Cooking for one

Fusspot

Can I join in please? I just can't get organised with my eating, I live alone and work full time. I've tried batch cooking after living off purely ready meals for ages then I got fed up with that, I've tried having Birds Eye frozen food (ie chicken grills) along with steamed veg as a sort of compromise but then I feel I'm still eating processed food. Is there a happy medium?

When I freeze stuff I end up forgetting to thaw it out, hence having nothing for tea when I get home. I guess that's the cook from frozen food is appealing, nothing goes to waste then.

How do you build up a routine and stick with it? I just want to eat healthily but without depriving myself. I'm not a lover of salads either. I also find when I buy fresh veg and salad stuff it goes to waste as I don't use it all it one serving and then it goes off.

Any help appreciated.

Hollyharvey

Fusspot wrote: »

Can I join in please?

Hello, welcome Fusspot :hello:


I don't think that there is any tried and tested way to CFO, we all seem to do it differently, in part depending on the type of food that we like/eat and how much we want to spend on food.


If you have fresh veg that it doesn't look like you are going to use you can always freeze it.


It may be worth giving some thought to trying batch cooking again. I do this and then quite often take something from the freezer and re-heat it in the microwave from frozen. Then you needn't decide what you are going to have until you get in from work, you can just select whatever you fancy.


Most of us tend to end up with things that need using up, and having to plan around this, often meaning that we have something for dinner that we don't really fancy.

moneyistooshorttomention

caronc wrote: »

MTSTM - have you tried "Welshman's Caviar"? Despite the name it's seaweed and very tasty. My son brought me some at Easter (he lives in Cardiff) and we had a sprinkle on salmon last night:D Re the slippers I'd email them. Slippers again but a few years ago I bought leather M&S slippers in the end of summer sale and put them away as a Christmas present for my Dad. After a few wears the stitching split. I got a full refund with no quibble. If you can take them to a store they should be able to tell from the sole/inside that they have hardly been worn.

I'm not overly keen on raw fish though can manage a wee bit as long as it isn't tuna. I do love cured fish though especially salmon and mackeral

I bought myself a pot of that "Welsh Caviar" recently and it's sitting on my shelves - whilst I'm summoning up my nerve to try it:rotfl:. Whoops! Did the tourist thing there didnt I - buying that? My excuse is I wanted the jar actually - so I figured I'd be getting something for my money even if I didnt like it.

I think that might be an idea re emailing M & S. I have an idea that I tried to look up their email address for something else (cant recall what) before and couldnt find out - ie they dont give it out to the public:eek:. I'll have another look and see....

Fusspot

Hollyharvey wrote: »

Hello, welcome Fusspot :hello:


I don't think that there is any tried and tested way to CFO, we all seem to do it differently, in part depending on the type of food that we like/eat and how much we want to spend on food.


If you have fresh veg that it doesn't look like you are going to use you can always freeze it.


It may be worth giving some thought to trying batch cooking again. I do this and then quite often take something from the freezer and re-heat it in the microwave from frozen. Then you needn't decide what you are going to have until you get in from work, you can just select whatever you fancy.


Most of us tend to end up with things that need using up, and having to plan around this, often meaning that we have something for dinner that we don't really fancy.

Thanks for this. I always thought you had to thaw the food out before you reheat it, especially chicken. Actually I am paranoid about reheating cooked chicken, I know it must be OK as other people do it but its just a fear I have so I tend to avoid freezing chicken and that's when I turn to the Birds Eye fillets as my main diet is chicken, along with pasta and fish. What kind of meals do you batch cook?

moneyistooshorttomention

Fusspot wrote: »

How do you build up a routine and stick with it? I just want to eat healthily but without depriving myself. I'm not a lover of salads either. I also find when I buy fresh veg and salad stuff it goes to waste as I don't use it all it one serving and then it goes off.

Any help appreciated.

I think many of us struggle with building up a routine.

But one thought to throw into the mix is the currently fashionable idea of devoting time on a Sunday each week to pre-preparing a load of stuff for the next week. That way - one gets time on what tends to be a quiet day of the week for many people. I confess I'm still working on getting my act together personally on that one - though Welsh Sundays over here in this area are very quiet imo - so I really must crack on with things like that personally:o.

One thing I am getting into is the idea of growing what food I can in the garden - and that helps, to some extent, with thinking about it - as I can reckon on just going out into the garden and seeing what's growing. Gradually working my way into that one. Don't know if you have any outdoor space you can at least chuck a few seeds in (or lazy persons method - buy a tray of "living lettuce" and separate out all those little plug plants and plant them out)?

Fusspot

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I think many of us struggle with building up a routine.

But one thought to throw into the mix is the currently fashionable idea of devoting time on a Sunday each week to pre-preparing a load of stuff for the next week. That way - one gets time on what tends to be a quiet day of the week for many people. I confess I'm still working on getting my act together personally on that one - though Welsh Sundays over here in this area are very quiet imo - so I really must crack on with things like that personally:o.

