Moving flats and food organisation

Fusspot

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Please do join us on the 'Cooking for One' thread.

My background has a lot in common with VfM4meplse I think. Link to my post on a recent thread on a similar topic.

Make it easier to eat homemade meals and make it more difficult to eat ready meals. Balanced meals can be cooked from scratch or can be quickly assembled from ready-to-go components, saving time, effort and washing up!

One of the worst things about many ready meals is that the starches are refined (white rice/ white pasta/ skinless potatoes). But you can buy wholegrain/ wholefood alternatives ready cooked or you can cook them in bulk and freeze yourself.

In my kitchen cupboards I have canned beans and lentils, canned tomatoes, canned curries, canned oily fish, jar pasta sauces, jar curry sauces, jar pastes (spices/ red chilli/ pesto). These are obviously more expensive than homemade from scratch, but cheaper and healthier than many ready meals.

The largest section of my freezer is given over to fruit and vegetables, many of which I buy prepped and frozen. This includes crushed garlic, crushed ginger and crushed green chilli (World Foods section of the freezers at some supermarkets or larger Asian/ Middle Eastern grocers). Often frozen ingredients are not only easier but also cheaper than fresh.

Some hard cheeses can be bought already grated, or you can grate a large block and freeze it yourself. Hard boil eggs six at a time for meals or snacks. I never remember to do this, but Nigella Lawson suggests adding marinades to raw meat or fish before freezing so it is grab-and-go.

HTH!

I do want to try and steer away from ready meals, even though they are convenient but it is cheaper and healthier to make your own. I guess a ready meal once a week or so is OK though.

I might join the cooking for one thread, thanks. Is there a lot of tips on there?

trailingspouse

Please don't follow the advice on here to just eat what you fancy. That might work if what you fancy is healthy and nutritious, but not if it's marshmallows...
Meal planning is the way to go - decide what you're going to have for breakfast lunch and dinner for the week, and stick to it. While you're at it, plan in the nutrition - make sure you have fish (including oily fish) at least twice a week, not too much red meat, maybe have a non-meat day once a week. And include how you're going to use up the leftovers.

And seriously, what's so onerous about cooking anyway? I can have a meal on the table inside 20 minutes (and even then, I'm not spending the whole 20 minutes slaving in the kitchen!). I made a full roast chicken dinner for myself last night - 30 seconds to unwrap the chicken and put it in a roasting dish in the oven. 5 seconds to wash and !!!!! a large jacket potato to put in alongside the chicken. Then, 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time - cook some veggies, put the chicken on to a serving plate and turn the juices into the best gravy you can imagine. Dish up, and settle down to eat, with a glass of wine.

Tonight I'll be having some of the leftover chicken with pasta - pasta takes 10 minutes to cook. I can have the chicken chopped and mixed with onions, peppers, mushrooms and a tin of tomatoes and some herbs in the time it takes for the water to come to the boil, and it's all cooked by the time the pasta's ready.

Tomorrow I'll strip the carcass and put the bones in a big pan to boil up for stock. I can do this while I'm waiting for the kettle to boil for a cup of tea. It simmers for an hour - but I don't need to stand and look at it! Once made, let it cool and it'll keep in the fridge for 3 days - and with the stock as a base you can make a decent soup using whatever veggies you have, in about 20 minutes - that's 5 minutes to chop the veggies (while the stock is coming to the boil), and 15 minutes for them to cook. If I have a bit more time, I'll make a risotto (which I agree is a bit more faffy!)

I think all the cookery programs, and companies that deliver overpriced ingredients for so-called mid-week meals with obscure names have a lot to answer for. No-one with any sense actually cooks like that.

I'm on my own now - and I admit I wondered how I would go on with food. Turns out I'm determined to eat healthily on a budget. I guess I'm what used to be called a 'good plain cook' - nothing fancy, but what I do is done well.

GreenQueen

Suggest you find a few simple, quick recipes that you really enjoy - may just be one at first. If you cook for yourself once a week to start with, you'll perfect cooking your simple favourite recipe, and be able to do it without any worry. You can then build up gradually to more dishes, cooking for yourself more frequently and learning how you can tweak and customise things.

