Cooking for one

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

:rotfl:at the thought of £20k-£30k budget

Ah, all you need to do is phone up a fella who was on Homes Under the Hammer and get their people in ... they can an entire house, with new roof and huge extension for about thruppence.

I'm sure a lot of them lie about how much they spent because they don't want to look like a plonker on the telly.

"I had a building team in for a full 3 months .... cost me sixpence a day"

caronc

Goodness 203 posts who would have thought........
Lovely how the thread has morphed from "cooking for one" to other issues faced by single householders turns out it's not just my eating habits I need to think about:)

PasturesNew

I'm hungry ... I have no sweeties, no biscuits, no cakes, no crumpets, no muffins, no bread, no cake. I am also lacking 1-2 essential ingredients to "knock up" any of those ... and, could I really be bothered anyway?

I've a tin of mandarins, intended for a Xmas trifle that I never made - and I've already eaten the cake I'd bought that'd have been the basis of that trifle, so I suppose the mandarins are now surplus to requirements...

So, to open a tin of mandarins and eat from the tin with a spoon .... or not. I'll probably do it to be honest... it's on my mind now.

It's either that or some instant custard.

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm hungry ... I have no sweeties, no biscuits, no cakes, no crumpets, no muffins, no bread, no cake. I am also lacking 1-2 essential ingredients to "knock up" any of those ... and, could I really be bothered anyway?

I've a tin of mandarins, intended for a Xmas trifle that I never made - and I've already eaten the cake I'd bought that'd have been the basis of that trifle, so I suppose the mandarins are now surplus to requirements...

So, to open a tin of mandarins and eat from the tin with a spoon .... or not. I'll probably do it to be honest... it's on my mind now.

It's either that or some instant custard.

Why not do both - tinned fruit and custard yum and enough left for another sweet treat tomorrow:)

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

Why not do both - tinned fruit and custard yum and enough left for another sweet treat tomorrow:)

I've found if I cut back on variety, there are less leftovers to eat.

If I eat the fruit, it's job done.
If I have some with custard now and keep some for tomorrow, then tomorrow I have to fancy it

I'll always prefer to eat fewer items and get it over and done with, rather than having a variety of items with leftovers.

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've found if I cut back on variety, there are less leftovers to eat.

If I eat the fruit, it's job done.
If I have some with custard now and keep some for tomorrow, then tomorrow I have to fancy it

I'll always prefer to eat fewer items and get it over and done with, rather than having a variety of items with leftovers.

Fair enough -personally I'd rather have something I really enjoy and live with the leftovers

moneyistooshorttomention

PasturesNew wrote: »

Ah, all you need to do is phone up a fella who was on Homes Under the Hammer and get their people in ... they can an entire house, with new roof and huge extension for about thruppence.

I'm sure a lot of them lie about how much they spent because they don't want to look like a plonker on the telly.

"I had a building team in for a full 3 months .... cost me sixpence a day"

Oh yes....I remember those "Homes under the hammer" tv programmes. I watched them avidly whilst looking for this house - and was daft enough to believe the renovation figures they gave. Slight difference between buying a kitchen that is el cheapo kitchen units/choosing the minimum possible number one can get away with and doing the work oneself to M. Average in the street and the kitchens we actually buy and having to pay workmen to do it for us for instance.:cool:

moneyistooshorttomention

PN - is there room for a small (carefully camouflaged) freezer anywhere else in the house? That way - you could keep more food in the freezer. For instance freezer packets with a few slices of bread per packet in. That way - haul out a mini packet of bread from the freezer and just whack a couple of slices in the toaster if it's a case of "must fill stomach with something/not bothered about what"?

Personally - I'm quite prone to hauling a bit of fruit out of the freezer and whacking a bit of cream on (my translation of that these days probably meaning Oatly cream - ie "cream" made from oats) and then squeezing a bit of (healthy) chocolate equivalent type sauce on it and throwing a few seeds/nuts on top. It's my quickie version of icecream in effect. I usually use frozen banana slices for that - but have been known, in extremis, to use frozen watermelon or frozen pineapple etc. The "in extremis" bit being that frozen banana slices get to "just thawed enough" consistency pretty quickly if some cream is poured over them (provided they havent clumped together in the freezer bag). Not so much so with other frozen fruit...

....and yep...I couldnt really tell the difference particularly between Oatly cream and single cream if they were in a dish. But the Oatly version has the virtue of being in a packet that will keep for months.

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

is there room for a small (carefully camouflaged) freezer anywhere else in the house?

Not without it looking odd/being obvious, if you see what I mean. Wouldn't wish to live with a random freezer plonked in another room.

I've never bought cream, ever, so it's never something I have in the house. That sounds odd, I know, but I've never bought/used it.

It's one of those things that makes me shudder a bit. I know it shouldn't, but it's in the same group of foods as yoghurt - which I can't eat as the term "live culture" grossed me out when I first heard it over 40 years ago

I have absolutely no idea what you mean by "oatly cream" - never heard of that before.

I bought some packets of dream topping just before Xmas, part of the trifle plan

caronc

Having a bit of a tidy up pending the hordes arriving tonight and one thing I need to do now I'm on my own is stop buying fresh fruit in the winter. Apart from lemons I'm really not using it and consequently there are kiwis, grapes, apples and oranges mouldering in the bowl. In summer I really enjoy fruit especially peaches etc. but I'm not really a snacker and find in the colder months I'm more of a veg eater and easily cover my 5 a day through them. Hopefully I can off load some to my son this weekend if not I'll just need to make the effort and use them up and not randomly pop more in my shopping.