Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

Ah, that reminded me what I was going to type yesterday  
Online shopping. 
I don't shop online as the minimum order's unachievable.  But then there's the additional stress/anxiety of waiting/looking for them so you don't miss them.  Many homes these days aren't houses in a road with a driveway and a clear number on the front and at my last house I could go upstairs and press my nose against the glass, but, once spotted, it'd then be hit and miss whether he'd approach from the front or the back - and, by the time I'd got all the way downstairs, out the front door, down the garden to the back to look he could be anywhere/wandering about trying to find the right one... 

But, the whole thing of subs would finish it off for me.  What if, say, you really want ONE thing - and you pad the order out to get that one thing - and it's substituted when it arrive?   e.g. what if, say, there were a special deal of 24 cans of my favourite fizzy pop at £5/case and I ordered four cases .... so £20 - and then made up the remaining £20 with an assortment of beans, loo roll ... whatever I could think of ... and the subs were an entirely different drink at a higher price.

You're kind of shafted then.  You've spent your money - it's here/wrong, so now you don't really want ANY of it at all.... It's far too complex for me. 

It's a no brainer for those that drink alcohol and have pets and would usually buy those products from that store as they're just doing a "normal shop" most of the time.... so are just mildly annoyed at the odd sub. 

PasturesNew

Today I've so far had: 
2 bits of toast, breakfast. 
1/3rd of a cheese/onion quiche, lunch.
4 squares of chocolate.

Farway

PasturesNew said:

Ah, that reminded me what I was going to type yesterday  
Online shopping. 
I don't shop online as the minimum order's unachievable.  But then there's the additional stress/anxiety of waiting/looking for them so you don't miss them.  Many homes these days aren't houses in a road with a driveway and a clear number on the front and at my last house I could go upstairs and press my nose against the glass, but, once spotted, it'd then be hit and miss whether he'd approach from the front or the back - and, by the time I'd got all the way downstairs, out the front door, down the garden to the back to look he could be anywhere/wandering about trying to find the right one... 

But, the whole thing of subs would finish it off for me.  What if, say, you really want ONE thing - and you pad the order out to get that one thing - and it's substituted when it arrive?   e.g. what if, say, there were a special deal of 24 cans of my favourite fizzy pop at £5/case and I ordered four cases .... so £20 - and then made up the remaining £20 with an assortment of beans, loo roll ... whatever I could think of ... and the subs were an entirely different drink at a higher price.

You're kind of shafted then.  You've spent your money - it's here/wrong, so now you don't really want ANY of it at all.... It's far too complex for me. 

It's a no brainer for those that drink alcohol and have pets and would usually buy those products from that store as they're just doing a "normal shop" most of the time.... so are just mildly annoyed at the odd sub. 

Subs can be a bummer I admit, but it seems the retailers have different rules on subs so not easy to find what suits

Asda, you can "untick" subs to show you want that brand etc only, not marge instead of butter. I untick subs on free range eggs and Greek yoghurt for instance

However if they do send subs you only get charged for whatever it was you originally ordered, or less if sub costs less.

IME sub is always upwards, posh bog roll instead of scratch@rse

Playing it right can bring dividends I suppose

Morries, no means of indicating no subs, you get what they give you and pay whatever price it is. Which is what i think you fear, and why I no longer use them

W8rose - same as Asda, except you can leave note for picker, ripe bananas only for instance. I'd use except min order is £60

Not tried T*sco, Iceland limited but does seem to have everything in stock IME

They all have option of rejecting the subs on the doorstep, so in your example you could just say NO to the sub drinks, and only pay for the beans etc

However I do realise it is not for you but for a couple of quid I'm happy to have someone else go round the shop & deliver it to my door

Until lock down I wasn't a fan of online shopping but needs must & now I've adjusted to a fortnightly shop instead of bits here & there it generally works

