Cooking for one (Mark Two)

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I agree, but that's not what I did
Hindsight's best - and I spotted a particular plastic click/lock box and thought "that's perfect" .... as I just wanted it to be "over and done with".


There are other ways. If they're the tiny ones, then you just reheat for about 3 minutes in the oven .... so if you think about that, you realise they don't need much.

Solutions can involve: Just pop it, wrapped in foil, on a radiator if on (from now until dinner time, so for 1+ hours) ... or on a sunny windowsill. Or, oven-based toaster type depending, just blast it under the toaster element for 2-3 minutes. Or ... chuck it in a dry frying pan. Or ... let it sit and defrost, then blast it with a kitchen blow torch from a distance.

You have to think outside the box when you're CFO... think about what the cooking process is and what it's achieving. A ready cooked one needs to: become defrosted + warm up a bit.

Cheers - so many ideas. I only like YPs if they are baked really crispy:).

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

Cheers - so many ideas. I only like YPs if they are baked really crispy:).

Ah, I'm not really one for crispy. But you have to move to Phase II thinking here.

What are the options: have it, or have nothing; bin it.

So, you have a chance of eating one, or not ... better eaten than not....

You have to accept that any cooking method will probably produce a slightly different outcome to "what you perceive to be the ideal", but you might end up discovering that something DOES work and produces something identical (in your eyes), or "close enough" - or, "close enough bearing in mind the alternative is to go without".

As you're thinking of binning them .... it's worth a punt.

And it's not like it's "Special, e.g. Xmas Day".

Another alternative, if you have one, is one of those "Foreman Grills" - leave the lid up and toss it on, turn it over 3-4x ...

It all depends on how much you want it - and what equipment you've got/got handy/are prepared to dig out of the back of the cupboard JUST ... for one tiny Yorkie.

[Deleted User]

I zapped it :j my nasty cold with so much danger of very nasty secondary infections. bad at my age. Use of various herbals, extra night bedroom humidity for a few hours and saline nasal washes. I was able to breathe through my nose all night and am feeling so much better but still cautious wrt doing too much. Have dusted my bedroom and put my bedding on to wash, rest of the day will be at leisure, while my body does the rest of the healing

Pretty normal food today but nothing much that needs a lot of digesting before assimilation. Spelt cereal and dried raspberries with almond milk first. Large tea with non homogenised whole milk. Now, a couple of hours later, hot water, carry on with some herbals, spelt toast and some hard goats cheese, protein for my hair plus for invisible cell building which is even more important when older. Berry medley out and de-frosting with pecans and pistacheos, will be adding half a natural yoghurt, an in between meal snack.

Lunchtime the smooth, full of goodness, soup and one strip of 85% chocolate for the minerals and to ensure no cravings. Teatime at 5, will need to make soup, a simple one, just carrot, tomato, red onion and a few lentils, fully smoothed in my vitamix. No cinnamon bun today but mid afternoon I will have a baked apple with soya cream. I don`t get any food cravings after my last meal, my body is trained.

I used to get awful choc cravings in the evening and dh and me would have crunchies every evening, no wonder my stomach rebelled and I started to get gerd. Same with alcohol. I very seldom drink now, maybe 25ml of gin in a GnT once a month or less. Reminds me, I still have hm beautiful white wine to tip down the sink, been doing a bottle at a time as it is painful as I made it for dh, not giving it away

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

Ah, I'm not really one for crispy. But you have to move to Phase II thinking here.

What are the options: have it, or have nothing; bin it.

So, you have a chance of eating one, or not ... better eaten than not....

You have to accept that any cooking method will probably produce a slightly different outcome to "what you perceive to be the ideal", but you might end up discovering that something DOES work and produces something identical (in your eyes), or "close enough" - or, "close enough bearing in mind the alternative is to go without".

As you're thinking of binning them .... it's worth a punt.

And it's not like it's "Special, e.g. Xmas Day".

Another alternative, if you have one, is one of those "Foreman Grills" - leave the lid up and toss it on, turn it over 3-4x ...

It all depends on how much you want it - and what equipment you've got/got handy/are prepared to dig out of the back of the cupboard JUST ... for one tiny Yorkie.

:rotfl::rotfl:I think my "thinking out of the box" is heading towards recycling, I'm sure the birdies will enjoy them, everything else just feels like a lot of effort for a Yorkie:rotfl::rotfl:As the pack pre-dates my son moving out in summer 2016, I think I can honestly say they are not something I crave that often;). I do like the big ones filled, but again I can't think the last time I wanted that so much I made or bought one.

Kittie - glad you are over the lurgy . Seems a shame to waste the wine, would family or friends not take it and enjoy it?

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm also thinking it seems a shame to waste the wine Kittie. I can understand pouring the balance of a bottle of wine down the sink - ie as no-one would take that as a gift and its one way to prevent oneself drinking more of the bottle than you'd planned on doing.

But it does seem a shame to chuck away unopened bottles.

