Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Good afternoon everyone,
Farway - glad you've decided to go with the dog's dangly bits one, I don't think you'll be disappointed.:)
MTSTM - you remind of being a youngster when I first moved away from home. My then bf and I went for a drink in our new local. It was a vibrant place, nice atmosphere and a fab jukebox. Took us ages to clock that although there was a good mix of males and females we were the only mixed sex couple in the place. Didn't stop us going back again.....:cool:
Interesting re the different budgets, we all have different needs/wants/can affords but regardless us CFOers do seem to manage to put together some tasty meals:)

I've had another very peaceful/restful day. Didn't manage out but did have a lovely sit on the deck in the sunshine. Wonky donkey is still not in bed but hopefully heading that way:). My sister popped by for a cuppa and a catch up which was fab, though meant the soup is still a bunch of ingredients;).
The sunshine brought out a huge, very unhappy queen wasp which was determined it was coming into my kitchen and staying there. It had it's chance to leave but I'm afraid it's an ex-wasp now......

Apart from prepping some veg the only thing I need to do for dinner is give the steak a bit of a bash as it's a bit thicker than I want. So shortly I'll be a woman wielding a meat mallet, always very good for a bit of stress relief :rotfl::rotfl:

PasturesNew

There've been threads on MSE in the past about dining alone and problems encountered, service refused... and if you google it you'll find a few reports of it and even a couple of journalists writing it up as that was their article of the week they had to write.

Of course, especially in the modern world of social media and 10,000 new restaurants opening up that need bums on seats even if alone .... it's easier today than, say, 10 years ago.

It's probably easier in cities, huge towns, etc ... rather than small villages/small towns.

Many places, too, aren't set up for it. e.g. there's a carvery I wanted to go to - until I worked out that I couldn't easily work it out.... I had to go in and get a table. Great. Next, go queue at the bar - hang on, I either take my stuff with me so it doesn't get nicked and lose the table .... or leave it at the table, perchance to be nicked or even moved aside by another diner.

Then the dinner... ditto for my stuff and holding that while juggling the plate of dinner.

All faffery.

Or the restaurant that had thought it through a bit and you could "flip over" a sign at the top of the menu saying "Table Taken - Ordering Food" as you ordered food at the bar. That still didn't stop two disgruntled ladies grabbing my table in my absence. I had to point out to them that I'd ordered my dinner, to that table number and I wasn't backing down! They huffed and puffed.... I was so annoyed it spoilt my dinner ... and then my dessert didn't come because, apparently, I was supposed to go and let them know when I was ready for dessert (nobody told me).

moneyistooshorttomention

I think it is getting steadily easier Pastures - part of which may be down to an increasing proportion of women not earning less than their male counterparts any longer perhaps?

I think there's a fair number of us that no longer go round thinking of ourselves as women iyswim. I certainly think of myself as a "person", not a "woman" these days. I think that's for the mixed reason of many of us baby boomers have now got to "lost our looks" age by now:( and don't attract male attention per se any longer (and hence maybe less likely to think of ourselves as a "woman" iyswim) and more as a "person" and expecting totally equal treatment to men in absolutely every respect.???

Add the fact that I think we're now in the 3rd Wave of Feminism I would say - the First Wave were the suffragettes/suffragists. The second wave was our generation back in the 1970s type era - demanding equal pay etc. This is the 3rd Wave now imo - where women are finding out/shouting about where we still don't have equal pay (eg BBC presenters) and shouting "Me Too" (if we've had "incidents" our male equivalent wouldnt have had). With that - I think the last vestiges of treating a person as a "lone woman" are crumbling. I think I should see us treated totally equally in my lifetime (hope so:)). One of the side-effects of this is I think it probably is getting to feel easier for us to go into pubs/restaurants/etc on our own - I know I tell myself "If a man can - then I can too" and I expect a lot of us do so.

**********

Re food - and I'm on another recipe from my "How not to die" (plant-based cookbook), Curried chickpeas this time. Meant to be filling for a wrap. I have the feeling it's possible to buy healthy ones in the U.S. - but I've yet to find any here that are (apart from that packet of sweet potato flatbreads I found one time in Tesco - and they've not had them since).