Brambling

Dry but windy here today definitely socks and cardi weather 

I popped to T Exp lunchtime as I only need a few bits of fresh stuff and it will save the trip to town tomorrow, they were well stocked on all the usual suspects toilet rolls, pasta, rice, flour etc so I'm assuming either people have stopped panicking or they are raiding the bigger SMs.  At least it meant a quick shop  

Caronc I cooked JOs mushroom cannoli as a lasagna this evening I halved the recipe and will freeze two portions and eat one tomorrow for dinner, I forgot to halve the onions so the filling was a little too oniony and sweet 🥺🤔so I cooked and pulsed some kale and broccoli and mixed it in with a little thyme and that has brought out the earthyness of the mushrooms again so all saved 🙂

lunch was a egg and watercress wrap with salad bits.  Whilst the oven was on for the lasagna I cooked a piece of salmon in a parcel and had with HM oven chips and green veg 

PasturesNew

Off to the OOD soon.... also a bit of a bog roll run, to pick up just one pack of six, so not stockpiling  

Trouble is, 4ldi opens at 8 and OOD opens at 9, so I can't go to 4ldi yet.... 

OOD have a bunch of Morries stuff in, so my short list there today is: Morries crumble mix, Morries lemonade jelly crystals.  Then some Naked noodles, firecracker flavour, some flatbreads, brand name piadina .. and, finally, some joy free, gluten free, something else free Jacks Sage/Onion stuffing mix.
Will try to steer clear of sweeties, there's nothing exceptional in there that I can see.  

You don't know what they've got until you get in there.  You can see a few things on the quick video they show on Fridays, but it's pot luck + with some brands their contract states they're not allowed to advertise they have them. 

Cool/bit nippy here today, but bright and clear. 

EDIT: Back. Went to Lidl, they seem to have Andrex on offer, I think it was 24 for £7.99... probably should've got those but I wasn't expecting it, so went for my usual cheapo ones which work out at the same price.  I become "overwhelmed" mentally if caught on the hop. 

Off to the OOD... spent £20 there... none of it's what you really/genuinely call "food"   
1/ Naked Noodles Char Sui Big Pot (rice pots), four for £2.  Probably RRP 75p, so not really a "bargain", but worth trying.
2/ NN Firecracker pots, 5 for £2. 
3/ 24 sachets of Morries sugar free Lemonade Jelly Crystals. 
4/ Morries crumble mix, 7 bags of 450g. RRP £1 each. OOD £3.
5/ Crosta & Mollica flatbreads, 12 packs of 300g, £2
6/ Jacks S/O Stuffing Mix, 6x170g. No idea how much they RRP at, Tesco's own brand are £1.70/pack. I've got six packs for £3

And.... finally .... does anybody NEED 24 nets of chocolate bunnies?  No... and I did say I'd stay away from sweeties, but they got to me.  Each net is 144g, 24 nets £4, so that's just 17p per net, or 12p/100g of chocolate, which is unbelievable... so low I'm wondering if there's actually 12 nets in there, which'd still be cheap, I'll check later. 

No food though ... so nothing suitable for breakfast.   The OOD does a LOT of cereals, bars, organic products and porridges etc, but I don't buy/eat those  

EDIT 2: Just tried to find the Lidl offer, see what it is.  It was Andrex and 24 rolls... googling indicates these are 170 sheets/roll.  I bought L1dl Simply, 6 for £1.99, but they have 400 sheets/roll.  I don't feel I might've missed a trick now I've done the maths. Those budget rolls are also packed densely, whereas big brands fluff them up, so the budget brand's got >2x the sheets in a smaller footprint.  It is size that I like - I've tried buying those monster-sized 18-24 rolls before and they really are unwieldy to manhandle and store.  The size I've got stacks neatly on my shower room window ledge... bigger packs would need a new home to be found.  

Farway

Cool but bright here as well, must be colder because my CH clicked on for the first time since Spring. I normally have it set at Eskimo Ambient.

