Best Meals to Bring Friends After Surgery (meals for all dietary restrictions!)

If you have a friend or family member who has recently had a joint replacement surgery and you are wondering how you can help... delivering a healthy and nourishing meal is a great way to lift their spirits, reduce their stress, and be a great help to someone following their surgery.

As a certified occupational therapy assistant, one of my favorite activities to work on with patients is learning to navigate their kitchen before going home.

Maintaining balance with a walker while cooking or trying to navigate a kitchen with one arm can be a difficult adjustment following a surgery and delivering a meal can be one of the best gifts you can offer a friend.

Doing a lot of cooking to prep? Grab my favorite meal prep tools here.

The best meals to bring friends after elective joint replacement surgery need to be:

• easy to heat up
• easy to serve- considering if they will need use of both arms to cut the dish
• consider dietary needs or restrictions
• if someone had a shoulder surgery- consider meals you can eat with one hand
• nourishing & delicious

Allergies or dietary needs to ask ahead of preparing a meal:

• dairy-free
• gluten-free
• vegetarian or vegan
• shellfish or other allergies

Precautions following joint replacements that can make cooking difficult:

If your friend had a hip or knee replacement they will initially be using a walker to manage moving around their house.

This can make it difficult to carry dishes around and safely move around a kitchen. Delivering a dinner or easy lunch items will take such a burden off of your friend and allow them to recover.

* bonus tip: if you bring single use plates or utensils or offer to pick up dirty dishes then your friend won't need to fuss with cleaning dishes

If they are recovering from a shoulder surgery, there will be a period of time that they can not use both arms making it difficult to cut foods. I would stay away from delivering lasagnas, steaks, pork chops, or anything that requires stability of both arms to cut.

Without the use of both arms, most people have a limit of how much weight they can lift following shoulder surgery.

Rather than delivering a large baking dish that requires reheating, consider packing individually portioned meals that would be light weight and easier to reheat with the use of one arm.

If you don't have any dietary restrictions some of my favorite dinners to bring to a friend are:

Cozy One Pot Lasagna Soup : a classic for a reason!

Chicken Fajita Casserole : so much flavor and easy to freeze leftovers

Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Casserole :great tangy flavors and a high protein meal

If your friend who just had surgery is dairy-free:

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup : an easy instant pot soup!

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup: a comforting recovery soup

Greek Meatloaf Mini Muffins: perfect bite size meal prep

If your friend is gluten-free:

Easy Salsa Chicken : great to pair with rice and beans

Vegetable Pizza Casserole : loads of flavor and a comforting meal

Perfect Pulled Pork Recipe : add to buns for a quick sandwich

If your friend is vegetarian or vegan:

Couscous Salad (with veggies) : a refreshing bowl full of veggies

Easy Mexican Beans and Rice: quick and easy to make

Vegetable Orzo Soup with Lemon: a cozy vegetarian soup

Don't forget about a prep ahead breakfast!

Baked Homemade Yogurt Bagel : a high protein bagel that's easy to make

Crustless Quiche: a classic and easy breakfast

Banana Protein Muffins : an easy breakfast and snack

Shoulder Specific Joint Replacement: 

If you or your friend is planning a shoulder replacement I highly recommend keeping easy lunch items on hand in the fridge.

Some favorite choices are cooked tortellini, tuna or chicken salad with crackers to dip in, or turkey and cheese roll-ups.

These are all easy and quick lunch that can be eaten cold.

Snacks:

• Pre-cut fruit
• Bite Size Carrot Cake Bites
• Popcorn
• Vegetables or pita chips & hummus
• Hard boiled eggs (peeled if shoulder replacement)
• Tortilla chips with guacamole & salsa

Drinks:

Stick with hydrating and low sugar beverages

• Water bottles
• Coconut water
• Sparkling water
• Kombucha
• Iced tea

I hope this list is helpful for you to find the best meal to bring a friend after surgery.

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