Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Good afternoon everyone,

Well done on the weightloss Wednesday:)

Unusually for me I slept in until 8.40, only woke because my sis and nephew arrived to use the shower or else who knows how long I would have snoozed for as I was in a proper deep sleep.:eek: It has fair knocked my morning routine out of sync.

It's bitterly, bitterly cold here today and to head well into the minuses tonight. We've a snow warning for the weekend though I'll doubt we'll get any so near to the coast. Winter has definitely arrived!
I'm having a bagel with pastrami and cream cheese for lunch and beef stew tonight. It's definitely dumpling weather so I think I'll have one with it rather than spuds.

Novice_investor101

Home from my half day at work. Stopped by T*sspots to get some coffee as I'd ran out. No decent offers on so got their own brand Gold stuff. It's good enough, I'm not much of a coffee officianado....

Also bit the bullet & bought some chocs for a secret santa. Im really not in the mood this year to spend time thinking of what to get. So the requisite £5 has been spent on chocs & sweets.

Also came home with some half price deodorant - don't think I've ever paid "full" price for it. I stock up every time I see it on half price & always have a spare can in. Same for things like fairy washing powder/liquid, soap, expensive face wash. Cupboards are full of stockpiled toiletries & household goods....

2nd impulse buy was a hot cooked chicken again.... This time I got a smaller one for £2.25. Lunch was a chicken & stuffing sandwich & 4 choc digestives. Chicken & last of the stuffing now in the fridge. I'll have a chicken dinner tonight, might even make roasties with my last potato, & then the rest of the chicken in sandwiches for work tomorrow. I wasn't too keen on the cooked chicken I froze last time - once I'd defrosted it. Is that the "rubber chicken" I've seen you all referring to?

Farway

The snoozing over must be infectious Caron, it was gone 8 by time I got up, at least the heating had clicked on so it was warm by then

Usual but late breakfast, then into town before the world goes Christmas mad, and post my cards, managed to get them done yesterday, just in time, first one arrived in my post today

I was going to get some bits in Iceland, but stupid queues, CBA with that, only wanted B1sto & milk so not a big problem

Asda, dead loss, nothing to tempt, YS was not my sort of food
Much better in W/rose, the LM "beef" veg nut roast on offer, one of them, and pack of streaky BBE Jan, plenty of life left in them

Plus YS bangers, posh ones, decided that was dinner sorted

Then a beef joint on offer n Morries, bought one, loads of date left so I'll either cook or freeze it in the next few days

Lunch was a longed for sausage sarnie, using some of the YS bangers, very nice they are

I've decided dinner is going to be a roast, bangers, spuds, carrot, onion, sprouts, and if I remember to oik them out I'll try some of the frozen mini Yorkies, and the long lost frozen parsnips that surfaced last week
Plenty there for LOs to add to a fry up over next few days

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

I just bought the jar thing, Amazon same day delivery as well.:p I bought the cough drops that I saw on another thread on here too.:D/QUOTE]

I hope you find it as handy as I do, I had glove things, and a grip jar top pliers thingy, but both depend upon having some grip & strength to start with

candygirl

Camembert, n celery n carrot sticks for tea.Comfort food cos I'm still feeling poop:(
WEDNESDAY well done on the weight loss hun :T You're doing so well xx

PasturesNew

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

I wasn't too keen on the cooked chicken I froze last time - once I'd defrosted it. Is that the "rubber chicken" I've seen you all referring to?

Rubber chicken refers to buying a chicken one day ... then making it stretch as far as possible through the week by using it in further meals, until the bones/whatnot end up as stock or soup.... yours was simply unappetising

Not eaten so far today I don't think.... sure I haven't. Thought about food a lot, not actually got round to producing anything to eat.

So .... I've just made/eaten a cheese/onion omelette, served with chips and beans. Then 3 chocolate digestives.

Novice_investor101

That makes sense, PN!
Yes, it was unappetising. I cooked it into a curry ' the chicken just broke up into tiny threads rather than pieces. I did buy a large chicken that time too. Not made that mistake this time.
I'm seriously thinking of having an hour nap before doing house chores & making tea. Wish I'd had one sooner....

moneyistooshorttomention

Bitter cold here today too. The town is often quiet by my standards anyway - today it was VERY quiet (think everyone possible was staying indoors).

