Food Preparation for Recovery from Surgery

[MaryIsobel]

8 minutes ago, TdeV said:

Thanks, @Smithy.

 

The cabbage I bought is huge, 5 lbs at least. It will be good for more than one batch.

 

So far I have prepared and lightly cooked sliced onion, garlic, sliced celery, cubed potato, gorgeous bacon. I haven't sliced the cabbage yet, because I don't want to slice it then leave it uncooked.

 

So I'm only missing the sauce.

 

(I'm not good at making sauces!)

 

 

If you like coleslaw, I sometimes make this to use up the rest of a cabbage that is languishing: https://www.daringgourmet.com/freezer-slaw/

 

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

The current dish I'm trying to design involves cabbage.  I've collected half dozen or so recipes.

 

The sauces are made of:

• evaporated milk, flour, parmesan, breadcrumbs
• milk, flour, cheddar, sour cream
• French demi-glace
• cream cheese and mustard
• potatoes and Gruyère

 

I think if the dish gets too complicated, it loses something. Seems the sauce could be simpler. Maybe I don't know how to make a sauce?

Very smart to avoid over complicating things! Which makes me wonder why (aside from the presence of a 5 lb cabbage) you want to combine 6 new-to-you recipes into a newly designed and untested creation at what seems like a rather stressful time. Maybe this is a fun activity to keep your mind off of the stress?  If so, great. 
If not, I’m wondering why you’re not leaning into the sameness and freezing batches of old favorites. 

[Darienne]

10 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Very smart to avoid over complicating things! Which makes me wonder why (aside from the presence of a 5 lb cabbage) you want to combine 6 new-to-you recipes into a newly designed and untested creation at what seems like a rather stressful time. Maybe this is a fun activity to keep your mind off of the stress?  If so, great. 
If not, I’m wondering why you’re not leaning into the sameness and freezing batches of old favorites. 

And for that matter, tossing a cabbage certainly would not put a dent in your fiances.  No one throws out food lightly but it could be excused this once.

[Tropicalsenior]

I'm not much of a cooked cabbage fan either but I made this Braised Pork and Cabbage recipe the other day and it was delicious. I didn't have fresh dill so I used dried and since I made a small batch I didn't cook at the full hour in the oven. We really enjoyed it and I will make it again.

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, Darienne said:

And for that matter, tossing a cabbage certainly would not put a dent in your fiances.  No one throws out food lightly but it could be excused this once.

Heck, I’m pretty sure I’ve had cabbages that lasted two months in the fridge so it could outlast the recovery period entirely 🙃

 

36 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I'm not much of a cooked cabbage fan either but I made this Braised Pork and Cabbage recipe the other day and it was delicious. I didn't have fresh dill so I used dried and since I made a small batch I didn't cook at the full hour in the oven. We really enjoyed it and I will make it again.

 That sounds very amenable to freezing, too!

[Smithy]

38 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I'm not much of a cooked cabbage fan either but I made this Braised Pork and Cabbage recipe the other day and it was delicious. I didn't have fresh dill so I used dried and since I made a small batch I didn't cook at the full hour in the oven. We really enjoyed it and I will make it again.

 

That does look good. I wonder how it would fare if frozen and then thawed and reheated sometime during the recovery from surgery?

 

Edited to add: @blue_dolphin, you and I posted at the same time, so I'll ask you why you think it would be amenable. (I may try it myself!)

Edited Wednesday at 02:27 PM by Smithy (log)

[blue_dolphin]

7 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

That does look good. I wonder how it would fare if frozen and then thawed and reheated sometime during the recovery from surgery?

 

Edited to add: @blue_dolphin, you and I posted at the same time, so I'll ask you why you think it would be amenable. (I may try it myself!)

Well, I figured the cabbage may give off some liquid when it thaws, but if it could be reheated on the stovetop, it could easily be reduced back down. I’ve frozen things with chunks of cooked pork that didn’t suffer too much so it seemed promising to me. Just a hunch. 
 

Edited to add that I’ve mostly frozen cabbage in soups. Seems the worst that could happen is that it would be soup after thawing but a nice soup, at least!

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 02:35 PM by blue_dolphin (log)

[ElsieD]

I recently made "cabbage roll soup".  It made quite a bit such that I was able to freeze two meals of it.  We have eaten one and I can't say i noticed any deterioration in the cabbage.

[Darienne]

21 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Heck, I’m pretty sure I’ve had cabbages that lasted two months in the fridge so it could outlast the recovery period entirely 🙃

 

 That sounds very amenable to freezing, too!

You are so right.  As we speak I've got a cabbage in the fridge, still edible as soon as I trim it, which is older than I want to admit publicly.    

