Cooking for one (Mark Two)

moneyistooshorttomention

Hmmm....that could be a possibility caron - re the soup. I know there was some time where I never put very much of any "flavourings" into my food and that was basically as an economy measure (as I figured I was spending money for food that didnt have any calories in it). Since then - I've learnt what a difference some judicious flavouring can make and that various different "flavourings" have got nutritional benefits (eg tumeric, cinnamon, etc).

I do have quite a few tomatoes in at the moment and some carrots - I'll think on re that. Maybe a bit of curry paste with it. It could be a plan. I have been thinking I need to experiment a bit with thicker/more stew-like soups. Maybe a dollop of hummus on top of it. That's got me thinking...

Don't know whether I'll bother to buy barley again or no. I don't tend to find much use for it these days. There's just a couple of ounces worth left in the jar now - so I'd rather thought that might just get boiled-up and thrown in with a soup at some point anyway just to use it up.

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Hmmm....that could be a possibility caron - re the soup.

I do have quite a few tomatoes in at the moment and some carrots - I'll think on re that. Maybe a bit of curry paste with it. It could be a plan. I have been thinking I need to experiment a bit with thicker/more stew-like soups. Maybe a dollop of hummus on top of it. That's got me thinking...

Don't know whether I'll bother to buy barley again or no. I don't tend to find much use for it these days. There's just a couple of ounces worth left in the jar now - so I'd rather thought that might just get boiled-up and thrown in with a soup at some point anyway just to use it up.

Barley is one of my staples to have in as I like to add random handfuls to various dishes. One of my veggie favourites is a barley & root veg stew with lots of celery and white pepper. A comfort dish neither spicy or bland lovely with soda to dip on a cold night - good old bowl & spoon dinner:)

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I hate that I can't try new things in case I don't like it - because that'd be a waste of what I've got on the plate AND would no doubt generate an opened bottle/packet in the cupboard that still needed eating.

I like hot/spicy food, but I cook plain food. If that makes sense. I do make the occasional chilli or curry, but only about 2-3x a year; I'll have a spicy pizza topping 3-4x a year.

I've never experimented. I'd rather spend time/money cooking something I KNOW will be eaten, than faff around and produce something nasty

A lot of modern "staple ingredients" have never entered my vocabulary.

I don't even dress up mashed potato with milk/cream/butter. It's a quick knob of marg and poke it about with a fork

I wouldn't call barley a "modern" staple - it's been a feature of traditional Scots cooking for centuries :cool:, it's not expensive either 80p for 500g in Tesco and I'm sure you could get cheaper.

moneyistooshorttomention

This was part of why I used to have barley noticeably often - as it's a cheap grain (cheaper than rice). But, personally, I find it a bit chewy for my taste really and hence the recipe I did was a use-up and I doubt I'll get it again.

Admits that I find couscous and quinoa by far the most useful of the grains and I still use rice a lot.

Am inclined to think the "newer" ones on the market are rather expensive and have their uses (eg gluten-free if required) - eg farro, emmet, the like - if one can get them that is:cool:. But I tend to buy them as one-offs (just so I know what they're like). So I wouldnt be looking to buy them regularly - unless/until they are easy to get and more reasonable price.

PasturesNew

Breakfast today was egg and soldiers
One egg, one slice of soldiers, one slice uncut because one egg only really needs two soldiers

wort

I enjoyed yesterday's lunch with friends, I had prawn cocktail for starter, as I couldn't have the soup. Followed by salmon and prawns In a dill sauce. The even had a glutenfree mango cheesecake, with cream. Yum!!
When I got home I wasn't hungry till around 8 when I went for the black pepper crisp !!! Whoops , not many left!! Then about 10 I thought it best to have a plain ham sandwich as the tum was gurgling! And I thought I wouldn't sleep if hungry.

Toast this morning and I've just had piri piri chicken salad on a warmed crusty roll, with the last crisps still left from yesterday.
Tea will be a jacket potato, as I've not had one in ages! Beans and cheese I'm thinking with salad on the side.:j

caronc

Good afternoon everyone,
I've had a bit of a "non-morning", I was up and showered as usual and then my dad popped round and then I went back to bed for a bit as my balance was iffy. Breakfast was toast & banana and I'm currently scoffing lentil soup for lunch. I'm not sure about tonight possibly curry from the freezer

PasturesNew

I'd had about 8 brussels sprouts sitting in the kitchen looking mankier every time I saw them .... they've sat there, last of the pack, for at least a week, possibly two. There were also some carrots that'd gone manky about 5-6 days ago, so I'd peeled them (get rid of the black bits) and popped them in a takeaway box in the fridge .... and I suspected they were getting mankier too.

I just checked, I bought the bag on or before 14 November, last cooked some of them on about 20 November.

So I bit the bullet. Lunch was brussels and carrots. To go with that I pulled a portion of beef brisket from the freezer and knocked up a quick portion of stuffing and instant mash and some instant gravy.

First time I've used that stuffing, it's L1dl's I think (34p/170g)... it wasn't as tasty as my usual budget boxes.... so I might have to rethink that for Xmas Day; might invest in a tastier/seasonal box.

So, on the plus side, those brussels and carrots have finally been used up and a tiny corner of the freezer has been relieved of something (although that was tiny).

I'll have the final bit of the cheesecake later. Bought yesterday and 3/4 scoffed yesterday, I looked up the calories of that today and it's 1400 for the whole thing.... probably won't be buying one again in a hurry!

Farway

Dull day, but had to go into town, needed milk and a mooch

Nothing at all took my fancy mooching, mooching for YS or other meal ideas, although I make a list before I go, more as memory jogger, no idea how many times I have arrived home without something I needed. Probably because I hate shopping and my prime aim is to get out of the shop

If there are long queues, even for car parking, I will not even bother to go in, this may well kick in over the next few weeks. I noticed local 4sda, and probably the rest of them, are open 24 hours on Friday & Saturday before Christmas :mad:

Lunch was the last of the sausages, in last of the PB baguettes, with some of my HM chutney horde

Dinner will be one of a 2 pack of gammon slices, grilled, with some of the Lild on offer mushrooms, eggs, probably some frozen chips and a grilled tomato as nod towards at least 1 of the 5 a day veg count

Some tea cake has been also consumed, do the currants count? That's 2/5 then

wort wrote: »

Tea will be a jacket potato, as I've not had one in ages! Beans and cheese I'm thinking with salad on the side.:j

Can't beat easy and tasty. I've still got one huge spud left so may join you in similar sometime this week

PS, also scrumped the last of next door's apples, they just let them drop unused, may as well have a poor old pensioner eat them as it seems from a report today we are all on our uppers;)

moneyistooshorttomention

We could almost have a thread specifically on ways to use apples:)

Besides:
- eat as is
- stewed apples
- think I remember that was one of the things that could be used an "equivalent" in recipes (eg of sweetening)
- apple sugar (apple dried in a dehydrator and chopped VERY small). Yep....I've got some of that = like it

On that note - must hie me hence to the kitchen and have a go at Caron's idea of how to turn yesterday's barley/etc dish into a soup for tonight.

At least I'm warm enough now. The one "little man" - ie plumber in this case that I've found to date here (whoops - person - being 21st century - but they do happen to be a man) has been round and sorted my central heating. Ahem...whoops...and pleads guilty to being useless re that sorta thing myself:o. Anyways - at least he didnt charge me much at all - I googled the "going rate" for this and he charged me a lot less than that (probably thought it was worth it to see an example of just how little some customers know about these things - and have a good laugh about it:cool:).