Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Farway

Nelski said:

Farway Hope your delivery arrives for lunch  had a look on the Abel and Cole website some gorgeous stuff on there but bit on the pricey side for my budget though sadly nice for a treat maybe. I know its not PC either but whether its free range or organic is not an issue for me as long as it tastes good  I do like their fish selection though I hear our fishermen are really struggling so would like to support them if I can

Sadly no, arrived about an hour ago. I'm not too fussed but prefer decent animal welfare stuff, and supporting local if possible, however I'm not adverse to YS meat if it suits but I always avoid battery chickens, but even then I know it's in MFO items I do eat.

Unfortunately I find the better stuff is dearer, so dry cured bacon & ham if possible and not the "water add for succulence" stuff

Struggling fishermen, it was partly for that reason, except cheese-makers, I bought cheese online the other day.

Dinner on target now the delivery has arrived. The bangers look a bit disappointing, but until I've tried them mustn't judge too soon

ND arrived with my T*sco shopping as well, plus next door handed me some over over ripe bananas, I shan't starve this weekend

PasturesNew

Farway said:

 PN, fingers crossed the renting / housing market starts to ease for you. There was talk, speculation really, that holiday homes AKA caravans could be eased. Guessing in your area there are a few of them about. May not suit but at least your own temporary space / kitchen / loo etc 

The thing with holiday caravans is they're large, sleeps 4-6,  if they're opened the owners will be keen to rent to holidaymakers at £600-£1200/week if they can, or just leave it empty as next week somebody might pay that.  Even in winter lets they're not cheap for a single person as they're priced for a family.  

It's an awkward balance, when trying to get just what you want/need at a price you can afford as so much in holiday spots is over-egged and priced highly for it.  

Also, holiday caravans don't have letter boxes. I need to change my car, V5, tax, insurance and all my banking over to an address.... so I need a "proper place"

PasturesNew

It turned into a chip day  

First I went to 4sda... to be honest, just because they have Doritos cheapest at the moment (since poundland's last two visits yielded no sign of them) - and 4sda have a deal of 3 bags for £3.50 (other supermarkets £1.50 each).  This is the main drawback to current shops/shopping restrictions, I used to just amble into 3-4 shops to see if they had something/price and then amble to the next one to see their price.... which I can't do now.  Poundland, Home Bargains, even B&M can be non-existent or super slack with their websites showing everything they've got and at how much, so I can now only look online at the supermarket websites..

Then I went to 4ldi.  Had an annoying woman in there I had to huff at... (see below for details).  From there I got: flatbreads, cucumber, 3 pots of paste, reduced/half price focaccia/tear & share bread so it was 50p.  

Then chips.  Sat over the road and ate them - I've got a fork in the car now for when I do that. 

Woman in 4ldi: So I queue outside for about 10 minutes. Get let in and there's this woman half way down the bread aisle, just where I want to be... she's on the phone... so I wait and wait, at the 2m marker.. and wait and she puts her phone away.  Then she's looking at the bready bits and chooses something and moves forward by about 4m.  So I'm in there... my turn, bready bits.  And bugg4h me if she doesn't just walk back and stand RIGHT behind me.  I glared, "you carry on" she said, as if she were doing me a favour... I stepped to one side "What do you mean carry on? You'd gone".  "You can go past if you want" she said.  I looked at her quizzically "go past? I'm here, where I want to be, looking at bready things... you've been here, you left."   She just looked at me confused/gormless, so I said "Oh you go on .... I'll wait" as it'd never sink in to her what she did wrong... she was making out, from her words, that she was being courteous, letting me pass... when that wasn't what was happening at all!  SHE had BACKTRACKED over 4m ... to where she'd been standing, holding me up, for ages and had already chosen something!!  grrrrrrrrr. 

candygirl

Just made air fried mushrooms, stuffed with Philly cheese, breadcrumbs , garlic n chilli, n had it with noodles n green beans  .Was strangely lush 😉😋

Brambling

No need for books with you Candy you keep giving me ideas for my air fryer  I hadn't thought of doing my stuffed veg in there and you've reminded me I have two portobello mushrooms in the fridge 

