Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Irenadler

Hey all

Turning colder here, drizzling, and a yellow weather warning for tomorrow for snow and ice.

Hope your tests are ok Caronc....

On the menu today:
Porridge with seeds, banana and blueberries.
Beef in black bean sauce with rice YS nuked, Kind nut and dark choc salt bar.
Jacket spud, coleslaw and whatever needs eating in salad - a bit cold for it, but, it will kizzle up otherwise....

moneyistooshorttomention

I keep in a choice for guests too.

I found that no-one seems to drink instant coffee ever these days - not even workmen (ie the second they spot I've got real coffee).

So the choice is real coffee/tea (for visitors only - as I dont like it)/lemon & ginger tea/a fruit tea or two of some description.

Currently updating - once the tea bags have gone (which is going to take some time - with me not liking them etc) then I'm swopping to loose tea (to avoid plastic sealing of teabags). Once my lemon & ginger tea is gone then I'll have to make it from grated ginger and lemon juice (fresh - now all the bottled ones are in plastic bottles at the moment) and perhaps a grating of lemon peel.

I don't know quite what to do about my fruit teas I occasionally like to have - as it doesnt seem to be possible to buy them loose (and so would be more teabags sealed with plastic). Maybe I'll have to swop to concentrated fruit juice (in glass bottles) made up with hot water....thinks....

I think there is precisely one brand of teabags currently that aren't sealed in plastic (though I gather the Co-op is swopping own brand teabags to non-plastic sealed ones - so maybe I don't have to swop to loose tea?). Will have to wait and see - as there isn't a Co-op store near me - so am having to wait for other supermarkets to copy them.

PasturesNew

There was a dumpling involved
Last portion of stew was re-heated.



That was splendid beef. Beef Steak Cubes it called itself - 5% fat the label said... and it was VERY lean and tasty.

caronc

Good afternoon everyone,
I have various options for guests too - not everyone wants decaff or "normal" tea so good to have a few choices to offer them:)
I did my usual and had a snooze after lunch, when I got up the temperature had dropped lots so the heating is on and I've piled on the layers.:)

Farway

PasturesNew wrote: »

That was splendid beef. Beef Steak Cubes it called itself - 5% fat the label said... and it was VERY lean and tasty.

Yep, just as I found, def buy again when on offer. It's Lilds BTW for anyone not knowing

Back from shopping, my feet ache now, according to my runkeeper app I traipsed over 3 miles just going round the shops

Mid morning was coffee and a huge, still warm, cheese scone in the House of Fraser cafe

Lunch was turkey, bacon & leek pie with usual veg, and apple crumble & custard for pud. Sort of meal deal, pud cheaper if bought with main, be rude to refuse. Now stuffed full and doubt there is any room for C & O pie slice

However during mooching discovered a Vegan, free from everything, choc spread on offer, a jar of that is on standby in my kitchen should I find space for a bit of toast later

PS, MTSYM, have you tried lemon balm tea? It is easy to grow, and self seeds once established. And mint of course

moneyistooshorttomention

I do have a lemon balm plant in my garden - though it does seem to spend a fair bit of its time looking worse for wear. I just keep hoping it will "fight back a bit better" as it gets more established (though goodness knows I feel it should be pretty established now).

Have had a go at a few mint plants - and don't seem to do too well with them either. Ever the optimist - I might yet have another go.

Right - food-wise today. Got back late from voluntary work & shopping today - so it was just toast with a mixed seed spread. Must now cook up the rest of that French toast batter on bread with berry sauce thing from yesterday and oranges and walnuts. Bit of yogurt with it and some seeds maybe. No oil involved - as I've got good enough saucepans to manage without these days.

Getting my act together fairly well food-wise. Though had to put in a couple of Amazon orders when pretty commonplace food was missing from the health food store - and I know I'm cooking recipes with it in during the next week or so (well that's the plan anyway). Feels like my stomach is a little bit flatter/clothes a tad looser....fingers crossed it's not my "positive thinking" on that to think so...

wort

Yesterday I finished off the cheese and onion pie/pasty for lunch.
I had pasta with onion peppers and mushrooms in puttanesca sauce and parmesan on top., with a slice of seeded brown crust with garlic butter on.
Up late today had toast and my sister took me out to a place a bit like a garden centre without plants :rotfl:
So it had all the shops In one place that sell all manner of stuff!. After a meander round we went in the cafe, and had a cappuccino and shared a slice of gf carrot cake with cream.
I've finished the pasta lo for tea just added a few sun blush tomatoes to it. I had banana and kiwi with vanilla yogurt afterwards.
I forgot I'd got salmon for tea and had lifted mash out, hope it will be ok on Saturday, as dgson is here for curry tomorrow.

wort

Unfortunately the nearest chippy for gfree chips is a few miles away, so I rarely have them . There are many normal chippy nearby they would do a roaring trade if they served gfree !!!!
I have a pod coffee maker I bought it for hubby a few years ago, as we had a coffee machine and no matter how carefully we measured it into the filter or what type of coffee it never tasted good!!!
Dd1 bought me a huge amount of pods for Xmas , which was great as I haven't seen anywhere that makes cheap pods for a tassimo.

Hollyharvey

All this talk of sausage rolls and chips has given me a craving for them, so I dug out some frozen uncooked sausage rolls from the freezer and had them with oven chips and baked beans for dinner. It's not something I have that often, so made a nice change .

I had what is becoming the usual cold weather breakfast of porridge this morning.

I had a mushroom omelette for lunch, there were some mushrooms left over from last weekend, so I thought I should use them up.

While I had the oven on I made some soda bread.


Farway - that lunch sounds lovely.

caronc

Good evening everyone,

Farway - lovely sounding lunch. I would definitely have needed a snooze after it;)

wort - I'd have been most disappointed if someone took me to a garden centre with no plants :rotfl::rotfl:sounds like a nice day out though:)

All this talk of pies is really making wish I had one stashed in the freezer. I do have a lurking "mince round" in the freezer. But it serves 2-3 and really is best eaten freshly cooked. I think my son is coming up next weekend so might look it out for next Friday. Ditto sausage rolls, though in reality the last time I made a batch it took me most of the year to eat them. They are the sort of thing I like one of and the urge goes away for ages.:)

Looking at the sky I think the forecast for snow later might be right as there are lots of very low hanging, purple clouds and the temperature is dropping like a stone. Best plan for some comfort meals over the next few days I think to keep the chill out (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it:rotfl:)

My meal plan for this week is definitely going astray as I think instead of a lightish salmon meal I might make fish pie. The last time I made one I had surplus fish mix so there is enough there to make a 1 or 2 portion pie and I've plenty of spuds and milk for the sauce. I don't mind my plan going awol if I'm making things/using things up and not just going for the easiest bung it in the oven meal by default.:)

I'm just off to put on the filling for my giant YP, decision time- there are 5 stuffing balls do I use 2 or 3 of them. I suspect I know the answer......:o