What's for dinner?

Can confirm, it was delish! Just as a warning,  the I think I used slightly too much pasta so it didn't cook as well as it should've because there's only enough "sauce" for the given pasta but was fine (just on the harder side compared to where we normally cook it to). Will also say it took about another 20-30 mins to get the pasta right (I thought it'd be quicker but it wasn't).

Is that a healthy sprinkling of freshly-grated cheese on top?  Yours looks nicer than the picture on the recipe page (I like well-lit food photos).

I wonder if I could trick my husband into being happy with this for dinner one night.  He likes meals that have multiple, distinct flavours (that, ideally, complement one another, so he can put it all together into a forkful and eat it in one bite... ?    ).  This sort of thing would please my comfort-food-loving heart, but to him it would be too much of the same flavour, I think.  Maybe when we have an oven so I can make garlic bread to go with it.

Is that a healthy sprinkling of freshly-grated cheese on top?  Yours looks nicer than the picture on the recipe page (I like well-lit food photos).

I wonder if I could trick my husband into being happy with this for dinner one night.  He likes meals that have multiple, distinct flavours (that, ideally, complement one another, so he can put it all together into a forkful and eat it in one bite... ?    ).  This sort of thing would please my comfort-food-loving heart, but to him it would be too much of the same flavour, I think.  Maybe when we have an oven so I can make garlic bread to go with it.

Hahaha in fairness, we did have garlic bread with it (it just wasn't the nice picture LOL)



There were definitely different flavours - it was creamy but also zesty (I say zesty because I wouldn't say the Cajun seasoning made it too spicy, it was just the right amount). It was reallllly good and husband loves it (but then again, my husband is not picky in the slightest! Hahaha). You always need a healthy bit of cheese on top!

I can confirm, it satisfied my desire for some "comfort food" as I've felt a bit crappy the last few days. And it filled me right up! Serves 4 so had enough for leftovers too!



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Serves 4 so had enough for leftovers too!

"Leftovers" is the magic word!  I love it when I can cook once and eat two or three times.

Oh, gawd, garlic bread!  I really miss having an oven!

"Leftovers" is the magic word!  I love it when I can cook once and eat two or three times.

Oh, gawd, garlic bread!  I really miss having an oven!

Can you just get like a toaster oven or something just for the meantime so you can make stuff like garlic bread or small casseroles?

Can you just get like a toaster oven or something just for the meantime so you can make stuff like garlic bread or small casseroles?

We've thought about it, because we're both missing toasted/baked food.  But then one of us will say, "Where will we put it?" and then we'll both go quiet as we consider the possibilities.  And then we'll just kind of decide it's not worth the money/hassle and we can wait.  ... 'til the next time we start to feel desperate again.

We've thought about it, because we're both missing toasted/baked food.  But then one of us will say, "Where will we put it?" and then we'll both go quiet as we consider the possibilities.  And then we'll just kind of decide it's not worth the money/hassle and we can wait.  ... 'til the next time we start to feel desperate again.

Get one second hand (or a new one for just over £20 from Argos), that way you won't feel bad storing it wherever or giving it any wear and tear (or binning it once you get your kitchen sorted). You can literally get a 9L one right now on amazon for £25 and it will be delivered next day if you have prime (and it'll be done and dusted before you can even second guess yourself).

We've thought about it, because we're both missing toasted/baked food.  But then one of us will say, "Where will we put it?" and then we'll both go quiet as we consider the possibilities.  And then we'll just kind of decide it's not worth the money/hassle and we can wait.  ... 'til the next time we start to feel desperate again.

You may have posted this elsewhere so sorry if I've missed it.  But without your kitchen, are you guys eating out a lot??


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Eating my grits the noo.

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You may have posted this elsewhere so sorry if I've missed it.  But without your kitchen, are you guys eating out a lot??

We actually don't eat out at all.  It's too expensive and not as tasty as what we manage to assemble in our utili-kitchen.  We have a refrigerator, 1-burner electric camp stove, microwave, and a slow cooker in the laundry room.  I have about 1/2 sq meter of worktop that isn't covered with stuff (taking the slow cooker down from its place on top of the microwave when we use it takes up a large portion of my worktop!), and a small sink (for doing the washing up).  And that is where we make the magic happen.

