. You can precook a few slices of french toast and leave in separate containers for them to heat in microwave. as mentioned above, you can cook a large pot of soup using those soup mixes (I use Streits or manochevitz) Some are low sodium but if you want it lower, just add extra water. Not required but you can also cut up extra things like carrots, potatos, celery, mushrooms, etc to flavor to their liking. you can freeze this also. There are no salt bags of potato chips. low sodium deli turkey, etc.
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My father is 97 and has a good appetite. He prepares his own breakfast and it's always All Bran with fruit cut up in it. His second breakfast is a piece of raisin cinnamin toast. After that he picks all day eating cookies, cake, pie all sweets that he loves. I try to buy somewhat healthy sweets such as oatmeal cookies, apple pie etc Also I have a container always filled with walnuts.
I cook healthy food for his dinner every night. Toss salad, either fish, chicken and occasionally beef. He loves Shepards Pie because it's soft and kind of a comfort food. Oh, almost forgot, he always has one drink of vodka and tonic. Here's a safety tip. Because I don't want him using the stove, bought an electric kettle that automatically shuts off. I buy dried packages of soup, chicken and beef flavor. All he has to do is put the contents in a big soup cup and use the kettle for the hot water. One thing to watch is the sodium in some of those products. He also likes the small containers of pudding,, jello and fruit cocktail. I hope this helps.
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The nursing home where my dad and mom is at started giving dad ensure about 3 daily. They also put sugar on his food. He has put on some weight and looks healthier now. He only weighed 93 pounds in feb. when he went in and now he s t 110. Just some ideas.
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If your mom can digest nuts, salted cashews or salted pistachios that are bulging out of their shells is a good snack. I keep them out on the kitchen table in my dad's sight and as soon as he sits down, he opens the container and grabs a handful.
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My mother is 89 (has dementia) and won't eat anything but bananas, yogurt and ensure (she will eat soft cookies and cupcakes and chocolate occasionally). I have tried all sorts of other foods that she loved before, but she won't eat them. Even with this limited diet, she manages to keep weight on...so maybe these items would help. I don't know how to keep your mother from eating fattening foods; when people are aged, I figure they can eat what they want, be in the shape they want, etc.; no one else can really "fix" them unless they have the inclination to do it for themselves or you live with them and prepare all their meals and monitor everything they eat. Some other foods that I used to fix my mom are: Mashed white and sweet potatoes with cream and butter, tomato soup fixed with milk instead of water, mac and cheese (you could get the frozen kind), boiled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, cheese sticks, fruit cups, pudding. I know it isn't all "healthy" food, but the key is to get some calories in your dad. He may have lost some of his taste buds as many elderly do. My mom's doctor said to sprinkle sugar on my mom's food because the last taste bud to go is the sweet one. At this point, my mom doesn't want to chew anything...just wants soft things. I wish you luck in helping your parents...it is a noble cause! :)
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