Cooking for one (Mark Three)

meg72

Nasty weather today rained, snowed and rained again. Did get a quick flash of sunshine a couple of times but bitterly cold so
not going out. I`m on a use up challenge for February so homemade bread this morning. I use the bread maker to make the dough as cant manage that now. Lol my Arthy hands object to the neading.  Made a small loaf and 6 crusty rolls for my soup.

MrAPJI

Thanks Caron - your thoughts are much appreciated. The microwave was for a student who's living in a house share where the cooking facilities are really poor - but I'll have another think about things

PN - hope a decent property comes to market for you soon. Finding 'the right place' can be an exceedingly frustrating process, I know.

Meg - your bread looks really good.

PasturesNew

MrAPJI said:

 The microwave was for a student who's living in a house share where the cooking facilities are really poor - but I'll have another think about things

 

Ah.  Well, I make an entire Xmas Dinner for myself using a microwave, slow cooker and a £30 toaster oven.  All cooked pretty much "from scratch" in that I start with raw spuds, parsnips, other vegetables... and I make a yorkshire pudding, use stuffing mix, use gravy granules and get a frozen turkey breast joint from Aldi. 
In 2017 I did buy ready made Yorkshire though, here's 2017's dinner. Turkey, roast spuds, roast parsnips, mashed spuds, stuffing, nut roast, brussels, carrots, pigs without blankets, yorkshire, gravy. 

A £30 toaster oven might be a way forward, I spotted them for sale just last week, in Lidl.  They weigh the same as a toaster ... those combi ovens are quite large and very heavy.  
Tesco have some slow cookers at £10 at the moment too: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/298468981 
I'm a bit of a 'master' at thinking outside the box and working round things... 

MrAPJI

Thank you PN, some really good suggestions which I'll follow up on. The meal looks delicious

PasturesNew

MrAPJI said:

Thank you PN, some really good suggestions which I'll follow up on. The meal looks delicious

Lidl £30, on sale since last Tuesday. https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/p/kitchen-essentials/silvercrest-mini-oven/p29396 
I also sourced a lot of my cookware at Poundland... some nice small ceramic dishes are usually in stock which are a good size for one person. 
Even my Xmas plate was a lucky find, it's oval and just £1, just what I was looking for to fit a Xmas dinner onto I also had two regular round plates from there at £1 apiece.  If you're moving, as students do, it can be good to buy things cheaply that you don't mind leaving behind.  Plates for £1 can be left or given away... plates at £20/set have to be kept/cared for as that's a lot of cash. 

Brambling

Farway
 If your weather was like mine I assume you stayed in last night

 We were lucky last night the weather cleared for a few hours from about 7pm and then was horrid sometime again over night, I didn't look at the clock but it woke me up and there was still a lot of surface water about this morning and flooding on the A road the other side of town 

The bread looks good Meg 

I hope the  cat settles tonight Caronc 😺

Lunch was vegetable soup from the freezer and dinner peppers stuffed with a mix of puy lentils, chopped veg and feta cheese, LOs for tomorrow lunch 

edit - Wednesday I hope your leak was dealt with 💦

Wednesday2000

Thanks Brambling. He said it is just the seal around the bath that needs replacing. We have to get someone round to do it.

I changed my profile picture back to a cat!

I've had tea and bread and marg so far. I need to leave for the dental hygienist in a minute.

Wednesday2000

Oh yes, we had a very brief thunderstorm here yesterday. It made my dogs start barking as I think they thought it was fireworks.

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
Gorgeous looking bread Meg  - I'd not say no to a slice as I've just made a cuppa;) 
I think the mini oven could be the way to go MrAPJI and a cheap one as it may get a bit of abuse ditto a slow cooker 3.5L is a good size and you can get them from around £10. An oval one is best IMHO.
Glad the leak was major Wednesday and easily resolved. I redid the one on my bath a few years ago myself and found it straightforward so an easy job for someone that actually knows what I'm doing.
Puss was more settled last night Brambling- only one bout of brief nocturnal yowling. He's been investigating my hall cupboard this morning, goodness knows what he's doing in there but there's lots of nooks to explore as it follows the stairwell. 
The weather remains foul here, no actually snow just lots of lumpy rain. There's quite a bit lying just inland so might get some later.  HM lentil soup for lunch and probably burgers or meatballs for dinner as I've a pack of mince needing used up that my sister brought from her fridge.

Wednesday2000

I went in Coop to see what new vegan stuff they have in there. I got carried away and bought crisps, doughnuts, hot cross buns, chocolate, fresh bread and houmous. I also got three types of vegan sandwiches!

I feel quite sick now as I sampled quite a lot of it when I got home.