S/o: worst meal to bring a friend

[Anonymous]

My friend brought a delicious lasagna and banana bread. A neighbor brought a lovely tray of chicken and veggie enchiladas. My own mother brought meatballs and sauce that made us violently ill!

[Anonymous]

A friend brought over a dish that was chock full of minced onions. I absolutely despise onions. I tried picking them out to eat it but it took forever and then the food was cold and I was crabby. I threw the rest away rather than go through the same thing for another meal.

[Anonymous]

Sort of a reverse situation- I used to run a meal train for a group of women I met when we moved here who all had small kids and were still actively in the family building stage. I remember one of the women had her 4th baby so I asked her family’s preferences for meals to send out the sign ups. She was Scandinavian and her request for “our favorite meal that everyone will eat” was salmon and I remember it specifying a more expensive type of salmon. I remember thinking you want people to spend enough money to feed 5 people this kind of salmon. Not to mention that’s gotta be one of the worst possible dishes to try to cook/transport/reheat.

[Anonymous]

Ambrosia salad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was part of a mom’s preschool group that made a meal train for me when I had my second child. So, granted, the person who signed up to bring this wasn’t my BFF of anything. So I give her a pass..

But I was sent “pizza pasta.” It was cooked noodled, some pepperoni, a jar of sauce, and bag of mozzarella dumped on top, all in an aluminium casserole dish. Plus box of generic frozen Texas toast garlic bread. Whole things was tossed. Yuck. If you are going to sign up for a meal train, don’t send bare minimum packaged stuff.

People give these things in disposable trays for a reason, dipshit. The fact that you would ding her for not making more work for you - having to wash and return a casserole dish while taking care of a newborn - says a lot about you. That, and how you couldn’t figure out that she was trying to make a dish that a preschooler would eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously a meal that sickens people is the worst, but as far as meals that are lovingly prepared according to food safety standards and food tolerances, it sucks to receive something that looks and smells very enticing, but is terrible: a soup that’s way too salty, meat that’s all gristle, something that would be perfect if it didn’t contain that one overpowering ingredient that you just can’t stand, like blue cheese or cilantro.

The absolute worst is receiving a meal that you know someone really sacrificed to make (maybe it’s an extremely time consuming dish to prepare or they bought very expensive ingredients with your pleasure in mind, even though they have a tight budget), but you really dislike it, so it’s hard to choke it down, but you’d feel super guilty just throwing it out.

This. My parents had a neighbour (my dad has passed, mom still lives next door to them). Every year for Easter they make this soup that is absolutely loaded with giant pieces of seafood - it’s got to cost a fortune. The first time they sent it over was when my dad was undergoing chemo, so his palate was messed up anyway, so when he declared the soup was dreadful and threw it out we all assumed it was just his chemo taste buds.

When the neighbour sent it over the next Easter, after Dad had passed, my mom was looking forward to trying it (again, soup LOOKS amazing, big hunks of crab and lobster, etc.) After she tried it, she called me and said “nope, wasn’t your dad. The soup is not good.”

Now every year we try to strategize what to do with the soup. It’s a generous and lovely gesture and they’re good neighbours but no one wants to eat this soup.

Maybe your mother can casually mention to them her new shellfish allergy that arose late in life . . .

Howling.... is allergy-inducing soup going to be up there with misdelivered hams?

[Anonymous]

