Cooking for one (Mark Two)

[Deleted User]

money, just freeze them. I am down to the last few to ripen on the plants, I pop the ripe ones from the bowl into small pastic bags and into the freezer. Small tomatoes are much quicker to ripen and salvage

Rainy all day, so a good day for a bit of this n that ie sorting in a gentle way. Just did one freezer drawer, all labelled btw, meat and fish in this one and I only have two small pieces of fish, will order some more later. All the turkey giblets came out and are thawing for stock, which is ready to make when thawed. Will freeze that in small portions for soups and gravies

nice breakie of boiled eggs and sd toast. I am in process of emptying the cake/bread drawer, will add a puddings label to that as I keep baked apples and now small apple crumbles. Don`t need it for cakes and bread any more, since I have the bm. I`ll just keep minimal bread in there for cba days

lunch will be salad with 1/3 can borlotti beans, baked apple and chocolate. Later mixed home grown veg in a bowl with frozen parmesan on top and a sugarless scone

money I just read the posts going back a couple of pages. Chin up and you too hollyharvey, yes much empathy here holly, can be a lonely life when the mood is lower than normal. Just think of all the family unhappiness behind closed doors, at least there is none of that for us singles

PasturesNew

It's raining and I have no exciting food.

I've got food that could be exciting, if only I had the additional things to go with it that'd make it exciting.

I've got food I CBA cooking that's great food.

But, combine CBA and disinterest with what I've got and it's "meh".

Spuds really need using up, so that kind of hints at mash.
I've some random spare beans in a pot in the fridge, probably need using before they go green.

I COULD ... make a shepherd's pie. I bought the mince for that about 2 months ago, so that's what I SHOULD be doing .... nice and easy too. Except you still need to actually stand up and shuffle to the kitchen to do it ... so the idea's a nice one, but it's not motivating me yet.

In a household where it's not "just you" - there are other people for motivation. People demanding their dinner; people reminding you of what to cook; people you promised XYZ to and have bought in what's needed; people requesting stuff, their favourite meal; eager little "feed me" faces excitedly looking forward to being fed - and proper dinner times to work towards. Alone, there's nothing except a big void with food ideas swimming round aimlessly and without any timescale or urgency.

[Deleted User]

PasturesNew wrote: »

In a household where it's not "just you" - there are other people for motivation. People demanding their dinner; people reminding you of what to cook; people you promised XYZ to and have bought in what's needed; people requesting stuff, their favourite meal; eager little "feed me" faces excitedly looking forward to being fed - and proper dinner times to work towards. Alone, there's nothing except a big void with food ideas swimming round aimlessly and without any timescale or urgency.

yes to all that but I don`t like to think about it, could be depressing and its bad enough with the rain, anyway I have my small bit of chocolate to highlight my day :cool: then maybe a film of my choosing

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Have come to the conclusion that you're the one on this thread that does nearest-to-gourmet eating we have on here - so its quite apt.:)

Don't know about gourmet, I aim for tasty and like to experiment:)

It's a horrible cold, wet, grey day here so I think an afternoon of general pottering is on the cards. I've visitors tomorrow afternoon so might make a wee batch of shortbread, though I'll need to check I have enough butter and my floors could do with a sweep and mop.

I have both steak and mushroom sauce LO from last night so I think it will be converted into a sort of stroganoff with either noodles or rice. Bacon and eggs for lunch and maybe a cheeky tattie scone:D

moneyistooshorttomention

Fresh fruit salad with Oatly "cream"/pine nuts and chia seeds downed. About to head for toast with nut butter. Ironic - as I'm currently reading my new cookbook and marking up what I think worth trying (though I've had to dump a few recipes that contain sugar for instance) - but a lot of them are worth trying.

Dinner - well...I've got a sweet potato flatbread/some roasted cauliflower and a lot of tomatoes to hand. I can see a bit of tahini sauce sounding a good idea with that.

