Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Southern-Girl wrote: »

This sounds amazing! I've never heard of a savoury one. How do you make it, please? (and cook it )

It's very much a bung in so apologies if the quantities are a bit vague. Today I used the following which will give 3-4 portions it's easy to scale up or down.
Cube enough (1inch cubes) stale bread to give a thick layer on the bottom of a oiled shallow roasting tin or casserole (mine is 23cm square). You can remove crusts but I don't.
Chop topping quite small, I used 1/2 a yellow pepper, 8 smallish mushrooms, 2 spring onions, around 10 cherry toms halved and 2 rashers of streaky bacon.
Whisk 6 eggs with about 1/2 the volume of eggs of milk added. Add salt, pepper & a little paprika.
Pour evenly over the bread mix and chill for a good few hours (or overnight) before baking.
It takes about 40 mins to bake at 170C (fan) , 10-15 mins before the end sprinkle top with grated cheese. I'm using cheddar & mozzarella. Lovely hot or cold, freezes well.
You can basically use any topping you like (my kids used to like salami, tomatoes, corn & cheese when they were small) but if using spinach, kale etc. best to cook first and then squeeze out as much of the water as you can.

Farway

Fairly bright & warm day, today is hang washing out day, did that after my breakfast of porridge, honey, banana & yoghurt

Last night's mackerel etc was nice, but not filling somehow, I eventually had a bowl of Lidlbix with a banana later in the evening,
And then had cheese & crackers later:o

Today is also garden wheelie bin collection day, had time to cut down the Sungold toms and get them in there before collection, the bin already contained the old runners and some gone mad dahlias

Lunch was last of the plastic ham, with salad bits, inside PB baguette

Because sun was out, I re-potted my Stanley plum into a larger, heavier, cylindrical pot, hopefully that will be it's final spot, and should not blow over given the weight & shape of pot

Good news on MOT flubberyzing

No idea about dinner, if it really gets bad it could be open a FB pie tin, I've got a chick & mush slurry BBE 10/18, but I've really no fixed ideas, cheese on toast even

Caron, now I'm going to use parsley next year, and the savoury B & B pud sounds excellent, I'll add that to my list, perhaps sprinkle some parsley in:D

caronc

Farway wrote: »

Caron, now I'm going to use parsley next year, and the savoury B & B pud sounds excellent, I'll add that to my list, perhaps sprinkle some parsley in:D

Good thinking re the parsley:), I realise I forgot to list it on the stuff I put in the savoury bread pudding. Another option is to use sandwiches you have sliced bread to use up. Make up sandwiches with filling of your choice - cheese/ham/tomato/onion etc. work well though most fillings that don't have salad or mayo should be okay. Cut sandwiches into triangles or fingers, . Layer in a dish and cover with egg/milk mix & bit of extra cheese if you fancy. A handy use if you have LO sandwiches from a buffet etc. My mum used to make this if there were sarnies LO from "party teas".:)
The weather picked up later on just in time for my grocery order to arrive so no gardening was done. Now it's cleared the temperature is dropping like a stone, it's due to drop to 7C by midnight and it certainly feels like it:eek:. Thankfully it's to be a bit warmer again from tomorrow though I'm sure in a couple of months 7C will feel positively balmy:cool:.

Shopping is all put away, it didn't take long as it was mainly fresh bits and household supplies .
I still haven't decided if I'll look out the "vintage" pasty for tonight, I probably should incase it looks inedible before I prep anything to go with it;)


ETA - "vintage" pasty was surprisingly unscathed despite being frozen on 16/03/16, enjoyed every bite:rotfl:

PasturesNew

My savoury bread puds tended to be just cheese/tomato/onion and mixed herbs.... because they're what I'd have typically had to hand.

Sausage, cooked onion and stuffing works well too....

Or .. most things really.

I was always a savoury person, rather than sweet. I could never get enough savoury food to eat.... but these days I've far too much CBA

I was thinking of tossing one in the SC ... but I'm currently out of milk - and so it'll be another thought ... for another day (month/year).

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

Sausage, cooked onion and stuffing works well too....

Definitely a dish for what you have to hand:), sausage, onion and stuffing sounds really tasty:D

moneyistooshorttomention

Duh! Inadvertently baked 2 potatoes yesterday to go with the rest of the mushroom stroganoff and forgot I'd got some leftover couscous too. Whoops!

So I've now got 2 cold baked potatoes I'm wondering what to do with. Vaguely thinking along lines of smearing with a lot of quark (as that's "Free Food") and doing a stirfry with "chicken" quorn in.