Farway I had to reread your post as originally I couldn't work out why buying cheese would help fishermen 🙄 I've had a fishy day food wise and need to think about restocking soon, I miss my bargains from the fish counter in W8itrose so may have a look online to see what's about.  The cod loin I brought in M&S was really nice but not cheap, the only reason I brought it was because it was a half price YS. Unfortunately we no longer have a fish shop in town and they aren't coming to the farmers market at the moment either.  It's not desperate as I have salmon and one piece of smoked haddock as well as smoked mackerel, although I will buy some prawns on Saturday 

lunch was was salad Nicoise, fresh tuna, boiled egg, new potatoes and olives, I picked the first of my salad leaves and land cress  🙂🥗 dinner was pan fried cod loin with LO new potatoes chipped in air fryer, asparagus and tenderstem broccoli 

candygirl

BRAMBLING  I just bung stuff in the air fryer n experiment. Love the crispness of the veg
Obvs I'm veggie, but my Mum has a fish man coming round, that She loves
PN you could write a book called  " The perils of spending lock down,  with the landlady from hell !" 😂😂😉😉

Farway

Report on the Abel + C bangers.

Despite the looks they are tasty, taste bit like the ones you find in tins of sausages & beans but I assume much better quality, or maybe not?

However I shan't buy them again, I prefer chunkier type of banger not something little finger sized

I'm attempting another banana bread today with the ripe ones from neighbour.

This time it has to egg less so goodness knows how that'll go. The ones on You Tube look OK but then everything on there does

Lunch will be the BLT sarnie at long last

Dinner, plan was HM F & C, but my T*sco shopping via ND has returned with the scabbiest looking "fresh" cauliflower ever seen this side of a compost heap

Not blaming her as it was prepacked and would be hard to spot.

I'm thinking it'll perk up a bit in water, then once covered in PN style nuked cheese sauce should be fine, with my hoped to be super egg less BB should I be peckish later

Job for later in the day is pot up the recent sowing of peas

PN Your place sounds like some Chinese chuck away, when one walks in and every one is frantically jabbering away but you've no idea what's going on, except it's not good

Ideal answer would be a van, have you seen the Lady in the Van? Just a thought

Nelski

Finally got round to the IKEA meatball meal yesterday and despite being a bit fiddly they were lush and just like the real thing. Only difference was mine were more meat splodges rather than balls which of course prompted a google and yes for the princely sum of £4 you can get a meat ball shaper thing which may have to be added to my gadget collection. The sauce was lovely so may use that recipe again with some mushrooms for steak or chicken.

So today will of course be more of the same maybe in a baguette for a change then the rest of the splodges can go in the freezer
Still umming and arghing about an air fryer. Has anyone got any recommendations as they vary a lot in price 

PasturesNew

Today I've made a round of tomato sandwiches and wrapped those in foil for later + I opened a paste jar and made a round of paste/tomato sandwiches, which I ate straight away.  Once opened that paste doesn't last forever, but I CBA to make another round of sandwiches at the time - in a bit I'll make paste/cucumber sandwiches and a round of cucumber sandwiches. I'll eat the paste/cucumber immediately and put the cucumber to one side for later.... a pack of tortilla chips will no doubt be scoffed at some point today. 

I've a ton of food here, no need to go out for at least a week if I don't wish to.  I've bread, flatbreads, tomatoes, cucumber, 2 jars of jam, 4-5 jars of paste, 18 packs of tortilla chips, 30+ cup a soups, 13 noodle pots, 3 tins of satsumas, 1 real banana, 1 can of peach slices, 1 can of creamed rice.... about 8 packs of instant onion mash, some packs of stuffing, a tin of peas and 2 boxes of honey nut cornflakes.   This week I'll be mostly eating from that lot... most of it's stuff I've bought in the past and hadn't got round to eating, but it was "food in the house in case I couldn't get any" 

I've also got a couple of dozen rice pouches, bought intending to nuke/eat those when the LL flew abroad in February - and, since she made her reappearance and I put the kitchen out of bounds I've not been able to eat those.  You can actually eat them cold, as they are.... so I might get round to one of those at some point.  They keep this "secret", not mentioning on the pack that you can eat them cold, but they're great as a quick/cold/rice salad base.  Tilda mention it, in case you doubt it's safe "Can I eat your steamed basmati straight from the pouch?
Our Tilda Steamed Basmati is cooked and sterilised in the pouch (the microwaving is merely a reheating process) so it is fine to eat it cold and straight from the packet." 
https://www.tilda.com/frequently-asked-questions/ 

I've got 2-3 flavours, from a variety of shops, including a whole box of Tilda I bought from the OOD warehouse.

Wednesday2000

I've eaten terribly today. I had a crisp sandwich for breakfast and then a chip roll for lunch! I did have a salad too at least.

Running really low on food until Ocado on Sunday!