Single person serving sized products.

tomatoey

Rant. I'm fed up with buying more than I need because e.g. canned and even packaged produce products are sized for families.

Yes, I try to be good about using everything up, and I don't want to be wasteful, but I can't *always* find recipes for the 1/2 a can of leftover beans that I actually want to eat.

I'd like
- produce to not be bagged
- single-person-sized portions (e.g. 3.5-4 oz) for things like beans and tuna. Probably more things that I can't find a way to use before they go off.

Who's with me??

seska422

I'm finding more and more single-serving packages these days. Unfortunately, they do tend to be quite a bit more expensive.

For meals, I generally have a Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice.

For veggies, I get steam-in-bag and eat the whole thing even if it is, technically, 2.5 servings.

I've seen beans in tiny cans and I buy single-serving packets of tuna.

I have decided that limiting my calories is more important than eating everything that I bought. If it's gotten old or I just don't want to eat it, I throw it away now rather than making myself eat it.

macgurlnet

I hear you! Do you ever batch cook and freeze stuff? What about buying dry beans in a bag? Neither is applicable in all situations but worth considering...

Steam in bag veggies I generally eat over the course of 2-3 meals, depending on how hungry I am.

I tend to have leftover spinach that just gets tossed since I don't eat it all.

I'm with @seska422 here, though...if I have excess and it's getting funky, out it goes.

~Lyssa

shadowfax_c11

Mostly I just cook the whole thing and pre-portion what I am not going to eat to freeze for later meals/work lunches. canned products generally only contain 2.5-3 servings anyway.

What really does bug me is that all of the really great sales are always buy one get ones or 12 for $12, 10 for $10..or giant packages of meat.
Not only am I only one person but live in a really tiny apartment and just don't have room to store huge amounts of products for a long time.

Queenmunchy

macgurlnet wrote: »

I hear you! Do you ever batch cook and freeze stuff?
~Lyssa

This. If you're making one portion, you might as well make a full family size and have 6+ meals in your freezer for another time.

tomatoey

I don't often batch cook, no, because I have issues with my hands that make handling heavy pots a pain in the , well hands. Sometimes I do, but not often.

Also there are seniors out there in the same boat, are they supposed to get into intensive cooking and cleaning? And yeah, storage, not everyone has an extra freezer in the basement. Or a basement.

tomatoey

seska422 wrote: »

I'm finding more and more single-serving packages these days. Unfortunately, they do tend to be quite a bit more expensive.

For meals, I generally have a Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice.

For veggies, I get steam-in-bag and eat the whole thing even if it is, technically, 2.5 servings.

I've seen beans in tiny cans and I buy single-serving packets of tuna.

I have decided that limiting my calories is more important than eating everything that I bought. If it's gotten old or I just don't want to eat it, I throw it away now rather than making myself eat it.

I've only done rough calculations but yeah I think it is actually cheaper to throw stuff out than it is to get the small sizes of most of the things available, yeah.

tomatoey

We should start a petition

kommodevaran

What I do:

Buy things like ground meat, salmon, pork and lamb chops, portion in baggies, date and freeze. If I can get single frozen in the right size for a good price, I choose that.
Use more root vegetables than salad vegetables; when I have salad, I plan to eat it in a few days. May buy a small packet even though that's more expensive per pound. Onions, carrots, beets, broccoli, garlic, potato and sweet potato keep for a long time. I learn over time what keeps for how long. (You can also google it.)
Tomatoes, beans - I make dishes for two days that require one tin of each. I also soak and boil beans, then I can take just the amount I need.
Tuna - small tins for one meal, large tins for 2-4 days.
Milk - I but 1 liter (one quart) at a time.
Eggs, butter, mayo keep for a long time.
I use a lot of crispbread, oats, rice, pasta, beans, lentils, semolina, polenta, millet, nuts, very shelf stable.
I buy frozen vegetables and berries. Peas, green beans, mushroom, spinach, edamame etc, all these are single frozen and I can take the amount I want and put the bag back in the freezer.
I buy blocks of cheese and if big, split it in two and keep one tightly wrapped in the back of the fridge.
When I buy Greek yogurt, I buy a 1 kg (2 pound) bucket and eat a portion every day for 8, 9 or 10 days.
Same with spreads like liver pate.
I usually buy fruit etc I can choose and put in the baggie myself, unless there is no other option or the prepackaged alternative is more tempting. I feel slightly silly when I do this, but today I bought one red chili, one beet, one onion, one red pepper, five long green beans, and five passion fruit (and a cucumber and a cauliflower). If just one, I don't even bother to bag it.

