Sharing Food

Every now and then I need to take a meal to someone. A friend has lost a loved one, a colleague has had a baby, someone has just had surgery--the response is to take them food. Right? In situations like that I usually bake: bread, brownies, muffins. Maybe I'll make some soup to go along with the bread, but my focus is on the baking. Recently a friend and I teamed up to take a meal to someone and that worked out great: I did rolls and soup, she did dessert and salad. Easy-peasy, and a good meal for our friend as well.

Today, though, I need to make some real meals. Someone I know from church is having a double lumpectomy today; a colleague has just had a baby and has no family in town. These are folks who need food in the freezer, meals that they can pull out later and enjoy without planning. A loaf of bread or a pan of brownies just won't cut it.

So I scanned through my recipes here on the blog and guess what? Mostly they're for side dishes and desserts. I have a few quick dinner recipes, but they're not really freezable ones--stir-frys and pastas and the like. I'm thinking strata could work, or maybe chilaquiles; I suppose a pot of chili could go in the freezer, but we're having temps in the 80s these days and chili just seems too heavy. I can do strata with spring vegetables--asparagus and mushrooms, maybe? And then it can be brunch or dinner or lunch or whatever is needed (I remember those topsy-turvy days of early parenthood, vaguely...).

What do you make for a friend in need? Why am I so stymied by this?