Cooking for one

Farway

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's £65 here too to have my grass clippings taken away as part of a refuse service .... fine if you have a large leafy plot with lots of garden waste, but I've a new build small lawn and fairly tame front hedge.... luckily the tip's close to me, so I can tip it for free - but I do still have to then time grass cutting/hedge clipping with when I'm immediately prepared to take it to the tip, else I run the risk of it all getting wet if it rains and then turning nasty - and not fancying doing it any more

I cut/dispose of it about 4-5x a year. It's about 1 black dustbin liner/trip.

Similar charge here, and I had to buy the wheelie bin to rub salt into it. I compost the grass cuttings but have to use the service for shrub / tree branches, the tip is not too far but balance, back & bend problems kick that option out of the window

There is a charge for some items, like DIY stuff at the tip. Needless to say fly tipping is now a problem and council wonder why. Well they don't really but cannot admit making a mistake

PS poppy star,

Someone mentioned fish finger butties a few days ago … and I haven't been able to get the idea out of my head so had to head out to Mr T today to get some that was me, sorry about that

SunnyGirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's £65 here too to have my grass clippings taken away as part of a refuse service .... fine if you have a large leafy plot with lots of garden waste, but I've a new build small lawn and fairly tame front hedge.... luckily the tip's close to me, so I can tip it for free - but I do still have to then time grass cutting/hedge clipping with when I'm immediately prepared to take it to the tip, else I run the risk of it all getting wet if it rains and then turning nasty - and not fancying doing it any more

I cut/dispose of it about 4-5x a year. It's about 1 black dustbin liner/trip.

We have brown wheelie bins up here for garden waste and food waste which are emptied fortnightly. They also provide little black kitchen caddies with degradable plastic bag liners for the food and teabags that go in them. On top of the brown bin there's a blue one for plastics, glass and tins, a green one for paper and card and the traditional grey wheelie bin for non recyclable rubbish which are all emptied 4 weekly. My council were the first in the country to go for 4 weekly bin collections. I have email alerts to remind me which ones to put out :rotfl:

PasturesNew

Hollyharvey wrote: »

.... banana ....even though I don't fancy them ...

They are a pain. One thing I do is banana/custard, hot or cold is good.

Then I see you are opening custard later

Hollyharvey wrote: »

I have still got my massive tuna mountain. I estimate that I may have eaten them all by 2020

I thought I had a mountain, so had been eating some ... and am now down to only one tin. The trouble is, I bought some tins on a few occasions, based on picking the cheapest - and I've now discovered there are chunks and flakes.... and I have the flakes left and I've realised I don't like those as they're all watery...

Hollyharvey wrote: »

.... it's food ...

Singles everywhere recognise this concept

Hollyharvey wrote: »

PN the freezer defrosing is in sight now. It won't be too long. Then you can have some different food for a change.

The concept of "food you choose" and "different food" is but a fleeting dream because, as we know, the minute you buy/open something it's then awkward to use up, or monotonous, or doesn't go with what else you've got.

But I can dream

I am definitely going to avoid frozen veggies for awhile. I think tins will be looked at again. ... but they do tend to be so much pricier /100g than frozen.

Stirred the chilli (you have to do that if you're a fiddler and if you just chucked stuff in as you have to check what's happening) ... and then licked the spoon and it's tasting lovely Maybe I'll just make more veggie chillies to use up frozen veggies when bought.

I plan to serve the first portion with spaghetti - as that only takes 3 minutes to cook and a simple dish .... so fastest food with least washing up. WIN!

Anne_Marie_2

I hate the way that fruit and veg is almost always bagged these days, so single people will have trouble using it up. Again with the buy one get one free offers for fruit and veg, absolutely no use for singles. Although I wasn't on my own in Scotland, I had a hard job getting the rest of the family to eat some veggies, although I did disguise them (zapped in the food processor and added so that they were invisible). I always used to shop at a farm shop for food and veg, until Tesco came to town....don't know what the deal was, but the farm shop closed down presumably because Tesco bought their veg and made it a condition, and then Tesco left town a few years later. Farm shop never came back. Grrrr. At least here, I can buy fruit and veg in any quantity that I like, so less waste, other than leafy veg which does go off really quickly. (Hence my sowing a few different leafy veg yesterday, and can hopefully pick as I need in a month or so).

Even although you can buy ready made meals for one, they are not the healthiest option compared to making your own food, too full of additives and generally more salt and sugar than I would like. They do have a place though, and have certainly bought them in the past when I had a busy lifestyle, but not really a choice I'd like on a regular basis.