Thought that was good of me yesterday to avoid the temptation to buy a bottle of wine for home - but duly resisted and telling myself that I know I'll have a couple of glasses when I go out dancing tomorrow - so must be good. Should be quite active dancing I think and one of the plus sides of this area is "anyone and everyone" goes dancing here regardless of age/whether anyone will go with them/etc - though I will be going with a friend myself. I'm expecting it to be quite lively....so should burn those calories straight back off again.

bouicca21

Money, either just heat them through in the oven or slice and fry ...

flubberyzing

caronc wrote: »

Good thinking re the parsley:), I realise I forgot to list it on the stuff I put in the savoury bread pudding. Another option is to use sandwiches you have sliced bread to use up. Make up sandwiches with filling of your choice - cheese/ham/tomato/onion etc. work well though most fillings that don't have salad or mayo should be okay. Cut sandwiches into triangles or fingers, . Layer in a dish and cover with egg/milk mix & bit of extra cheese if you fancy. A handy use if you have LO sandwiches from a buffet etc. My mum used to make this if there were sarnies LO from "party teas".:)

:rotfl: My mum did the same! She'd make up rounds of cheese and tomato sandwiches, and bake them in an eggy mixture. In later years, she'd also add some bits of ham.
"Cheese and tomato sandwich pie" was a staple in our house as children. Gosh, I haven't thought about that in years! :rotfl:

I didn't visit here at all yesterday! In the morning I went to the recruitment office I'm going to doing some work with soon, then went round Tesco. I took my list, and stuck firmly too it! The bulk of my spend though, was a new gadget to stick in the lighter on my car, so that I can charge my phone while driving. The previous one came from a pound shop, but it did last a year. I use my phone as a sat-nav a lot for work, which drains the battery quickly, so I need a way to charge on the go.

I had a headache in the afternoon, so went to bed for a couple of hours after taking some ibuprofen, which did it's job, but took a while!

Then drove the better part of an our to a friends house for a chippy tea! The chippy was only £3.70, but with the petrol, then evening out probably cost closer to a tenner. But there's no cost to a nice evening with a group of friends!
Tonight I'm out again, this time about half an hour, for dinner at another friends house. I have a stash of wine that I get gifted, so I'll take a bottle along. I'm not sure what the meal is, but the hubby of the house is a great cook, so I'm sure it'll be marvellous!

PasturesNew

flubberyzing wrote: »

.... but with the petrol, then evening out probably cost closer to a tenner. ...

I am acutely aware of the cost/mile of driving my car and make the calculation for every journey.

Luckily my car appears to do 10 miles/litre (~45mpg), which means the fuel cost is 1/10th of the price/litre of the fuel, so currently about 14p/mile. Then there's the cost of owning the car etc, which I add on at 50% of the fuel cost... so that'd be 21p. So in my head I'd round that down and say it's 20p/mile to go anywhere.

Although my recent good car boot finds were cheap in themselves, I do consider the fact that a 10 mile car boot is 20 miles round trip, so costs £2 before I've found anything... and, ideally, I'd like to do a Round Robin of 2-3 in one morning, so the fuel becomes £5. Then there's entry, which can be up to £1

This means I'd have to wonder whether spending £200-300/year just to see "if they have anything" is worthwhile or if I'd be kidding myself I'm "saving money" which is why I don't go every week... or even every month, just when I specifically do want something.

I'll be visiting a sibling in 2-3 weeks' time, round trip 380 miles, that's £55 just in fuel, plus the running costs/wear and tear element.... so call it a £70 rounded up. And you can't go empty handed, especially as there's an anniversary involved... and you need a card... and "going out for a drink" money - and probably have to "pay for a meal out" too!

flubberyzing

PasturesNew, I have to say, I rarely give much thought to the cost of my journeys, but as this coming academic year, my finances are going to be more variable, I want to be more aware of those costs that I haven't thought about so much.

The problem I have, is that the bulk of my friendship group live the other side of the county to me in the next big town. That's about a 30 minute drive.

Using your theory of 20p a mile (which is about right I feel), my round-trip for this evening will be £9.60. Round up for wear and tear to a tenner. Suddenly, a "free dinner" isn't "free" any more! But £10, for an evening in the company of some of my best friends? Cheap!

That being said, I've always tried to be sensible with the car. If I can sensibly walk, I do. If I can combine errands into a single trip, I do that also. I see my car as a necessary expense, that allows me to have the life I want. I also couldn't do the job I do without it. I think my life would be extremely limited, and deficient, without it. Like all expenses, it's everything in moderation.
For your car booting… I'd think, if you enjoy it, why not? It probably does cost you more than you save, but there are other benefits. You get out the house, you get some social interaction, you get a bit of exercise. All pluses in my mind!