Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Farway

Back into normal Tuesday routine now my op is easing, into L's on way to volunteering, hit the YS mine today, 2 x macaroni cheese MFO @70p, plus bangers & mash in a Yorkie, 70p

And a potted patio Golden Delicious apple tree fell into my trolley as well. £8.99 offer. I've been wanting a GD tree for yonks but too tight to buy "proper one" from a nursery:money: Next year before I see fruit of course

Lunch I pinged a YS mac cheese, ideal size. Froze the other one
Dinner will be the YS banger / mash / Yorkie combo

Realised I forgot biscuits & chocs in L's, probably for the best but now I crave a kit kat or similar

thrifty-hayley wrote: »

I did take the picnic yesterday, weather held for about 10 mins then we ended up eating our sandwiches with our hoods up and running back to the car. Nothing like a great british picnic :rotfl:

Think we've all had that sort of experience, or running from the wasps

Brambling, I think your hand fork has eloped with mine, mine had bright red handle and is still AWOL. Harking back to similar AWOL items, probably both sitting round a sunny compost heap under a sunshade sipping Pina Coladas:cool:

flubberyzing

Hello everyone!

I had a lovely day with a friend yesterday! We got the train up to Birmingham International, and went to see Hugh Jackman on his tour! He was really, really good, and it was a great atmosphere!
In terms of "eats" - I took £3.50 from my various "change pots" to get a Starbucks from the station, to drink on the train - thinking that'll be more than enough... Well, a small latte was £3.10! I'm sure they're not that much in Costa! I'd thought it would be less than £3, so I was glad I had that extra 50p!

We both got a Subway sandwich meal from the station, before going into the venue, which filled us up, and stopped us wanting all the even-more-expensive food at the kiosks inside! Then both grabbed another bottle of juice on the way home again.

I'd budgeted £30 cash, thinking we might want a meal out, but neither of us were particularly hungry when the show ended, so we just headed home, and I got a pizza out the freezer later in the evening. So the £30 went back in my pot.

This morning I had a late-ish eggs and soldiers for breakfast, and have just had 2 coffees, a few biscuits and a chocolate mousse since. I think I might just do a chicken curry for dinner later... Not feeling particularly adventurous today. My hayfever has been playing up since late morning (after not bothering me AT ALL yesterday!), so I'm just staying in.

In good news, this morning I applied for a summer holiday job, working at a local summer camp, and already they've invited me for a phone interview next week. It's not great money, and fairly long hours (8-6), but I'm a bit of the view that some money is better than no money. I won't get my hopes up, but it's good to have an interview at least!

elona

I had bacon.eggs and tomato with two left over pancakes this morning and have just had baby potatoes, veg and a gammon steak.

There are button mushrooms in the fridge and some steak defrosting for tomorrow and if I get peckish later I might just have a mug of soup or something on toast.

Brambling

Farway I don't feel so bad if you lost a red handle one I wouldn't be so annoyed if it wasn't the first time i used it :mad:

Flubberyzing Fingers crossed for the interview next week, as you say some income is better than no income My hayfever isn't good today either so i'm a bit wheezy, i wasn't sure if i took my tablet this morning or not :think:

My day started badly with the !!!!! electrics playing up again, same circuit as last time so everything in the kitchen other than the boiler controller and fridge freezer out of use. The socket which got damp in the dining room is still isolated so it shouldn't be that. The electrician can't come out until Thursday morning so it will be HM ready meals for lunch pinged at work and salads for dinner or I'll take up my sisters offer to eat there. I have still been using my dish washer although it can be temperamental so not sure if its plugged in but not in use if it can cause an issue? I was going to have him check the house electrics so maybe sooner rather than later, it will take him half a day so it will be just the fix (hopefully) on Thursday and then book him in for a half day. There are times when i hate owning my own home and living alone, sometimes I would love to hand it over to someone else to deal with

Foodwise lunch was beef cheek ragu and pasta (luckily i cooked pasta last night) dinner will be ?? I turned down my sister as she was offering pasta and tomato sauce I picked up some large crumpets YS 30p in W*itrose lunch time so I may move my toaster into the dining room with the kettle and have those (I forgot when I brought them that i had 4 crumpets in the freezer :cool:) or I picked up a piece of quiche YS from the deli counter so may have with salad and coleslaw. last resort will be takeaway but as i'm out early evening tomorrow I may have fish and chips or something picked up on the way home. Plenty of food in the house so I won't starve and with warmer weather salad works, just cba to carry microwave into dining room for a couple of nights

Anyway enough of the whinging it is what it is

caronc

Farway wrote: »

Brambling, I think your hand fork has eloped with mine, mine had bright red handle and is still AWOL. Harking back to similar AWOL items, probably both sitting round a sunny compost heap under a sunshade sipping Pina Coladas:cool:

With my favourite trowel playing gooseberry at the side:rotfl::rotfl:(I think it may have gone to the big brown wheelie bin in the sky which unfortunately got emptied yesterday:()


Fingers crossed for the interview flubberyzing


Car picnics feature regularly round here thrifty- hayley, if it's not rain its wasps or midgies.... (sometimes a mix of all three:eek:)
How frustrating re the electrics Brambling, hopefully it will be easy (and cheap) to fix!


Lovely and sunny but quite cold in the wind here today - definitely sweatshirt rather than t-shirt weather. I got more done in the veg patch than I thought I might so I'm pleased but tired this evening. Less pleasing was getting nipped on the side of my pinky by a woodlouse spider (thanks Google) when I accidently put my hand on one in a pot (note to self put gloved not bare hand in pots:o). It was an aggressive wee beggar and would have had another go if I hadn't pulled my hand away sharpish. I was very close to breaking my rule not to kill spiders!:cool: My pinky was quite red & swollen for a bit but I've cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and it's just a bump now though still a bit itchy.