No recycling at all here, everything goes in the one wheelie bin. I don't have much waste at all, one to two carrier bags per week. Think the bin men must get a shock when I have family staying, as always have a full binload then.

Anything that you want recycled, gets left by the side of the bin, and will usually be gone by the next day. I've left out an old bathroom sink, suitcases without wheels - my days of carrying them are well and truly over, loads of hubbies shoes never worn, a mirror that was no longer needed, amongst a myriad of other stuff that needed to go and was just clutter, but too good to bin.

SunnyGirl

I'm only binning one or two pedal bin liner sized bags a week now that I'm on my own. My darling son obviously made more mess than I thought although I was fully aware of the trail of destruction that followed him around the house haha.

I must check if Aldi and Lidl do loose fruit and veg next time I go as that's where I do most of my shopping. I think that they do but maybe only on certain things?

Hollyharvey

poppystar wrote: »

Holly My fave use for older bananas is as a pancake mix. Mushed up, add egg, add a spoon of flour, mix well and pour into pan. Add a few berries. Cook, turn (do not try flipping - these are substantial beasts and won't ), cook. Easy peasy and protein and one or two of five a day too:)

Yes I've made these in the past. I had forgotten about them though, thanks for reminding me, I will make them for breakfast tomorrow and that means that I can have something more interesting for pudding this evening

caronc

Good afternoon,

Thankfully my Dad has calmed down now he know's that none of his freezer stash will be ruined. :)I'm still vibrating quietly though......;)

Sous vide is heating up and I'm just about to vac pac a mountain of bangers:eek:

Re ready meals during the winter I tend to have stash of HM one's in the freezer but at this time of year when I've less soups and stews on the go I keep a couple of SM ones in the freezer as I get odd days when my balance is so bad that pinging something is about as far as it goes so good to have on hand. I tend to buy mid-range priced ones usually cottage pie or lasagne.

Our council charges a fortune if you want anything that won't fit in a wheelie uplifted though there are no charges for anything you take yourself to the waste centre. It was cheaper to get the company taking my Dad's old fridge/freezer away than getting it uplifted and they will worry about manhandling it out. Recycling and general waste are collected on alternative weeks, garden wheelie every four weeks and food waste weekly. Now I've got the veg garden set back up and my compost bins sorted out I compost peelings etc.and the only food waste I've had in the last month has been some chicken & chop bones, corn cobs and some cooked herbs/lemon slices.

I think dinner tonight will be an easy option of bunging chicken, chopped spud and veg in a tray, sprinkling some seasoning on it and popping in the oven:).

PasturesNew

SunnyGirl wrote: »

I must check if Aldi and Lidl do loose fruit and veg next time I go as that's where I do most of my shopping. I think that they do but maybe only on certain things?

While these two are my main shops .... I've no idea

From memory - which is vague - bananas are loose ... er, now I'm stuck.

I've been using frozen veg in the main as it seemed so convenient ... but, having bought veg-selection-overload for Xmas I've now decided I need to rethink how/what/why I buy things.

On the plus side.... all those frozen veggies turned out to be a very passable chilli Eaten one lot, not sure how many further portions there are, probably 3 more bigguns. My SC is 3.5 litres, the fill level was about 2/3rds to 3/4 of the way up the side, so we could guesstimate I made 2.5 litres of it....

SunnyGirl

PN My memory went when I tried to visualise the Aldi/Lidl fruit and veg sections too. Rather than buying big bags (they're usually a minimum 500g I think?) of frozen veg maybe try buying individual fruits or veg every few days? It may stop boredom and repetition? Chili sounds gorgeous by the way!

Poppystar I'm definitely going to try that pancake recipe it sounds lovely! Have just finished 6 bananas that I bought but will buy some just to make the pancakes :T

PasturesNew

SunnyGirl wrote: »

Rather than buying big bags (they're usually a minimum 500g I think?) of frozen veg maybe try buying individual fruits or veg every few days?

I buy 1Kg bags, at £1/bag. The smaller bags, more varied things, interesting stuff... is pricier.

I've little/no access to individual fruits/veg (unless L1dl/4ldi do them) -- and at a price that's affordable when compared to frozen veg -- and things I like/eat. I don't eat a lot of "modern foods" or other "oddities" and some I just don't like. e.g. I don't like/eat mushrooms, sweetcorn on the cob, aubergine, celery, butternut squash ... by the time you've crossed off the list what's expensive and what I don't like/eat there's very little left

There is a weekly market, with a small fruit/veg stall, but I've seen his prices and I think he's targetting the sort of people that shop at M&S and Waitrose ... which isn't me.