Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

I try to shop at Aldi, as it's cheaper than T, but it's truly bedlam in there on a weekend. I just put off shopping til I really, really need to go & then do a month's worth on a weekday afternoon when I've literally no food left in the house. In between, I pick up a loaf of bread from the local big T on my way home from work.
Shopping is a chore.....

The problem I have is .... preferences

I'm very lucky to live between an 4ldi and a L1dl. Both within 1/4 of a mile.

But, while the goods on the shelves can seemingly be "identical" they're not - and one gets a little preference. If one shop does something "nice" and the other's identical offering is "not nice" it's not a simple question of accepting that the other might be "a tiny bit nicer..."

There are also a couple of items that aren't sold at both shops, so you have to go to the one that sells that item.

4ldi sell oven bottom muffins. I prefer 4ldi 36p loaves to L1dl. 4ldi have 20p cans of rice pudding. Their 30p bars of chocolate are much nicer (soft/melty instead of hard/crackable). Their chocolate digestives are also much nicer.

I like L1dl sausage rolls, hash browns, cooked cocktail sausages, fake butter, 'Weetabix'. L1dl sells custard powder. They were selling great ginger beer (until July this year).

For many things I don't care where I get them from. Coffee, spuds, quiche, milk, eggs, honey nut cornflakes, ketchup/salad cream/brown sauce.

So, most of the time it doesn't matter which shop I go in, so I go into 4ldi as I prefer to browse there as I'm more likely to find something new/different... L1dl's products tend to be more "furren", so they'll have new things passing through, but there's too much "unknown furren stuff" for me.

But, if I am after one particular item where I have a preference ... then I tend to end up going into both, which is a bit annoying as they're in opposite directions, so having gone to 4ldi, I then have to pass my house to get to L1dl.... so I'll often just turn homewards instead, like I did today.

DundeeDoll

what works for me is to just load the stuff straight back into the trolley, pay, then wheel it off to load into bags in my own time. for a larger shop handy to have 2 people, 2 trolleys. one unloads, the other loads. like i say, works for me

PasturesNew

DundeeDoll wrote: »

what works for me is to just load the stuff straight back into the trolley, pay, then wheel it off to load into bags in my own time. for a larger shop handy to have 2 people, 2 trolleys. one unloads, the other loads. like i say, works for me

Yes, but as this is a "Cooking for One" thread, most of us never have a 2nd person..... nor need a trolley

I usually use a basket for shopping, unless I specifically know I am in there to buy a 6-pack of 2 litre drinks and 2.5Kg of spuds... or stocking up on 24 packs of loo roll.

Even what looks like a basket of food leads to food overload when you get it home and realise how many meals you're going to have to eat to get through that lot.

Farway

I use a trolley, but it mainly to stopping me tumbling into the shelves:eek:, and handy for heavy stuff, like spuds, if I had them in a basket I'd be lopsided and [STRIKE]more[/STRIKE] unstable

Back from a lovely hot & sunny day in Chichester. Walked over 3 miles, slowly of course.
Sorry Caron but it could've been an August day today. All very nice, except the roast lunch was not as nice as it mostly is, never mind, at least I never had to cook it or wash up

One plus on the buy a lunch get a pud for a wee bit extra, we had the roast, kids opted for the pud in stead of "proper" food. Top tip:D:money::money:

I think a corned beef & cooked beetroot sandwich may be all I will need later

PasturesNew

I cooked/ate the fish with chips and beans.

It is lovely (4ldi, 4-pack, breaded fish fillets, 600g) and I'd definitely either buy those again (if half price sticker spotted), and/or try other/similar fish and brands.

moneyistooshorttomention

More pasta and "bolognaise" type sauce for dinner today (made with quorn mince) - sighs with Diet Boredom...

The plus side being I've been doing some more trying-on of clothes today and a pair of my jeans I wore coming over feel pretty much the same size as they did when I moved here - which translates into "I'm probably back down at around 9stone 7 lbs then - 1 stone to go".

Think I probably put on about a stone in my first couple of years here (all that ":eek::eek: - reaches for a "drink":beer: and then another drink or two that I was doing).

Decided it feels that bit "easier" now the neighbours aren't "playing up" any longer (one of the two troublemakers has moved out:D), I've made some friends and my house at any rate is now "London style" (which is what suits me & my tastes). Hence feeling I should find it easier to diet now and get back to normal.

wort

I've had jacket potato with beans cheese , tomato,and onion, with the last of the spicy chicken.
A cup of tea with fruit and nut chocolate for afters.

Brambling

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

Eggs need to be eaten by the 24th, so I'll be using 2 more for fairy cakes, hard boiling 2 for tomorrow's work sandwich & that leaves 4 to boil up for Tues/weds work lunches. I'm not buying a pack of 10 eggs again....

Novice if the eggs have been in the fridge and pass the float test ie don't float when added to a bowl of water they should be ok pass the 24th. I just eaten eggs a week out of date

Good news on the clothes fitting Money, at least it shows your hard work on the diet is working. One of the things I've noticed on my Fitbit is my resting heart rate as gone down from a weekly average of 74 beats per minute to 65 beats I'm just hoping my blood pressure isn't dropping as well as it was already low

I've decided to experiment a bit more with my air fryer so today I made some scotch eggs in it, using a couple of sausages from the freezer and the results were like I had deep fried them, lovely crispy coating with just breadcrumbs and not like the usual baked ones

Lunch was the last of the smoked salmon and salad with one of the scotch eggs. Dinner was chicken biryani, when I finished the cooking I noticed the chopped onions sitting in the ramekin next to the stove rather in the dish so they're in the fridge for another day

Novice_investor101

I thought i noticed that MrT has now started labelling eggs as "best before" instead "use by".
I'll definitely do the float test!

For those that have them, how big is the airfryer? I have an old deep fat fryer sat gathering dust in a cupboard because it's just too much hassle for one portion of chips, & I don't like the oily smell. I've thought of getting an airfryer before, but not if they're all "family sized".

Brambling

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

I thought i noticed that MrT has now started labelling eggs as "best before" instead "use by".
I'll definitely do the float test!

For those that have them, how big is the airfryer? I have an old deep fat fryer sat gathering dust in a cupboard because it's just too much hassle for one portion of chips, & I don't like the oily smell. I've thought of getting an airfryer before, but not if they're all "family sized".

Old eggs don't fry or poach very well as the white is watery but they work find for other things

My air fryer was only a cheap one and isn't family size, it's probably the heigh of a microwave and a similar size footprint as a slow cooker. I have a smallish kitchen and a space where I swap the slow cooker, air fryer and pressure cooker so it light enough to move about. Yes I like my gadgets :rotfl:

Edit - just measured it and the base is approx 30cm