Cooking for one

SunnyGirl

PN - practical idea of just folding the wrap why didn't I think of that!!

Csronc - tea was lovely thank you and it was good to spend a few hours with my lovely Mum and Dad who at 77 and 83 respectively put me to shame for energy some days! They buy their meat quarterly in bulk from a lovely butcher they've used for a few years. It's really good quality and I treat myself very occasionally to a steak. Or go to Mum's for tea haha. With being a full time uni student and only working part time I keep to a fairly strict budget in general but luckily I love cooking,always meal plan, shop wisely and have the experience of feeding many mouths when the family/husband were all at home.

One of the benefits of being a singlie I'm finding is that I can do things at random times so I am about to make another 8 jellies - black cherry with tinned pears chopped into them this time - and then I'm going to watch a film before bed I think. Or I may read and listen to the radio.

Tomorrow I am making 4 portions of chicken curry. 2 mildish ones and 2 spicier ones to freeze for future meals and am making a chicken stir fry with noodles for tea. I also want to have a dust and bac through and strip my bed. Oh and do a wash load as I have enough dark clothes to put one in now.

SunnyGirl

Tiddlywinks could you make another mixture and turn them into buns for icing? Or does buttercream freeze? That's so frustrating I'd be turning the air blue!

Hollyharvey

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Tiddlywinks reporting in for a sympathy fix...

I fancied continuing my baking experiments earlier with my new best friend - VeganEgg.

Trying for a coffee sponge... mixture in oven, pretty good rise but slightly cracked... I can live with that. Put the two layers on a cooling rack and went to the mixer to get the buttercream off and twirling.

Buttercream great, put into piping bag... looking good, just need to turn the sponge ready to add the cream...

Picked up one half to 'flip' it using a plate and - PLOP - I dropped it. So my cake is now half the size and I have a whole lot of buttercream that doesn't have a home to go to.

Absolutely gutted as I invested blood, sweat and tears on that one... even worse because I'd joked about flipping quesadillas earlier.

Any ideas what to do with the excess buttercream?

:wall:

Oh no, how annoying after all that effort that you put in Can you freeze the excess buttercream? Or put it in a Tupperware box in the fridge and it should keep for a few days if you are going to do any more baking.


I know it is of little consolation right this minute, but at least you know the vegan egg works.


Enjoy the cake though, it sounds delicious

Tiddlywinks

karcher wrote: »

As a oneski for many, many years I just a) CBA, b) lack money and c) CBA!

Aw Karcher...

If left to my own devices I CBA as I'm a bit lazy and always put stuff off... so I've had to force myself into a routine.

I now do a massive prepping session twice a week of salad stuff, peppers, courgettes, cabbage, cauli etc. I bought a brill Oxo Good Grips veggie cutter to make things easier / quicker.

Then from day to day I can just dip in and get what I need to fill a sarnie, make a lasagna, chilli, soup or whatever.

I also use my gadgets to take the effort out of some stuff - I've now started to do 'roasted' Mediterranean veggies in my Halo and then use them across loads of meals. They only take 35 minutes and don't need any watching - just shove them in and hit the button.

If I didn't do this then I'd never, ever be able to motivate myself to cook every day and the five-a-day would be out of the window (let alone achieving anywhere near ten).

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

Looks fab - personally I love Christmas leftovers never a chore to get through them in the dark, cold, skint months following:)

The thing is ... there was never anything "exciting" on the list to start with. "for one" I had to pare back the shopping list to "the essentials". It ended up really as just a dinner, a few nuts, bag of favourite choccies and some biscuits.

So the leftovers meant ploughing through bags and bags and bags and bags of frozen veg and a few fresh veg.

I'd thought frozen was the way to go, I was wrong. For such a variety of veggies there simply wasn't the room and they clogged up the freezer for months.

The turkey was over and done within 3-4 days .... but then there was endless stuff in the freezer.

This year, no cauli and it'll be fresh brussels (I'll just buy a dozen or so). I'll use the smallest swede I can find (last year bought the biggest as they were all the same price).

I also bought a box of pastry that I never got round to using (so froze it) .... hence the quiche the other day.

SunnyGirl wrote: »

PN - practical idea of just folding the wrap why didn't I think of that!!

Because you're not an Expert Slacker like me. I find the easiest ways to do things, rather than "the most attractive/desirable and arty/neat" ways:)

When comparing the two you get the same end results except "it's not flat/so neat" - and - "the end bit won't colour/brown/crisp/cook the same as it bends round". I am awarded ZERO points for presentation, so if there's an easier/quicker way to do something and I'm happy to accept the different end result, I'll go with it.

I bake mine, as I can't use a frying pan .... but I rarely do it as I buy them so infrequently. It's about one pack of tortillas a year.

PasturesNew

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Tiddlywinks reporting in for a sympathy fix...

I fancied continuing my baking experiments earlier with my new best friend - VeganEgg.

Trying for a coffee sponge... mixture in oven, pretty good rise but slightly cracked... I can live with that. Put the two layers on a cooling rack and went to the mixer to get the buttercream off and twirling.

Buttercream great, put into piping bag... looking good, just need to turn the sponge ready to add the cream...

Picked up one half to 'flip' it using a plate and - PLOP - I dropped it. So my cake is now half the size and I have a whole lot of buttercream that doesn't have a home to go to.

Absolutely gutted as I invested blood, sweat and tears on that one... even worse because I'd joked about flipping quesadillas earlier.

Any ideas what to do with the excess buttercream?

:wall:

Awww

I have never made buttercream, so can't help.

