Cooking for one (Mark Three)

wort

After all your talk of cheese and onion pies, I dug out the ood gfree puff pastry fro the freezer, Oct 2016!!
It was very difficult to roll even after leaving at room temp all morning, whilst I did my cleaning and bleached the bathroom grout!
Only had 1 onion! Then it caught a bit, no Lancashire cheese, so mature cheddar with a grating of parmesan in. I'll be amazed if it tastes good when done!!
I'll have it tomorrow as I've got lo curry from sat meal out, for lunch.
And hotpot cooked yesterday for tea with dgson, though Im not looking forward to it, there's a lot of meat in it and not enough potatoes for my liking!!
I'm off this week and was going to do some painting , but decided it's too cold and damp to have all the windows open while I do it.

wort

Oo fancy that soup though Kittie , if you've got left overs!

Hollyharvey

We've got snow here, and it's cold .

I was freezing first thing even with the heat on, so had porridge with honey, and then an hour or so later I was hungry again so had a slice of toast with jam, and have just had a couple of chocolate digestive biscuits. It is the cold weather that is making me want all this food .

I'm going to have a tuna mayo sandwich for lunch.

I'm having liver today as well caron. I'm doing Italian liver with rice for dinner.

I am going to brave the shed in a minute to do an inventory of the outside freezer because I don't think the one I'm currently working from is up to date. I found the liver out there yesterday when I was looking for something else, and according to the inventory I didn't have any liver.

caronc

Kittie garlic soup (with a bit piece of cheesy bread to dunk) sounds like just my thing.:)
Farway & Wort - good luck with the cheese & onion pies:)
Wort - could you not cook some spuds (or use tinned ones?) to add to your hotpot?

My Portoguese Green Bean soup is currently cooking, it's a new recipe for me so hoping it's good. I'll have a small bowl of that with a crusty roll with Ham & coleslaw for lunch. I'm having a hungry day - I'll blame the weather;). My Dad popped by earlier, I mentioned I was making it. His eye's lit up so I think I may see him again tomorrow so he can get a portion. Him & my Mum lived in Portugal for a number of years and he says that was a made a lot and was really tasty. I hope neither of us are disappointed.:cool:

moneyistooshorttomention

Caron - I was laughing at your earlier post about how much you spend on food weekly and thinking "Hope she's counting in the number of times her Dad fancies what she's having - and he has some too:rotfl:".

We mustn't forget those cat treats for next door's puss either...

[Deleted User]

cheesy bread sounds perfect
soup is done and cooling to blitz. I did 50 cloves, some were small. Added hm caramelised onions and thyme from a garden planter. Next time I will do an easier way ie halve the whole bulbs, place upside down on an oiled tray, cover in silver foil and bake. Squeezing the pulp out of each clove was a boring and sticky job.

I feel like a blue assed fly now, not stopped. I have the fats and flour together but need to rub in and mix with cold water, then cool in 2 packs. I won`t be making pies until later but they are def on the to do list and as for the casserole, I will be making that tomorrow. I took a bought rm out of the freezer and added side veg. I took the meal out of the tray and put it into an enamel tray to bake

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Caron - I was laughing at your earlier post about how much you spend on food weekly and thinking "Hope she's counting in the number of times her Dad fancies what she's having - and he has some too:rotfl:".

We mustn't forget those cat treats for next door's puss either...

LOL Yep it includes the extra "guests" though in fairness my Dad more than "pays me back" in bunches of flowers and plants:D:rotfl: I think my main saving in my spend is that I don't often snack or eating puddings. Today's pot of soup must have cost about £1.20 (most expensive bits were the green beans and a small piece of chorizo apart from that it was just carrot, onion, potato, stock and a splash of olive oil) for fourish portions not including fuel so I think he's worth 30p:rotfl::rotfl:
Mind you if I added in the wine it would come to a fair bit more over the year:o:rotfl:

caronc

kittie wrote: »

cheesy bread sounds perfect
soup is done and cooling to blitz. I did 50 cloves, some were small. Added hm caramelised onions and thyme from a garden planter. Next time I will do an easier way ie halve the whole bulbs, place upside down on an oiled tray, cover in silver foil and bake. Squeezing the pulp out of each clove was a boring and sticky job.

