No recipes here, but just a "method to prevent madness".... perhaps?

While you are still up and cooking, stock in a lot of ziplock bags and a bunch of the covered plastic containers that can stack in the freezer.

Make extra of the things your family loves to eat and instead of having the leftovers tomorrow, package the leftovers for the freezer. If you do some portion control and creative packing, you'll have home-cooked "MREs" in your freezer that won't take long to thaw or heat.

Rather than convalescent casserole cuisine, you can have a selection of familiar family favorites on hand that may need only a frozen vegetable, a salad, a baguette or a garlic bread as a side dish. A little portion control makes it possible for different taste buds to have what they want, even at the same meal.

Lasagne freezes beautfully, for instance. Make a bigger one than your family would eat in one meal. Once it has cooled, cut it in serving size portions and slide each portion into a sandwich size ziplock bag. Seal it up, label it with Lasagne and date it, park it in the freezer.

Making meatloaf? Make two, eat one. Slice the other one up and portion it, label and freeze.

Beef stew? Double the recipe, freeze the overage in single portion sizes.

Find chicken breasts on sale? Buy'em up, cook'em up the way your family likes them, freeze the extras in single portions.

You can stock in a whole bunch of meals ( or meal starters) this way.

zip lock baggies WILL go into a pot of boiling water to reheat the contents, they will not melt. They will also microwave well if you vent the seal.

There are a bazillion * 2 of effortless options for side dishes in any grocery store. Stock up,and DEFINITELY point out to the Other Half that boiling water and punching microwave buttons are good and necessary survival skills.

I'm sorry you will be down for a timeout count, but you do still have time to enable a good outcome~

Breeze