Time to hunt out the woolly socks

Good hunting PN, crumble mix is very handy, more so in your situation I'd assume

Another lazy meal day today, hardest part will be peeling spuds

Lunch I'm heating up an @sda C + O pastie from my recent on line shop. I bought two, both have good BB dates and today is an ideal hot pastie day I think

Dinner, this is where the spud peeling comes in, a couple of the tasty sausages, plus AF chips [mash maybe better option but CBA with another cooking stage]

Fried eggs + open tin of beans.

I was mildly shocked to see how many packs of beans I have accrued lately.

I'm in the habit since on line shopping of bunging a pack on the list "just in case" and making up minimum spend. Accidental stockpiling honest Guv

Good job I've done the same with loo rolls

PasturesNew

Farway said:

Good hunting PN, crumble mix is very handy, more so in your situation I'd assume

I was mildly shocked to see how many packs of beans I have accrued lately.

.... "just in case" and making up minimum spend. 

To be honest, if I had "my own home"I could do better. I've seen plenty of homepride slow cooker sauce pouches in there; today there were tons of chicken tray bake mixes and Lloyd Grossman tomato/bacon sauce jars (probably 6 jars, £2).  If I had a kitchen with all my stuff etc and able to plan/cook/eat more "normally" I'd be buying in some of those.  I generally avoid these "nifty mixes" and sauces in general just because of having to buy 6-8 of them.  In my own home I'd have space for a stockpile and be able to use them.  As it is, with a shared kitchen, especially with the 2nd wave having started, it's just not common sense to be in there prepping/cooking food and washing up multiple dishes.  As it is I bought a quiche yesterday, I sliced it in my room into three pieces and popped it in the fridge.  The other day I'd opened a tin of beans in my room and decanted half into a lidded nuke pot and that was in the fridge... so yesterday I flicked on my kettle here and poured some instant mash granules into the mug... dashed downstairs, popped the beans pot into the microwave, got 1/3rd of the quiche out of the fridge and placed it on a re-used microwave meal dish I'd retained.... 3 minutes later and I was up the stairs with the pot rinsed out (to wash properly in my room) and the dish holding hot quiche and beans.  Once in my room I mixed up the instant mash and added it to the dish.  Meal done, time in kitchen 3 minutes flat.  Touched minimal items and didn't cross paths with anybody else in that time. 

Beans: There is no such thing as too many beans (well, let's set an arbitrary limit of 30 cans)..... the issue is that one of "what do you buy just to reach the minimum" - and, once done, it's increasingly difficult to use that technique each time as you've still your stockpiles from the last time.

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
Glad you were able to rescue the over-onioned filling  Brambling
I do prefer to buy the big packs of loo roll, usually Tesco own brand, as they fit well in the space I have for it. Don't like the really cheap thin stuff that you sometimes see, I feel it's a false economy as I just use more of it. 
Beans are always handy, I like to have at least 4 cans in the cupboard. 
Cold but sunny here today, I'm trying to stay out of the way while my boys (socially distancing outside) clear the bottom of my garden ready for the new fence and redesigned growing area for next year. 
Lunch is tbc probably salad wraps. For dinner this evening I've chicken filo Kievs defrosting from the batch  made a couple of weeks ago. We'll have those with HM wedges, green beans, peas and corn.

Wednesday2000

It felt chilly this morning. I had to get up and put the thick blanket on top of our duvet. I went out for my walk and it's not cold enough for my CH to be on, in my opinion. I will wait until it gets properly cold. I didn't need a jacket yet. I did get rained on so I had to cut my walk short as I had left my brolly in my other bag.

I had three crumpets with Marmite and some green tea when I got in.

I think I might make tortilla wrap pizzas later. I have peppers, onion, corn and pineapple.

PasturesNew

Chomping my way through this first net of chocolate.... I've googled them and they appear to have been sold through Iceland, last easter.  The label says they're BBE February 2021.  So, that's a bargain.... it's all chocolate isn't it, doesn't matter that there are bunnies on the foil covering.

Also, the Morries crumble mix isn't out of date yet, can't remember the date it said.