I feel like a blue assed fly now, not stopped. I have the fats and flour together but need to rub in and mix with cold water, then cool in 2 packs. I won`t be making pies until later but they are def on the to do list and as for the casserole, I will be making that tomorrow. I took a bought rm out of the freezer and added side veg. I took the meal out of the tray and put it into an enamel tray to bake

Sounds as though you have well earned a restful afternoon:)

mcculloch29

I've just done an Amazon Pantry order in case the weather closes in, and stops me from going shopping. They have random items that give you free delivery, and I was able to find four I would use. Most of the order was Morrisons own brand.
I found a chicken tikka ready meal in the freezer, that will be on the menu. Eggs were way out of date, but were still okay enough for a breakfast omelette. I never cook an omelette now without thinking of Gwen from Gavin and Stacey, I don't think she ever offered to cook anything else, did she?

£30 for everything is really tight, having been there. It can be done on Jack Monroe's recipes, and if you do things like have veggie stew three days on the trot. But it's boring after a while.
I've done Live Below The Line on a quid for food a day, for five days, a few times.
The only way I did it was to buy stuff and divide it up per meal for costings. So half a pack of YS belly pork slices at 75p was 38p, for example. I remember that, as it was the only meat I had all the times I did LBTL.

I've used way out of date frozen puff pastry blocks before now. It was very difficult to roll, very dried out, and didn't puff well, but wasn't inedible, either.

I have Jack Monroe's new book, my Kickstarter copy, originally due May 2016 has arrived. I can see this selling very well. There are some tweaks of the best recipes from the first two books (creamy salmon pasta with a chilli lemon kick is now creamy crab pasta, for example) but lots of good new stuff. It's published mainstream in August.

Irenadler

caronc wrote: »

Tbh £30 a week sounds really tight for all that depending on how much your fares are and [STRIKE]hoover's[/STRIKE] food. Doable if you have to but better if you had a bit of wiggle room elsewhere in your finances (best deal on utilities, phone, internet etc.). As long as your fares are low and you're not too hard on your clothese should be ok though.:)

Thank you Caronc. Doing my best to squeeze the most out of the existing pennies. So far I have:

I have had a good rootle around the utilities, (I joined the energy club here on MSE to keep switching to the cheapest).
I have successfully applied for a single person discount on the council tax. 25% reduction it is now,
Have a cheap mobile PAYG from Mr T (£10 top up is tripled each month, and the chap in the phone dept says their offer is indefinite). Need a mobile because of the parents health conditions.
Can't swop my water company, and they said that the amount of usage I have I won't save on a meter (dog is hypo-allergenic so a lot of bedding/throws have to be washed).
Dog's diet is better than mine! Buy hypo-allergenic food otherwise she gets ill, e.g. Lily's kitchen which ain't cheap!
Checked the home and contents insurance to get the best deal.
Only have Freeview for the telly-box, seriously wondering whether to get rid of it and save the monthly licence fee.
Don't have a car, so, public transport or Shank's pony. Worked out my bus fare is half-price to get to work - better if I buy their annual bus pass (but that would cost me over £500, 50% discount for weekly pass = £11.50 otherwise 4.20 per day). Need to use it 5 days a week commuting M- F...
Don't have a bicycle (and probably too unfit at present to use one, if I could afford one).
Don't have dependants.
On minimum wage....
Looking at my grocery bill now and trying to buy YS only for me (not dog), take my own lunches, cook properly or YS ready meal, eating less anyway as trying to lose weight.
Not being tempted to buy any more clothes even from charity shops = banning myself from those.
Trying to have NSD, no impulse buying, not buying snacks/drinks when out, no meals out, walking dog to get out and about in fresh air, not so good for the social life though....:)
Don't go for an awful lot of make-up or fancy toiletries anyway, working my way through what I do have to use up...
Erm, shoot me now, :rotfl:

On the menu today:
Porridge, because it's cheap, filling, and I jazz it up with different stuff e.g. fruit, seeds, yogurt. Whatever I have.
Cup of slimma soup and 2 wholemeal seeded bread slices.
Dare I say it. Sausage mash n beans....
Snack - apple.