Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Brambling

Farway said:

Another cold & grey morning where I'm glad the heating came on before I got up

Brambling, good news about the freezer, and in time for the Big Day. Will they take the old one away? They did with my one, but had to pay extra & pre-arrange for taking away.

They charged £19.99 (not sure why not £20?) for removal I added it as a item to the basket when I brought the FF 🙂 a little cheaper and easier than calling the council, now that the freezer is empty the fridge is getting really cold, I've fiddledwith the temperature but it still haven't fully defrosted a container with a HM RM taken out Friday morning

its been a cold and damp day here as well so I had no incentive to go out.  I tackled my larder cupboard  tin fish anyone? I also seem to have a lot of vinegar from Chinese Black vinegar to rice vinegar and all colours in between and pickles! at least that wouldn't go out of date 🙄. After lunch I started under the stairs but got bored half way though the task, hopefully I'll have no visitors tomorrow to see the state of the hallway 
.
I received a letter today from Dept of Environment Food & Rural Affairs warning of a outbreak of bird flu in the area and to declare any birds and advise if we see any dead wild birds 😐

lunch was a fish finger sandwich, Dinner another freezer find, chilli with rice

Farway

More grey & damp outside this morning, just right for hunkering down, I may attempt making a microwave "steamed pud" today, it's ideal weather for some high calories & custard

Brambling, snap on tinned fish & multi vinegars, some of the vinegars were bought during one of my healthy make your own salad dressing phases and now linger at the back, I do sometimes add a splash to salad / cucumbers but mostly by the time I think of it's too late

Yes, our freezer removal was same arrangement, but as you say much more convenient and cheaper than council or trying to get it down the tip

Meals today,

Lunch, cheese toastie

Dinner, last portion of LO braised steak thing

and if I get it done, some HM microwaved syrup sponge pudding + instant custard

Now off to rummage among the vinegar & tinned fish looking for Golden Syrup tin that is in there somewhere

caronc

Good afternoon everyone,
My sis has just picked up Ari, him and Hector have just played and played. Chaos but such fun to see.   
Very cold here today, only just nudging above freezing now and still very icy underfoot outdoors. The bottom of my garden is like an ice rink so DS2 will be doing the bin run!
Boned & rolled lamb shoulder for dinner tonight. Just a small piece but hopefully some LOs. We'll have it with various veg, roasties and HM gravy. 
Using whizzed breadsticks for a crunchy coating worked really well with the chicken. Much cheaper than panko crumbs but a similar finish. LO chicken in a wrap with salad for lunch.

Brambling

Another cold and grey day here, I don't think it's rained at all.  

What a good idea re the bread sticks Caronc  I have read about using cornflakes but as i don't like them as a cereal a box would go off before i used it and I've heard of using tortilla chips but rarely have them in the house but i do often have breadsticks.  I do buy the packs of breadcrumbs in the World food section in Tesco I think they maybe Polish and they work well in the airfryer for chicken and scotch eggs

I've eaten too many HM RMs from the freezer as they were the only things which have not fitted into the small chest freezer and TBH i have had enough of them, just some soup left for the next couple of days.  I'm quite pleased that i will have completely cleared all of them and can start afresh.  I think the ones left were the ones I wasn't so keen on when I froze them although i may be cursing if work gets manic or I'm unable to cook for any reason 

Lunch was minestrone soup and the last muffin toasted with cheese.  Dinner was JO chicken stew with beans with cabbage and peas

justkeepswimmimg

Gosh, I’m late tonight. Not entirely sure where the evening has gone…

Grey and cold again here. Did walk to do a small food shop so I got some fresh air, oh and I popped outside to read the meters later. Not a day for being out too long.

Picked up a YS tub of bacon and egg mayo sandwich filler in sainsbugs so made a sarnie with the fresh loaf for lunch - not as enjoyable as a proper HM egg mayo sandwich 🙄

Heating has been on quite a lot but did get a load of washing mostly dry on the airer. Bored of winter already!