Don't have to think about tomorrow's main meal - as I'm heading off to Bigger Town on errands - so have established a place there that I can get a reasonable meal for myself. Thinks....I wonder how up-to-date chain pubs menus are these days....guess it's worth a look in case they have updated recently. Bigger Town it might be - but there's nowhere much to eat imo:cool:

Still - if I do go back soon for another Home Visit - then I've got another list-as-long-as-my-arm of new places I've not yet eaten at to try....

Farway

Rainy here as well, got up late and rain was just starting and because there was nothing I "needed" to buy I have pottered and did "stuff" on the PC, after a late breakfast of crumpet & marmalade

Caronc, I bought some of the Morries violas last week, and some of the offer pansies, planted the pansies yesterday while the sun was still out,now being rained in nicely

PN, summed up CFO very well I thought. So often the motivation is just in the CBA file

Lunch was same as normal for me, cheeses salady sarnie, that was 3 of the 3 we are required to scoff nowadays

Dinner is a real cooking jobbie, and this weather is just right for it. Nuked ready to go lamb shank in a bag, with steamed fresh veggies and I think some new spuds, maybe a sprig or two of HG mint in with the spuds. The lamb is already minted in it's bag so mint sauce not required

Hollyharvey

I've just finished making a moussaka for dinner tonight. The lamb mince portion was larger than I had realised so there are now 4 portions of moussaka. It is something that I really like though so don't have a problem with having 3 for the freezer, apart from the space taken up like usual. I'm going to have that with some garlic bread and salad.

I think that most of the meat in the freezer now is two portion amounts so that will be ok when making meals. I won't end up with too much going into the freezer.

PasturesNew

Hollyharvey wrote: »

I've just finished making a moussaka for dinner tonight. The lamb mince portion was larger than I had realised so there are now 4 portions of moussaka. It is something that I really like though so don't have a problem with having 3 for the freezer, apart from the space taken up like usual. I'm going to have that with some garlic bread and salad.

I think that most of the meat in the freezer now is two portion amounts so that will be ok when making meals. I won't end up with too much going into the freezer.

I should do that with that mince. That's been on the "must get round to it" list for the last 20+ years though and still not got round to it.

I despise aubergines though, preferring to use potato slices instead.

I suddenly remembered I'd randomly bought a 75p meal frozen dinner at 4ldi. One of those "in case you CBA, might as well have one of those in to try" moments.....

5+2 mins, ping, scoff.

75p but I'd not queue at the shop's doors to get another!

It was hot; it was edible; it was food.... it was "meh".

PEEing down here this morning, still raining/been raining all the time. Cold, breezy, unwelcoming, mid-winter style.

FABULOUS!!!! That means TWO things:
- no feeling that I should go out somewhere, so no guilt.
- no neighbours' brats being irritating

moneyistooshorttomention

PasturesNew wrote: »

PEEing down here this morning, still raining/been raining all the time. Cold, breezy, unwelcoming, mid-winter style.

FABULOUS!!!! That means TWO things:
- no feeling that I should go out somewhere, so no guilt.
- no neighbours' brats being irritating

I think that's, very literally, finding "the silver lining to the cloud":rotfl:

candygirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

I should do that with that mince. That's been on the "must get round to it" list for the last 20+ years though and still not got round to it.

I despise aubergines though, preferring to use potato slices instead.

I suddenly remembered I'd randomly bought a 75p meal frozen dinner at 4ldi. One of those "in case you CBA, might as well have one of those in to try" moments.....

5+2 mins, ping, scoff.

75p but I'd not queue at the shop's doors to get another!

It was hot; it was edible; it was food.... it was "meh".

PEEing down here this morning, still raining/been raining all the time. Cold, breezy, unwelcoming, mid-winter style.

FABULOUS!!!! That means TWO things:
- no feeling that I should go out somewhere, so no guilt.
- no neighbours' brats being irritating

Good job you don't live next to me, my fur brats have been playing out in the rain , even with the door open :rotfl: