Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Brambling

I'm another one who prepares better quality meat and therefore eats less of it, unfortunately the local free range meat from a local estate which was sold in the farmers market hasn't been there for a while. Once there's room in my freezer I intend to stock up from a good supplier.

I worked from home this morning and was quite glad not to have to drive to work in torrential rain. I had two local companies come round to look at replacing my back window with French doors, both are long standing and have good reputations. The first emailed me a quote which is well within my budget I'll wait and see what the other quotes me as they're using the post . If they are about the same I'll go with the first one.

I drove up to the hospital for my blood test lunchtime hoping a wet lunchtime would be quieter. The three machines in the car park were all broken as one women told me it had taken her money and not given her a ticket just like it did to the man before her, not sure why she did it as she saw it didn't work :wall: i phoned the automatic parking system which was painful and took five minutes of clearly stating number, make, colour, time I wanted and then tapping in all the card details :mad: all standing in the rain for £1.20 i prefer to put money in the machine, I put two hours on the car just in case and unusually it only took 40 minutes :cool: at least the waiting room was entertaining . I gave up trying to park in town afterwards and the queues at the road works in the centre were :eek: so I parked at my sisters had a rant over parking and traffic and splashed into town for my doctor appointment re my hearing and he's referring me to a ear, nose and throat specialist.

I only grabbed a banana for breakfast therefore lunch was early and seeing as I was home I had scrambled egg on wheaten toast. Dinner was almost a repeat of last night using LO rice, veg and katsu sauce this time with a breaded air fried chicken thigh fillet so very little cooking with another thigh for lunch tomorrow

Farway I picked up a small 750g gammon YS in M&S with a couple of days date left I popped in on the off chance of YS at 4pm and picked up YS nectarines and pineapple and kiwi berries as well

PasturesNew

Wet here ... and I need my rolling baccy

It's one of Mr T's allegedly quiet hours in support of autism .... so I'll pop there (it's my nearest supermarket in any case) so I can "judge it to have been rubbish/nobody was quiet".

See how I go.

I don't need any food, but I might take some of that hour to walk round and familiarise myself with the store and eye up future potential purchases while it's allegedly quiet.

9am to 10am... so let's see if I'm as traumatised as the last time I went there last week

EDIT: That was a dead loss.... it'd been "ignored", I lasted 10 minutes inside (inc my baccy queueing/buying time, which was a success) .... I left traumatised and angry. It's a good job I didn't want/need food from there as I bought nothing. Quiet Hour was absolutely NO different to any other hour. Tesco fail.

Wednesday2000

I'm still feeling like carp with this cold. It's my own fault for overdoing the nights out the week before I think. I had three very heavy nights on the town and I'm paying for it now. I'm not as young as I once was.:rotfl:

I've had some white tea with a lemon squeezed into it. I'm reheating the SW chips that I didn't finish last night and might have them with some baked beans.

I'm going to make a healthy soup today, broccoli, peas, spinach and potato.:A

It feels quite cold. I've put on a cardigan and some fluffy socks but the heating might go on later. I'm going to check the BBC weather.

Farway

Wet here again, like everyone else by sounds of it.

Not that it matters, my only planned tasks are bringing in the wheelie bins if & when the bin lorry arrives. Should've been emptied yesterday but council have changed bin contractor so could be the reason, not a problem anyway for CFO with only one person's rubbish

PN, nice move giving a lift, somethings like that are a nice gesture, especially in the circumstances you described

Andy, volunteering, as others have said, helps both ways, plus could be useful for references if required on job hunts.

We do a criminal records check before accepting a volunteer [our clients may vulnerable people], so any employer may guess anyone with us has a clean sheet, not that we disclose any of it of course

Breakfast usual porridge, with chopped apple. The apple was one of next doors, core it was sharp, had to add some honey to the mix


The YS gammon is in the SC, good M & S gammon catch brambling, sometimes the "posh" shop can be a suprise with good buys


PN, well done on the L cheese offer, tastes even nicer if a bargain


Lunch, it's use up last of the HM spud & leek soup, with a LO crust


Dinner, has to be SC gammon, not sure with what just yet, could even be just a sarnie, depends how I feel

PasturesNew

Egg and soldiers for breakfast. I picked the largest egg in the box (to have some chance of a soldier fitting into the hole) ... but this was my first time with the nuker here for eggs.... so I had to guess the time/power.

I set the power to 90% and did the egg for 5 minutes (as it was a wider one)... next time I'll try 4m0s - 4m30s as there was some soft dippy bits in the middle, but it could do with a little less time. No harm done. Had some dippy bits. Egg/2 bits of toast.

Sweeties for Elevenses.

[Deleted User]

Having some brown pasta (bought when feeling virtuous) and sausage, cut into bits less skins but what uncertain what to coat it all in then spotted packet of El Paso sauce (did not use in whatever kit I bought) so think I will use that, and some spinach. Do not really use tomato sauces much as bad for my arthritis or I could use pack of cream cheese. Decisions decisions.

