Single Person Meals!

IRISHCHRIS58

Hello everyone...
I'm Chris... And I'm a Single guy. ANd as most of you know we aren't the best at cooking or planing meals.
So I'm looking for some ideas.
This is just help for me or others guys.. BUT every single person out there!
How do we make meals in our portions?? HOW????

So I'm ALL the single People out there please Help with what ever you got!
Whatever you like to eat.
Whats your Favorite meal and recipe you like to make?

Please Help Single Guy
Chris.

djshari

I eat a lot of salad and sandwiches tbh... most of the ingredients work for both and I can easily throw it together. When I do actually cook I end up doing a meal for 2-4 and then eating the leftovers. Sometimes this means I have leftovers 3 nights (or lunches) in a row but I don't have the same thing every week so I'm usually ok with it.

serindipte

If you are making something that is unreasonable to make for one person, spaghetti sauce is the first thing that comes to mind, then portion it out and freeze it so you don't have to eat the same thing three or four times in a week.

cheekym7

BBQ!

StephyA86

I keep it simple most nights. I'll do a protein (like chicken breast, salmon, pork loin chop, shrimp, etc), season it however I want and cook a veggie to pair with it. Sometimes I'll pick up some turkey kielbasa and saute that up with a bag of pre-seasoned veggies (like from green giant).

focused4health

Cook for 4 and freeze three portions in seperate containers. This means dividing the meal when it is completed cooking into four equal portions. You can then have the same mealat the same time for three weeks. Do this for a week and you cut down your cooking time immensely. More time for excercise loving and the occassional very occassional:drinker: Guiness

Ideabaker

I live alone as well, and am a big fan of "batch cooking". I cook up a recipe of anything I like; soups, Indian food, burrito fillings (refried beans and lean ground sirloin), baked chicken cutlets, whatever... and I parcel it into labelled ziptop bags and freeze. Then when I'm hungry, I just grab a preportioned bag and zap it in the microwave for home-cooked pre-measured "frozen dinners" without the salt and chemicals of normal frozen meals.

I also parcel out and weigh my meat as soon as I get home from the shop, tossing into the freezer, so I can take out just "one" steak, pork chop, or other meat portion at a time to cook.

I keep a big bag of salad greens and a range of lite dressings in the fridge to bulk out any meal without adding many calories.

I put in my recipes into the MFP recipe calculator, and it tells me exactly how many calories are in each portion, and I save the recipes so I can choose them in the future without having to input all of the ingredients.

Looking forward to hearing the ideas of others.

qtgonewild

exactly what i do.

I get a chicken breast or lean hamburger patty. season that baby up and fry IT. with a couple sides of different veggies. my favorites at the moment are spaghetti squash and this brussel sprout heaven i make. Its shaved brussel sprouts sauteed with bacon and mushrooms. MMMMMMMMMM thats whats for dinner.

i do the same thing with my meats. as soon as i get home from the store i meaure them into 4 ounce servings and put them in the freezer, so i can just pull one out each morning and put it in the fridge.

JesChernosky

I try to make brothy soups the slow cooker, then place them in vacuum seal bags. They are good to freeze.

Also, separate your meats into individual vacuum seal bags when raw. I find vacuum seal bags best for portion control. I like to cook my meats on the foreman grill, especially when cooking just for myself or for me and my husband.

When it comes to veggies I prefer my veggies raw. When I make my husband's we like to buy the steamer bags. I steam and put half of one of the bags in a Tupperware container for him to eat for with lunch the next day, almost always with the grilled meat.

Whenever you get home from the store separate all your purchases immediately. It's so easy to just eat that "extra" chicken breast, or trail mix, or nuts rather than stick to the portion you have allotted for.

Check on www.skinnytaste.com. Many of her meals can be frozen and have great taste. As a single person the freezing of meals can be your best friend. If you take a frozen meal out every night and put it in the fridge you'll have dinner when you get home.

jasonrashaad

I make four serving recipes from Allrecipes.com...chili, beans and rice, chicken and vegetables, things like that. Cook it on a Sunday and you have three servings of lunch/dinner throughout the week. Great timesaver also.

ThePinkPanda

Cook for 4 and freeze three portions in seperate containers. This means dividing the meal when it is completed cooking into four equal portions.

this. i'm not single but i cook for myself and it helps greatly. another option is simply to take an existing recipe, and do some math to break it down to one or two servings (this can get difficult depending on the ingredients). the biggest thing is making sure you've evenly portioned out the amount of servings you made. i use a scale for this

stevwil41

Take a look at some of the Hungry Girl cookbooks. I'm not a fan of many of her recipes as they are written (too much fat free this or sugar free that) but the books have a lot of simple single serve recipes that with some simple modifications are decent. I just plug them into the recipe calculator on this site using better ingredients and go from there.

kittykat1994

I freeze a lot of meat and defrost it in the fridge on the morning that I want to use it.

