Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Novice_investor101

PN, I set myself a budget of £20 for Xmas day food - either a proper dinner or nibbles but lots of them. I pick whatever I fancy in the supermarket, as long as it all costs less than £20. Usually swayed by how swanky the packaging is....

PasturesNew

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

PN, I set myself a budget of £20 for Xmas day food - either a proper dinner or nibbles but lots of them. I pick whatever I fancy in the supermarket, as long as it all costs less than £20. Usually swayed by how swanky the packaging is....

LOL. Well that seems like a plan.

I am within a few hundred miles of both A
4ldi and L1dl (will miss that when I eventually move, still nothing happening on the house front!)... but my preferred supermarket is 4sda. Trouble is, that's a bit of a trek/expedition - and I'd fear getting to one shop and them not having what I wanted/needed.... as I do go there each Xmas with a short list and a shelf or two of what I was after is invariably empty!

My "the day" budget will be well under £10. Meat is most of that, £4 for a frozen joint in 4ldi - but I've spotted another/smaller piece at about £3.50 elsewhere, so currently deciding. Veg will be under £1 as they all have silly low money deals that week in the past.

Probably then £5 for crisps/biscuits/chocs for the week.

Drinks will be £1 for some fizzy Schloer stuff and 50p for fizzy pop. Can't decide whether to buy advocaat/lemon/lime this year, or, yet again, just "not bother".. I've got no glasses and it'd be nice to drink that from a big glass.

PasturesNew

NOT going out in that weather, it's vile out there... really nasty wet/windy weather. Treacherous.

I'll have a cooked breakfast in a bit... hash/eggs/beans, but that's the last two eggs.

I keep staring at the frozen tortillas thinking "quiche with one of those", but, yet again, I can't as I've no milk (or eggs later)....

moneyistooshorttomention

Do you drink UHT milk Pastures?

I did spot organic UHT milk in Tesco the other day and thought "Isn't that a bit of a contradiction in terms?". Though, I find it a bit of a "contradiction in terms" that my organic milk I buy is homogenised (ie that extra process). Personally - I prefer mine not to be homogenised - but can't find any that isn't.

Did wonder whether to have a carton of that UHT milk in for emergencies - but I know what I thought of yer standard UHT milk when I've tried it before (ie not a lot...:(). So that may be going a step too far for me - particularly as I keep rice milk in anyway and could always make myself some cashew milk.

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Do you drink UHT milk Pastures?

No. Gross memories from the 60s/70s of that muck

I always intend to buy milk powder. It used to be easily purchasable. I used to get that from Mr T in a plastic bottle that was shaped like a milk bottle. A spoon of milk powder used to be in a lot of basic bread recipes....

Trying to buy milk powder is one of those things that goes in a cycle of: I should get one of those; I look/shop has none; I look online and identify the supermarkets that sell it; when (rarely) I am in those supermarkets I forget to look for it.... some weeks/months later the cycle starts again.

Looking now ... although on mysupermarket and not their actual websites.

Sains: Marvel, which is skimmed; EDIT oh, they do their own one too I just spotted.
Asda: Yes, own brand skimmed
Tesco: Yes, own brand and Marvel skimmed
Morries: Yes, own brand skimmed.

They cost £2-4/ tub.

I dislike skimmed... and the word even ... I buy blue top, full fat milk

I'll put a bag of Sains own brand on my list of stuff to get round to getting.....

300g ... that should do me for 2-3 years
It says the pack contains 15 servings, which is meaningless... I'd like to see/know (from the comfort of my sofa) exactly how easy it'd be to make up tinier amounts... they don't even explain what a "serving" is.
Their onsite reviews have a split between people saying it's great and others saying it is lumpy and hard to dissolve.

PasturesNew

I'm all milk information overwhelmed now... mysupermarket shows a limited range of products. When you go to the individual websites there are more ranges/options... but that doesn't mean the shop you go into will have them for sale, which is another annoyance.