I try to not buy too much at once, but still always have some food from every food group at all times, and foods that can be combined into tasty dishes. Most of the foods I buy is very versatile, and I may choose to leave out any ingredient I feel isn't super important, or too expensive, and that I won't be able to use it before it spoils.

I keep a running inventory of fridge, freezer and pantry, and plan my meals after what I have, prioritizing perishable foods.

I wouldn't have believed it before I started, but cooking from scratch for one has cut WAY down on food waste and food budget. Plus I eat better than ever, both taste and nutrition wise.

DaddieCat

I work in the grocery industry and there are several reasons behind not doing this from a manufacturing standpoint.

1) Most people don't shop that way and the industry will always lean toward the majority of shoppers.
2) Most manufacturing plants would need very expensive overhauls of all packaging equipment to accomplish this and the return on investment will never pay for itself with current market trends.
3) The general push from the public and shoppers in general is to lessen waste and cut carbon footprints across all industries. As the world demands more "green" initiatives the industry is pushed to reduce packaging as much as possible and single serving packages produce many times more waste than family size packaging.

macgurlnet

tomatoey wrote: »

I don't often batch cook, no, because I have issues with my hands that make handling heavy pots a pain in the , well hands. Sometimes I do, but not often.

Also there are seniors out there in the same boat, are they supposed to get into intensive cooking and cleaning? And yeah, storage, not everyone has an extra freezer in the basement. Or a basement.

What things are you thinking of that would require big/heavy pots?

The things I've batch cooked so far haven't really required heavy pots. I made a black bean chili in my crock pot that I spooned out into portions, and I'll make spaghetti and meat sauce in a bigger pan that I also portion out. I usually get 3-4 meals or more. The crock pot is a little heavy to get out and wash but it's not too bad. This weekend I plan to do a roast with some potatoes and carrots and that will be 5-6 meals, easily.

I don't have a second freezer or a basement. I have a fridge/freezer that has the freezer on top and there's not a ton of space but I make room. It helps to have a bunch of containers that are the same size and shape as they stack really nicely.

You don't have to make 6+ portions of everything and have 8 meals to choose from. I shoot for 3-4 portions of 3 meals, plus frozen veggies and some marinated chicken breasts. That's more than enough variety for me. And I still have room for 3-4 pints of ice cream and some pre-made breakfasts.

~Lyssa

lynn_glenmont

You can freeze leftover cooked beans (either canned or cooked yourself from dried). Drain and freeze in one-meal portions, if you like, although I find that drained beans don't form a solid block in the freezer, anyway, so you can take out the amount you want and put the rest back without defrosting them.

Also, you don't need a "recipe" to use leftover beans. Add them to soups, stews, curries, and salads. Combine them with salsa, yogurt (or sour cream or crema, if your calories allow), cheese if you like, fresh cilantro, etc., and serve them in tortillas, with chips, over pasta, or in an omelet. You can mash any kind of bean with things like tahini, nut butters, olive oil, garlic, pureed veggies (like carrots, sweet potatoes) to create your own version of "hummus." Or just eat the beans with some seasoning as a side dish.

It's produce that bothers me the most in terms of being sold in amounts that are too large for someone cooking for one. Over the years that has led to my eating an awful lot of vegetarian-by-default meals: I would cook a winter squash, a bunch of broccoli, a container of brussels sprouts, or even a sweet or large white potato, and that would basically be my entire meal -- maybe some cheese or yogurt or egg for protein, and other things for flavor (e.g., spices, brown sugar. hot sauce, depending on the veggie), but if I tried to have the veggie as a side to a piece of meat, there would be leftovers, and things would go to waste or, at best, just not taste that great a second night.