Cooking for one (Mark Two)

Need2bthrifty

Great minds think alike I also had a Baked Potato yesterday, first I've had for a long time but it was mainly something to have along with cheese, the l/o coleslaw & pasta salad lurking in the fridge.

The Plan was for Moussaka tonight, I cooked the mince base yesterday and was going to Lid! to get some aubergines this morning, but woke up to quite a few inches of snow and still falling so I will swap it for Macaroni Cheese in the hopes I can get shopping tomorrow.

I really cba clearing the drive to get the car out, as it is the streets in this area rarely get gritted and last time it was quite treacherous getting to the main bus routes which were clear. Thankfully the hairdresser is three streets away so I'll don my sheepskins and trundle through the snow.

Hope everyone else is keeping safe and warm.

PasturesNew wrote: »

To be honest, at this stage I'm still pondering what to do with it ... bought it thinking stew.... changed my mind to curry .... and been back/forth many times in the last few hours I might even change my mind while holding the curry paste jar! I'm indecisive to the extreme. OCD Indecisiveness...

PasturesNew wrote: »

There's a curry in the SC. It doesn't have a name as naming food is pretentious

I was going to suggest divide the beef in two and do a curry with one half today and a stew tomorrow with the other half - but too late

PasturesNew

Need2bthrifty wrote: »

I was going to suggest divide the beef in two and do a curry with one half today and a stew tomorrow with the other half - but too late

Half becomes a faff, it's neither one portion nor two ... and it's twice the effort

caronc

Good morning everyone,
There is a little snow lying here, not much but it has hit frozen ground so lying. There is quite a bit round about. It's sunny at the moment so I'm psyching myself up to try and go to the bin without slipping.;) I have the heating on low and think it will be staying on today as due to hover around freezing all day then drop below this evening.
Re Pannetone, I've most likely not had a decent one hence the so-so ness about them.
Repair man due back out again pm to replace the seal in my oven (again:mad:), was only done in August thankfully the repair was guaranteed for 12 months so no charge.
I was supposed to not be CFO this weekend but elder son's plans got put on hold due to the impromptu trip to Belgium and younger son is now not coming until tomorrow. He'll be basically just sleeping here as off for a day out with mates then back to Newcastle on Sunday. Still from the 17th I'll have offspring home until 2nd January so can't complain.
I've no idea about food yet, might make stovies or mince & mash. Then again might have pasta. Oh decisions....... Had planned to have the remaining HM sausage roll for lunch but best leave it as s@ds law would be it would be cooking when the repair man arrived.:)

PasturesNew

I bought two quiches yesterday, planning on cutting/freezing them - but I ate 2/3rds of one yesterday
So I'll eat the final 1/3rd of that in a bit for lunch and just cut/freeze the other one.

I was taken by surprise at how nice they were, compared to the previous ones. Price has gone up though - you used to be able to buy "cheap basic quiches" for 99p-£1.05 at most supermarkets - but they've all repackaged/gentrified and the price's shot up. These are now £1.35 at L1dl ... so I'd not bothered.

These had the 30% reduced sticker on, so priced at 95p. They were surprisingly moist and creamy!

I like a nice bit of quiche at Xmas time... so it's nice knowing I've got something in the freezer for then, without having the research/stress which shops sell them, which do I like the sound of, "how much??" and coming away with none after all that effort

It's just me at Xmas, just me every day. Not going anywhere, no gatherings, no invites, no parties. Me and a pile of food ... except it won't be a pile as I can't eat much more than usual can I ... realistically.

Need2bthrifty

PasturesNew wrote: »

Half becomes a faff, it's neither one portion nor two ... and it's twice the effort

Wow :eek:, you do like "piggy" portions don't you

PasturesNew

Need2bthrifty wrote: »

Wow :eek:, you do like "piggy" portions don't you

Maybe it's language/understanding.

What I meant was "Half a pack is too big for one portion, but not quite big enough for two satisfying portions" - I didn't mean "half isn't EVEN enough for one"

"How big is a portion" is always tricky for one.... a ready meal portion spooned out looks too small .... then you're juggling round with lumps of meat and trying to sub-divide it "by eye" so it looks like a meal you can eat without thinking it was a starter

If you have a pack of beef cubes - how much is a portion?

These packs are 400 grams. I plan to divide it into three generous dinners..... so 133 grams of meat per portion, although I don't know how much weight beef gains/loses in cooking.

Ready meals are never seen as "a generous portion" - and in fact I weighed a ready meal curry the other day, as I served it. The rice weighed 160 grams, the meat/sauce weighed 175 grams.

So I figure the whole 400g pack would be 3 generous portions ... rather than four skimpy and unsatisfying ones.

PasturesNew

...all those ... mismatched jars .... of random spices.
What are they?
What's there?
Such a mess.

All my jars are bought at random times from random shops so they're all different sizes/shapes. And I "tried to organise them" by buying a spice rack, only to discover that few fit in that, so there are some randomly shoved into the rack, some on top of it, some in front of it, some beside it.

So I just made a big list - there are 28 jars, pouches and small tubs in the list!

I figure that if I know what I've got I can work out what to do with it - and I can work, over the coming year, on using some of those in more cooking.... they're such a mess I rarely touch them.



If I do see a recipe .... you know I've never got the ones they list either.

The world has too many spices these days.

Just "hot stuff" I can now see I have a paprika hot, a chilli powder, 2 jars of paprika, a pouch of chilli flakes, cayenne.

I have two cumin - not sure why as I only use it twice a year at most

I need to get rid of the spice rack that doesn't work ... and cull the stack down to the minimum. Or keep the spice rack for the minimum and ONLY buy jars that fit it

EDIT: I just compared my spices list with the recipe for a nut roast I want to make - and there'd be 3 more items to buy, although I can cut that to two as I've got a shortcut planned that makes one pretty redundant. So, two new items to buy that I've never bought before .... to make one piece of food, for one day. I have to find and buy a whole new jar, for the sake of ¼ teaspoon (ground ginger).

meg72

Had planned a trip to charity shop today, got a bag of books to return and wanted to restock before the snow came. Too late , woke to find its already here and I`m snowed in. Its inches deep already and I cant get out the front gate. CBA to be clearing it as don't feel that good. my cold has paid a return visit and brought its rellies with it .

Thankfull larder and freezers well stocked so don't need to food shop. Lol probably for weeks so can stay cosy. Was thinking when I moved here, old peoples bungalow, some years ago, I used to get kids knocking to see if I wanted any odd jobs doing, it dosent happen these days sadly.

Beef defrosting ,veg prepared for stew and dumpling mix all ready. Should last me the weekend

PasturesNew

meg72 wrote: »

.....I`m snowed in...

I've probably never said that in my life.
I can remember, about 40 years ago, when there was snow on the roads etc that then froze/refroze and would hang around in piles for weeks until it melted.... but I've never been "snowed in".

One of the benefits of living in the south ... blue, cloudless skies here, sun's out. Nippy of course! But not snowy, not icy.

mcculloch29

I’ve had enough snow to have been snowed in, except this was Germany, forty years ago, and they don’t have a problem with snow. I can remember seeing someone ski past our hillside house, just before the snow plough got to our road.
The same winter we saw someone skating up a farm track that was literally a sheet of ice.
When it’s light snow and ice, my trike keeps me mobile. He’s great on packed snow and ice. I have mountain bike tyres for a bit of extra grip.
Looking forward to making Jack Monroe’s Spinach and Lentil Daal later. It sounds vile and tastes absolutely gorgeous.