Cooking for one

Hollyharvey

Afternoon all,


I reverted to my usual easy breakfast of greek yoghurt and berries this morning. I didn't want anything too heavy because I had decided to make a victoria sandwich cake as my brother and his partner were coming over for coffee this morning. As I filled it with jam and fresh cream I gave them the leftover cake to take back with them. We only had a small slice each so there was too much left for me to eat as the cream was on its use by date today.


Lunch was a tuna and mayo sandwich, and I have just been out for a walk around the local park. It was really busy today and a lot of tourists queuing up to get into the castle. The queues don't usually get really long until June onwards so it looks like it may be a busy year here.


Dinner will be the leftover beef with salad and potatoes and that will be the end of that. I defrosted a crumble for pudding.


I need to have a root through the freezer later and see what is taking up a lot of room and that will become tomorrow's dinner. I keep taking things out of the freezer but there doesn't seem to be any more space in them.


This isn't going to be helped by the rhubarb that my brother brought over for me. That is going to have to go into one of them somehow this evening. I may take a half of a loaf of bread out to use over the next few days. At least it will give me room for the rhubarb

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

.... fulfils all PN's criteria about meals for one. No thinking required, peel of wrappings, bung in oven, eat it 25 minutes later, chuck disgusting mucky container in the bin. Job done and just a fork / spoon for the dishwasher

I'd wash that dish out - and put it in the recycling.
I've no dishwasher, so the fork/spoon would be washed up.

What actually happens is I have a bowl that's usually got water in it - so I'd have dunked/drained/dunked/kept the feeding dish and put it to one side in the ½ sink bit ... and the fork/spoon would've been dropped into the bowl of water.

Once there's enough to be washed up the washing up's done - or if I'm nuking so standing there with nothing better to do for 2-3 minutes. The dirty dish would be dunked/left in soak in the ½ sink until I was about to empty out the bowl of water to clean it out ... then I'd use that water to wash out the dish and pop it to drain/dry in the ½ sink.

moneyistooshorttomention

Farway wrote: »

With the early start had slice of toast & butter, was going to slather on marmalade but a spot of mindfulness, caught from remarks on here, crept in and decided I did not really "need" the marmalade on it. Have I been radicalised by t'internet?

:rotfl:Well it all depends on whether you could do with losing a bit of weight Farway - errrm...like myself:o

That's the reason I am trying to think twice/be a bit more mindful about what I eat.

If you've not got that problem - then dollop away with the marmalade:).

I rather like a good-quality marmalade with some nice thick bits of peel in myself:)

Me - I'm now sitting back waiting for a book that says its a 30 day vegan diet plan (implication being = suitable for CFO) coming through the post. Maybe I'll do a bit better if it's laid down exactly what to shop for and what to do with it when I've got it. Just tried on a size 12 dress I bought at a carboot sale to monitor things - and I can get it on, but it's too tight at the moment. Clinging at the top and showing off a stomach that isn't flat yet at the bottom. Must hoick that dress out of the wardrobe at intervals and try on in order to motivate myself.:cool: No cause for complacency though - as I tried on a size 12 dress from a charity shop in 1960s style the other day and it came nowhere remotely near doing up (ie I think it must be 1960s sizing - and it certainly isnt 2010's sizing....). Thinks - I'm prepared to allow myself to settle at 1970s sizing (courtesy of that being the decade we all went on The Pill - and I believe it made us bigger than we used to be in some ways and not our fault). But compass is set for 1970s in my case - as no other "not our fault" factor has come along since then....

PasturesNew

I've now eaten three of my four curries. One yesterday, two today. I weighed one of them today, just the meat/sauce part's roughly 170 grams. I tried to compare that the the weight of ready meals but that's not as easy as it could be .... but I suspect 170 grams is a couple of spoonfuls too small.... although I'm sure some ready meals probably do weigh in at that.

I've a bread roll I bought yesterday (YS/30% off) .... ate three since yesterday morning so the fourth one needs to be eaten today ... so I might make a tomato roll with it, especially as I also picked up a punnet of the cherry tomatoes from 4ldi's Special/Week Offers this week.

caronc

Good evening everyone,

The weather perked up so I finally got my green house set up and my three cucumber plants are now potted on and in residence. Previously I've grown six plants but reckoned that was too many so fingers crossed. I love homegrown cucumber as they actually taste of something and I can eat them like sweeties so don't think I'll be over run with them.