[TdeV]

15 hours ago, Smithy said:

There are recipes also for braised cabbage, with or without chicken. If that appeals, I'll post the one I have. It takes the dish into the acidic region thanks to vinegar.

 

Yes, please!

[Smithy]

6 hours ago, TdeV said:

 

Yes, please!

 

This is a paraphrase of Mario Batali's Molto Italiano (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). The recipe name is Red Cabbage Braised in Vinegar (p.424) and I have a note on it that it's "Excellent!" although I confess I'd forgotten all about it.

 

Cut a medium head of red cabbage into 1/2" strips. Thinly slice a medium red onion. Saute the onion and 2T caraway seeds in hot olive oil until the onion is soft. Add the cabbage, 2T sugar, and 1/2c red vinegar; stir; cover, and cook until the cabbage is tender. He says that's about 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. He says it can be eaten warm or cool. I have no idea how well it would take to being frozen.

[patti]

I don’t know how helpful this will be, but my husband and I often eat completely differently. He freezes things for himself to have when we aren’t having the same thing. For example, rice dressing (aka dirty rice) and eggplant dressing. I make a batch, but mix rice in only with the portion he will have for two meals, and then he freezes small containers of the meat/veg mixture to add to rice later. And if you also freeze rice, you could grab your rice portion, your eggplant dressing or rice dressing mix, thaw, heat, combine, and have a very nice main. With the eggplant dressing you could also make and freeze little one serving casseroles of the dressing, to which you’ve added cheese, and a bread crumb topping.

 

Baby showers for a second baby are not the norm, but I was given one for my second son and the gifts were all homemade frozen meals put together by the guests. What a gift! Unfortunately, that was 38 years ago and the only one I recall was chicken tetrazzini.

[Darienne]

In our freezer are currently smallish pieces of cooked meats: ham, turkey, chicken and roast beef.  The ham and beef are there for Ed to defrost and have with his salad at night if he chooses...and the turkey and chicken mainly to make chicken/turkey salad for sandwiches.  We also have cooked ground pork and hamburger to add to sauces or Chinese dishes or soups if either of us gets around to that part of life again (not for two years now...).

[Darienne]

Changed my mind.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Darienne (log)

[haresfur]

On 1/13/2026 at 1:51 AM, Smithy said:

I was all set to refer you to Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) but now that I've looked at it, I don't think it's what you're after. It tells about freezing bean curd in one section, freezing milk in another section (basically, freezing ruins the fat globules) but doesn't really talk about how to account for multiple elements, combined, and which will work well frozen and then thawed.

 

I agree with Darienne about time limits, or lack thereof, on frozen meat. In my experience the worst thing that happens to it is freezer burn. The same seems to be true for the meats I've cooked and then frozen for later, although there can be texture changes, say, to a crispy crust.

 

There have to be cookbooks that address your questions, because commercial operations do this all the time: prepare foods that are packaged and frozen for sale. Consider the freezer aisles in the grocery store! Consider Swanson frozen dinners! But I haven't found such a resource yet. Here's hoping someone else can come up with it.

 

In an offline discussion I've been talking about potatoes and whether or not they can be successfully frozen then thawed and remain palatable. The evidence seems to be that if you want the potatoes to hold their form -- for instance, nice chunks of potato in a soup or stew -- you'll regret freezing them. However, I can tell you empirically that twice-baked potatoes, with cream cheese and butter or cream, do very well when frozen and then cooked from frozen. I have nearly a dozen still, thanks to my DIL.

 

The time limit on frozen food is almost entirely a cya, in my opinion. Freezer burn can be a problem.

 

Partner just made some very good gnocchi (fair bit of effort and fair bit of potato & flour glue all over the place) and the instructions for freezing said to freeze them separated flat on a tray and then bag them for storage in the freezer. So I'd look at trying that with potatoes and other stuff that could turn to mush.

 

My parents used to make a turkey in mock hollandaise sauce and freeze it. The sauce is basically a Béchamel sauce with egg yolk added at the end. I'm pretty sure that for freezing they would put everything in but the egg and add it after thawing. Of course that means you would have to have the ability to separate, whisk, and temper in the egg, but at least you are most of the way there.

[haresfur]

I'll throw out my Pasta con Costco as a suggestion. I don't shop there right now but the principle is the same with smaller jars.

 

You know those huge jars of stuff you buy at Costco but then have to figure out how to use? Marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, marinated feta, pickled veg? 4 bean salad? Why not?

 

Cook up some pasta - fresh if you want fast, then toss in veg from the above jars and top with some grated Parmesan. Dead easy. You could portion out a mixture of Costco stuff into a container in advance so you just dump it in.