www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

I know how you feel, my DW was in hospital for three and a half months, again I have always been the cook its something I enjoy doing, there has been some useful suggestions, in my case I had a large amount of cookbooks so scaling down the recipes wasn't too difficult, perhaps you need one or two books, do they still have libraries in the UK? Loud music and some cold beers make the ironing more bearable Nos.

There's a lot to think about there, but I've got to say, Chicken Nuggets and Pizza I consider to be junk food, never could see the point of Pizza, I'll happily eat cheese on toast but Pizza is just yuck.

I'm not batch cooking, I made Smoked Haddock soup last night, (Cullen Skink, if you want a recipe) I ate half of that and froze the rest, that's the closest I'll come to batch cooking.

I've got plenty of cookery books, (the wife has anyway), one is even a Delia Smith "One is Fun", but almost everything that sounds like I'd want to eat it needs a glass of wine or a quarter pint of cream or some weird ingredient I don't have, she's also a bit overfond of using the oven to warm something up for 10/15 minutes. I can cook a steak or a chicken breast in half that time, If you add in 20 minutes for the oven to warm up that's at least three meals I could have cooked.

Steak: I'm not cutting mine up until it's finished in the frying pan. Crusty outside, bloody in the middle.

I'm getting there: still convinced it's all in the mind.

Tonight it will be a Beetroot and Mackerel salad. Tomorrow I'll start writing a menu for next week and shop for that at the weekend.

other options are
cooked meat rice or pasta will be fine in the fridge for five or more days cooked in a closed container
so you could have chillie and rice one day the chillie as a shepherds pie another day
chicken stir fry with taglia one day and rice another
iceland do frozen ready cooked chicken breast strips £5 a kilo no waste or preparation

ayjay wrote:There's a lot to think about there, but I've got to say, Chicken Nuggets and Pizza I consider to be junk food, never could see the point of Pizza, I'll happily eat cheese on toast but Pizza is just yuck.

A good pizza is not junk food.

trust me. before I went wheat free I used to make some beautiful pizzas.

wine~o wrote:
A good pizza is not junk food.

trust me.

My experience of Pizza is admittedly limited; that's because I've never eaten one that made me think:- "Yes, I'd eat another one of those some time"

I don't see them as a balanced meal, and if I really wanted some melted cheese (with some other additions) I'd make cheese on toast, even that is not likely to be a balanced meal, but I prefer it to Pizza.

ayjay wrote:

wine~o wrote:
A good pizza is not junk food.

trust me.

My experience of Pizza is admittedly limited; that's because I've never eaten one that made me think:- "Yes, I'd eat another one of those some time"

I don't see them as a balanced meal, and if I really wanted some melted cheese (with some other additions) I'd make cheese on toast, even that is not likely to be a balanced meal, but I prefer it to Pizza.

Before I developed the wheat allergy I used to make my own pizzas. tomatoes are a good source of lycopene (good for preventing prostate cancer) cheese contains calcium and protein, other toppings such as ham all add nutrients. With a small side salad it's fairly balanced and not necessarily high in fat.

Since the wheat allergy I've not had a decent pizza (or any decent bread based food )

with bought pizza you have to be very careful as they often use analogue cheese which is far cheaper than cheese and often contain no dairy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_analogue
and fake ham that can have little or no connection to meat never mind to a snout
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/ ... islabelled

big-all wrote:with bought pizza you have to be very careful as they often use analogue cheese which is far cheaper than cheese and often contain no dairy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_analogue
and fake ham that can have little or no connection to meat never mind to a snout
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/ ... islabelled

That second link contains the words " Two contained additives that are not permitted in the EU, including brominated vegetable oil, which is designed for use in flame retardants and linked to behavioural problems in rats at high doses."

Behavioural problems in rats ?????

I've never met a well behaved rat in my life....

Oh and the difference between a bought in pizza and home made ( or from a proper italian run pizzaria) is like errm. chalk and cheese...