I like to think of myself as a good cook and thoughtful friend but I have apparently failed twice in meal train deliveries: the first was chicken pot pie "muffins" to a family with a preschooler who had just had a new baby...thought they'd be kid-friendly but the mom let me know the preschooler rejected them and she and her husband found them "a little salty." Second time, family with a new [summer] baby - we brought over freshly grilled chicken breasts & grilled peppers with all the ingredients to make chicken Caesar salads (bags of pre-chopped romaine, bottle of dressing, shredded parm, loaf of crusty bread) and the couple looked at us like we had brought them something totally exotic and questionably edible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like to think of myself as a good cook and thoughtful friend but I have apparently failed twice in meal train deliveries: the first was chicken pot pie "muffins" to a family with a preschooler who had just had a new baby...thought they'd be kid-friendly but the mom let me know the preschooler rejected them and she and her husband found them "a little salty." Second time, family with a new [summer] baby - we brought over freshly grilled chicken breasts & grilled peppers with all the ingredients to make chicken Caesar salads (bags of pre-chopped romaine, bottle of dressing, shredded parm, loaf of crusty bread) and the couple looked at us like we had brought them something totally exotic and questionably edible.

Chicken pot pie muffins sound good. Nice how the food arrives portioned too.

It's highly unlikely we're going to please a preschooler. Or an adult for that matter. It's highly unlikely to please unless you know what people want prepared, and how they want it prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was part of a mom’s preschool group that made a meal train for me when I had my second child. So, granted, the person who signed up to bring this wasn’t my BFF of anything. So I give her a pass..

But I was sent “pizza pasta.” It was cooked noodled, some pepperoni, a jar of sauce, and bag of mozzarella dumped on top, all in an aluminium casserole dish. Plus box of generic frozen Texas toast garlic bread. Whole things was tossed. Yuck. If you are going to sign up for a meal train, don’t send bare minimum packaged stuff.

People give these things in disposable trays for a reason, dipshit. The fact that you would ding her for not making more work for you - having to wash and return a casserole dish while taking care of a newborn - says a lot about you. That, and how you couldn’t figure out that she was trying to make a dish that a preschooler would eat.

No issue with the tray. But don’t send someone a meal of packaged pepperoni, a jar of sauce, and a bag of cheese dumped over noddles. That isn’t even cooking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we had a new baby someone brought us raw salmon and some sort of side ingredients (this was a while ago and I wasn't really sleeping, so my memory on the details is fuzzy but maybe a bagged salad?) and said "Enjoy cooking!" Thankfully DH is a great cook and he prepared the meal, but he was irked.

One time my MIL’s friend and friend’s dd and 3 year old granddaughter came to see our infant twins. Not only did they not bring us anything, but the 3 year old was hungry, so they asked for a snack. They let’s her wander around our house while she ate a granola bar, dropping crumbs everywhere. I was dumbfounded.

Grnola crumbs...the horror

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was part of a mom’s preschool group that made a meal train for me when I had my second child. So, granted, the person who signed up to bring this wasn’t my BFF of anything. So I give her a pass..

But I was sent “pizza pasta.” It was cooked noodled, some pepperoni, a jar of sauce, and bag of mozzarella dumped on top, all in an aluminium casserole dish. Plus box of generic frozen Texas toast garlic bread. Whole things was tossed. Yuck. If you are going to sign up for a meal train, don’t send bare minimum packaged stuff.

People give these things in disposable trays for a reason, dipshit. The fact that you would ding her for not making more work for you - having to wash and return a casserole dish while taking care of a newborn - says a lot about you. That, and how you couldn’t figure out that she was trying to make a dish that a preschooler would eat.

No issue with the tray. But don’t send someone a meal of packaged pepperoni, a jar of sauce, and a bag of cheese dumped over noddles. That isn’t even cooking.

And if you don’t want to cook, that’s fine. Have a pizza delivered, send a gift card, or just don’t participate.

[Anonymous]

I think unless the dish makes people sick or is defiant (like hamburger quiche when you know they are vegetarian) the polite thing to do is to say thank you and act appreciative, not to call and tell them it was too salty.

However as someone who has been the recipient of meal trains for births, serious illnesses and deaths, one thing that puzzled me was people who would drop off things that were clearly meant to be eaten that minute.

One thing that grief, chemotherapy and newborns have in common is that they mess with your routines and sleep cycles and make routines around meals a mess. So arriving at my house with sliced avocados or salad that’s already dressed, or sushi and expecting that I will not be on the phone with the priest, or throwing up or sleeping when the baby sleeps, or washing the dishes because someone beat you, but instead will be prepared to eat right now, befuddled me.

