Cooking for one (Mark Two)

PasturesNew

steffiraf wrote: »

Thank you Caronc. I really do despise anything relating to veg or salad. I am overweight but by a long margin, and struggle to get it off. Those that can fill up on salad/veg, i hold my hat out to you. You clearly dont feel the struggles of the rest of us. You lucky !!!!!!s. If you dont feel like you are hampered by the dislike of fruit/veg, then feel free to !!!! right off. The rest of you, tune in for some sympathy...:T

It is possible to stick to bread and pies etc and still lose weight/be small. I know because ... I am. And I don't exercise, ever.

It all comes down to calories and self control (bummer, eh!). A 10" pizza isn't one meal, it's two. A family sized pie is four meals, not 2-3. I find "giving myself a talking to" about portion sizes keeps me in check. As I look at a pie and want to cut it in half I say "Now now you biffer ... you know 1/4 is fine" - and I also say "and it doesn't disappear if you don't eat it - if you REALLY need it you can always have another 1/4 later" - and I very rarely need that "top up" portion.

I also like to look at nice things in the shops and then walk away, feeling "smug" with myself that I had that power.

You'll see me posting mostly about eating entire bags of chocolates (over 1-3 days), or endless pie portions ... and lots of chips are mentioned (and burgers in buns). Toast, crumpets and muffins.

It all comes down to the total number of calories in a day ... I like to "aim for 1000", knowing darned well I'll usually exceed that, but that's OK. So long as I am AWARE when I am over-eating and get round to reining it in a bit ... in a few days....

I think a salad is a waste of a perfectly good spot on a plate where there could've been chips! I rarely buy it as it's so pointless, watery and lack-lustre.

I like (some) vegetables, just CBA a lot of the time to have a sufficient variety in the house to be motivated. I did buy a 500 gram bag of carrots this week (8 medium carrots) and yesterday I did cook/eat half those... and some frozen peas.

Farway

Good morning, and welcome steffiraf
Loved the "ping tea" phrase, a staple of CFO at times. We all try and do whatever suits us, some are frugal, some vegan, some love cooking, some can't abide it, but each to their own. Often what someone eats will trigger a "I fancy that moment" in others. There are no judgments made or implied, or if there are they go way over my head anyway

SquirrelSmall wrote: »

Despite having more ducks/geese/swans/coots than is strictly necessary, I won't feed them stale bread. The mess on the pontoons just isn't worth it.

I sympathise, my daughter keeps ducks, and for those of us who think cat poo is a big problem, try fowl poo

Another day of trying to sort "things" AKA "sodders" out, if you hear sound of a tiny violin in background it is mine

MOT due - to be arranged

Unable to log in savings account, not a big problem, not used it since 2008, but needs sorting all for £3.00

My mobile provider, Talkmobile is shutting shop end of August, need to find alternative on PAYG, 'phone locked but not worth cost of unlocking, may just shove in a drawer and buy one for under a tenner somewhere. You may guess, rightly, my phone is not the centre of my universe

With all that I thought nice warming breakfast again, today was scrambled eggs on toast, with raw own grown ripe tom picked warm from the conservatory

Lunch is more of the kipper pate

Dinner is ????? still, could be something fishy from freezer, I seem to be on clearing freezer kick but not really trying to, just fed up seeing same old bits in there, and like others, if I have bought it I will eat it, but I have chucked awful food out and never buy it again

PasturesNew

SquirrelSmall wrote: »

Despite having more ducks/geese/swans/coots than is strictly necessary, I won't feed them stale bread. The mess on the pontoons just isn't worth it.

You're doing the right thing - if you feed them bread, they then have a drink and it swells and fills their belly, making them less able to eat enough "proper food" containing the nutrients they need. So bread can be bad for them a lot of the time.

SunnyGirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

One thing I discovered is that if older/elderly people don't drink enough water (a LOT) then these will kick in... and it often presents itself as confusion/wandering and dementia-like.

So try all you can to get her to drink more/more often and to keep it up....

Although I don't know how old your mum is - she might be younger than me!
Mine was about 90.