4sda do a full cream milk powder, in two sizes.... *sighs* ... it's not easy now.... shopping's never easy is it, I despise shopping.

moneyistooshorttomention

I could only wish I despised shopping:rotfl:. Yesterday saw me buying a Christmas present for a friend here and getting sidelined by spotting a very sturdy craftsperson-made chopping board - I managed to resist temptation and just got the costume jewellery I had in mind for friend.

Good job I have a pretty logical mind - as I can easily get tempted by "shiny things":cool: But I usually manage to argue myself out of it - unless it's on The List (ie I've got a specific decision made to buy whatever-it-is).

Well - that's me woken up good and proper for the morning. Decided it was about time I tried out a WFPB (ie Whole Food Plant Based) substitute for bread spread. So - recipe for polenta butter duly hoicked out and I followed my frequent "recipe" for things in this way of eating, ie "Blitz" (so in my Vitamix mega-powerful blender the ingredients went - after I'd cooked it up). More racket than usual from this distinctly noisy blender - errr....now just how did I manage to inadvertently add the cleaning toothbrush into it when I came to "give it a quick blitz" to start the cleaning of it (after I'd done the recipe). Well - thankfully the blender is fine - but the toothbrush promptly got ground up:o.

I do keep my old toothbrush for cleaning odd tiny things - as I buy mini-size ones - oh well...guess it's time to swop toothbrush again anyway and relegate the old one to cleaning duties:cool:.

The polenta butter is now sitting there setting in some of my new glass prepping storage containers - so we shall see what I make of it when it's done. I guess if I don't like it - then I can always marinade it in something-or-other (eg soya sauce and lemon juice) and griddle to have as a savoury dish...

Wednesday2000

I've had a cup of coffee and am going to have wholemeal toast with PB.

I'm going to have Linda McC sausages, baked beans, mushrooms and tomatoes for lunch later.

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

I set myself a budget of £20 for Xmas day food - either a proper dinner or nibbles but lots of them.

That is how I feel at the moment about Xmas day. It will just be the two of us on the day and I don't know if I can be bothered to cook a whole dinner that gets eaten in 10 minutes when it takes a long time to prepare.:D

I might just get nibbles, I think.

PasturesNew

Vol au vents.

This Xmas I will be having vol au vents.

For over 30 years I've wanted vol au vents at Xmas and never got round to it, it's never been appropriate, I was going to mum/dad's for Xmas, it seemed too much hassle.... XCFO didn't seem worth the hassle/already had food overload.

But.... I'm working up to it now .... and this year will be the year of the vol au vent. When I finally get round to doing it. They'll be square because ... then you don't get faffy leftover bits to worry about.

Fillings .... got a few ideas in mind. Nothing exciting, all very retro. Probably some leftover turkey in a sauce.... egg/salad cream ... er, then I'm a bit stuck.... I've always loved scoffing a vol au vent.... flavours to be decided on a whim close to the day.

I do hope I get round to it .... I've fancied them for so many years.

I'll have to have them the week between Xmas and NYE though to have any turkey available.

wort

Leaving work yesterday I ran in the food hall and got 2 packs gfree mince pies and a pack of 2 ,cheese and onion and bacon puff pastry tarts as I had a discount on my card. Plus extra thick cream!
Had 1 of the tarts for tea, then a pack of c and o crisp. Plus the last asda mince pie and cream . I won't buy those from asda again as the pastry was too thick.
I've been to aldi today , they had gfree mince pies so got 2 packs!! I've had them from all supermarkets in the near vicinity now, and m and s are still the best.!
PN I noticed aldi did have different flavours of mince pies (normal ones) though didn't check the flavours , only annoyed that they weren't gfree!!!!
I cleaned the fridge out before added my shopping. Then ran through with the hoover and cleaned the bathrooms sinks. Whilst on a roll.
Lunch was a cheese and salad roll , followed by yogurt and seeds.
Chicken jalfrezi for tea, with rice and poppadoms.
I've got my physio recommended pilates at 3, and though the weather has brightened the wind is rather strong!
My sister has invited me round tonight for wine and nibbles, if I fancy it.:beer: