Cooking for one

PasturesNew

I've cleaned out the mini oven; I can't use ovens that have a speck of grease in them - I'm convinced they'll spontaneously combust and/or smoke and set off a detector.... so even though it was just a fine mist of oil residue on the inside and on the door glass, I had to clean it immediately - which, actually, is what is "right" to do in any case. I'm just annoyed as I'dnever choose to cook something that generated a mist of oil.

I'll stick to veggies and cheese sticks with pastry in future .... buy sausage rolls.... and use sausagemeat as meatballs or microwave it.

mcculloch29

I opened a 900g pack of Heron's 2 for £1.49 cooking bacon with the intention of using it for a casserole last night. It turned out to be not chunks of bits but a whole pack of what can only be described as back bacon steaks, too thick for rashers but too thin for chops.

It would have been sacrilege to have cut them up for a casserole, so I had grilled bacon steaks with beans instead - 10 minute job instead of 2 hours! - and for brunch today had a blissful bacon steak sandwich. Still have several steaks left.

moneyistooshorttomention

..and I guess I could have done with a basically "hot" meal for lunch - but I was "being good" and so it was:

- salad of sorrel/watercress/chives/red pepper/purple cabbage dressed with live yogurt and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and a bit of sumac

- boiled ocas (yep...I bought some more and tried them that way this time)

- mushrooms stuffed with spinach and cheese (confession time - ready-made). Followed by the fact that, if I want that again, I'll make it myself - as the ready-made version wasnt up to much

- "real" sauerkraut

- finished off with a couple of slices of my fruit bread I bought earlier in the week.

Must have hot drink now to warm my stomach up. This winter is proving much too long for me (despite various house projects I have done/will be doing shortly that take some time to do) and I've had way more than enough of it.

Farway

karcher wrote: »

Morning you lovely lot

Last night I ended up 'cooking' fish finger, lettuce and mayo sandwiches in freshly baked crusty baguette...simple but tasty.
....oh the joys of CFO :rotfl:

Now that sound tasty, could be my Monday lunch, I have all teh ingredients including ready to bake baguette
If I had seen your post earlier I would have swapped my bacon, mayo, lettuce & tom sarnie for the fishy version

But thinking on would have been fish squared because, tonight I intend faffing around with cook in oven frozen fish fillet in batter bought without looking at cooking instructions, would be a nightmare and a never happen for PN, need sitting on a grill thing over a pan in very hot oven gas 9

Unless it is a towering inferno the height would do me in Luckily fire is one thing I have no problems with having completed a fire fighting course in the RN, huge pit of burning oil and black smoke was part of it, as was a chip pan fire and finding way out of black, smokey & hot building

The Actifry will get another outing for the frozen chips, I could do them in the oven but timing & heat clashes with frozen fish, and I would have black chips or uncooked fish I suspect

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

.... tonight I intend faffing around with cook in oven frozen fish fillet in batter bought without looking at cooking instructions, would be a nightmare and a never happen for PN, need sitting on a grill thing over a pan in very hot oven gas 9

Ignore that. If it's "just fish" then you can nuke it.

Just because the destructions don't give hope it doesn't mean it can't be done!

I've nuked full breaded lumps of fish before .... it didn't crisp up, but it was cooked/safe and didn't make much difference to the end result except it wasn't "crispy" on the outside.

PasturesNew

I did a full round Robin, spent a fortune.

Sainsbobs: shuffle round/see what's what. Pack of pancakes; 1 litre of fruit juice (that 10/day thought haunting me).
Ald1: shuffle round/see what's what, emerged with a bag of sweeties; a whole swede (this week's offer and my nod to 10/day); a handy foot pump for inflatables/bike tyres (er, I think it does bikes which was my intended use), reduced from £5 to £1.49; tin of peaches; box of cheese triangles; pack of crumpets; pack of muffins; jar of orange marmalade; pack of fruit scones.
Poundland: might as well as it's next door. Bag of sweeties; new pair of £1 specs; a brass brush on a fat stick for weeding (presumably pations); a roll of magnetic tape (don't ask/weird/the child in me was intrigued).

sitesafe

caronc wrote: »

Could you turn the leftovers into a chilli to make it slightly different?

Hi caronc - I could have done but then I'd have had chilli three nights in less than a week as I had veggie chilli and rice for two night. I just ate it with rice again as it was. Got lucky one night as boss asked if I wanted a spare plate of shepherds pie - it was a bit sloppy but I couldn't resist. Just meant my root veggie thingy had to wait another day but was probably more tasty as a result. Yesterday's meals consisted of
Breakfast - porridge with water instead of milk, and banana.
Lunch - latte and piece of boring but chocolate cake whilst out at a National Trust place
Supper - Apricot turnover, milky way, my root veg ragu thing with rice and some weekend wine
Today I was going to go shopping, wrote my list etc but then decided not to bother as I can get by on what i have at the moment - the only thing I really wanted to add to today's meal was an onion but in a couple of days I will be out of nearly everything so best get it all then. I had a think about the ys stuff as I was going to go out to Tesco especially at 1500 ish but thought it's okay to buy these things if i use them regularly and if they can be stored but due to the no freezer and small fridge I realised that sometimes I throw things away and I can't stand waste. So although I may have found some bargains they would have had to been used up asap if fresh and I don't have the space....
Today's meals so far and for tonight:
Breakfast - porridge made with water and a chopped banana

Lunch - half a mozarella ball torn over one sliced tomatoe, black pepper, oil and balsamic and fresh basil, with 2 x slices of ys wholegrain bread and butter.
Snacks - 1 apple, couple of brazils and half a dozen almonds.
Supper - plan to make Veggie bolognese with lentils, carrots, tomatoes and herbs, wholewheat spaghetti

Just having a cheeky glass of wine as I'm not now going out this afternoon so don't need to drive anywhere. I may have mentioned this before but the Tesco South African £3.50 a bottle white wine is actually really nice...

Tonight I'm going to look at meal planning...meals I've eaten this month have included
Chick pea curry and rice
Green thai chick pea curry and rice
Lentil bolognese and wholewheat pasta
Chicken stir fry (veg prepared myself, sauce bought)
Baked potaoe with tuna mashed with yogurt and dill, s & p
Chilli and rice made with red kidney beans and added veg
Chicken and vegetable broth type thing

All very nice but all a bit soft and wet - we need textures and bite to keep our teeth and gums healthy so I'm struggling a bit with a semi veggie diet - I'm also finding that most of these meals involve frying to some extent, even if it's frying the garlic or the ginger, whereas I rarely used to fry anything !

Willowx

Just nuked the last of the leftover sausage bake for lunch had a banana whilst waiting for it to ding, thinking should have had the banana after so going to have an orange now.

PasturesNew

sitesafe wrote: »

....

You've entirely missed out an essential food group there: Pies.

sitesafe

PasturesNew wrote: »

You've entirely missed out an essential food group there: Pies.

I LOVE pies...not had one for ages but noticed the chip shop in the local small town does pukka pies - always had these growing up as a child, the chicken and mushroom ones - they always used to be squidgy not crispy which I liked about them!....