I'm just goimg to have a baked spud and roasted toms & mushrooms with my steak & peppercorn sauce. I use the wee trays from ready meals to cook the spud /veg in as they are an ideal size and I can nuke the spud first in it.:D I've decided that within reason I'm going to stop fretting about running the oven with small amounts of stuff in it and generally it's only on for a shortish while. I don't wan't a halogen or mini-oven at the moment. Due to my health issues I find oven cooking easiest so reckon it's worth it.

PN - I reckon your curry/sauce portion at 170g was probably more than what you get with a 400g ready meal though with more meat (that's not been bulked out with water/cornflour) and less sauce as 130g cooked rice isn't a massive portion.

Tiddlywinks

caronc wrote: »

I've decided that within reason I'm going to stop fretting about running the oven with small amounts of stuff in it and generally it's only on for a shortish while. I don't wan't a halogen or mini-oven at the moment. Due to my health issues I find oven cooking easiest so reckon it's worth it.

Is your current oven at eye level or do you have to crouch down?

My fitted oven is a low one and I was getting worried about lifting things out given my dodgy grip... I had visions of spilling a crock pot all over me.

So, I bought a worktop oven (about the size of a microwave) BUT it's not a toaster type oven - it's a proper fan assisted good sized one from Lakeland - and I am sooo happy I did. In fact, I'm now using it more than I would with my ordinary oven as it's easier for me to coordinate and juggle putting things in and out. I wish I'd bought one years ago.

caronc

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Is your current oven at eye level or do you have to crouch down?

It's a bend down one but for reasons known only to Meniere's I find this easier than eye level or reaching - it's not that low so I do find it okay to manage but thanks for the tip re the Lakeland one, one for the future if needed

PasturesNew

My mini's a budget version, L1dl special jobbie.

It has issues, but was cheap. An internal light would be nice as I can't see inside often/properly.

I am not comfortable with the fact there are "exposed" red elements at the bottom that I can see - there are 1" wide bent metal protector bars over them, but I still fear anything dripping down ...and the whole lot catching fire - but, having said that, I've noticed from a lot of online photos of food being cooked, that a lot of American full sized ovens have a full/wiggly/bent oven element COMPLETELY exposed!! I'd have palpitations at that!

My reason to buy it was predominantly: cook a pizza, reheat a pie. I've used it for more than that, so it's been used a lot and mostly performed well. There are some issues with it though. e.g. if you decide to bake, say, a pasty - and you lay raw pastry down on foil on the baking dish provided and put it on the shelf and turn the oven on .... the bottom often burns and you have to pick the black bits off. I suspect maybe if oven cooking pastry from raw I'd have to reduce the temperature by 20 degrees or so, but I've done it so few times I've not had time to experiment.

Re halogens - I'm short - and I don't think I'd be able to manage to lift food high enough out of it to guarantee not burning myself and dropping the food and then in panic probably knocking the whole thing off the worktop.

Tiddlywinks

I had a halogen oven a few years ago but just couldn't get on with it. Then I got a Remoska but it just didn't seem practical for my needs... luckily I got a refund on that as the handle worked loose within a couple of months.

Now, I've discovered the Holy Grail for baking:

The Halo for doing roasted veggies - it cooks a batch with only a teaspoon of oil (has halogen technology).

The DeLonghi worktop oven for everything else - it was mega-money and I anguished over the cost for a month or so BUT it's been worth every penny as I use it now virtually everyday as it's just the right height for me to use.

Before buying that oven, I tried out this Dualit one but was worried about using it as the manual said not to use tin foil near the element; so that went straight back.

The DeLonghi one has an interior light and has lots of settings so I'm very happy with that - the only other way for me to have got a waist height oven would have been to rip out part of the kitchen and remodel... so, on balance, the cost is not too bad.

Hollyharvey

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Now, I've discovered the Holy Grail for baking:

The Halo for doing roasted veggies - it cooks a batch with only a teaspoon of oil (has halogen technology).

The DeLonghi worktop oven for everything else - it was mega-money and I anguished over the cost for a month or so BUT it's been worth every penny as I use it now virtually everyday as it's just the right height for me to use.

The DeLonghi one has an interior light and has lots of settings so I'm very happy with that - the only other way for me to have got a waist height oven would have been to rip out part of the kitchen and remodel... so, on balance, the cost is not too bad.

If the DeLonghi works for you, then it is worth the money particularly as you are using it instead of your cooker oven.


The Halo looks interesting. I have had a look at the link and the video and it grills as well. Have you used it for that? I have been considering buying an air fryer but they are expensive so I haven't even started researching them in detail yet but it is something I will probably look into in the not too distant future