Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Wednesday2000

There are lots of bugs going around at the moment. I'm feeling worse today so I think I have to go and get some cough medicine after my haircut. The cough is worse when I lie down at night.

I also need to buy incense sticks, descaler and bread!

The weather is still okay here. It's sunny and I still have the garden door open. The central heating is still off.

I had a Chinese last night so I have leftovers to have at some point.;) I had a few crackers with cream cheese for breakfast along with a lot of water and my vitamins.

catz4m8z wrote: »

Sweet potato, cauliflower and chickpea curry in the SC and all the questionable/iffy veg from the fridge into the soup maker for tomato, bean and vegetable soup. Thats 5 days lunch and dinner sorted and fridge cleared out also!

Sounds delicious!:)

caronc

Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to CFO catz4m8z your curry sounds delicious.:)
Nothing wimpy about calling Dr out whmf hope the painkillers are helping <hug>
Sorry to have shared the lurgy Brambling and Wednesday, have to say passing it on seems to have helped as I feel less grotty today.;) My nose is still like a beacon though, it will be a polyfilla job rather than dab of concealor when I [STRIKE]put my slap on [/STRIKE] artfully apply my make up later. :cool:

The weather is still dire here I'm not sure why I bothered straightening my hair earlier!
Ham salad roll for lunch and I'm off out for dinner later, it wont be a late one as most folk are working tomorrow.

caronc

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PasturesNew

I went for a drive around an area today. An area I'd dismissed as "grubby, nasty, studenty" so went for a proper look round... I was right

Bought LOTS of bags of sweeties £land my favourite chocs + 5 pack of doritos. Wilko two bags of jelly babies and a bag of wine gums. I was taking a punt on their jelly babies being "good", but they're not; they're almost tasteless.

Lunch was a bag of doritos and some jelly babies.

Later on I managed to get a (free) parking spot near 1cel4nd, to go in and check out their "3 for £4" deal... but I'd left my glasses in the car and then couldn't really see three I wanted.... I half looked round the rest of the shop, but without glasses you can't read the tiny print on the freezers. By then I was overwhelmed with taking in so much information and trying to decide/choose so walked out with a fairly simple £1 cheeseburger pizza.... so that's for tea. I can't cook it yet as it's a bit early + I'm still overwhelmed from going into 1cel4nd

Farway

Welcome catz4m8z

Late check in today, shopping & AGM, all done now

I did get 3 for £4 in Icel'nd, confusing to say the least, you would need your glasses PN, some are in the offer & some are not. Needless to say I chose some not in offer, seems the Chinese ones, like sweet & sour, are not.

Good job I was in early & spotted the incorrect till total and I know the till lady, quickly changed for "correct ones" Korma & a Tikka

Found just right size & YS price gammon joint in W8rose:j For some reason it has long BBE date of 18th, so no rush to get it in slow cooker, unlike the bacon also YS, that's dinner tonight

Opened a tin of corned beef for lunch, just fancied some, had few slices in sarnie with piccalilli

Dinner is dead easy, grill some of the YS bacon, fried eggs, frozen chips & maybe open tin of beans. Epicurean delight;)

caronc wrote: »

I've "given in" and popped the CH on timed to come on for 20 minutes tomorrow morning as the bathroom was decidedly chilly this morning. I had hoped to keep it off for a bit longer but needs must.

I had left my CH on Auto all summer, and this morning it popped on for first time since Spring. Soon boosted the house up but sign of things to come

AndyCF

Quick hello all.

PasturesNew wrote:

I've been eating/using what I've got... today that has meant a sausage toastie for breakfast (last of the sausages), then a 4-finger fish finger toastie for lunch and for tea... so 8/15 of that pack gone.

Yesterday, after my breakfast of beans/scrambled eggs on toast I used up the other half of the tin of beans and had beans on toast... so 3 tins to go.

Current food stocks are: 1.5Kg chips, 7 fish fingers, 2 crusts of bread, half a jar of jam, 3 tins of beans, 1 14p pack of noodles and 8 eggs.

Sausage toastie sounds excellent, something I must try when I eventually posess a GF grill thing or a toaster. I think the former will be better as I can use it for a lot of things and I can put it away when I've finished, workspace is tight.

That's part the reason I don't have an electric kettle there's nowhere near the sockets to put it, and the otherside of the room where there is space (just) there's no sockets that side, so I make do with the stovetop one. There was room for it before the new Fridge two years ago as the zapper used to live on the top of the old one, but the new Fridge is much taller so it can't and the zapper now lives on the shelf (near the socket) where the electric kettle used to have a home. Complex to explain and boring. No not having 10 meters of extension lead over the floor or over the ceiling I did consider the latter actually! :rotfl:

I was going to put a small joke here @PN about the "Current Food Stocks" part of your post, something like "that's fine, you just need a blender now" but that sounds terrible when I thought about it! , I'm not quite myself at the moment as I say though.

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

There are lots of bugs going around at the moment. I'm feeling worse today so I think I have to go and get some cough medicine after my haircut. The cough is worse when I lie down at night.

I also need to buy incense sticks, descaler and bread!

I'm still a bit buggy too. Just lingering and lingering rather than it going away. At least it is relatively mild at the moment.

Hope you feel better soon too!