Thank you :A She is 77 but after serious bladder surgery 30 years ago - she had an inadvertent tummy tuck as muscles from her stomach were used to construct a new bladder - she tends to suffer from recurrent infections. My Mum is the first to admit that she doesn't drink enough these days, she used to drink lots of cups of tea but doesn't so much now. I have a 2ltr empty bottle and am going to take that up with a bottle of her favourite pink grapefruit and barley cordial to act as a reminder as if she fills the bottle every morning and puts it in the fridge the idea is that it'll be empty by bed time

PasturesNew

SunnyGirl wrote: »

...

When in a care home mum used to get those infections 3-4x a year (maybe more) ... and it can then lead to them falling over - and falling over then means Hospital at some point ... and that seems to be "the slippery slope". My mum had been cut from belly button to the middle of her back for kidney stones in the mid-60s and then had a colostomy bag for bowel cancer in ~1990.

In peak summer I make up a whole litre. What I've got is a (£land) measuring jug with a lid - so I can pour 200ml of squash directly into the jug (need to mark it with a black sharpie so you can see it), then top up to the 1 litre mark with water and that's the usual (Robinsons at least) diluting ratio.... makes it easy to "get it right/get it the same/how I like it" each time. The one I bought also came with two beakers to drink from, 250ml apiece, which is handy.

It might be worth you checking her bottles for the ratio and keeping an eye out for such a jug. And if you go down this route get two because there's nothing worse than having a bit of lemon in the jug and you want to make up another flavour but can't as the jug's in use

You can keep a couple of squash bottles (clearly labelled that they aren't the concentrate), but then it gets fiddly to refill and you're never sure if the bottle's "clean enough" after a few uses.

I just checked £land to see if the jug I've got was on their website, but it's not.

Hollyharvey

Good morning everyone,

SunnyGirl I hope that your mum feels better soon.

Farway re something triggering "I fancy moments" in others, That happens frequently to me . Some of the things that I have taken to since being on this thread, eg. crumpets now feature regularly in my food consumption .

Caronc I'm another one who likes the look of that kipper pate, I think I will try it as well.

I was out early this morning, and just popped into Aldi for some eggs because I want to have some of the gammon left over from yesterday's dinner with egg and chips tonight, I may even add some baked beans as well. It's cold and miserable here so I want something comforting

I've already decided on a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch.

I'm sure that a crumpet or slice of cake will feature somewhere as well

SunnyGirl

PN I actually have one jug with a lid think it was a batter type beating one which I rarely use so will take that up. I think Mum has one too actually as we bought them in Aldi whilst together.... I too have a well marked jug that I use for everything - gravy, jelly, milk for custard powder or angel delight I have marked it in 1/4 pint increments for ease of use.

Mum also has also had a colostomy since about 1988 also due to the problems that required bladder surgery. Our Mums seem to have similar issues although mine is younger at the moment.

Izadora

PasturesNew wrote: »

I just checked £land to see if the jug I've got was on their website, but it's not.

I lose track of who's got which supermarkets nearby but Sainsbury's do a basic 1L jug for 50p.

I wouldn't use it for baking, or anything which needs accuracy, but it's perfect for mixing stuff up so that it's easy to pour.

PasturesNew

I started off using a measuring jug to do the mix, then poured that into an unmarked/lidded fridge jug - but that was annoying as I was creating washing up by using the measuring jug, which is why I was super excited (small life/don't get out much) when I saw the "lidded measuring jug with two plastic beakers" for just £1 and snapped it up.

I do like drinks to be "nice" - and to be nice you have to measure out how much you want/need. For drinking chocolate I write the grams on the lid as they're all different and that's an easier way to get the right amount every time, without having to read the tiiiiiiiiny writing on the label each time.

PasturesNew

Somebody .... mixed up a cheeky little cristless quuche again
Why not... it clears the freezer of a couple of things and uses the milk I've got. And they ARE exceedingly tasty. Sweetcorn/red pepper today.

It's cooked now, so just in the "resting/setting/cooling" stage, I leave it in the oven for about 30 minutes without opening the door while that goes on.

After that it gets tough as I should be removing it from the oven and cooling it in the kitchen, but once I see it I end up eating it.

I've nothing to go with it that I can think of just yet.... I might just grate a couple of carrots ... as I've got them. Have to get the box grater out - that's been relegated to the upstairs pile of "things I don't use often, so put elsewhere as there's no room in the kitchen for them"