One thing I am getting into is the idea of growing what food I can in the garden - and that helps, to some extent, with thinking about it - as I can reckon on just going out into the garden and seeing what's growing. Gradually working my way into that one. Don't know if you have any outdoor space you can at least chuck a few seeds in (or lazy persons method - buy a tray of "living lettuce" and separate out all those little plug plants and plant them out)?

Thanks for the tip but I don't have a garden, I live in a flat. I also go out on Sundays but I could batch cook when I get home or even do it during the evenings when I get home from work, its just keeping up with it I have a problem with.

Hollyharvey

Fusspot wrote: »

Thanks for this. I always thought you had to thaw the food out before you reheat it, especially chicken. Actually I am paranoid about reheating cooked chicken, I know it must be OK as other people do it but its just a fear I have so I tend to avoid freezing chicken and that's when I turn to the Birds Eye fillets as my main diet is chicken, along with pasta and fish. What kind of meals do you batch cook?

I make things like beef/turkey/chicken goulash, beef bourguignon, coq au vin, chicken/beef/lamb/turkey stews/casseroles, the meat part of spag bol.


I eat a lot of fish, and quite often take that from the freezer and cook from frozen. Or I will sometimes defrost salmon in the microwave and then grill it.


As you eat mostly chicken, if you had some chicken breasts in the freezer you could always take one out the night before and defrost it in the freezer so it was ready to cook when you got in from work. You could even prepare the veg the night before as well.
Of go back to the slow cooker option.


If you are worried about re-heating chicken you could get a small slow cooker and just do enough for one meal. I used to do that when I was working, although I do admit it was more in the winter when I fancied stews and casseroles more than this time of the year. It's really nice to walk into the house to the smell of a nicely cooked meal waiting for you.

PasturesNew

Fusspot wrote: »

Thanks for this. I always thought you had to thaw the food out before you reheat it, especially chicken. Actually I am paranoid about reheating cooked chicken, I know it must be OK as other people do it but its just a fear I have so I tend to avoid freezing chicken and that's when I turn to the Birds Eye fillets as my main diet is chicken, along with pasta and fish. What kind of meals do you batch cook?

Think about food that's sold frozen - you can start with something from the freezer and nuke it hot and eat it. Manufacturers do it.

Re chicken, it's all about how quickly you froze it from when you cooked it. "Get it cooked/cooled and in the freezer in 1 hour" is my rule of thumb. Then make sure it's piping hot when you reheat it.

If you have a fear though, you have a fear ... I battle with 1000s of those

The main issue, with most of us, appears to be that planning ahead's not easy because when it gets to a meal time it's about "what we fancy". You can have all the ideas in the world in your head in the morning, or the night before, but come the moment when it's time to eat ... you might not fancy that any more

I think oneskies will tend to end up grazing, rather than having X number of "meals" per day.... we've food ... and we dip into it.

Then there's that thing where we're never "choosing" our food, we're perpetually using up what's needed to be used up.

We're all different really ... and you need to work out what works for you. A lot of us like crumpets though You can never lose by having crumpets in the freezer. They're a meal

PasturesNew

I CBA to cook a breakfast this morning - so it's been honey nut cornflakes

Anne_Marie_2

Breakfast was really early around 5 a.m. 1 egg cheese omelette with toast and coffee. Made a pleasant change from the past few days and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Absolutely no idea for the rest of the day, although have taken out portion of tomato, red pepper and lentil soup from the freezer, so that will be lunch or dinner.
Still trying to clear a bit of space in the freezer for meat things when the family come, hard when I've been eating mainly salad. Must make an effort over the next few days. I can see me binning an almost full bag of brussels, as can't think of anything to do with them, and doubt I will want any until winter time again.

Lovely breeze again today. Got quite excited walking the dog at stupid o'clock to see clouds in the sky...all gone now, not a single one, and a haze over the mountains.

Bought some new clear containers for the fridge last week, which I finally got round to sorting, when I was up in the middle of the night. I had all the jars on a couple of trays, but a bit heavy sliding in and out, so now 4 containers which fit all on one shelf, much easier to manoeuvre, and easier to locate individual jars.

Fusspot - I too, would also defrost chicken thoroughly, whether raw or cooked before cooking/reheating. Better defrosting in the fridge, which will take longer, if the weather is a bit on the warm side. Different with some of the chicken products you can buy, which are designed to be cooked from frozen. Being veggie, I'm a bit paranoid about meat things when cooking for others, in case I poison anyone!

I'm not really a grazer, but admit to eating meals at odd times, depending on my stupid sleeping pattern, which can be all over the place. Find myself eating my last meal later just now, always the same in the summer, as it's too hot to eat, so generally after the sun goes down.