No, don’t panic, I’m talking about shopping for my knucklehead!
Its been quite an adjustment not having him at home, and we’ve had to work out how to shop for him so he eats properly, and enough. He has a fridge with a small freezer, a microwave, two-plate stove, kettle, toaster and snackwhich so I have to shop with that in mind. I also know that if its raw, he’s probably not going to make the time to cook it.
I started teaching him to cook when he was about 12 as a solution to his “I’m bored…” moments, so even though most of his meals are heat-n-eat, he knows how to mix things up a bit and he likes making flapjacks for himself too.
Anything that doesn’t need refrigeration is good – tuna, bully beef, two-minute noodles, bread (which he freezes if he has space), long-life milk, muesli, baked beans and and tinned meals like spaghetti and meatballs. He doesn’t have an oven so frozen pies and pizzas aren’t an option. I do buy him paninis which I freeze individually for him as they are already cooked and they make awesome sarnies.
PnP and Makro both have a nice range of frozen meals for the micro that aren’t too expensive – cottage pie, beef lasagne and mac-n-cheese, and I&J has an awesome “mealbox” that he loves – chicken curry, red curry, sweet & sour chicken and a tika masala curry, but I can only get those if I find them on a special offer as they can be pricey.
I also buy big packs of vienna sausages which I split up and freeze in portions, when I make supper I serve a portion for him and freeze it in a ziploc bag, and I pre-cook a whole lot of chicken breasts which I buy in bulk, then freeze in portions for us and for him so he can heat them up and stick them on a sandwich or eat them with noodles.
I try to make sure he has some fresh items like eggs, apples, tomatoes and onions, but if he doesn’t eat them they will go off, and I’ve taught him how to check if the eggs are off before cracking them.
And he gets coffee, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, mayo, tomato sauce, chutney, cheese, pickles and bread spreads, and if I can I pack in a couple of packets of crisps, cookies, gumballs and cool drinks.
Ooh, and this weekend we discovered this – cooked chicken in single portions, ready for a sarnie or pasta, or just on its own, in four flavour varieties. It doesn’t need refrigeration and its not ridiculously overpriced either so its definitely going on the shopping list!
I try to get out to see him every two weeks, and take his groceries with me. He has Mondays off so I try and go then, sometimes we’ll head out to a mall nearby and we’ll do his shopping together, thats always fun.
He even sends me a shopping list now when he runs out of things, and he had to wrap his head around thinking about things like toilet paper, washing powder, razors, toilet duck and dishtowels.
He’s so grown up. He’s so independent.
My heart wants to burst with pride and happiness when I see him and talk to him.
Do you have any tips or tricks when it comes to meals-for-one?
And as per my Ladybloggers pledge, just in case you were wondering, I wasn’t asked, paid or given anything to mention the brands I’ve included in the blog post.
