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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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