As a rule, I'll buy a cake, not make one - they're not on my Food Wish List, so I'm happy to pick up a smallish cake for £1 in a cheap shop a max of 1-2x a year.

I'm just not interested in making a mess and standing beating cake mix (no gadgets) then standing and waiting while one cooks... although I've got cake liners as I do intend to knock up something in the slow cooker at some point.

I've never piped a thing in my entire life! And have no intentions of doing so ... if I ever tried to use a buttercream it'd be dolloped on, then smoothed round using a teaspoon, then patted maybe here and there to make "raised bits".

Trouble is - there is so much food one COULD make, it's impossible to get round to doing it all.

You could just eat it with a big spoon.

[Deleted User]

I`m another one who cannot abide drinking milk, that is why I have soya milk on my cereals and soaked oats, that plus the high quality protein in soya. I`m making another litre of it tomorrow. 500 ml of organic semi milk lasts me a week

I am grateful for the pan of soup, now cold on my hob but will go into the fridge in a mo, now that the flavours have developed. I`ll just add beans and pasta and a bit of miso and again will have a meal in one bowl. Luckily I have sewing, knitting and dusting to get on with, its going to pour all day, so won`t be picking at bits, I`ll be too busy

I have gone into tea btw, the very special (expensive ) ones that are not in suprmarkets. The ones that have a sort of ritual and can be steeped 5 or more times. I still love my large mug of assam in the morning but smaller amounts of other teas in the day are keeping me hydrated and giving me lots of goodness. Cheaper than alcohol but expensive compared to supermarket teas. Having some lovely oolong yesterday was my choice instead of a small bottle of prosecco already chilled in the fridge. Got to be good

moneyistooshorttomention

Yep...another one looking out at the weather (rain - again...) and adding that to my "worse for wear" muscles after a more strenuous type walk yesterday and I think I'll pass on today's planned activities.

Kittie - I've got my pilates ring now and duly reaching for it to have a bit of an arm workout whilst watching tv anyway and then tightening/loosening muscles below the knee and then above the knee.

I reckon arms and legs are starting to feel more "normal" already than they've done for some while. Was starting to feel really annoyed with my body that it was starting to feel like a bit of effort to stand up - rather than just standing up without thinking about it and hating my arms feeling so weak/feeble. Don't know how long I'll have to wait before I can walk up/downstairs without "feeling my knees" - but will keep at it...

But - fingers crossed and a few more weeks of this and I'm feeling hopeful arms/legs will be back to normal fully.:)

No food thoughts for today much - more salad (another singles leftover....)/more red pepper pesto (another singles leftover)......

caronc

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Tiddlywinks reporting in for a sympathy fix...

I fancied continuing my baking experiments earlier with my new best friend - VeganEgg.

Trying for a coffee sponge... mixture in oven, pretty good rise but slightly cracked... I can live with that. Put the two layers on a cooling rack and went to the mixer to get the buttercream off and twirling.

Buttercream great, put into piping bag... looking good, just need to turn the sponge ready to add the cream...

Picked up one half to 'flip' it using a plate and - PLOP - I dropped it. So my cake is now half the size and I have a whole lot of buttercream that doesn't have a home to go to.

Absolutely gutted as I invested blood, sweat and tears on that one... even worse because I'd joked about flipping quesadillas earlier.

Any ideas what to do with the excess buttercream?

:wall:

Oh poor you :mad:- no consolation I know but buttercream can be frozen:)

kittie wrote: »

I`m another one who cannot abide drinking milk, that is why I have soya milk on my cereals and soaked oats, that plus the high quality protein in soya. I`m making another litre of it tomorrow. 500 ml of organic semi milk lasts me a week

I am grateful for the pan of soup, now cold on my hob but will go into the fridge in a mo, now that the flavours have developed. I`ll just add beans and pasta and a bit of miso and again will have a meal in one bowl. Luckily I have sewing, knitting and dusting to get on with, its going to pour all day, so won`t be picking at bits, I`ll be too busy

I have gone into tea btw, the very special (expensive ) ones that are not in suprmarkets. The ones that have a sort of ritual and can be steeped 5 or more times. I still love my large mug of assam in the morning but smaller amounts of other teas in the day are keeping me hydrated and giving me lots of goodness. Cheaper than alcohol but expensive compared to supermarket teas. Having some lovely oolong yesterday was my choice instead of a small bottle of prosecco already chilled in the fridge. Got to be good

I'm not a tea expert but can understand why you choose tea over prosecco LOL (I'm not a fan of the fizzy stuff)

Good morning everyone,
I woke to the most torrential rain this morning but it has dried up a bit now so fingers crossed I'll get some more done in the garden. I was looking at the cucumbers in my greenhouse and I think they might actually be courgettes :eek: I've checked the courgette pots and they seem to be courgettes as well. Time will tell but I suspect I have made a booboo in the seed department (they were seeds from last year)

Breakfast was toast with cottage cheese and cherry toms and lunch will be another salad sarnie as I have tongue, coleslaw and gem lettuce needing used up. Tonight I'm having turkey & peppers in a peppercorn & mushroom sauce with either brown or wild rice. I'm going to cook extra rice to have either as a salad or with a stirfry on Tuesday. I do need to get back to vaguely mean planning as when I decide on the day I always seem to end up having spuds so I've loose plan to take me to Friday.:)

[Deleted User]

Its been a good morning, what I would call energising as it was positive and I have made loads of weights for cutting sewing patterns. Also cleaned the wm filter and put a boil wash on with powder and no washing, smelt a whiff, so was needed. No messing for lunch, put squashed edamame pasta into soup and simmering for 10 minutes. Thats it