Wednesday2000

I had a vomiting incident earlier!:eek::o Sorry if it is TMI.:D

I think I must be sensitive to an ingredient in cough medicine as the same thing happened today with Benylin as when I took Kovonia last time.

I had to throw away the chips as I couldn't eat them. I had a nap and then had a strawberry soya milkshake and some toasted pittas when I woke up.

My tummy still feels a bit off. I think I will have some plain steamed rice and veggies later and hopefully that will settle it.

unrecordings

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

I had a vomiting incident earlier!:eek::o Sorry if it is TMI.:D

I think I must be sensitive to an ingredient in cough medicine as the same thing happened today with Benylin as when I took Kovonia last time.

This might help to pin down the problem common ingredient (and/or find a product that omits it)

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/4831/smpc

AndyCF

Hello all. :T


Am sorry to hear you've felt a bit erm 'green' @Wednesday2000 , please "get well soon"

Think you're right to stay with simple/basic bits of foods for a little while to let your stomach settle back again.

Although probably not to everyone's taste or liking I tend to have just an instant cup-soup in those instances when I feel the need for a little food to 'try' , possibly with a plain cream cracker. I've learned to avoid some of the cheaper branded cup-soups as some are terrible and its quite possible to get the well known 'B' brand 3pack for about 60-70 pence in a few places, compared to say 50p for an unknown the 20p is worthwhile.

Summary being once I've had something like that and felt better later normality can resume.


No real food news from me other than I took the recommendation of trying one of those 50/50 loafs, as usually it has to be wholemeal/brown for me I can't normally deal with a white loaf.

Anyway aside from dropping some on the floor (had to be binned) it was reasonable all in all. I think I'll probably alternate purchases between the wholemeal and say every third time get a 50/50 one. Of course, depends on what limited selections the local places have too.

@PN I used to try that regarding alleged "quiet times" but it never worked out. I did over time learn the local Sains (when I had a car to get there) to never go Fri mornings unless it was urgent as it was always packed.

Conversely it was nearly always empty at 7 to 8pm , so when it was possible I'd go then but I was never really in a shopping mood that late in the day, so it was only a rare occasion I'd do that. Only downside was the lack of till staff but isle browsing was pleasant and relatively quiet.

For what it is worth the local Co-co (before it turned into a BM) which was within a 3 mins walk, it was also quite packed on a Friday morning too. I'm not sure if it was pension day but Co-co was generally populated by the older generation (nothing wrong with that and I'm not impatient either) they can take as long as they need)

Only thing that did sometimes annoy me (not them just generally) were those who either tried their luck at the 'basket only' or "x items or less" isles with either a trolley or far too many bits. Sensible exceptions here are obviously those who have to have a trolley who can't hold a basket full of goodies, but it seemed (I fit into this 'group' age-wise at least, not in 'action' I'd not be that cheeky) the younger/mid ages who were the worst offenders for it.

Anyway other 'sane' times seemed to be between 2pm and 3pm on a weekday, well relatively sane (very large Sains complete with Cafe etc etc) any earlier and you'd get the late morning/lunchtime people and any later you'd get the school run shoppers. Not a deal in itself aside from the thankfully few who exercised no control over their offspring! Chaos could sometimes ensue.


@caronc / @farway : Thank you both for your advice and thoughts regarding voluntary works. I would pass a CRB or other similar such checks without any concern.

When I looked a few years ago into part time nursing home work one place had the cheek to want a valid cert -before- giving me an interview. It was when I looked into this and realised that it was not transferable , it was pointless as I would of been in effect 'paying for an interview' ! Needless to say I did not take this one any further.

The others I looked at although they wanted (in most cases) me to fork out for a cert, they would refund its cost after six months. My own view is it ought to be refunded out of the first or at a push second months salary but each to their own. Generally those wanting a new job funds are tight and the 50 to 70 (I'm guessing here) cost of the cert is a big chunk relatively especially if its not returned within a sane time period (six months is not sane!) I may look into this 'work area' again as I do not mind nights/evening work, I actually prefer it to early mornings anyway.


Back to foods again: I'm not sure on later food, I keep eyeing up some soup I have so it may have to be that with a few extra veg bits thrown in perhaps.

unrecordings

Ramen this evening for me as it was full on fish & chips for tea last night, and a cooked breakfast. Only problem is that I can't be bothered to venture outside to collect some leaves & herbs as my knees hurt - but that might change later. Got some lovely reduced deli ham to go in the ramen & share with the cat - not yellow sticker, but the end of the ham, too small to go through the slicer so clingfilmed and sold very cheaply

As for shopping times, for me: Tuesday to Thursday after rush hour but before 11am - any other time is referred to as a 'commando raid'