I'm wanting to buy a stowaway table as extra seating when I have a crowd round. My dining table seats 8 ( 10 if two skinny folk get up close & personal at either end) but not really ideal now the kids are fully grown and if the usual group is all here there are 11 of us which is a squish too far. At the moment we haul my small kitchen table through as an add on but that's going as I'm taking my Dad's dining set which will be fine in my kitchen but too big for an add on. I've see one I like on sale but annoyingly the web page doesn't have the folded dimensions which I need as it can only really go in place. I emailed the retailer and got a prompt reply quoting the extended measurements (which are on the web page), I had been really clear in my email what I needed........:mad: Second request now in with relevant bits in bold;)!


I never got as far as having a good look through the fridge, a job for tomorrow:cool:, but used up the LO coleslaw for lunch on an open sandwich with salami and a side salad. Dinner tonight is spaghetti with a salmon, veg & ricotta sauce. I'll freeze the remaining salmon tonight as well as a 4 uncooked venison burgers which weren't needed on Sunday and my friends wanted me to keep as they had some for themselves at home. I'll be more than happy to use those up in coming weeks:D. Once the salmon is in the freezer that will be the last of the tubs of LOs used up, though there's an unopened pack of 3 eclairs that I might also freeze. Mind you the "Use By" is Friday so I might just enjoy them instead:D.

thrifty-hayley

Farway and caronc very good point about the wasps, would rather a few drops of rain any day!

Flubberyzing Good luck with the interview! I work with kids, I'm a nanny, never a dull day when there's kids about! Speaking of which, I'm having a second attempt at a picnic tomorrow with the kids I look after. I'm taking leftover donuts and muffins from yesterdays picnic, I can count on the kids to help me dispose of them Weather forecast is looking good so fingers crossed!

My creamy steak/pasta concoction went down well and I didn't poison the boyfriend, so win win. Not sure what to have for tea tomorrow, trying to work through the contents of my freezer.

Wednesday2000

Toast with Marmite for breakfast.:)

Farway

Feeling a bit tired this morning, maybe the op still catching up after returning to volunteering yesterday? Not to worry, it's a dull & cold morning so nothing was planned anyway

Last night's YS bangers & mash in Yorkie at 70p was fine for 70P, I'd buy again
Then I defrosted XCFO M & S profiteroles and scoffed 3 of them, only little ones though he says apologetically:o

Porridge etc breakfast

Made a batch of yoghurt

Having planned ahead I'd oiked out YS lean mince to defrost overnight, so using 'fridge sweep of limp celery, slightly hairy carrots, sprouting swede, tired spuds and 18 month OOD chopped toms in juice & squidgy 0X0 cubes I've now got the slow cooker on with savoury mince for dinner.

The onion used was firm, non sprouting & OK BTW:D

Brambling wrote: »

I have still been using my dish washer although it can be temperamental so not sure if its plugged in but not in use if it can cause an issue?

It could if plugged in, because the main electric supply is live in there as far as the "ON" button.

If there is damp or fault prior to ON button this could cause it. The only real way to isolate is remove the plug from wall socket, which if anything like my setup means lugging items out to get at the PIA socket

FZ, best of luck at interview, maybe some grub bunged in, staff discount perhaps?

[Deleted User]

A neighbour phoned to ask if I wanted some rice (I am rubbish cooking rice) so I went round. She had been to an Indian wedding and some rice was left over, plus some cauli curry and some chicken curry. There was sooo much that i froze 4x1 portion tubs of chick & ricem 1 just cauli curry and 8 x 1 portion rice, not sure how I managed to get them all in freezer. Will get a curry&rice out for today so will be eating curry for quite a few days I think, or trying to do something non curry to go with some rice it is savoury/Indian no good for rice pudding. I know you have to careful to de-frost/heat rice properly.

flubberyzing

Morning all!

Thanks for all the well-wishes regarding next weeks interview. We shall see what happens!

I see others suffered with their hayfever yesterday as well... My eyes bugged me, on and off, most of the day. Which was frustrating. It's only ever my eyes that are affected. I shall go and take a hayfever tablet shortly, so that we don't have a repeat (hopefully!)

I went to Tesco first thing for dinner supplies... My sister is coming to tea tonight, and requested enchiladas, so I dutifully went off to buy a kit (because I wouldn't know where to start with sauces and the like, if doing from scratch) and veg. And saw the kits near the entrance, £1.20 off! Perfect! I also got a pack of pre-cut onion, of which I'll use about half, and freeze the rest. £1 for 400g of white onion. There was red onion as well, but that was £1 for only 120g!!
I've also got one of the big flat mushrooms left in the fridge from last week... I've had a poke at it, and it's a bit borderline I think. But I'll cook it up well, and see how it looks. I think it'll be okay.

I've just had a big, slightly late breakfast. 2 eggs and 2 crumpets to fill me up until this evening, hopefully. Then had a coffee and biscuits. I'll likely have a repeat on the coffee later as well.


The job for the rest of the day, until sister comes, is to have a tidy round. The kitchen needs a bit of a blitz, I've got washing to put away, and could do with running the hoover round.
Sister dear is unfortunately one of those people who is first to look around and go, "oh, it's a bit cluttered in here!" Seemingly forgetting her and her partner live in squalor. However, both are on the autistic spectrum, and social etiquette sometimes eludes them. Luckily, I can look past it, for the sake of "family harmony"!