With anything (food or otherwise) that I plan on getting rid of I do tend to ask myself first whether it's good enough that someone else would find a use for it. Hence a noticeable amount of surplus fruit from my garden just gets "unloaded" on nearest reasonable neighbour when I'm on my way into town - and I know she looks forward to coming out finding little "surprises" waiting for her on the doorstep.

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

I do like the big ones filled, but again I can't think the last time I wanted that so much I made or bought one.

With me it's like everything else - I go through phases of eating lots, then eating none. I'm quite happy to buy them, but they are a major headache to store in a small freezer and even sourcing frozen giants can need to be a deliberate/planned event.

This is yesterday's. I deliberately made it "low rise" because when they grow huge they make the food look paltry. To make them low rise I just open the oven door a couple of times and "poke" it back. I guess people who would love their Yorkies to rise would recoil in horror that I get fed up with that as they grow SO large every time they become unwieldy!

Sunday Lunch: https://s1.postimg.org/7cxzjjt19b/GYorkie2.jpg

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Need2bthrifty

PasturesNew wrote: »

There are other ways. If they're the tiny ones, then you just reheat for about 3 minutes in the oven .... so if you think about that, you realise they don't need much.

Solutions can involve: Just pop it, wrapped in foil, on a radiator if on (from now until dinner time, so for 1+ hours) ... or on a sunny windowsill. Or, oven-based toaster type depending, just blast it under the toaster element for 2-3 minutes. Or ... chuck it in a dry frying pan. Or ... let it sit and defrost, then blast it with a kitchen blow torch from a distance. If you've any form of "tea light" cooking things, such as a small fondue, or even a plate warmer, just defrost it and use that to warm it up for 5-10 minutes... or pop a tea light in a teacup and suspend it over that (watching it!) by some method ... e.g. forking it and then balancing it over .... WATCH IT THOUGH!

You have to think outside the box when you're CFO... think about what the cooking process is and what it's achieving. A ready cooked one needs to: become defrosted + warm up a bit.

I've done it loads of ways over the years.... I should write that up in my blog for others so they can benefit from my "weird thinking" about tiny food prep.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Ah, I'm not really one for crispy. But you have to move to Phase II thinking here.

What are the options: have it, or have nothing; bin it.

So, you have a chance of eating one, or not ... better eaten than not....

You have to accept that any cooking method will probably produce a slightly different outcome to "what you perceive to be the ideal", but you might end up discovering that something DOES work and produces something identical (in your eyes), or "close enough" - or, "close enough bearing in mind the alternative is to go without".

As you're thinking of binning them .... it's worth a punt.

And it's not like it's "Special, e.g. Xmas Day".

Another alternative, if you have one, is one of those "Foreman Grills" - leave the lid up and toss it on, turn it over 3-4x ...

It all depends on how much you want it - and what equipment you've got/got handy/are prepared to dig out of the back of the cupboard JUST ... for one tiny Yorkie.

:rotfl: :rotfl: PN I love your ingenuity

caronc wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl:I think my "thinking out of the box" is heading towards recycling, I'm sure the birdies will enjoy them, everything else just feels like a lot of effort for a Yorkie:rotfl::rotfl:As the pack pre-dates my son moving out in summer 2016, I think I can honestly say they are not something I crave that often;). I do like the big ones filled, but again I can't think the last time I wanted that so much I made or bought one

Give them to the birds - its cold enough, they need a treat

[Deleted User]

I only had one bottle of white left, so put it back in case called for in a recipe. The one dd I would have given it to, she and her dh already drink enough, I am not adding to that, it is a slippery slope of poison albeit delicious. I have 10 bottles of gorgeous hm elderberry, which will be fine maturing, in fact tastes best matured. Perfect for a christmas present to a few. Thought I had more white but have already done the deed

I have added a large organic and expensive bakewell cake to my order for this week, all organic and only the ingredients I would use myself. CBA making a cake so will happily cut this up to freeze. I am being very good re portions these days. I have a treat as a treat and that is that, it isn`t to fill an empty stomach

Thats it for the day now, only sitting or pottering indoors

Need2bthrifty

Morning All,

Very cold here too, car windscreen frosted over but at least the suns out, hopefully I'll get out and get some more gardening done - maybe wait a bit until the sun moves round though.

Had my porridge, cinnamon & raisin stewed apples, defrosted some Broth for lunch and I'll have some toast with it. Tea-time its Bean Casserole, sweet potato mash and green beans.

Time for another cup of coffee though - not that I'm putting off doing some work :whistle:

Wednesday2000

I had bran flakes with sliced banana and almond milk and a cup of green tea with fresh lemon.

I fancy having a chickpea salad for lunch, chickpeas, cherry toms, cucumber, red and yellow peppers, herbs, salt and black pepper and a spoonful of vegan mayo. I meant to buy apple cider vinegar as that gives it a nice tang.

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Will try out scrambled tofu for first time for dinner tonight.

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

2. Tofu scramble. First time I've done that - though been meaning to for ages. Did a version with onion/tomato/mushroom/spinach/nutritional yeast. Note to self to add bigger pinch of tumeric for colour - but will do that again. At least something worked out food-wise today.

Tofu scramble is one of my favourites. I like it on toast, like scrambled eggs.:)