Preparing for Winter V

ZsaZsa

@sammy_kaye18, my husband works away a lot and takes porridge pots with him for breakfasts. Not sure if you’ve seen them but you just add boiling water, like a pot noodle. Can eat straight from the pot too so less washing up. The Quaker ones can be expensive but I get the own brand Sainsbury/Aldi and there’s no difference. Approx 60p each so not as cheap as a bag of oats but a lot cheaper (and healthier) than a fry up in a cafe 

Primrose

And you can always throw a few sultanas in to liven up the flavour 

MrsStepford

Husband put heating on and then temperature shot up to 16C and I was sweltering. Heating off now.

Delivery from Watts Farms this week with plenty of root veg for soups, stews and traybakes e.g. Swede, turnips, celeriac, baby turnips. Have ordered a wild rabbit and gluten free haggis from Macbeths for delivery next week. Slow cooked rabbit is just the thing for winter !

-taff

Wednesday2000 said:

I saw what Martin Lewis said about heating your body rather than switching on the heating and decided to order a pair of USB heated gloves from Amazon. I only bought one pair to try it out but if they work I will order a second pair for my husband. Some of the reviews said it is better to have the heated bit on your palms so I'm going to try that.

I recommend making a pair of arm/wrist warmers. When your wrists are warm, your hands are too. I've made them out of wool with thumb holes, or cut the ends off my stripey socks when they get too holey and wear those. Honestly, it was a revelation when I first wore them. Even if your hands are cold, put some on, and I guarantee you your hands will be warm in half an hour or less. And stay warm.Make sure your wrists are covered and up tp the base of your thumb, they can go as far as you like up your arm.

Cherryfudge

ZsaZsa said:

@sammy_kaye18, my husband works away a lot and takes porridge pots with him for breakfasts. Not sure if you’ve seen them but you just add boiling water, like a pot noodle. Can eat straight from the pot too so less washing up. The Quaker ones can be expensive but I get the own brand Sainsbury/Aldi and there’s no difference. Approx 60p each so not as cheap as a bag of oats but a lot cheaper (and healthier) than a fry up in a cafe 

Be really MS and divide up an 85p bag of oats into portion-sized containers, add dried milk / syrup / dried fruit / spices as you please. Just add hot water. Blitzing the oats first will probably make them more absorbent but lower fibre. Ultra cheap, low GI, cuts disposables (though not washing up).

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

ZsaZsa said:

@sammy_kaye18, my husband works away a lot and takes porridge pots with him for breakfasts. Not sure if you’ve seen them but you just add boiling water, like a pot noodle. Can eat straight from the pot too so less washing up. The Quaker ones can be expensive but I get the own brand Sainsbury/Aldi and there’s no difference. Approx 60p each so not as cheap as a bag of oats but a lot cheaper (and healthier) than a fry up in a cafe 

Be really MS and divide up an 85p bag of oats into portion-sized containers, add dried milk / syrup / dried fruit / spices as you please. Just add hot water. Blitzing the oats first will probably make them more absorbent but lower fibre. Ultra cheap, low GI, cuts disposables (though not washing up).

But wouldn’t you then be eating uncooked oats, which can cause painful digestive problems? Just adding boiling water isn’t enough to cook them, you need to simmer them for a couple of minutes at least, stirring…
I’ve not tried your way so might be totally wrong- but I think I would want to try it a few times at home to make sure it works…

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

But wouldn’t you then be eating uncooked oats, which can cause painful digestive problems? Just adding boiling water isn’t enough to cook them, you need to simmer them for a couple of minutes at least, stirring…
I’ve not tried your way so might be totally wrong- but I think I would want to try it a few times at home to make sure it works…

An interesting question! I often have overnight oats, where the oats are soaked but not cooked and I've not had any problems, but perhaps the soaking make a difference?

The pre-prepared porridge that was mentioned above is  'just add hot water', but are those oats treated differently before packaging?

