Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
I'm glad my days of those kind of meetings are behind me! 
Interesting re the stamps Farway, I have a few so will keep an eye out for the change.
Weather is back to stormy here and to turn very wintry overnight.
DIL-to-be thankfully seems to not be too unwell though is feeling quite grotty and exhausted. DS1 is still negative and DS2 seems to have escaped. DS2 is supposed be heading to Newcastle this weekend to start packing up what's left in his flat. After almost two years of WFH from here he's been given the okay to continue to be based in Scotland.   
Either soup or LO cauli/spud bake for lunch, there's a portion of each left to choose from. Pasta tonight with a chorizo, mushroom, tomato and pesto sauce. 

CharleyStone

Hello, all. I hope it's okay for me to just jump in here

I've been very happy with my solo cooking since I moved out on my own, but for the last week I have been without a working fridge, which has changed the game entirely! I just don't know how long I can trust some vegetables to last without a fridge, especially when they've been cut! My current technique, if I'm concerned about that, is to make one meal as normal, and then make a second version using up the cut veggies in the slow cooker overnight, cool it as quickly as I can in the morning, and then pop it in the fridge at work for lunch, maybe the next two lunches. I'm very frustrated that I can't use up most of my tinned food because the portions would be too big done on the hob and I have only ever used the slow cooker for certain recipes. Oh, I just realised I could (try to) get up earlier and cook properly in the morning....

I'm almost certainly making way too big a deal of this. I'm sure half an onion and half a tin of tomatoes would survive in a sealed jar for one day without poisoning me! But what if?!

Anyway, no slow cooker trick for the rest of this week because I'm on holiday, so today I will be finding out what the big deal is with avocado and egg on toast, I hope I like it, and tea will be a rice and mushroom stuffed pepper with carrot chips, because the two carrots I bought are already wrinkling and going soft! As you may be able to tell, I have been scouring the shelves at my local co-op for veg that doesn't come in plastic that I think I could eat in one sitting. It turns out, according to Google, that an avocado is a two-meal item, so we'll see how well that keeps overnight

Brambling

Hi Charley 👋  unless you live in a very hot house I won't worry about leaving cut vegetables out of the fridge or  LO tinned food.  I would wrap it up or put in a sealed container and it will be ok, I can remember as children when we didn't have a fridge.  Use your senses, if it looks ok ie not slimy or mouldy and tastes ok it will be ok to eat.  To keep avocado leave the stone in the half you are keeping and either wrap the exposed end in cling film or in a air tight container, if it does go a little brown just cut it off.  Some veg will keep fresh if you leave in water, celery, broccoli, leeks etc the same as you put flowers in water, look up how to store carrots they can keep for months if stored correctly.

It was a nice day here chilly and a little grey but dry 🙂 lunch was a chicken and salad wrap with beetroot.  I used another wrap to make a vegetable pizza for dinner I had a pack of mozzarella dated Christmas which needed using 

justkeepswimmimg

A day of two long meetings for me, not entirely sure the outcomes were worth all the hours 🤔

More of the noodle salad for lunch and jacket spud with tuna mayo tonight.

I was going to say similar to Brambling about leaving veg out of the fridge. Aren’t BB dates on cheese strange?

Farway

Welcome Charley.  Depending on circumstances and available space you can leave veg outside this time of year, or in unheated spare room? There seems to be some folklore about cut onions becoming instantly poisonous if left but I’m still here, I wrap in cling or foil, whichever is to hand

Very grey day again but only have one real task of lugging garden waste wheelie bin round the front for tomorrow’s collection, and repay neighbour for  cutting my  grass last year by chucking their Christmas tree in the same garden bin, no free waste collection lunches in Hampshire, hence the LO tree

Food today, lunch, a fake Spam sarnie sounds tempting, on sliced soft white bread + Branston.  Pretend I’m back at work in the 60s

Dinner, the LO YS mince meatloaf, nuked to heat through, with last of the frozen chips and maybe some salad alongside

caronc

Good afternoon everyone, 
Welcome Charley, I can only echo what Brambling and Farway have said. Covered in a cool place should be fine for most things at this time of year though of course don't take any risks and make sure anything cooked is fully reheated.
Foul weather here today with squalls of hail/sleet/snow, bitterly cold  and strong winds. The bin run will wait until tomorrow!
LO pasta for lunch and tonight it sausages, HM wedges, roasted cauli, peas and LO chasni curry sauce. An odd combo but it works surprisingly well. 

Brambling

I think someone has stolen my week, I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow 🙂 although working Saturday means a short weekend 😐

For the third time this year someone is digging up the road/ pavement I'm wondering if this time it could be the cable company which we were told to expect about two months ago when they did the roads all around us. Half the town is being dug up, you can't avoid temporary lights 

I made cauliflower  and broccoli cheese lunch time as the cauliflower needed using, and had LOs dinner time with a pork loin chop and green beans

justkeepswimmimg

Whereas I am so relieved it’s finally Friday tomorrow! Bit of a stressful one today but have had a nice easy PJ and sofa evening 🙃

Lunch was the last of the chicken noodle salad. Salmon with green beans and pesto pasta tonight.

Farway

Hard frost with sunny blue sky, promise of lovely day weather wise before more rain for the weekend, another plus of not working

Garden wheelie bin has been emptied already; I’ll trundle that away later on. I had left the Sedum heads on the plants with the forecast overnight frost, my cunning plan was some arty frost covered seeds heads photos this morning, no, wrong type of frost I guess, just same old brown dead heads. I’ll remove them & put in the bin later

 Meals planned, need to get some stuff out to defrost, salmon fillet & diced steak

Salmon for today, diced steak for the wet weather forecast slow cooker thing tomorrow

 Lunch today will be another pork luncheon meat & Branston sarnie

Dinner, fry the salmon in butter / olive oil, with boiled new potatoes & salad

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
You're sounding very organised food wise Farway.  I'm CFO for the next day or so, so meals are tbc. Next week my sis & pooch are staying while she gets her bedroom replastered and my nephew will be here for meals so I'm expecting to do a fair bit of cooking, a day or so with easy options before chaos reigns sounds very appealing. LO sausages with picallili for lunch in a crusty roll. Dinner is likely to be chicken thighs or fish fingers.