Just one solitary other person at the cafe where I met my friend for coffee this afternoon. Errrm....and then the afternoon was still quite young....so I might just have found myself wondering into a couple of bookshops on the way home........

You can guess the rest:rotfl:. So I've got yet another cookbook - this time "Veggie Lean in 15" by Joe Wicks. Well - the vast majority of recipes are actually for one or two people for once and so....

caronc

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

That makes sense, PN!
Yes, it was unappetising. I cooked it into a curry ' the chicken just broke up into tiny threads rather than pieces. I did buy a large chicken that time too. Not made that mistake this time.
I'm seriously thinking of having an hour nap before doing house chores & making tea. Wish I'd had one sooner....

I think the pre-cooked chickens are already cooked to the max so don't stand up to being frozen or recooked without going to mush especially the white meat.

Even with home cooked ones , I find the breasts are fine frozen to then be used cold but can be woolly is then recooked unless added at the last minute. The thighs are fine though.

I seldom cook a whole chicken if it's just for me. I still buy whole ones and either completely joint it or whack the legs and wings off and just roast the crown.:)
After my snoozy start I had a snoozy afternoon:o, I'm hoping I'm not coming down with something but feel ok so think it's just aftermath from the flare up earlier in the week.
The forecast was right and it's already freezing and with the wind chill it's well into the minuses. :eek: I lit the stove around 1ish and popped the CH on low on an hour ago so I'm nice and toasty. Overall I reckon my fuel costs between the gas/logs/coke are pretty much the same as they would have been running the CH at a half decent level since lunch time but the whole house is so much warmer.
I did get some more cards written and not too many to do now. Tomorrow I'll concentrate on any that need posting so I can get them sent. I have a number of elderly (some very elderly) folk (mainly relatives of my ex) who always send me a card and I know they appreciate one back or else I wouldn't bother. I was very grateful they remembered me and the boys after the split so it's the least I can do.:)

I noticed today that Tesco's Christmas veg offer starts tomorrow and runs until the 28th, 5 veg are included:- carrots, parsnips, sprouts, cauli and spuds at 29p. Not sure how that compares to the other SMs but handy for me anyway:).
Stew is simmering nicely just need to find a spot of oomph to mix a dumpling:D

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

I still buy whole ones and either completely joint it or whack the legs and wings off and just roast the crown.

I can't bear to touch meat.... gross... I do everything within my power to only buy lean meat, no bone/fat/whatnot ... and to devise a way to get it cooking without actually touching it at all...

caronc wrote: »

I was very grateful they remembered me and the boys after the split so it's the least I can do.:)

It's very sad when the half that didn't "win" the child never hear/see them again.... from a kid's perspective, adults have "wiped out" half their entire family.... just because one pair of parents fell out.

It is good those people have made the effort to stay in touch.

caronc wrote: »

carrots, parsnips, sprouts, cauli and spuds at 29p. Not sure how that compares to the other SMs

Better than L1dl. Their offering is fewer veggies and from 20 Dec.
1Kg carrots, 500g parsnips, 500g brussels. All 29p.
Then it goes a bit Pete Tong as they're not offering cauli and their spuds are mini roasters....

I'll take a look at what sort of spuds Mr T's touting
Here we go: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/buylists/christmas-food/vegetables
Proper spuds - and 2.5Kg of them. Just "white" though, not Maris.

The parsnips in their photo are thin.... I like fat/chunky ones... I might leave those to the last minute and see 4ldi's. Last year they were varying sizes in a 500g bag and I managed to get a bag containing only two - so they were both big and super-fat ones... nice, for roasting big fat rounds.

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

You can guess the rest:rotfl:. So I've got yet another cookbook - this time "Veggie Lean in 15" by Joe Wicks. Well - the vast majority of recipes are actually for one or two people for once and so....

You can never have too many cookbooks IMHO Money:cool:
A girl I worked beside who was very overweight bought his first book and promptly lost 5 stone over the following 18 months.:D I can't bear to watch him but at least you don't have to with a book