Lasagna, chili, pot pie muffins (I need that recipe), or anything that stands up to reheating or anything that is meant to be eaten cold and can stay cold and appetizing for a while in the fridge or something deconstructed like salad ingredients is better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was part of a mom’s preschool group that made a meal train for me when I had my second child. So, granted, the person who signed up to bring this wasn’t my BFF of anything. So I give her a pass..

But I was sent “pizza pasta.” It was cooked noodled, some pepperoni, a jar of sauce, and bag of mozzarella dumped on top, all in an aluminium casserole dish. Plus box of generic frozen Texas toast garlic bread. Whole things was tossed. Yuck. If you are going to sign up for a meal train, don’t send bare minimum packaged stuff.

People give these things in disposable trays for a reason, dipshit. The fact that you would ding her for not making more work for you - having to wash and return a casserole dish while taking care of a newborn - says a lot about you. That, and how you couldn’t figure out that she was trying to make a dish that a preschooler would eat.

No issue with the tray. But don’t send someone a meal of packaged pepperoni, a jar of sauce, and a bag of cheese dumped over noddles. That isn’t even cooking.

+1

Or offer to have a meal of their choosing delivered. The point is to get people nutrition who are too busy to prepare it themselves. Providing something someone does not want or won't eat is not fulfilling the intended purpose.

Blindly bringing people meals is a recipe for having food end up in the trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was part of a mom’s preschool group that made a meal train for me when I had my second child. So, granted, the person who signed up to bring this wasn’t my BFF of anything. So I give her a pass..

But I was sent “pizza pasta.” It was cooked noodled, some pepperoni, a jar of sauce, and bag of mozzarella dumped on top, all in an aluminium casserole dish. Plus box of generic frozen Texas toast garlic bread. Whole things was tossed. Yuck. If you are going to sign up for a meal train, don’t send bare minimum packaged stuff.

People give these things in disposable trays for a reason, dipshit. The fact that you would ding her for not making more work for you - having to wash and return a casserole dish while taking care of a newborn - says a lot about you. That, and how you couldn’t figure out that she was trying to make a dish that a preschooler would eat.

No issue with the tray. But don’t send someone a meal of packaged pepperoni, a jar of sauce, and a bag of cheese dumped over noddles. That isn’t even cooking.

And if you don’t want to cook, that’s fine. Have a pizza delivered, send a gift card, or just don’t participate.

+1

Love the gift card idea. Best possible way for people to get food they will actually enjoy without having to prepare it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think unless the dish makes people sick or is defiant (like hamburger quiche when you know they are vegetarian) the polite thing to do is to say thank you and act appreciative, not to call and tell them it was too salty.

However as someone who has been the recipient of meal trains for births, serious illnesses and deaths, one thing that puzzled me was people who would drop off things that were clearly meant to be eaten that minute.

One thing that grief, chemotherapy and newborns have in common is that they mess with your routines and sleep cycles and make routines around meals a mess. So arriving at my house with sliced avocados or salad that’s already dressed, or sushi and expecting that I will not be on the phone with the priest, or throwing up or sleeping when the baby sleeps, or washing the dishes because someone beat you, but instead will be prepared to eat right now, befuddled me.

Lasagna, chili, pot pie muffins (I need that recipe), or anything that stands up to reheating or anything that is meant to be eaten cold and can stay cold and appetizing for a while in the fridge or something deconstructed like salad ingredients is better.

So, agreed. But the problem arises when a dozen other people are thinking the exact same thing. You end up with 3+ Lasagnas. I know because when I've asked "What can I bring?", the response is too often "Not baked pasta because I already have several Lasagnas."

When I ask, the response might actually be: "I want sushi. I've eaten pounds of reheated casserole. I want sushi."