Cooking for one

caronc

Good morning everyone,

It is a miserable morning here with the rain chucking it down and I wouldn't be surprised if we got thunder. Unfortunately the rapid change in weather pressure has knocked my balance off so I'll not be attempting anything too adventurous until it settles though I could do with sweeping and mopping the kitchen and dining room.
I've just had toast and cottage cheese for breakfast and lunch will be a couple of bite sized pork pies with salad and maybe a cupasoup
Not sure about dinner yet - sausage and mash maybe given the weather and I have mash in the freezer so don't need to faff about making that.

[Deleted User]

caronc, nice and steady today for you. Pressure went down like a hoors drawers, was sunny and warm yesterday morning and I did loads of work, then all of a sudden about 4 it absolutely hammered down with hailstones. Miserable dull today, feels cool

I have been scraping today, carrots and potatoes, whoops just remembered the bunch of 20 carrots that arrived on friday, good job I had cut most greenery off. 20 carrots seemed endless as mostly thin but alldone now and I have put most into a shorter vac jar, not tested carrots previously but I think they will last a week like this. I love having veg ready to use

Pre sliced and cooked hm beef slices out the freezer, am feeling like a full meat/veg meal. It`ll be all steamed veg. I am peckish already

PasturesNew

I'd bought a loaf and a pack of four rolls the other day... left them out as long as possible to see how I used them before freezing ... loaf is BBE 17th and rolls are 16th. The sooner you freeze after you've bought, the better they are when you defrost, so I was trying to strike a balance between using and freezing..

This morning I decanted four slices of bread into an airtight box and put the final half a loaf in the freezer.

I then used the 2nd roll from the pack and made a tomato/egg roll - that used the last of the cherry tomatoes. I put the other two in the freezer.

So, half a loaf and two big bread rolls and the freezer's looking full again *sighs*. Those take up nearly half of one basket, in a freezer having 2.5 baskets, so it is a significant amount often used "just for bread".

Tiddlywinks

PasturesNew wrote: »

Here's two photos somebody took of them cooking bacon on theirs:
http://i46.tinypic.com/2nsp6ja.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/30t5ldw.jpg

That looks great - where did you get it? I want one.... .

The burners are just like the fondue burner I have which can take cartridges of fuel rather than liquid - they are expensive though in comparison to the bottles but I find the convenience worth it.

Gel fuel

You could use your new stove to do a fondue - sitting in front of the telly and just dipping and munching .

PasturesNew

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

That looks great - where did you get it? I want one....

LOL. Car boot ... I bought it thinking it used tea lights in the little burners - as that's what I've had in mind to "build" for the last 2-3 years.... so I thought "great, it's got all the components I'd have had to find!"... but it's not tea lights. You really need 3-4+ tea lights to cook on ....

In my head I was going to have to find/buy at some point: A raised grill, containers for tea lights, tea lights and a small pan for the top ... so, for £2 I've got the lot, all "fit for purpose".

There were no destructions in the box though, so I googled it and somebody on a forum was asking where he could get another as he liked his so much.

In short: They don't seem to make them, no clues what/where it's from.

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

The burners are just like the fondue burner I have which can take cartridges of fuel rather than liquid - they are expensive though in comparison to the bottles but I find the convenience worth it.

Gel fuel

You could use your new stove to do a fondue - sitting in front of the telly and just dipping and munching .

I like fondue, but the quantity involved simply makes it not worth bothering with.

I'll remove the burners and replace them with two empty tuna tins, containing 3-5 tealights. I'll see how that goes ... and/or I might try a fray bentos pie tin (kept one when I ate one, "in case" it came in handy). I just need something to keep tea lights steady/safe ... they're easy/cheap to find/buy/store etc!

The other thing I intend building at some point is a solar oven for one. Not this year though, next year I'll be in the mindset/mood to build it for the garden. That'd be to cook pies, burgers etc without any power source. Needs a bit of time/fiddling though to get it right.

I am trying to find daft ways to avoid cooking inside the house as it brings so many fears... and, although limited to summer time, these solutions, with my other current gadgets might just enable me to expand my repertoire of available meals.

Farway

meg72 wrote: »

Ohhhhh yesi its a shame we are not nearer, not because I want to snaffle your excess herbs, though I would have liked a few. but because theres a lovely group of people here who do a food and plant swop which would help with your budget though you do seem to be an experienced YS hunter lol. Check out Food is free in Shropshire on facebook, its a group that comes under the umbrella
of Shropshire Loves Humanitarian and displaced persons and sends aid to anywhere that needs it as well as at home. Maybe there is a similar group near you that will swop plants for food, if not and you have the time why not start one.

Thanks for the idea, not one near me but the Age Concern I volunteer at has an open day in July, so if the herbs are big enough by then I may pot some up for sale towards their funds

Wet morning here after yesterda'ys sun, no matter becuase I had a parcel to post so that mixed my sort of palnned schedule up, so it was Morrison's & not Asda mooching

Nothing there of note, but did snaffle another ready meal veg lasagne for later in the week, and a frozen liver / mash for one, plus yet more bedding plants for my garden centre look alike building up along the path

Had a sort of brunch of Shippam's Gourmet tuna & sweetcorn spread, posh paste found back of the pantry, sandwich with some salad leaves bunged in.

It was OK, no idea when I bought the spread, must have been on offer at some time because it is not the sort of thing I normally buy, and doubt I will again but perhaps if it turned up clearance at say 10p I could be tempted

Then just a slice of bread and butter later at lunchtime

Dinner will be the LO half pizza and yet more salad, at least it is a tad healthier than pie & chips, but I still have the cod fish cakes in fridge, which is now for tomorrow, unless Lidl coughs up a YS curry or similar in the morning mooch

I was reading Which magazine, doing a review on Actifry, ype is good. Point is they mentioned they can make cakes in them, and now I need to find out how and just make one

Just had a search, waste of time and more faffing, seems make a cake mix as per normal but stick the cake tin in Actifry instead of oven, could say same about using your car to bake a cake, put cake tin on engine and drive 200 miles :mad:

moneyistooshorttomention

Just finished a scrap lunch - the "scrap" element being down to a morning spent at 2 different social events and some errands run.

So - last bit of some "real" focacia bread I bought a couple of days back and crudites of carrots and mini cucumbers with hummus. Note to all - the mini cucumbers I spotted for the first time in T*sco the other day are exactly the same as standard cucumbers basically, but just smaller and some mixed colour tomatoes with them. Finished with some frozen banana slices/yogurt that's slightly "worse for wear" (from me having put it in freezer so it didnt go off on me)/flaked almonds/healthy type chocolate sauce drizzled on top. Accompanied by a mini-bottle of "nice" type lager (excuse being it was a reward for effort today + putting up with one of those 'comments' made to me yesterday with just a deliberately puzzled expression on face as my reply to it (rather than a "what for!" comment thrown back at them, followed by explaining the appropriate response they should have made to a polite request).

Hollyharvey

Afternoon all,


It's a horrible wet and miserable day here today. I went to the hospital this morning and the outpatients clinic was running an hour and a half late because they still can't use the computers for everything. They asked if anyone would like to re-book and as my appointment was only a rhumatology follow up I said that I would and they are going to send me another appointment. It saves someone that really does need to be seen today a little bit of a wait.


So for breakfast this morning I had scrambled eggs on toast and a greek yoghurt and berries as I didn't know what time I would get back home for lunch. As it turned out I was back in plenty of time so had a tuna mayo sandwich and a couple (well ok 5) biscuits for lunch. Dinner is going to be a lamb rump steak with some steamed veg and potatoes.


Tomorrow morning I want to walk to the nearest Tesco which according to Google will take about 30 minutes to walk. They have got a couple of things that I want on offer at the moment a lot cheaper than any of the other shops that I can get to easily so it will be worth it.


Then Wednesday and Thursday I am out for lunch. Both days at really nice local restaurants so I am really looking forward to that :j . I have been drooling over the menus of both of them online this afternoon

caronc

Good afternoon,
The weather is still rubbish and I've slept for most of the afternoon .... did get the floors swept and mopped this morning though they took me ages:(. Thankfully going by the feeling in my ears the air pressure has levelled a bit - it's sharp rises or falls that seem to upset my meniere's so I'm feeling less dizzy. Tweleve heuchera plants have arrived in post so I'm waiting for a gap in the showers to nip down the garden for some compost to pot them up. Thankfully one tray from my conservatory was planted out yesterday so there's a space for them. Definitely thinking it'll be sausages tonight but might just go for a one tray job and have wedges with them:)

[Deleted User]

so boring today, I think its the grotty weather. I just read about more potential torrentials so have put two of my tomatoes, from outdoors in buckets, to inside a wall greenhouse, had to do some shifting but all finished

Spelt loaf in panny at the moment, it was kneading it fine so I have fingers crossed for a nice loaf. Beef meal was nice and so was the dark chocolate. Ive gotto have that salad today, not at all salad weather but I shall just eat and eat it until the plate is empty. Pan load of pasta sauce is ready, it is chunky so would also be good in a pasta bake or liquidised in a soup or as a smooth sauce for fish. I put a can of cannelini beans in for added protein, in case I cba. I`ll put it in the fridge for tonight, then divide to eat and freeze. Oh just remembered I did excess steamed potatoes, yummy that means fried crispy potato slices with the sauce tomorrow, might even add a scrambled egg