Cooking for one

caronc

karcher wrote: »

Morning all.

Caronc..I wasn't up all night I just woke up at stupidly early o'clock (yet again) soaked in sweat after some disturbing dreams and couldn't get back to sleep. Need to change my bedding when I CBA.

I burnt my pizza last night too ..I got side tracked watching something on telly. Was really annoyed with myself.

No idea what I'm having for dinner tonight yet, I'm of the PN school of thought, and decide just before I plan to eat.

I've just made a coffee and the bar of chocolate I bought yesterday was staring at me when I opened the fridge to get the milk...I've resisted...so far......;)

Och that's not so good you must be shattered today I can relate to getting side-tracked I have one of these wee kitchen timers which is great if I remember to press the button before toddling off to do something else

caronc

Well I had a lovely bacon butty and a nap so it's time to boldly go...........
I've decided I'm going to sort out my smaller freezer (it's still fairly large half of an American style fridge/freezer) and get what's in it listed like I have done with my other freezer. I'm going to be ruthless and ditch anything that is a) unidentifiable, b) more than 2 years old (I hoping there isn't anything but can't be sure:o) or c) that I'm not ralistically going to use up. I may be gone some time...............................

Nelski

caronc wrote: »

Well I had a lovely bacon butty and a nap so it's time to boldly go...........
I've decided I'm going to sort out my smaller freezer (it's still fairly large half of an American style fridge/freezer) and get what's in it listed like I have done with my other freezer. I'm going to be ruthless and ditch anything that is a) unidentifiable, b) more than 2 years old (I hoping there isn't anything but can't be sure:o) or c) that I'm not ralistically going to use up. I may be gone some time...............................

lol good luck ......its a hideous job but well worthwhile doing

I would keep the unidentifiable though ....it provides for an entertaining surprise dinner sometimes. I have a few in my freezer that I can safely say I have no idea of the contents but hey ho ...freezer surprise for dinner then :rotfl:

Tiddlywinks

caronc wrote: »

I've decided I'm going to sort out my smaller freezer (it's still fairly large half of an American style fridge/freezer) and get what's in it listed like I have done with my other freezer. I'm going to be ruthless ...................

I've done this recently with my food cupboards and freezer.

There was always an item or two (or three....) that I skimmed passed when looking for something to give me inspiration. So, when I did my spring clean I decided that, as I hadn't chosen to use the bits in months, then why bother keeping them?

Butter beans? Bought because people kept saying they were great fillers etc - they went as I had them sitting there for nearly a year. Yeast flakes - gone - great for vitamin B12 but never got around to using them often enough even after trying so hard. Silken tofu - seemed great in theory but could never be bothered...... I'll just live and learn and move on .

Cooking and eating shouldn't really be so much of a chore that you have to force yourself to eat the stuff you just don't fancy (and have been bypassing for months).

caronc

Nelski wrote: »

lol good luck ......its a hideous job but well worthwhile doing

I would keep the unidentifiable though ....it provides for an entertaining surprise dinner sometimes. I have a few in my freezer that I can safely say I have no idea of the contents but hey ho ...freezer surprise for dinner then :rotfl:

Yes good old UFOs my best one for that was mistaking lentil soup for chicken curry. I'd been industrious and made naan and dips and bought pakora we were good to go ....... We still ate it but it wasn't quite the same

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

I've done this recently with my food cupboards and freezer.

There was always an item or two (or three....) that I skimmed passed when looking for something to give me inspiration. So, when I did my spring clean I decided that, as I hadn't chosen to use the bits in months, then why bother keeping them?

Butter beans? Bought because people kept saying they were great fillers etc - they went as I had them sitting there for nearly a year. Yeast flakes - gone - great for vitamin B12 but never got around to using them often enough even after trying so hard. Silken tofu - seemed great in theory but could never be bothered...... I'll just live and learn and move on .

Cooking and eating shouldn't really be so much of a chore that you have to force yourself to eat the stuff you just don't fancy (and have been bypassing for months).

Yes I did that with my cupboards last year found some weird and wonderful things some so old that I think, I'm really embarassed to admit, that I might have brought them with me from from my last house. I've lived in this house for 25 years :eek::o:o
Anyway I've finished my cuppa and I'm just off to look out my thermal gloves and an A4 notebook

Nelski

caronc wrote: »

Yes good old UFOs my best one for that was mistaking lentil soup for chicken curry. I'd been industrious and made naan and dips and bought pakora we were good to go ....... We still ate it but it wasn't quite the same

I have a worst one ......thought it was beef in red wine .....it was frozen berries ......beans on toast that night lol

monnagran

Oh yes, freezer roulette is always entertaining.

My worst was taking an Apple pie out of the freezer when we had some visitors that, for some unexplained reason, I was anxious to impress.
I put it on the table with a jug of custard and one of cream.
It turned out to be chicken and ham pie.

I think they were impressed.

I am much better at labelling these days.

x

Tiddlywinks

When I was a girl our local market had a stall selling big boxes of tinned goods that had lost their labels.

My uncle was pretty good at telling the contents just by shaking them but sometimes suffered an epic fail and ended up with rice pudding instead of baked beans or tuna instead of pineapple .

karcher

My freezer isn't big enough to store HM portions of food for long, so I tend to know what everything is!!!

Tiddlywinks...I'm currently having a should I just chuck it out dilemma, but the skint person in me is telling me no, it's a waste.

The item in question is half a pack of filo pastry sheets (bought by mistake instead of puff pastry)...didn't cost a huge amount but still!

I'm not that keen on filo pastry but persevered and used half to make some spinach and goats cheese filo parcels. They were nice but filo pastry does always seem a chore to eat.

So what to do with the other half that is languishing in fridge. I feel i should make another savoury parcel type concoction...but the thought leaves me rather flat and uninspired

Anne_Marie_2

I try really hard to label things going in now, due to finding out that something is completely different to what I thought it was. I came across a roll of thin small bags lurking in the drawer, so been using them for one portion meals and sticking the portions into a larger ziplock bag which I label. It's working out well so far, and I can reuse the ziplock bag. Once I've run out of labels, thought I'd just write on a piece of paper/card and stick it inside the ziplock.

Hope that you managed to get your freezer sorted out Caronc.

Thanks for the link re shortbread PN.

Chicken and ham pie with custard sounds delightful Monnagran...love it.

Tiddlywinks, you shouldn't have thrown those butter beans out, they are great in soup. Vaguely remember them being a side vegetable (but not by Mum) when I was a kid, could have been school dinners, anyway hated the things, and never bought them. Mum gave me a plate of soup a few years back which had them in, and it was delicious, so I now occasionally buy them just for that.
Know what you mean though about stuff that you keep passing over in the cupboards though, been there. Think that I am okay now, as only buying for me, but if I've bought anything new to try that I don't like, I offer it to friends/neighbours, if they don't want it, it goes in the bin. Similar with the freebies that I get when doing my shopping, which is when I can accumulate some random items, which is how I found out that packet soups are so loaded with salt, they are awful. A neighbour used them.

Caronc, I can't really get on with meal planning in advance, just never fancy what I've written down for that day at the time. Best I can do is decide what I'm having on the day, and sometimes I haven't decided until I go into the kitchen and see what's there, before making a decision.
I've taken things out of the freezer in the morning to have that night, then changed my mind, and had it the next day.
Suppose it's the luxury of knowing that I can, as I had to plan in advance for years around different meals for me, hubby and daughter and working shifts.