So I would have had to make my own. Not much hassle - but the thing about this way of eating is you're told many people will be rather hungrier than normal to start with - and I couldnt wait to make those flatbreads (so will be filling up with toast). I'm one of the ones that is having this "feeling hungrier" thing - and I gather it's because it involves eating a lot less "fat" (no cheese:(). To which we're told - eat as much as you want...it's all healthy (ie not junk food vegan). It'll settle - and you'll still lose any weight you need to lose. So I'm still having bread spread (due to lack of a tasty alternative yet) and some of my milk is still dairy milk - so it's virtually vegan - and I get hungry:rotfl:

bouicca21

Back in the 60s women on their own weren't allowed in Wimpeys late at night, because they'd once been done for harbouring prostitutes and claimed they couldn't be expected to distinguish.

wort

It's probably easier in cities, huge towns, etc ... rather than small villages/small towns.

Many places, too, aren't set up for it. e.g. there's a carvery I wanted to go to - until I worked out that I couldn't easily work it out.... I had to go in and get a table. Great. Next, go queue at the bar - hang on, I either take my stuff with me so it doesn't get nicked and lose the table .... or leave it at the table, perchance to be nicked or even moved aside by another diner.

Then the dinner... ditto for my stuff and holding that while juggling the plate of dinner.
).[/QUOTE]
PN this is why I didn't eat in the buffet on the ship, unless you went b4 it got busy and could choose breakfast and sit close enough to the drinks machine, so you could get a second cuppa whilst keeping an eye on your seat!!!

Thanks all, for your budget as a cfo - maybe I'd didn't do too bad! But I will keep an eye on things for a few months.
Now I've only got my 16 hours wage coming in.

Today had toast ,lunch I wasn't hungry so just had a whipped yogurt with seeds on.
Tea was a roast chicken , dgson had his with pots and carrots I had chips and salad with mine.
I'm freezing half the chicken ,unfortunately I didn't make gravy to freeze it in .
I've put a hotpot in the sc. For tomorrow.

caronc

wort wrote: »

Thanks all, for your budget as a cfo - maybe I'd didn't do too bad! But I will keep an eye on things for a few months.
Now I've only got my 16 hours wage coming in.

Today had toast ,lunch I wasn't hungry so just had a whipped yogurt with seeds on.
Tea was a roast chicken , dgson had his with pots and carrots I had chips and salad with mine.
I'm freezing half the chicken ,unfortunately I didn't make gravy to freeze it in .
I've put a hotpot in the sc. For tomorrow.

If you are managing ok financially, I wouldn't worry about your spend as you say keep an eye on it and see how you get on. The meals you post all sound tasty, work for you and not extravagant. If you do want to cut back a bit on spends check out the Grocery Challenge thread- lots of good ideas for meals. You'll also see from there that budgets/lifestyles vary hugely.:)

Farway

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

and shouting "Me Too" (if we've had "incidents" our male equivalent wouldnt have had). :

Hmm, tried Brighton, or Piccadilly Circus as a young sailor, or accepting a pillion lift at night in uniform?:o
And does being accosted on the street to "meet my sister" count as "me too"?

Dinner done, I nuked the salmon but wish I had fried it in butter / olive oil. It was fine but I think slower cooking in butter would have made it a tad tastier

All set and ready to go for tomorrow's C & O dog dangly bits pie

caronc

Farway wrote: »

Hmm, tried Brighton, or Piccadilly Circus as a young sailor, or accepting a pillion lift at night in uniform?:o

LOL - there was a bit near where I lived in York where a young chap on his own late at night was likely to get lifted by the police or kerb crawled:eek:. My bf (not in uniform) used to come home the long way to avoid it but I never had any bother......

mcculloch29

I've never had a problem eating on my own, never not got a table, other than once being asked nicely in Ireland if I didn't mind sitting at a breakfast type bar to eat, rather than at a table (when I would have liked a table). I sat to eat at the breakfast bar.
I could understand why, this was Grafton Street in Dublin on a Saturday evening and they were heroically busy.
My tummy troubles have cleared, still working up to 'cooking cooking' so today I had pre-cooked meat, pre-cooked veg, and gravy.

Just to add, I completely 'get' why people do feel nervous eating on their own, or even eating in public. My greed overcomes my nerves every time.

caronc

mcculloch29 wrote: »

I've never had a problem eating on my own, never not got a table, other than once being asked nicely in Ireland if I didn't mind sitting at a breakfast type bar to eat, rather than at a table (when I would have liked a table). I sat to eat at the breakfast bar.
I could understand why, this was Grafton Street in Dublin on a Saturday evening and they were heroically busy.
My tummy troubles have cleared, still working up to 'cooking cooking' so today I had pre-cooked meat, pre-cooked veg, and gravy.

Just to add, I completely 'get' why people do feel nervous eating on their own, or even eating in public. My greed overcomes my nerves every time.

Glad your tummy troubles have settled - nowt wrong with a "here's one made earlier" dinner:)