Cooking for one (Mark Two)

PasturesNew

Hollyharvey wrote: »

....defrost a slice of apple cake and warm it up to go with custard.

You know what you have to do .....

I've just had the most AMAZING meal! Ever!

I filled a bowl with a pile of mashed potato, the carrot/swede mash, the mashed swede ... poured some chicken gravy over it .... and that was it.

One of my favourite meals that I've not had for years! Uses up some of the spuds I recently bought AND some of the leftovers of the swede/carrot combos I made for yesterday's Big Yorkie.

I've been using "cheap supermarket gravy granules" for some years - specifically bought proper Bisto ones 2 weeks ago - and the difference is staggering. Definitely going to stick with Bisto in future.

[Deleted User]

PN big big thank you, cos of you I set to and got rid of a load of stress caused by my freezer. I have space and am just freezing 6 dishes of baked apples made with raisins and honey and they will go in that mobile drawer, stuff in, stuff out and I have spotted leeks and gamon so its a one portion soup tomorrow. I`m going to stop makng big pans of soup, whats the point, just enough for three portions is enough and that can stand in the fridge as long as I feel like soup for three days on the trot

I emptied the crumbs out of one freezer drawer and now I have room for a loaf, yay, I can bake one tomorrow and slice and freeze it, I don`t half miss my hm bread. I read on this thread, I think, about freezing cheese in chunks so have done just that. I have just eaten my last meal, veg juice first, nothing alarming just carrot and swiss chard and a bit of lemon. Now my one and only piece of hm bread, lurked hidden in my freezer, butter and damson jam and a piece of cheese. Yummy

Tomorrow is another day, blimey heck the work never stops

Hollyharvey

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've been using "cheap supermarket gravy granules" for some years - specifically bought proper Bisto ones 2 weeks ago - and the difference is staggering. Definitely going to stick with Bisto in future.

I think that if you really like something it's worth paying that bit extra for it because you enjoy it so much more. I'm like that with a couple of things that I use regularly.

PasturesNew

kittie wrote: »

PN big big thank you, cos of you I set to and got rid of a load of stress caused by my freezer. I have space

I might be considered "a bit strange" .... but I'm usually right

Glad you thought about it and gave it a go and it seems to work for you!

So many people stuffing things into freezers, then never using it as they don't know what's there and/or it's a pain to look/check .. and after X months they "have a sort out" and throw a lot out.

I knew a big/full freezer wasn't MY answer.... and I think my current system (2½ drawers) might work if I stick to it.:
½ = bready things.
1 = food to eat.
2 = emergency overflow/then try to eat things from 1 until 2 is empty again.

I will always try to eat stuff rather than freezing it ... it's easier to do that most of the time, than to try to find ways to use things later, when you've gone off them

PasturesNew

Hollyharvey wrote: »

I think that if you really like something it's worth paying that bit extra for it because you enjoy it so much more. I'm like that with a couple of things that I use regularly.

Bearing in mind I use about 1 tub/jar per year - with the prices being 79p for cheapo and 99p for Bisto it was a no brainer too!

Farway

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've been using "cheap supermarket gravy granules" for some years - specifically bought proper Bisto ones 2 weeks ago - and the difference is staggering. Definitely going to stick with Bisto in future.

I discovered this a few years back, the cheapo ones just made lumps & clumps, Bisto just works every time for me. Sometimes the extra cost of somethings is worthwhile

The Iceland Kung Po chicken was much to chilli hot for my taste, tried it and will not be repeating that one, plus the meat / sauce ratio was not quite hunt the meat but a bit more would have been better.

I have a Korma from there to try out, hope it is a bit meatier, otherwise back to YS from Lild, which would be a shame because I was hoping to have some spares I could buy in one quick shop in the freezer

Loads of apples left over from jam making, tempted to make another batch, if only to give me a couple of spare jars to give to the cleaners to say sorry for the stove top massacre:o

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

The Iceland Kung Po chicken .... will not be repeating that one, plus the meat / sauce ratio was not quite hunt the meat but a bit more would have been better.

I have a Korma from there to try out, hope it is a bit meatier, otherwise back to YS from Lild, which would be a shame because I was hoping to have some spares I could buy in one quick shop in the freezer

Having recently tried some quite dismal curry for one dishes from 4ldi/L1dl, I decided that I was better off having a jar of sauce in the cupboard and randomly buying the chicken and lobbing the two at the slow cooker and leaving it to get on with it .... even if it means you do have 3-4 dinners and not just the 1.

