Cooking for one (Mark Three)

moneyistooshorttomention

Could be worse PN.

At least we can afford to eat.

So I get fed-up thinking what's what sometimes - but, on the other hand, I can afford to eat and buy whatever food I decide I will (rather than having to stop and buy something else instead because of not being able to afford it).

If there's something "new to me" there in the shop - then in my basket it goes if I fancy trying it.

Still boring myself with a diet at the moment - but getting there. Yesterday (and again today) my main meal will be pasta with a Slimming World pesto of mint/basil/some other green vegetable (interpreted by me as meaning spinach)/lots of lemon (as it's both rind and juice). It wasn't too bad actually - though I shall make bigger quantities in future.

Meanwhile - I'm still going to have some basil and mint left over and so had better get on googling the question of "Can I freeze mint and basil?".

flubberyzing

Morning!

Despite telling my agency last week, that I wasn't available for work today, they still phoned me up at 7:20 to ask if I was free... When I said no, she basically growled, said "I've got to go!" and hung up! Why bother asking about teachers availability every week, if you're just going to ignore what they say?! Odd.

Anyway, got up and went to Tesco for the weeks food... I'm current trying to decide when to have my cooked meal of the day... I'm thinking of having it about 4:30. I'm doing a blood donation this evening. Technically I'm booked for 5:45, but I'm going to go along a bit before that... Especially as I've never been to this particular donation centre before. Previously, they've been held at the school at the end of my road, which I could walk to. This new one is a 10/15 minute drive away.
I'm thinking eat before I go, so my blood sugars are good and up... Especially as I do have a slight tendency to get a bit woolly headed in the hour or so afterwards... It'll be donation 32 or 33 for me... I can never remember what I'm up to!

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Could be worse PN.

At least we can afford to eat.

It's getting dearer though isn't it. It's more noticeable in cheap products where there's less choice.

My beans went from 89p/4 to 98p/4.
If Fortnum & Mason's beans went from £2/can to £2.10 nobody'd notice.... and they'd still have the option of swapping to cheaper beans..... when you're buying the cheapest already you've no wriggle room.

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Meanwhile - I'm still going to have some basil and mint left over and so had better get on googling the question of "Can I freeze mint and basil?".

Yes you can though it is only good for cooking afterwards, works best I've found if you blitz with some water into a paste and freeze in ice cubes. Handy for adding to dishes. What about looking your dehydrator out - both dry really well.:)


Agree there is a creep on food prices especially on basic food stuffs. Not as dramatic as when butter just about doubled in price over a couple of months but still an upwards trend with more no doubt to come. Between winter, food prices and then next years uncertainties while I'm not stockpiling I am making sure my stores of staples are well stocked.


Shopping has been delivered, no missing items and a few bits to put away for Christmas that were on SO. Gammon joint will be getting split- half for festive period and the other I'll cut into steaks for my stores.

Wednesday2000

I've only had a cough sweet today. I'm glad I kept that GP appointment for this week and didn't cancel as I think I need antibiotics.

I'm thinking about wholemeal toast with vegan cream cheese for breakfast.

I still have that soup for later and am not sure about dinner yet.

I lost a grand total of 1 pound in the past two weeks.:rotfl:

Oh well, at least I didn't gain any back so that is 9 pounds in a month so not too bad.:T

PasturesNew

I've had a bread packet mix in the cupboards for .... ooh years.
Date on the top say BB 30 July 2015.

I finally got to the point where I thought "I'll make/cook that today". Then I read the instructions.

Now ... firstly .... I really dislike touching food. Some foods are worse than others, e.g. raw meat = practically a no go zone... but doughs/pastries are up there on the list as I don't like the feel of food + I start to think about general dirt/germs.... even if a worktop is surgically scrubbed and steam cleaned to laboratory standards, it'd still be on my mind as dough/pastry were kneaded or rolled....

I thought this packet mix was a simple "empty, add water, mix, use" - which can be done in a bowl with a spoon, never touching it.

No.... it's all faffery. Empty pack, add water. Great - I'm up for that...
But then I realised it said to use a mixer for 5 minutes (no mixer, so that's 10 minutes by hand at least to form a dough) .... then leave 5 minutes ... then knead and stretch for 2 minutes .. then rest for 5 minutes.

It's only then you get to the cooking bit!



Pack's back in the cupboard for at least today .... I need time for all that to sink in and really need to fancy doing it.....

Apart from "not liking" touching food - and general kneading/rolling of anything - my kitchen worktop's not really big enough for all that sort of palava. There's only a single square of worktop space for all that to go on... so it feels restrictive even though technically possible in the space, just.

caronc

Sounds like a check with your GP is a good idea Wednesday <<hug>>
PN- if it is a yeasted bread mix there's very high chance that the yeast will have died. It really doesn't keep well much after the BBE date - maybe 6 months max. The mixes are great if you want to make HM bread without buying bread flour, yeast etc. but the making process is much the same as doing it from scratch. If you want to chance a flat brick you could try the no knead method which is much less hands on but does need a decent amount of "thinking" time and a very hot oven and lidded casserole . I'm not sure if it would work with a mix anyway. Tbh I'd be binning it rather than putting it back in the oven:)

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

Sounds like a check with your GP is a good idea Wednesday <<hug>>
PN- if it is a yeasted bread mix there's very high chance that the yeast will have died. It really doesn't keep well much after the BBE date - maybe 6 months max. The mixes are great if you want to make HM bread without buying bread flour, yeast etc. but the making process is much the same as doing it from scratch. If you want to chance a flat brick you could try the no knead method which is much less hands on but does need a decent amount of "thinking" time and a very hot oven and lidded casserole . I'm not sure if it would work with a mix anyway. Tbh I'd be binning it rather than putting it back in the oven:)

The packet mislead me... it said "Simply add water" .... I believed it

It didn't say on the packet "just add water, then do all this other hard work/stuff ... and knead and stretch it ... and all the things you despise about bread-making..."

I was mis-sold!

It's a wrights cheese/onion one.

I've got my own recipe that requires no faffery ..... literally just a bowl and a spoon and a bit of mixing. Lost the get-up-and-go for the moment though ... and the point of making the bread was to get rid of the packet that I'd owned for so many years. It was never "to make bread".... just de-cluttering

caronc

LO stew on toast with a poached egg was pretty darn fine and a great way to use a small amount of LOs without any faff.:D My mum used to make this quite often for us in days when we came home from school for lunch from LO stew or mince etc. or sometimes with tinned mince or steak. (which always seemed like more of a treat to a youngster;)):)

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

The packet mislead me... it said "Simply add water" .... I believed it

It didn't say on the packet "just add water, then do all this other hard work/stuff ... and knead and stretch it ... and all the things you despise about bread-making..."

I was mis-sold!

It's a wrights cheese/onion one.

The "Wrights" do tend to give a pretty decent end result but don't keep so I think no matter how much you mixed or kneaded it would give you a brick unless you added some more yeast. Definitely bin fodder at 3+ years OOD, says she who usually pays no attention to BBE but sometimes they are best followed or not stretched too far.:)