Cooking for one

Willowx

caronc wrote: »

Please let me know if these are any good, love the sound of your glass bottles

The fish portion was ok but I probably won't buy again once I've eaten the others, the sauce tastes nice but the fish was on the small side, probably not the biggest surprise.

I enjoyed the milkshake, the bottles were a charity shop find, 6 small about half a pint, 3 about a pint and one about 2 pints. Got them for £3 the lot but a few were brand new and still had Lakeland tags on. Get quite a bit of use out of them, they're good for portioning and storing soup or sauce too.

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Talking about the freezer rake as regards what to have for dinner.

I don't/won't have a microwave - so I've not really been able to do that. However - I've discovered that cooker ovens these days (well - at least some of them - including the one I'm going to buy for my new kitchen) have a defrost function on them:D.


Deep joy - as it looks as if I'll soon be able to just whip things out of the freezer and into being cooked at last. Thank goodness there are some good sides to newer technology:T. No longer having to remember to take things out day before - and, more often than not, forgetting to do so.

I do have a microwave but seldom defrost in it - always feel it "cooks" bits of things a bit so do tend to do it the "old-fashioned" way. One thing I do do if I'm late taking things out is to bung it on a cold metal tray - I should know the chemistry/physics behind why it works (something to do with thermodynanics?) but can I remember LOL- it definitely speeds things up by as much as 50% so fab if think at lunchtime I could eat such and such tonight. You can buy special trays for this but tbh an ordinary metal tray works just as well.

caronc

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

Using things up is the problem we have. We have lists with what is in the freezer that we add to when things go in and cross off when used.

In that vein tomorrow's meal is going to be Moroccan koftas that have been in the freezer six months and bombay potatoes that have been in the freezer 3 months with vegetables and beans. Both the koftas and bombay potatoes are in the fridge defrosting now.

As that was sorted I realized I'd have half a tin of beans needed to be used up. So no Buddha bowl tonight but spicy vegetables again, beans added. Buddha bowl would have been nice but oh well.

Yes using things up like the half tin of beans seems to be a common theme on the "cooking for one" thread - one of the cons of cooking for one person:( Any chance of the receipe for your koftas as they sound good thanks
ETA _ I'm now organised with freezer lists makes me feel very MSE;)

caronc

Willowx wrote: »

The fish portion was ok but I probably won't buy again once I've eaten the others, the sauce tastes nice but the fish was on the small side, probably not the biggest surprise.

I enjoyed the milkshake, the bottles were a charity shop find, 6 small about half a pint, 3 about a pint and one about 2 pints. Got them for £3 the lot but a few were brand new and still had Lakeland tags on. Get quite a bit of use out of them, they're good for portioning and storing soup or sauce too.

Thanks for the feedback on the fish probably won't bother I could make my own as I have a vacuum packer but have never quite got round to it. Bet your milkshake tasted better out of a proper milk bottle proper OLD SKOOL lol - ah the Lakeland catalogue...........<<wistfulsmiley>>

moneyistooshorttomention

caronc wrote: »

I do have a microwave but seldom defrost in it - always feel it "cooks" bits of things a bit so do tend to do it the "old-fashioned" way. One thing I do do if I'm late taking things out is to bung it on a cold metal tray - I should know the chemistry/physics behind why it works (something to do with thermodynanics?) but can I remember LOL- it definitely speeds things up by as much as 50% so fab if think at lunchtime I could eat such and such tonight. You can buy special trays for this but tbh an ordinary metal tray works just as well.

No metal trays - but I do have metal saucepans - so am guessing these would work the same way...

Doom_and_Gloom

caronc wrote: »

Yes using things up like the half tin of beans seems to be a common theme on the "cooking for one" thread - one of the cons of cooking for one person:( Any chance of the receipe for your koftas as they sound good thanks
ETA _ I'm now organised with freezer lists makes me feel very MSE;)

Yep I can see why beans are the problem. A whole tin is just too much!

I'll admit the koftas weren't home made . They are 'great food' brand bought reduced and plonked into the freezer as soon as. Wouldn't buy them at retail price as expensive but if reduced enough or on a good enough offer I will.

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

No metal trays - but I do have metal saucepans - so am guessing these would work the same way...

Don't see why not:) - should have said in previous post it works best if the food item is unwrapped and place directly on the metal surface:)

caronc

Dinner ended up being a portion of chicken casserole and a baked potato both from the freezer. Gave me a bit of a light bulb moment LOL the potato had been in there for yonks obviously I had been full one night and had it as LO and froze it. No idea why as usually if that happened I'd have it the next day so next time I make a proper baked tattie in the oven I'm going to do a few and freeze them - then quick nuke and job done for the future. I feel an absolute idiot for not thinking of this before :doh:

NewShadow

caronc wrote: »

Dinner ended up being a portion of chicken casserole and a baked potato both from the freezer. Gave me a bit of a light bulb moment LOL the potato had been in there for yonks obviously I had been full one night and had it as LO and froze it. No idea why as usually if that happened I'd have it the next day so next time I make a proper baked tattie in the oven I'm going to do a few and freeze them - then quick nuke and job done for the future. I feel an absolute idiot for not thinking of this before :doh:

I'm guessing you zapped it from frozen - out of interest, how long did did you do it for?

PasturesNew

Fish/sauce/bag: I bought a box of those about a year ago; food, but not to write home about. Bottom of the list for bothering to buy again.

Defrosting fast: quite a few methods work, I'm happy to nuke things 99.9% of the time though.... or accept I'll have something "tomorrow".

Beans/half: Yeah, not economical to buy mini cans. I bet they sell barely any of those. You can freeze half a tin once opened... but people rarely bother. Opened/decanted they're fine for 4+ days in the fridge anyway. I eat a lot of beans. I buy the 4-packs of supermarket own brand reduced salt/reduced sugar.... not because I'm "faddy/bothered about that", but because I might as well as I don't crave/need the sugar/salt at all. 95p for 4 cans, that's 8 portions at 12p/portion.

Baked spuds/freeze. Yep, freezing/done is the way to go - IF you oven bake them to start with. 99.9% of the time I just nuke them and accept the skin's not crispy, but I don't care .... sometimes then oven-baked them, but by then I just want to eat it, so tend to whip them out before they're fully crisped anyway. Not bothered crispy/not, so tend to stick with nuking. But, yes, you can slice/freeze them, fill them or not before freezing, etc. Just like the super-pricey ones in the supermarket freezers (that I've never bought as I'm far too tight for that).

I've been "busy getting my head around a part of the family tree I thought was known/understood/done 30 years ago" - turns out it wasn't. So I lined up all my ducks and notes ready for midnight .... as Ancestry UK starts a freebie at midnight....

Well, lining up ducks makes me scoff. So since I last posted I've had another crust/chocolate spread (just because it finished off the last slice of frozen bread I froze last Friday) ... and a drinking chocolate with mini marshmallows.

Midnight .... I clicked through to Ancestry expecting to just grab some Census entries I'd bookmarked and it's giving me an error message, so I guess others sat and waited for midnight too