Cooking for one

PasturesNew

melanzana wrote: »

But seriously, the slow cooker is not for me now.

I think the thing is that they're promoted as being the source of endless fab/easy dinners. I say to people: If you can find just 1-3 things it does well/easily then leave it at that.

e.g. a proper rice pudding needs slow cooking in the oven; if you eat those, then it'd be a good use for it. For me, I have no need for a lot of rice pudding, so prefer to pick up a 20p can in a supermarket and have it in the cupboard "in case" I fancy a quick meal.

e.g. pack of raw meat + grab a jar from the cupboard = curry. If the alternative is to grab a ready meal on the way home, that makes sense too - even when compared to the 75-99p supermarket versions.

e.g. soups, if you eat a lot of soup; personally I prefer to pick up a can for 50p from a supermarket that's an exciting sounding flavour most of the time.

If the end result doesn't fit your lifestyle, or what you could buy/make instead by another method, then leave it.

It shouldn't be shoe-horned to create things "just because it can".

There does need to be a benefit to it.

Cooking a roast because your oven's broken: yes. But if you have an oven and are prepared to be around while it roasts, there's no point.

Horses/courses. It's too often promoted as the "be all and end all".

pollyanna_26

A big thank you to all for their slow cooker posts yesterday in reply to my question . The information concerning cooking times was very helpful as I thought myself that some times recommended by manufacturers were overlong and led to the everything tastes the same feeling .
I did manage to find McCs review within a couple of minutes purely because I remembered the unusual pot colour , she posted that review mid 2015 so my memory can't be as bad as all that .
Meanwhile lots of ideas here for dumplings . I was fired up as I always have lots of vegetarian atora suet in , flat leaf parsley that was chopped and frozen when cut at the end of last years harvest , just discovered I have no flour of any type in the cupboard , no shops nearby so will have to wait a bit longer .
polly

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I'm currently trying to think what to put on a readymade pizza base I need to use up (correction - broken into 3 pieces in transit one - but waste not want not...).

Gotta be vegetarian.

Any (vegetarian) ideas welcome besides the cheese/tomato - which is all I can think of currently.

You might not have what we suggest!



I'd just chuck red onion on it as I sliced up some onions and lobbed them into the freezer... and they have to be used somehow.

I've sometimes got peppers, but they're pricey, so usually only when on a budget supermarket cheap week offer.

Pineapple's good ... although that'd mean opening a whole tin and then having to work out how to eat the rest, although you could eat the rest with a spoon, or freeze it, or lob it into a curry later in the week, or pot it up in the fridge to be eaten as a dessert (or a pineapple upside down pudding) later in the week.

Personally I'd probably just put onion on it and a bit more cheese as I have those and it'd not then give birth to new "leftovers" that need using up.

PasturesNew

pollyanna_26 wrote: »

, just discovered I have no flour of any type in the cupboard , no shops nearby so will have to wait a bit longer .
polly

That's one of the single household issues: what you have in when you want/need it.

It's easy to say "have it in all the time", but if you've gone a year without using it, then it's just wasting space.

I try to not store stuff more than 1-2 years as a general cupboard rule.

You have to only have stores of stuff you genuinely believe you will be able to use up within the next 1-2 years .... you can't have everything "just in case".

What I do with suet, as I know I'll be using it in only one way, is to immediately toss the whole lot into a Lock/Lock box with 400 grams of SR flour and give it all a good stir/toss about - then seal that and it's in the cupboard "ready to go". It used to work better when the packs were 250 grams as you could match exactly the suet and flour.... the b4str4ds... it's now a 200 gram pack, leaving 100 grams of flour leftover to loiter in the cupboard

pollyanna_26

PN have you ever thought of writing a book ? I am being serious , you remind me of Shirley Goode who I mentioned at the beginning of the thread . You have logical and simple solutions for all sorts of circumstances . In Shirley's More for Your Money she had a bread mix from proper ingredients she used to mix in batches and store in portions that was back in 1981 so maybe we need a new Shirley and you sound as though you could fit the bill .
When I was cooking for 4 offspring I would buy the big bags of flour practically every week . As my oven needs replacing it's a while since serious baking as everything burns . Small bags of flour last for ages as they are basically just for dumplings now . Sometimes they get damp and I've even had what my middle daughter used to call Weasels in the flour :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:writing this has reminded me I used to freeze flour when a certain supermarket seemed to be selling flour with Weasels . I think I'll store some in the freezer when I've been shopping and I'll make up some of your dumpling mix too .
Thank you
polly

tootallulah

I really like lambs liver, great taste and a quick to cook supper.

PasturesNew

With the unfortunate accident of a HUGE box of chocolates falling into my basket on Friday afternoon (and another bag of chocolates we'll ignore for now) ... I've just tipped the final three out... and checked the calories.

1800 for all that lot. 1800 calories of sweeties in 2½ days. That's pretty much a record right there!

Plus the others I've not counted yet.

And ... I had 6 bags of crisps on Friday too ... all now gone.

Best not add it all up really ... I'll pretend it never happened.

PasturesNew

pollyanna_26 wrote: »

PN have you ever thought of writing a book ? I am being serious , you remind me of Shirley Goode who I mentioned at the beginning of the thread . You have logical and simple solutions for all sorts of circumstances .

I do It's how my brain's wired.

pollyanna_26 wrote: »

I'll make up some of your dumpling mix too .
Thank you
polly

What's great about it is, once dumped/weighed the once, it's there - and if you want to use it, you simply give it a quick stir around again and spoon out how much you need, based on how it looks... no more weighing, ever.

I empty the suet box into the container, then plonk it onto the scales and zero those, then tip in the flour. Job done. I use a "generous" sized box for it as I know there'll be some stirring to be done, or shaking if I'm lazy.

caronc

Great tip re the pre-mix dumplings PN- you really should be getting these all down somewhere:)

Agree re the slow cookers - they are just another bit of kitchen kit great for somethings and not others. I know I could cook a salmon in my dishwasher but I chose not too similiarly I don't cook things in the slow cooker just because I could:D
Hi melanzana and tootallulah - good to see you on the thread
Doom_and_Gloom - no wonder you are mad :mad:
pollyanna 26 think PN has trumped you in the choccie eating stakes:)

I go through a fair bit of flour - plain more than SR but use both up within reasonable timescales so always keep stocks. I'm not so good at monitoring other stuff though and a recent tidy out found dried exoctic fruit mix with a little out of the pack with a BB of 2012 needless to say I had no idea what I had bought it for ........

Doom_and_Gloom

caronc wrote: »

Doom_and_Gloom - no wonder you are mad :mad:

The receptionist got OHs back up due to the blase way she said about it. That appointment was booked nearly a week ago. I couldn't get one earlier due to working. OH wanted to go out after the appointment, now he has to wait untill after the one the receptionist made 'even though she shouldn't have' later. This is the same later appointment he said no to last week as the earlier appointment suited better! Bad enough that my appointment went missing but then to say that they were making an appointment for later like it was our fault/they were doing us a favour and an inconvenience for them really left us both fumming. OH wanted to stay there and refuse to go unless I was seen. It's more of an inconvenience to us than them after all as it takes longer to get me ready to go out than most people and now we have to do it again. Sorry I know off topic. I just need to vent .

Anyway I just had the other half of the vegan pizza with some houmous for lunch. It kind of helped soothe me. Cold pizza and houmous is awesome .