The only issue is buying the correct amount of meat ... so I was already thinking that instead of buying fresh chicken, in a package, I might investigate buying the 1Kg bags of frozen breast pieces..... and doing it that way.

Bought meals increasingly just seem to have a "bit of a nasty texture" where I expect to encounter a gristle/kn0b-end piece at any moment... which grosses me out too much to enjoy them.

For sauce/meat ratio, if you read jars they often indicate they "serve 3", but I figure if you take a jar and say "that's for 2" ... then add just 16 chunks of frozen breast pieces...that should be about right to compare with a ready meal (which tend to give you 7 chunks) - so I'd be making two meals, each containing half a jar of sauce and 8 pieces of chicken.

Then, having said that, I then think "well, actually, I could nuke that ..." - but it's all on the "to do when the freezer has space" list.

caronc

Hollyharvey wrote: »

I can't decide whether or not to go out to get some or to defrost a slice of apple cake and warm it up to go with custard.

If I go for the cake it means 1 item out of the freezer, if I go and buy crumpets it means there will be 5 to go into the freezer.

I need a third freezer

Much as I love crumpets there is just no comparison with apple cake and custard, and it's being MSE by using up stocks :)

Farway wrote: »

All done, stove top looks a bit like a massacre has occurred, 6 and a bit jars of blackberry & apple jam made and cooling

Dinner decided, Kung Po chicken & oven chips

Here's the jam.

Fab looking jam. I'm not a big jam eater, I go through about a jar a year and as my friend makes lovely jam and always gives me a jar I can't remember when I last bought it. My late father-in-law used to have lots of apple and plum trees so I used to make loads as the kids liked it as did the in-laws but it's not worth it now as it would get wasted.

PasturesNew wrote: »

You know what you have to do .....

I've just had the most AMAZING meal! Ever!

I filled a bowl with a pile of mashed potato, the carrot/swede mash, the mashed swede ... poured some chicken gravy over it .... and that was it.

One of my favourite meals that I've not had for years! Uses up some of the spuds I recently bought AND some of the leftovers of the swede/carrot combos I made for yesterday's Big Yorkie.

I've been using "cheap supermarket gravy granules" for some years - specifically bought proper Bisto ones 2 weeks ago - and the difference is staggering. Definitely going to stick with Bisto in future.

Sounds lovely - I do love dinner in a bowl:D. Another Bisto fan here, I must buy a pack of the powder as I like it in stews etc. I finished the one I had last winter and it was BBE sometime in early 2015 but perfectly fine.:eek: Sometimes paying a little more is so worth it. I think I've only got about 4 things where I will always buy the brand: Bisto, Kenco decaff coffee. Hellman's mayo and HP sauce though there are a few branded items I avoid, I really don't like Crosse & Blackwell beans, apart that it's whatever works out cheapest and tastes ok

My Dad popped by today so I could dress a boil on his neck_pale_, I suppose that's what daughters are for :eek:. He left with pockets full of veg from the garden so at least he'll get plenty of Vit C to fight the infection;). I've more or less meal planned until the end of the week which is good for me, though no doubt when my son arrives on Thursday it will go to pot!:cool:

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

Having recently tried some quite dismal curry for one dishes from 4ldi/L1dl, I decided that I was better off having a jar of sauce in the cupboard and randomly buying the chicken and lobbing the two at the slow cooker and leaving it to get on with it .... even if it means you do have 3-4 dinners and not just the 1.

The only issue is buying the correct amount of meat ... so I was already thinking that instead of buying fresh chicken, in a package, I might investigate buying the 1Kg bags of frozen breast pieces..... and doing it that way.

Bought meals increasingly just seem to have a "bit of a nasty texture" where I expect to encounter a gristle/kn0b-end piece at any moment... which grosses me out too much to enjoy them.

For sauce/meat ratio, if you read jars they often indicate they "serve 3", but I figure if you take a jar and say "that's for 2" ... then add just 16 chunks of frozen breast pieces...that should be about right to compare with a ready meal (which tend to give you 7 chunks).

Then, having said that, I then think "well, actually, I could nuke that ..." - but it's all on the "to do when the freezer has space" list.

It seems that so many ready meals are made from reformed meat/fish or have water/sugar injected to the meat that it changes the texture you expect and I find it really off putting as you're never quite sure if it going to be gristly or mushy:mad:.

Hollyharvey

caronc wrote: »

Much as I love crumpets there is just no comparison with apple cake and custard, and it's being MSE by using up stocks :)

Yes, that's what I had in the end. I decided that I couldn't be bothered to go out.


Edit: Don't know what happened to the quote