Sticks sound like a good idea, not used any of those since the 90's when I had my slightly late teenage years due to life factors things had to wait (hmm I may of just about given my age away now)

Pretty sure you can use vinegar or something like baking soda for descaling, I forget what I was told but on the few occasions I've needed it I've just used that oust even if you need two sachets as if you hunt about its relatively cheap, check pound/bargain type shops. Only caveat here is beware you get something suitable, one product looked like it was meant to clean 'not for consumption' pipeworks etc. I did not use it in the kettle! It reminded me of something I used to use when working as a vehicle technician many moons ago actually. Then again the infamous "Ou" one is £1 last time I looked in BM the other day.

caronc wrote: »

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I missed it, although there is some vague joke in that I think, 'Spam' etc. Not had any for years! Not tried the microwave or fry it ideas, I think last time (and it was a long time ago) I just put some onto a cream cracker or such.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I went for a drive around an area today. An area I'd dismissed as "grubby, nasty, studenty" so went for a proper look round... I was right

Bought LOTS of bags of sweeties £land my favourite chocs + 5 pack of doritos. Wilko two bags of jelly babies and a bag of wine gums. I was taking a punt on their jelly babies being "good", but they're not; they're almost tasteless.

That makes sense, but its good to know that you did not let a 'first impression' put you off permanently and had the excellent sense to take a 'real look'

Lots in BM lately actually, is there one of these near you ? To be honest it seems better for sweetie bits than HB generally, both on choice/variety and prices. HB has the slight bonus of cheaper bulk buys though.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Later on I managed to get a (free) parking spot near 1cel4nd, to go in and check out their "3 for £4" deal... but I'd left my glasses in the car and then couldn't really see three I wanted.... I half looked round the rest of the shop, but without glasses you can't read the tiny print on the freezers. By then I was overwhelmed with taking in so much information and trying to decide/choose so walked out with a fairly simple £1 cheeseburger pizza.... so that's for tea. I can't cook it yet as it's a bit early + I'm still overwhelmed from going into 1cel4nd

This slightly bothers me next time I am able to do an online shop or go to a 'large' supermarket, as its been a long time aside from the mini ones, I'll be slightly overwhelmed perhaps. Potentially if I am very lucky a few pennies may arrive before Christmas and if they do I plan myself a reasonable online shop, without wastage as its been a long time since I've been able to do this.

Oh the Ice's near (as in 2 miles up a steep hill) here is a small one, although the range is very good for the size of the shop itself.


Unsure on food, still a bit buggy as mentioned above.

I did get one of those 50/50 loafs yesterday but I've not got to it yet. I normally get the wholemeal but it was suggested I try one of these so as its the same price (£1) I did.

I don't usually do too well with normal 'white bread' but this seems a compromise. Only other white ones I used to like were the really mini (as in about an inch or so diameter ones, only the huge Sains had them in their bakery) Sain's rolls, the ones that were about 8 in the pack for 50p or so if I remember correctly. Only trouble was they were so small they were gone that day!

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

... I did get 3 for £4 in Icel'nd, confusing to say the least....some are in the offer & some are not... seems the Chinese ones, like sweet & sour, are not.

Here I spotted the in/not. Chinese were in the adjacent freezer with no offer banner above the unit. Indian had the offer banner. So I knew I was restricted to those in the "indian" freezer... but was unsure where else I could look/what would be in the deal.

All too restrictive, confusing, unclear and undocumented... so I backed away.

I figured they had plenty of food for sale at £1 in any case - and the deal only got me to buy three products for £1.33 each, spending more than "necessary"

I cooked/ate my £1 pizza. Meh.... it was a pizza.... wouldn't rush to buy another, but that's a good thing as it "forces" me to try something different next time.

I did nearly get a cottage pie, so maybe next time I'm in 1cel4nd it's cottage pie night

Brambling

Sorry the back is still causing issues WHMF hopefully the stronger tablets will sort it

Enjoy your evening Caronc .

I got held up at work and although it was only 5.35pm when I left the traffic was horrible, I got let out of the car park but it took 20 minutes to inch down the road which is usually a three minute walk :cool: it's why I usually aim to get in early so I can leave at 5pm, but it meant I was able to send some work out to the guys in India with the hope they will complete first thing their time and it will be done when I start work tomorrow

The crumbed tofu tasted better with a Katsu curry sauce but I won't buy again unless I see it YS sticker again. I forgot to put the rice on so pinged a sachet of rice and quinoa to go with it as well as runner and French beans and purple sprouting. There's enough of everything tomorrow to go with some breaded chicken and make a lazy dinner

Farway I'm envious of your YS gammon recently there has only been big joints YS in my W8itrose, I bet nearer Christmas when I'll want one there won't be any

AndyCF

PasturesNew wrote: »

I did nearly get a cottage pie, so maybe next time I'm in 1cel4nd it's cottage pie night

I don't know why but I still get confused with Cottage vs Shepard's, its only the beef one I like. Problem with most of the ready made ones is they tend to have stuff like an excess of vinegar or spice in them both of which I hate. Don't get me wrong I don't mind lamb chops occasionally or 'steaks' as I call them (the ones you find in the chilled fresh meats area) but its one of my least favoured meats. I ought to try it again it has been a long time certainly not this year I'm ashamed to say!

Last time I made my own. I say "made" in the very vaguest sense of the word:

Knocked some potatoes into mash / added some mincement / added a spoon of garden peas that I'd zapped / mixed well / emptied into bowl = instant yum.

Got to confess I do like that Prc's tinned Mince, not terribly keen on the stewed steak (its nice but too many pennies and a cheaper one I tried once tasted awful :rotfl: ) , did not like Sain tinned mince either. Only advantage of Sains is they do a little tin (ideal) as well as the normal size ones whereas Prc's only do that larger tin. I can't get it locally anymore but the 'beef stew' they used to do or still do, this is very good , ideal on its own or thrown onto some other bits.

PasturesNew

AndyCF wrote: »

I don't know why but I still get confused with Cottage vs Shepard's, its only the beef one I like.

Shepherd's pie is lamb; shepherds look after lambs.
Cottage pie is beef.