Cooking for one (Mark Two)

Farway

PasturesNew wrote: »

I can't remember who also likes Sainsbobs low fat / low sugar beans, but they've gone down in price again. Now just £1 for a 4 pack!

They peaked at £1.25, last time I went/mentioned it they were £1.15.

By God it's pricey in there.... got my two packs and then shuffled round to see what they sell - and it's all higher priced, higher aspirational lifestyle products. Even the YS is expensive things, with just 30p knocked off.

Remember they now have an Argos to support

The Wisley walking went very well, poured down near the end but luckily in the Alpine houses at the time. Loved the CB salad rolls I made, but s)ds law, this time there were loads of things I could have eaten unlike last visit. Oh well, money saved

Dinner was easy cooking, breaded cod fillet, oven chips, both on same tray in the oven for same time. Plus nuked frozen peas. Feeling full now but may manage a digestive later

caronc

poppystar wrote: »

The joy of CFO is that no-one sees the end product.

I have been attempting sugar free muffins to reduce not just the sugar but the temptation to splurge on buying muffins when out. Think it was kittiethat inspired me with the sugar free scones:)

Well the first batch were a little more like sugar free fairy cakes and todays were more like sugar free rock cakes.:(

But it is just me. I know the ingredients were good. So I shall still happily tuck into them

The next batch might hopefully be the ones that actually resemble muffins:D

It interests me how many of us CFOers bake, while I used to do it regularly when the boys were at home, it's something I only really do now if I'm having visitors though I do make the odd batch of savoury scones if I've cheese needing used up. I've never really tried sugar-free baking though have made muffins for my Dad a few times using Stevia which worked out ok.

Tonight dinner will be one of those where it is just as well there's only me to see the end product;), I'm mixing a small portion of LO spicy chicken/veg mix that is needing used up with some cooked mushrooms and runner beans and having it with some cooked brown rice from the freezer. Suspect it may not look terribly appealing but hopefully will taste good. My runner bean plants seem to be slowing down now (though I've a big bowl picked just needing prepped for the freezer) but some of my broad bean plants are flowering again so I might just get a wee late crop before the winter sets in:).

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've still got half a cabbage, 3 carrots and 1/3rd of a swede I bought 10 days ago, so rather than buying new food .... I need to work out what to cook those with instead.

Soup or coleslaw with grated swede (they used to call grated cabbage, carrot, swede and onion mixed in mayo "winter coleslaw" at my school dinners)?

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

Soup or coleslaw with grated swede (they used to call grated cabbage, carrot, swede and onion mixed in mayo "winter coleslaw" at my school dinners)?

I mostly like an occasional pub lunch soup .... not my own mostly.

I dislike coleslaw after the first spoon full. One spoon's more than enough, it's a tiny side dish ... alongside more interesting things, or to pad out a sandwich

I think the veg mix really needs a fat pie and gravy

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I think the veg mix really needs a fat pie and gravy

Think you're right

poppystar

caronc wrote: »

It interests me how many of us CFOers bake, while I used to do it regularly when the boys were at home, it's something I only really do now if I'm having visitors though I do make the odd batch of savoury scones if I've cheese needing used up. I've never really tried sugar-free baking though have made muffins for my Dad a few times using Stevia which worked out ok.

.

I have to say I had more or less given up but I do enjoy baking more than general cooking so thought I'd get back into it and while a whole cake might seem off-putting I can certainly eats lots of small ones:o So it is probably good that I'm omitting the sugar.

I'm having to adapt recipes and trying to see what works. I did find that when I googled 'sugar free' most recipes used alternatives like Stevia or sweeteners or copious amounts of maple syrup or honey which while less processed still have too high a sugar content for what I'm trying to achieve.

Today I used apple (courtesy of my friend's tree) and coconut to give the taste of sweetness. About to taste the first one with a cuppa am hoping the taste is good:)

Wednesday2000

I took half a leftover chickpea curry from a takeaway out of the freezer today. I'm going to have that along with a HM vegetable curry I'm making as I have loads of garlic, ginger, red onion, cabbage, carrots and broccoli.

I might have it with a mix of rice and quinoa or the curries might be enough on their own!:o:p I will see if it looks like loads when I'm cooking it.

It's hard to tell how much is left in the takeaway cartons you get as they seem to hold a deceptively large amount of food.:D

I ate so badly yesterday that I want to eat lots of healthy veggies today.:)

PasturesNew

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

It's hard to tell how much is left in the takeaway cartons you get as they seem to hold a deceptively large amount of food.

I struggle with portion sizes to freeze. Certainly plastic takeaway boxes are double what I know I should be eating! They are VAST really aren't they.

As a rule of thumb, if I buy one curry and one rice from a takeaway I'll serve myself just over half from each carton... so the leftovers are then always "just a bit small" as a portion....

How large a portion is, too, changes, depending on what you're freezing and what else you'll eat with it. e.g. freezing a soup is one quantity as you'll eat that with a bread roll... whereas freezing a chilli would require a smaller portion as you'd be eating that with a large portion of rice.

It'd take an academic study to nail portions absolutely correctly for one person for all eventualities

But, in the main, the takeaway boxes are no good because you either fill them (so too much food), or half fill them and run out of freezer space.

I now tend to line a marg tub with a cheap plastic freezer bag and pour a portion in, which is up to half the tub. Once frozen I twist the bag round and leave the portion in the tub - if I need more freezer space I can remove the portion from the tub.... or I can remove that frozen portion and reuse the tub to freeze something else and once that's frozen add the first thing back into the tub - so the tub is just a way of holding random bags of frozen stuff.

I have one marg tub in the freezer right now that contains: A golfball size of frozen onions; a golfball size of frozen sweetcorn; a bit of ginger. All small items best kept together and not loose and getting lost/buried.

If I've made, say, a Slow Cooker chilli, I'll have 5-6 tubs lined with a bag and spread out in a row as I spoon the chilli between them to "see how far this goes".
Marg tubs are handy for a lot of things; freely available; stackable when empty. I use them for portioning, or keeping small items together in the freezer, and I even use them when defrosting the freezer. I've got about 6-8 I tend to keep empty in the fridge ready to use.

It's just the small quantities being handled that are the issue .... and when you defrost anything you'll always think "wish I'd made a portion bigger as today I fancy a big portion".... or "blimey, this is too much, but I have to eat it all now"

Wednesday2000

PasturesNew wrote: »

I struggle with portion sizes to freeze. Certainly plastic takeaway boxes are double what I know I should be eating! They are VAST really aren't they.

Yes, it's weird as the containers don't look like they hold a lot of food and then when you empty it onto a plate you can see how much is there!

I have a problem as I always forget to label the boxes as well so I sometimes get a surprise when it defrosts, lol.

PasturesNew

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

I have a problem as I always forget to label the boxes as well so I sometimes get a surprise when it defrosts, lol.

I don't forget, I just don't do it. I've little in the freezer so it's not hard to remember....

It just seems such a faff, with an additional cost too. and with a variety of bags/boxes etc there's no single solution that works for them all unless you set about testing them.

I think, CFO, there's more of a tendency to have tiny things in the freezer. A family wouldn't bother to keep 4-6 frozen brussels in a bag - if they were cooking brussels they'd see just 4-6 left and tip them in to cook with the rest and bin the bag. For CFO, 4-6 brussels is an entirely new/different meal portion.