Cooking For One
When you live alone, cooking seems like a chore so, at the end of a tiring work day, you may be tempted to open a can of soup and make a grilled cheese sandwich. Or order/pick up a pizza pie. For dessert, well, Tim Hortons donut shops are everywhere.
After a while, that gets boring and pretty expensive. So here are some solutions if you just do a little planning and have a freezer (or TWO) in the house. :)
Would you rather have a bowl of Campbell's Cream of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich or:
Ham, Kidney Bean and Veggie Soup and Dill-Cheddar Cheese biscuit
A pizza pie from your local pizza joint or:
Leek, bacon and cheddar "pie" or quiche - Freshly made today with ingredients from the freezer: pastry crust made in August, a cup of grated cheddar cheese and a bag of sliced leeks sauteed yesterday and allowed to cool before assembly.
This is what I had for supper tonight.
Shepherd's pie from my freezer (the last portion) and coleslaw
And for dessert ... well, I found a good home for the last of my Florentines and sticky date pudding, ate all the panna cotta but wait ... there are some almond biscotti in a container in the freezer to fill out any empty corners. :)
Planning for future meals - Today, while running down to the basement to do three loads of laundry, I also cooked the chickens, made the refried beans and the quiche posted above, as well as grating the blocks of cheese I bought from the city market. Time to put up my feet and relax.
2 Whole fresh chickens were purchased, already trussed up, for $12, seasoned inside and out with salt and pepper, and then roasted.
After roasting, I took the chickens apart, set aside the drippings for gravy, the carcasses for stock and the meat ... well, I'm still deciding on that. :)
My last pound of dried pinto beans ended up as 3 x 2 cup containers of Refried Beans. I drizzled some cooking liquid over the top of the refried beans as the beans got a bit thick as they cooled off. I only used 1/2 tbsp of bacon fat for the entire batch of beans.
I just used up the last of the grated old cheddar cheese, from my freezer, for the quiche so it was time to replace it with these freezer bags containing Emmentaler ($5) and Monterey Jack with Jalapeno ($4).
After a while, that gets boring and pretty expensive. So here are some solutions if you just do a little planning and have a freezer (or TWO) in the house. :)
Would you rather have a bowl of Campbell's Cream of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich or:
Ham, Kidney Bean and Veggie Soup and Dill-Cheddar Cheese biscuit
A pizza pie from your local pizza joint or:
Leek, bacon and cheddar "pie" or quiche - Freshly made today with ingredients from the freezer: pastry crust made in August, a cup of grated cheddar cheese and a bag of sliced leeks sauteed yesterday and allowed to cool before assembly.
This is what I had for supper tonight.
Shepherd's pie from my freezer (the last portion) and coleslaw
And for dessert ... well, I found a good home for the last of my Florentines and sticky date pudding, ate all the panna cotta but wait ... there are some almond biscotti in a container in the freezer to fill out any empty corners. :)
Planning for future meals - Today, while running down to the basement to do three loads of laundry, I also cooked the chickens, made the refried beans and the quiche posted above, as well as grating the blocks of cheese I bought from the city market. Time to put up my feet and relax.
2 Whole fresh chickens were purchased, already trussed up, for $12, seasoned inside and out with salt and pepper, and then roasted.
After roasting, I took the chickens apart, set aside the drippings for gravy, the carcasses for stock and the meat ... well, I'm still deciding on that. :)
My last pound of dried pinto beans ended up as 3 x 2 cup containers of Refried Beans. I drizzled some cooking liquid over the top of the refried beans as the beans got a bit thick as they cooled off. I only used 1/2 tbsp of bacon fat for the entire batch of beans.
I just used up the last of the grated old cheddar cheese, from my freezer, for the quiche so it was time to replace it with these freezer bags containing Emmentaler ($5) and Monterey Jack with Jalapeno ($4).