I find a lot of recipes can be halved etc into a one person portion. Also I make banana pancakes for breakfast a lot (http://agirlcalledjack.com/2014/01/30/banana-pancakes/) and I cook the whole recipe in one day, eat half and refrigerate the rest as I can't really split an egg in half.

csontos

Some people will probably complain that I'm saying this, but whatever. I eat Lean Cuisines sometimes. They take like 3 minutes to microwave, taste pretty good, clean up takes 5 seconds, aren't full of sodium, and I can't binge on them because it takes effort to open up another one. Plus my local Target had them BOGO free, so they only cost $1.25 each. /shrug

techgal128

Mini pizzas! Get whole grain English muffins and the pizza sauce you can get in a squirt bottle. It's super easy and you can keep the toppings simple or make it as complex as you want. I live alone and I'm having that for dinner tonight.

tehboxingkitteh

I do what a few others have suggested and freeze portions for future use.

Meatloaf burgers and loaded smashed potatoes are my favorite. But I go all out when I cook.

daw0518

I eat a lot of sandwiches, salads, wraps. I buy the frozen chicken breast tenders & frozen single serve tilapia & will grill one of those with a little bit of lemon pepper seasoning & have that with a baked potato that I cooked in the microwave. I like canned food too, actually. Probably not the best, but a can of chicken noodle soup & a grilled cheese sandwich is under 500 calories, & there are no leftovers to deal with or tempt me. I sometimes buy frozen chicken nuggets & sweet potato fries & that makes a quick meal [I also have some random veggies - sweet peppers, cucumber sticks, sugar snap peas, etc. on the side] that isn't too high calorie if you eat the proper serving sizes.

Once in awhile I'll make larger homemade meals [most recently: artichoke pizza, potato soup, & stuffed peppers] & will just put the leftovers in the fridge for the rest of the week. I'm a pretty boring eater & can eat the same thing for 5 days in a row without getting bored, which can be a blessing as a single person with leftovers!

kommodevaran

I've struggled a bit with this, but I actually find it easier to cook for myself than rely on ready meals, that neither has the taste nor the nutrients that I want. I buy separately frozen salmon filets, pork chops and chicken wings and thighs. Fresh pork chops and ground beef/pork/lamb and divide it into portions and freeze that too. I usually cook for two days when I use ground beef (pasta, chili). Creamed soups and smoothies are easy to make if you have a blender. I eat a lot of rice, oatmeal and barley. Frozen vegetables like peas and green beans. Canned beans and tomatoes. Eggs, almost every day. Nuts. Nut butters. Potatoes and vegetables like carrots, cauliflower and broccoli keep fresh for longer than lettuce and cucumber. Crisp bread instead of ordinary bread for the same reason. Some of my favorite snacks are fruit and cheese (brie).

(Sorry if sounds strange or anything, English isn't my first language, and some things just get a bit difficult for me to write about.)

CarlieeBear

Some people will probably complain that I'm saying this, but whatever. I eat Lean Cuisines sometimes. They take like 3 minutes to microwave, taste pretty good, clean up takes 5 seconds, aren't full of sodium, and I can't binge on them because it takes effort to open up another one. Plus my local Target had them BOGO free, so they only cost $1.25 each. /shrug

I had their Asian salad today...it was amazing. I take these to work a lot. LC and Healthy Choice are the only frozen dinners I like at all that are low enough in calories for me.

CarlieeBear

Cook extra and freeze leftovers. It's a good idea to pack up the leftovers before you start eating, so you don't go back for too much more!

Brown and season meat ahead and freeze it in a bag. I flatten the bags out to make it easier to get just enough for one or two, but you could freeze it on a lined baking sheet. I always drain sauteed ground beef. I like to have bags of Mexican, and salt & pepper seasoned ground beef and chicken for fajitas or salads. I also freeze bags of fajita veggies.

thegoodsister2

I cook by "serving size" marked on the package. If the serving size for pasta is 1 cup (or 3/4 cup) that's how much I make. If a serving size for Chicken is 3 oz, that's how much I make. I don't cook more, if I do, I eat it. I just started back again so hopefully my "recipe" works this time. I made baked fish and just enough pasta to fill me up - then I added spinach and mushrooms to my pasta for more filler. It takes time getting used to cooking this way but I'm working on it.