When I googled, I found that rolled oats are steamed as part of preparing them for sale, which means they're partially cooked so true raw oats aren't the same thing as uncooked. I haven't had problems with eating under-soaked overnight oats, though they're a bit chewy, but then I generally have guts of steel.

So perhaps the answer is to use rolled oats (so you get the steamed element) but also be aware of individual tolerances.

Wednesday2000

-taff said:

Wednesday2000 said:

I saw what Martin Lewis said about heating your body rather than switching on the heating and decided to order a pair of USB heated gloves from Amazon. I only bought one pair to try it out but if they work I will order a second pair for my husband. Some of the reviews said it is better to have the heated bit on your palms so I'm going to try that.

I recommend making a pair of arm/wrist warmers. When your wrists are warm, your hands are too. I've made them out of wool with thumb holes, or cut the ends off my stripey socks when they get too holey and wear those. Honestly, it was a revelation when I first wore them. Even if your hands are cold, put some on, and I guarantee you your hands will be warm in half an hour or less. And stay warm.Make sure your wrists are covered and up tp the base of your thumb, they can go as far as you like up your arm.

I did have some turtle dove gloves, but I found them too tight. I might look for some different wrist warmers, thanks.

It is very heavy rain here all day and I have to go out in a minute! At least it isn't cold too. I had overnight oats just now and I haven't had any problems digesting them. I soak them in milk and some frozen fruit all night in the fridge.

Cherryfudge

It's still stormy here, though we haven't had it too badly. The power went out briefly, which was quite useful as I immediately thought of various things I'd have done in advance if I'd known about it.  

• I still can't find my power bank to keep phones charged longer, but I'd have had it as full as possible.
• I boiled a kettle and filled a flask (would have been two but I discovered one didn't smell fresh - so that's another thing I could have checked in advance - are all flasks and water bottles ready to use?)
• Filled a hot water bottle and wrapped it in a  blanket. I'm enjoying it now!
• Topped up a cuppa with the rest of the hot water.
• I should have plugged in the dehumidifier as soon as I got up as I won't be opening the bedroom window in case the rain comes in.
• I could do with more matches: I just forgot to pick them up when shopping but candles work better when lit.

Some things I'd got right:

• Kindle and Fitbit were charged up yesterday.
• The laptop was on charge so there's a little power - though not very versatile if the internet goes off.
• I bought in extra cereal so there's a meal if we can't cook.
• Fat balls are out for the wild birds (though most are lying low)
• Wellies were available when wanted (not always the case as I rarely use them).

Thankfully we are at low risk for flooding but this time of year falling leaves get into drains so that's another to think of.

What else have people done or wished they'd done?

Stay safe everyone.

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

But wouldn’t you then be eating uncooked oats, which can cause painful digestive problems? Just adding boiling water isn’t enough to cook them, you need to simmer them for a couple of minutes at least, stirring…
I’ve not tried your way so might be totally wrong- but I think I would want to try it a few times at home to make sure it works…

An interesting question! I often have overnight oats, where the oats are soaked but not cooked and I've not had any problems, but perhaps the soaking make a difference?

The pre-prepared porridge that was mentioned above is  'just add hot water', but are those oats treated differently before packaging?

When I googled, I found that rolled oats are steamed as part of preparing them for sale, which means they're partially cooked so true raw oats aren't the same thing as uncooked. I haven't had problems with eating under-soaked overnight oats, though they're a bit chewy, but then I generally have guts of steel.

So perhaps the answer is to use rolled oats (so you get the steamed element) but also be aware of individual tolerances.

I had forgotten about the steamed/rolled oats- I only ever use the plain porridge oats for everything... and I too have cast-iron innards

But just as a general thing, it is a Well-Known Fact ( ) that many people get terrible cramps, bloating and GI-issues if they eat raw oats, so if you aren't going to be either cooking them or soaking them for hours, then I definitely recommend having a few practice-runs (no pun intended!!) at home first...