Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

elona wrote: »

It is almost scary how some of the cheaper things to cook like pizza. bread , quiche, soup or a pie seem to really impress.

Know what you mean elona, the soup was a quick put together from stuff I had in and I reckon the whole pot cost no more than £1.50 to make. It was such a horrible day I certainly wanted something hot even if the guys didn't:)

wort wrote: »

Ooh, Caronc I envy your real fire, nothing beats curling up in front of one when it's cold. Though I don't envy you the emptying the ashes and remaking! We had a coal fire when I first got married, and that was a dreaded job!!

Thankfully the stoves seem to be less of a faff to clean out and I don't mind fire building. I would probably feel different if I didn't have CH and had to get it going first thing in morning though:).


Good afternoon everyone,

It's another manky day though a good bit milder. We are due some fierce weather in the next 24 hours though.
Farway - a soup and stove warmong party sounds good, I might need to make another pot though;):)


Despite being still being pretty wonky and tired I had errands I had to do in town this morning. Thankfully I more or less pretty much managed to dodge the showers. Lunch unsurprisingly is soup and after I've had that and my feet up for a couple of hours I'll continue with cleaning up as the dust has now settled from yesterday's work. I suspect I'll be damp dusting for a good few days yet though .....
Dinner tonight is undecided, will see what I feel like later.

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Leaving one question - do I get in a bottle of champagne/owt special to eat?

I bought a £1.99 bottle of bucks fizz "just in case I fancied a fizz" the other year... it's still in the cupboard under the stairs.

For food .... it's so hard with all the adverts pushing incredible looking Xmasses at you - none of my Xmasses have EVER been like any of the adverts! Pack size can be our saviour here as, XCFO, there's only you and the boxes are all Serves 4-20 .... so that automatically reduces our choices.

I'm not buying "owt special to eat", just regular/Xmas-themed food, so turkey ... and brussels. 1960s style Christmas food. No cake, no pudding, no "Xmas breakfast" (when on earth did THAT one start?).

There'll be no starter .... no hams, no chutneys, no cheeses, no salmon, indeed, practically none of the things the adverts try to make you buy these days. No brandy butter, no rum sauce... no parties either.

Just one course at lunchtime will have me full, so no tea-time meal to think about either....

Just dinner. And a few regular treats such as Walkers C/O & Tom Ketchup crisps... some sweeties .... pack of L1dl sausage rolls of course....

Trouble is, it's only 1-2 days so you do have to be careful how much volume of food you buy.

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Leaving one question - do I get in a bottle of champagne/owt special to eat?

Of course you do:D

Brambling

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

The minus was that it struck me there were some rather odd ingredients in the quiche - and I realised they had obviously thought "What shall we do with these leftovers?" and that had been their answer. Will steer clear of quiche there in future - in case of rather unexpected ingredients. It hadn't really struck me that there are restaurants/cafes that will use up leftovers (even though we do it in the home)

Restaurants/cafes have always done this, depending on how much is left its either staff meals or tomorrows specials, especially where meat is concerned lasagna, pies etc. Waste is money

PasturesNew

I had a very late breakfast for lunch. Just the usual hash browns, beans, scrambled eggs. Quick, easy, just 3-4 minutes, minimal washing up
So filling.....

I've got the final portion of meatballs in spicy sauce later, no doubt with spaghetti again as that's quicker/easier than rice.... spaghetti 4 minutes, one simple dish to wash up; rice 10-12 minutes and a more complex 3-piece steamer to wash up. No brainer really Although I've recently been using a different dish to cook the rice, but it's still a harder item to wash up as it involves a dish and a lid and sticky rice scum residues. I buy the 20p spaghetti, 500 grams, I use about 60g or so, so pennies.

candygirl

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Christmas all thought about/presents bought/all cards due to go by post posted.

Leaving one question - do I get in a bottle of champagne/owt special to eat?

Yea get something to treat yourself. I've been invited for dinner on Xmas Day, as my DD n the Grandkids are going away for Xmas:(Not sure if I'm going though so I'll get a few nibbles n drinks in anyway

Wednesday2000

I haven't done anything special for Christmas yet. I can't be bothered to put up the tree this year. It feels so mild that it doesn't even seem like the right time of year.:p

I felt really hungry when I got in, just scoffed a sandwich with a bottle of sparkling mineral water. I'm now having a handful of the almonds I bought yesterday.

candygirl

I daren't have a tree this year, cos of crazy Zeusy pup.He'd destroy it :rotfl: Am just having my crib , n lights up, well away from him :eek:

Farway

back from mega get bits in day

Iceland provided YS back bacon & diced beef. 2 packs in freezer for maybe Christmas, one opened and made BLT sarnie for lunch
The beef is in the slow cooker, it went in late so will be tomorrow's food now

I wasn't getting "proper" Christmas dinner food, but in Marks the dine in for £12 [was a tenner earlier this year:(] provided freezer stuff, very festive, https://www.marksandspencer.com/c/food-to-order/dine-in
I've got Gastropub turkey feast en croute, profiteroles and Rosemary spuds, all ready to freeze in the new freezer

Plus went over to pick up my Farmers free range meat, blimey the panage pork chops are huge & thick, that's what happens when you snuffle around eating acorns:)
It was all blast frozen ready for me to pick up, now in freezer

Dinner, will be a couple of the YS rashers, with some YS mushrooms, eggs, HM chips and maybe a grilled crinkly tom

PasturesNew

When I made the meatballs/sauce, I decanted the leftovers into a lidded pot and put it in the fridge. Yesterday I removed the pot and scooped some out ... which left a little in the lidded pot.

Today, having made the spaghetti, I dropped that into the pot and heated it all up together ...... then lifted the lid off the pot and ate from it with a fork. Fewer items to wash up then

That's the meatballs gone .... although I did buy two packs, so I've still another 12 meatballs in the freezer awaiting some oomph to convert frozen meatballs into a meal.... not this week though. I'm all meatballed out.