Cooking for one

System

Yeah right - if it's so s0dding marvellous how come they don't buy/cook 4 chickens every 4th Sunday, or buy 4 cauliflowers at a time

Following this thread with interest but just spit my coffee out at that comment.

Must admit, when both hubby and my son was working away i had cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for dinner and cereal for tea.

I'm sure if they had both worked out of town for much longer my bones would have bent and teeth and hair would have dropped out.:rotfl:

i hate cooking at the best of times but cooking for myself is just a form of torture in my eyes. I cook for my men to keep them healthy, not because i want to.

PasturesNew

Catwhisker wrote: »

... buy bags of frozen veg.... I tried that but have given up as I only have a small, undercounter freezer and they take up far too much room.

.... mixed bag of broccoli and cauliflower ....

It is difficult to juggle frozen veg. My current compromise I am trying is to just put up with a 1Kg bag of 4 mixed veg .... and a bag of peas (I like peas) ... and occasionally an additional bag.

It is troublesome because you not only don't have the room - but are emptying a bag at a very slow rate.

I overbought at Xmas and still ploughing through them all!

I've gone off that broccoli/cauli, just not been enjoying it at all and only finally saw the back of the bag last week.

Catwhisker wrote: »

... don't have .... a local greengrocer .... or the opportunity to buy loose veg. I rely on one of the major supermarkets for most of my shopping and everything is geared towards cooking for families.

I feel the same... sometimes I see mixed bags of veg, or the occasional market might have "any bowl £1" but you never feel you're getting what you want, or value for money... so veggies just don't happen that much.... I do LIKE veggies...they're just "too hard to fit in" most days.

Catwhisker wrote: »

.... turning up and whinging......it's obviously been building up more than I realised!

Enjoy it! It's good to whinge about "for one" stuff and actually be HEARD and not beaten down.

Catwhisker wrote: »

The jambalaya was tasty, would have benefited from a dollop of sour cream which I did consider buying but it seemed pointless for a couple of spoonfuls and I could think what else I'd use it for. As predicted there is plenty left. May see how hungry I am tomorrow and use whatever is left as a packed lunch on Tuesday.

I'm not keen on sour cream. The reason I don't buy/use a lot of stuff is because of the inability to be able to have a bottomless pit of "one spoon of" items.

Catwhisker

PasturesNew wrote: »

.... and a bag of peas (I like peas) ...

I've gone off that broccoli/cauli, just not been enjoying it at all and only finally saw the back of the bag last week.

I make an exception for peas, I always have frozen peas. They're a godsend. I'm having a 'broccoli break', last week I had it with a chicken dinner, a sausage dinner, a stir fry and a pasta bake that lasted two days. There's still a bit left. If it goes off before I use it I refuse to feel guilty.
I usually try to plan for a week's worth of meals and then do a shop. It does help me budget and if I want to buy something for one meal ( a tub of creme fraiche or salad for example) I try to plan other meals to use it up. This is all well and good until what seemed like a good idea on Friday looks much less tempting / too much work on Tuesday and I have cheese on toast instead and the tub of creme fraiche or bag of salad sits in the fridge mocking me.

karcher

I love peas...a tin of marrow fat processed peas are a portion of joy in a tin

I've decided on MASH with loads of butter to accompany my HM coleslaw...just pondering adding some mature cheddar cheese to the mash or is that just being greedy?

meg72

caronc wrote: »

Evening everyone
On a "hi and bye" as unfortunately vertigo flared up so have been mainly horizontal mainly . Food has been LOs and I'm contemplating a pizza.
I'll catch up with the thread tomorrow

Hope you soon feel better

Willowx

Spent the afternoon debating whether to do the lamb chop or a bacon sandwich so naturally have made a tuna mayo sandwich with cheese and red onion. Also having a green tea with cranberry I'm assuming that doesn't count towards the ten.

PasturesNew might be interested to know that next week is national pie week.

Spent the afternoon trying to rearrange my flat to see if I can get an arm chair in, have moved all the furniture but the place now looks like a tip. I'm out of energy for now and won't have time to sort it until Wednesday, should have started this yesterday!