That's one good thing about my husband being gone 4 nights out of the week.  I don't bother to cook much for myself during the week, and we just make really good food at the weekend.  ... and then I spend the week restoring order to the space so we can start again the following weekend.

When we arrived we had one small pot with a lid (had a steamer insert), one frying pan, and a can-opener and were fine.  You can cook a lot with just a few implements, but you really do need some counter space or it's a major juggling act!  Kudos to you for having pulled it off with 1/2 meter of work-top in a non-existent kitchen!!!

I'm late for reporting last night's supper. I was a bit tired after having done an expedition by bus to B&O - like being in Home Depot again, with rows of choices - to get a bin to put the new hamster in so he had a decent amount of room. So after getting soaked coming home in the rain, and then maneuvering the hamster (who doesn't know me yet) from his too-small cage into his new, palatial estate, all I felt like doing was raiding the "pre-cooked" in my freezer. So it was boxed "American" southern fried chicken bits from Tesco (pretty good, really), fresh carrots, and french fries (also from frozen).  The nutrition police probably wouldn't approve, but if they'd shown up I'd have told them that they could darn well cook something, then.

I am sitting here this morning over my cup of tea staring at the munchkin-cow  brisket that Tesco sent instead of the larger one I'd ordered and wondering if it'll still work out ok with the recipe I have (basically, into the crock pot whole with veggies and oxo until late tonight) or if I want to cut it into smaller bits and do something else with it.  Since even if I put it on now it probably won't be ready in 8 hours for supper (it's always best the next day), I think supper tonight is probably going to be Tesco tomato basil soup (with black pepper, fresh basil, and a couple of shots of Tabasco in it) and toasted cheese sandwiches (frying grated mature cheddar with a little paprika, black pepper, and a very small dusting of mustard, then ladling onto toasted bread when it's all bubbly and a bit cooked). And some sort of healthy side of veg. Maybe some nice, raw button mushrooms if I can find any at the shops.  Otherwise it'll be a kosher dill pickle spear (Vlassic).

It's so bizarre, meal planning. Trying to stay low carb without doing the same handful of foods over and over....  I am beginning to really appreciate those old cookbooks with their "full month of nutritious meal recipes" sections! 

a glass of red wine and 2 samosas.  Didn't even bother to heat them up.

a glass of red wine and 2 samosas.  Didn't even bother to heat them up.

I can respect the sh*t out of that. Just sayin'.

When we arrived we had one small pot with a lid (had a steamer insert), one frying pan, and a can-opener and were fine.  You can cook a lot with just a few implements, but you really do need some counter space or it's a major juggling act!  Kudos to you for having pulled it off with 1/2 meter of work-top in a non-existent kitchen!!!

I'm late for reporting last night's supper. I was a bit tired after having done an expedition by bus to B&O - like being in Home Depot again, with rows of choices - to get a bin to put the new hamster in so he had a decent amount of room. So after getting soaked coming home in the rain, and then maneuvering the hamster (who doesn't know me yet) from his too-small cage into his new, palatial estate, all I felt like doing was raiding the "pre-cooked" in my freezer. So it was boxed "American" southern fried chicken bits from Tesco (pretty good, really), fresh carrots, and french fries (also from frozen).  The nutrition police probably wouldn't approve, but if they'd shown up I'd have told them that they could darn well cook something, then.

I am sitting here this morning over my cup of tea staring at the munchkin-cow  brisket that Tesco sent instead of the larger one I'd ordered and wondering if it'll still work out ok with the recipe I have (basically, into the crock pot whole with veggies and oxo until late tonight) or if I want to cut it into smaller bits and do something else with it.  Since even if I put it on now it probably won't be ready in 8 hours for supper (it's always best the next day), I think supper tonight is probably going to be Tesco tomato basil soup (with black pepper, fresh basil, and a couple of shots of Tabasco in it) and toasted cheese sandwiches (frying grated mature cheddar with a little paprika, black pepper, and a very small dusting of mustard, then ladling onto toasted bread when it's all bubbly and a bit cooked). And some sort of healthy side of veg. Maybe some nice, raw button mushrooms if I can find any at the shops.  Otherwise it'll be a kosher dill pickle spear (Vlassic).

It's so bizarre, meal planning. Trying to stay low carb without doing the same handful of foods over and over....  I am beginning to really appreciate those old cookbooks with their "full month of nutritious meal recipes" sections! 

So you put the hamster in a bin? Like a rubbish bin?? I'm so confused and picturing a big rubbish bin with a lid where you've now placed your hamster hahaha (which I'm sure isn't the case but I just can't picture it)



Yeah I am AWFUL at meal planning/prep but I do use pinterest a lot in an attempt to find quick/easy recipes I can make on weeknights (I just never end up planning what to do in advance so last minute I find I'm missing two or three ingredients from every easy recipe I've pinned! haha). There are loads of pins though about all these slow-cooker recipes you can prep at one time and then freeze and take them out the night before you want to cook them. I keep saying I will totally make my life easier and do that, but I never do...

It'd help if I had a decent sized freezer. The one I have is adequate, but not for storing much for long-term.  If I bought the freezer containers to divvy up the munchkin pot roast (which looks like it'll be brisket beef soup instead), three meals' worth would take up 1/3 of my freezer.  Still, I do need to get some freezer storage containers, as at present I'm using ziplock bags. Works for most things, but not for soup!

The bin. Hamster in a big black trash bin - he'd probably love it. Half full of bedding so he could burrow to his heart's content, always dark... hamster heaven!

It's a 68 litre straight-sided, semi-transparent, rectangular storage bin. They had advertised a 100(?) liter one as being in stock, but, of course, it wasn't when I got there. Story of my life, shopping in Glasgow - advertised, but not in stock when you get there. But this size actually is good. It's like three times the floor space of his "came home in it" cage and the new wheel I bought for him (had to walk past the Pets at Home store) fits in nicely. The wheel seems to be a hit, judging from the amount of time he spent in it last night.  And I was able to squash a big bale of bedding into the bin to carry on the bus, thankfully. The sides of the bin are entirely too tall for him to even think of jumping over, but I've got a mesh top on part of it (and cardboard and the old cage on the other half) for ventilation just in in case.  Haven't had a Syrian hamster in the house before - I always had the little dwarf Winter Whites, but the daughter got this one, so.... Wow, now I know we are settled in. We have an actual pet in the house again. 

Daughter is still trying to think of a name for him. She's vetoed "Haggis" and "Jamie the Hamster" (everybody in Glasgow is named Jamie, and that sounds like a gangster name).

The bin. Hamster in a big black trash bin - he'd probably love it. Half full of bedding so he could burrow to his heart's content, always dark... hamster heaven!

It's a 68 litre straight-sided, semi-transparent, rectangular storage bin. They had advertised a 100(?) liter one as being in stock, but, of course, it wasn't when I got there. Story of my life, shopping in Glasgow - advertised, but not in stock when you get there. But this size actually is good. It's like three times the floor space of his "came home in it" cage and the new wheel I bought for him (had to walk past the Pets at Home store) fits in nicely. The wheel seems to be a hit, judging from the amount of time he spent in it last night.  And I was able to squash a big bale of bedding into the bin to carry on the bus, thankfully. The sides of the bin are entirely too tall for him to even think of jumping over, but I've got a mesh top on part of it (and cardboard and the old cage on the other half) for ventilation just in in case.  Haven't had a Syrian hamster in the house before - I always had the little dwarf Winter Whites, but the daughter got this one, so.... Wow, now I know we are settled in. We have an actual pet in the house again. 

Daughter is still trying to think of a name for him. She's vetoed "Haggis" and "Jamie the Hamster" (everybody in Glasgow is named Jamie, and that sounds like a gangster name).

That definitely makes more sense! hahaha Could you try, and this might sound stupid, putting something like an oven rack on top? Not sure how big he is, but if you get one with small enough gaps, it might be long/wide enough to cover the top of the box and give him ventilation but also stop him from getting out.