Ideas for quick and easy are omelette, risotto, pasta carbonara, ceasar salad... depending on what you like. The "cooking for one" thread will have lots more ideas.

bouicca21

Reheating chicken is not the problem - it's undercooking it or storing it badly so that raw chicken comes into contact with other foodstuffs that causes problems.

Fire_Fox

trailingspouse wrote: »

Meal planning is the way to go - decide what you're going to have for breakfast lunch and dinner for the week, and stick to it. While you're at it, plan in the nutrition - make sure you have fish (including oily fish) at least twice a week, not too much red meat, maybe have a non-meat day once a week. And include how you're going to use up the leftovers.

Most Brits do not know what a healthy, balanced diet is, they do not know what all the healthy eating guidelines are. Many believe white rice and white pasta are part of a healthy, balanced meal. It is now recommended that most of our starches/ complex carbs should be wholegrain.

Red meat is more nutritious than white meat: check out chicken breast on Self Nutrition Data. Shockingly it is not even a good source of vitamin B12. The scientific evidence is against processed meats (eg. ham, bacon, sausages), and against overly large or frequent servings of any meat (max. the size and thickness of your palm).

trailingspouse wrote: »

And seriously, what's so onerous about cooking anyway? I can have a meal on the table inside 20 minutes (and even then, I'm not spending the whole 20 minutes slaving in the kitchen!) ....

You could equally well ask what is so onerous about handwashing your own clothes, what is so onerous about walking/ cycling/ using public transport, what is so onerous about growing fruit and vegetables instead of buying tinned or frozen. Ready meals, household appliances, supermarkets and motor cars are all about convenience.

Television programmes like JO's Ministry of Food clearly show the reasons why some find cooking 'onerous'. These included lack of equipment, lack of funds, lack of the most basic knowledge or skills, lack of confidence.

trailingspouse wrote: »

I think all the cookery programs, and companies that deliver overpriced ingredients for so-called mid-week meals with obscure names have a lot to answer for. No-one with any sense actually cooks like that.

I'm on my own now - and I admit I wondered how I would go on with food. Turns out I'm determined to eat healthily on a budget. I guess I'm what used to be called a 'good plain cook' - nothing fancy, but what I do is done well.

Fewer and fewer in this country are brought up on 'traditional'/ plain British food: sadly some are brought up on takeaways and snacks, although many are brought up surrounded by foods from other cultures or other parts of the world.

In my city all the big supermarkets have one or two full aisles plus a section of the fridges and the freezers dedicated to World Foods, as well as numerous South Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European grocery stores. Some of the large supermarkets have an entire butchers counter given over to spiced meats. Ingredients, flavours and dishes that are 'obscure' to you are everyday to many Brits.

TV programmes can be the only experience some Brits have of seeing food prepared competently. If people are not taught by parents/ caregivers/ school how else are they to learn to cook?

HTH.

luvchocolate

Fusspot wrote: »

I must admit I am worried about reheating chicken. I love chicken but tend to cook it as I eat it because I fear food poisoning from it. I am fine with freezing and reheating other foods though.

When you reheat your chicken do you reheat it in the microwave or the oven?

I have always cooked this way when I worked full time and even now since I retired, never had a problem, I heat it in a pan on the hob till bubbling.

Linda32

Fusspot wrote: »

I must admit I am worried about reheating chicken. I love chicken but tend to cook it as I eat it because I fear food poisoning from it. I am fine with freezing and reheating other foods though.

When you reheat your chicken do you reheat it in the microwave or the oven?

Hi, I've suggested this before but if you don't mind I'll suggest it again. Don't reheat it then Cook, freeze, defrost overnight in the fridge and eat with salad.

In a previous post I might have been a little flippant when I suggested cheese and biscuits. I'm sure you wouldn't have taken that literally to be the only thing you bought. I remember you saying that you liked breaded chicken, I'm sure a portion could we used in various ways.