PasturesNew

karcher wrote: »

I love peas...a tin of marrow fat processed peas are a portion of joy in a tin

I've decided on MASH with loads of butter to accompany my HM coleslaw...just pondering adding some mature cheddar cheese to the mash or is that just being greedy?

Yes, marrow fat peas are heaven!

Yes, add the cheese.... I LOVE cheesy mash.

I often wish I had the motivation to grill it brown ... but life's too short

Willowx wrote: »

.... debating whether to do the lamb chop or a bacon sandwich so naturally have made a tuna mayo sandwich with cheese and red onion.

Happens to me most days. 15 hours spent wondering whether to do A or B, overwhelmed by choice and indecision ....then toast.

Willowx wrote: »

PasturesNew might be interested to know that next week is national pie week.

I know But I do wonder if I'm all pie'd out right now.... I've had a lot of pies recently - probably more this year than the whole of last year to be honest

Loved EVERY slice too

Willowx wrote: »

.... place now looks like a tip. I'm out of energy for now and won't have time to sort it until Wednesday, should have started this yesterday!

Sounds like my life. One day you'll learn: Just leave it .... it'll only turn out to be something you wish you'd never started.

As there's "just me" I usually don't put things in that mythical place of "away" - I've not enough cupboards/drawers/whatnot for places to have a home, so it seems pointless to keep tidying things "away" when all I'm doing is moving them - because it's more effort to go and get them again when I want them.

Some things are just left "around" because it's handy to always have them around. The vacuum's permanently plugged in and on the living room floor - I vacuum 30 seconds every morning, around where I've sat!

moneyistooshorttomention

Frozen veggies aren't basically a resource for me either. The only ones I actually like are peas (which I always have in) and spinach (sometimes had in). I have reservations about them anyway - as I've yet to come across any organic frozen veggies - so they are a bit of an emergency thing to me then. I look longingly at the frozen edamame I now spot on sale in the supermarkets (as they come up so often in the recipes in my cookbooks) and then sigh and turn away as I've reminded myself they are young soya beans and can't buy soya anything these days unless it specifically says it's not g*netically-modified (as soya inevitably is these days - unless it guarantees it isnt iyswim). So much for 1970s vegetarian cookbooks that major heavily in soya - that was in the days before g*netic m*dification.

Lunch out today then. Got to go to the dentist and, for me these days, that means it's a whole "day out" type thing (now I'm living more remotely):(. So I've found a passable place to have lunch out there and that's my "reward" for going to the dentist.

I'm currently waiting for a bento type lunch box through the post from Lakeland (https://www.lakeland.co.uk/71521/ )- and I'll be more sorted then for the fact that lunch out here since moving is hard to find for the way I eat and I often end up going without until I get back home. That should solve that problem.

karcher

I ate too much mash last night....wanted it gone not wallowing in a bowl in the fridge. I don't often eat potatoes because they don't really agree with me and I only bought them to make chips with..but then decided I wanted Mash?

Now I've none for when I do want chips...but they can wait till next month now as I'm all potatoed out!

PasturesNew

karcher wrote: »

I ate too much mash last night....wanted it gone not wallowing in a bowl in the fridge.

Now I've none for when I do want chips...but they can wait till next month now as I'm all potatoed out!

This is one of the struggles.... first you don't have XYZ. Then you buy XYZ and you have to cook - and get through it all before it goes off.... then you're sick of the sight of it and often end up having a HUGE portion just to see the back of it.

As a substitute for real spuds I'll typically have 1Kg frozen oven chips always in the freezer - and a box of instant mash (label says it's 99% potato, so it's not 'rubbish') in the cupboard. That then, theoretically, frees me up to buy spuds when I choose to - of course, having then bought 2.5Kg spuds (smallest bag that makes economic sense) it's a raft of spuds to plough through.

The green bags ARE keeping my spuds for much longer though, which is a relief! Current, final, spud in my current green bag was bought 10 February and still not the slightest sign of any sprouting.

However, even though I'd have liked spuds yesterday, with my sausage in pastry, I couldn't use the one I've got because it's a "big baker" and so felt wasted if I'd mashed it (and it was a huge one).... and I've run out of instant mash this week ....so I still ended up without spuds!! Didn't want to make chips.