Made harissa chicken and cannellini bean traybake tonight, LO chicken meal planned into tomorrow night’s pasta 🙃

Farway

Getting harder to get out of a nice warm bed on these dark & dank mornings, and now they are forecasting colder weather & maybe snow, probably be sod's law of a white Christmas and unable to get to DD for first one post Covid lockdown, fingers crossed

The microwave sponge pud turned out very well, surprised me, especially as it was my first attempt. I found the G syrup behind the tinned fish & vinegars  , but unfortunately it had been opened for so long it looked very dark & positively lethal, so I opted to use remnants in LO jar of cheapo strawberry jam, which worked, but the jam was a let-down, hence it being LO

Anyway, I'll certainly make MW sponge again, and a fresh tin of G Syrup is on the shopping list

Food today is use up & LOs

Lunch back to cheese toastie, using up the last bit of cheapo mousetrap

Dinner, reheat in AF the LO cheese & O flan, nuke LO mash and add salad bits

LO MW sponge pud & LO cold instant custard if still space

caronc

Good morning everyone,
Yes I buy the Prymat crumbs from Tesco and find them generally very good but very fine. The breadsticks made a nice, coarse crumb. I think it's Nigella that favours cornflakes and JO likes cream crackers.
Glad the pud was a success Farway. 
Yesterday DS1 picked up my meds from Boots and it's incomplete so will need to chase up the missing item. I do hope that it's just an oversight and hasn't been missed by the surgery as when it happened before it was a right PITA to sort out.
Very cold and grey here today. Not a frosty as yesterday first thing but still pretty icy underfoot.
Lamb sandwich and fruit for lunch and spag bol with ragu from the freezer for dinner. 

Wednesday2000

My husband is back at work after having a month off so cooking for one again.

I am going to make a smoothie as I haven't eaten yet as I slept in late.

I'm going to do some batch cooking later, a curry or a soup for a few lunches this week. I am out on Thursday and Friday in London and will have to wrap up warm as it is meant to be much colder.

I am going to try and not have the heating on during the day. I'm going to have a hot shower which normally warms me up and I have hot drinks and blankets etc... all day. It doesn't feel too bad at the moment anyway.

Oh yes, someone is supposed to be coming to do the gutters and the windows this week and he didn't call me back to give a price. I will have to call him today.

justkeepswimmimg

No heating on during the day here but only because I went into the office! Needed it on when I got home but I’m still ok with the stat at the lower temperature so far, not sure how long that will last with this week’s forecast 🥶

Freezer stash soup for lunch - last of the celery and Stilton, with some nice fresh bread. Made a throw it all in pasta tonight with the end of a punnet of mushrooms, LO harissa chicken, tin of cherry tomatoes and the end of a tub of soured cream, served with broccoli. LOs of LOs for lunch tomorrow 🙃

Brambling

I'm glad the MW sponge worked Farway unfortunately it's given me ideas the waistline would prefer I didn't have 🤭 especially as I know I have a tin of golden syrup in the cupboard 😋

The last few mornings I have had the heating come on to take the chill off the house before I get up only 45 mins or so at 16, it does make a difference especially if I remember to shut up my lounge the night before (sorry cat) as it then holds the heat for most of the day. That little time is frightening enough to see  on the smart meter display so I'm not looking forward to it getting colder 😬 I've unearthed my wheat bags and I've one tucked inside my jumper at the moment which seems to encourage the furry heater to lay on top of it as well. His lordship does make it difficult to do anything including reading and typing and I occasionally have to watch TV between his ears 😺

Minestrone soup for lunch I made garlic croutons in the airfryer and ended up picking on the LO ones all afternoon.  Dinner was the last of the frozen LOs marked soup and turned out to be chicken biryani with chick peas, far too much froze as one portion so I ended up picking the chicken out and throwing about half the rice and peas away 🙄