Cooking for one

irishkrissie

This is my most difficult challenge with weight loss- I live alone, and have no friends in the area to say "Hey come over and I'll cook for us!" to. How do you all handle preparing meals for one person? I've tried cooking for two and freezing/refrigerating leftovers for another meal, but I usually end up eating more than I want to- not so good for losing weight.

I also want to avoid things like sandwiches because I usually eat too much.

Suggestions??

airbent

I live alone too and I'm really afraid of cooking for two and freezing because I've had issues keeping my portions correct (too tempting, heh). So where possible I prepare my food meal by meal even though it takes more time.

When I buy meat, as soon as get it home I separate it into serving sizes and put it in freezer bags until I want to use them. Then for recipes I just scale everything down to one serving, which gets annoying, but hey.

Also, I tend to fall back on meals that are easily thrown together like a piece of fish/chicken/whatever, some rice or beans, and a salad with all my servings of veggies and stuff just tossed in. It's so easy but eventually I'm sure I'll get tired of it and want to incorporate more actual recipes in.

lol, I'm scared of sandwiches too. Mostly because of all that bread. hard enough to keep my carbs reasonable!

jgic2009

Cook for 2, or 3 or 4, and portion out those extra servings (to go in the fridge or freezer) before you sit down to eat.

Zeromilediet

When I lived alone, I'd cook for two or four or whatever and before putting on my plate would divide up into freezer containers or take out whatever was planned as lunch next day; do it immediately and less temptation plus easier to see what is actually a serving size.

This also makes cooking cheaper because you can (for instance) buy a whole chicken and roast it, then whack off a chunk for lunch next day; plan to use some for another dinner (maybe cacciatore or curry or whatever), then finally do as every great chef does and throw the bones into a pot or crockpot, add water, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, herbs, and a dash of cider vinegar--simmer for a few hours and you have yourself delicious chicken broth and the base for unlimited number of soup ideas. Three to four meals from one 5 lb chicken.

Can do same with a bone-in blade roast ... need the bone to make broth. Happy cooking!

irishkrissie

All good suggestions! Does anyone know of any recipe books that specialize in cooking for one? I tend to get my recipes from allrecipes.com.

diannethegeek

I went looking for recipe books for one and there just aren't many out there. You might check out "The Pleasures of Cooking for One" by Judith Jones, but I find that it was a different sort of cuisine than I was looking for.

One of my favorite tools in singledom cooking is my ramekin set. I can make a recipe for two but cook it in separate serving sizes and then immediately pop one in the refrigerator where I'm less likely to eat it.

laurie0507

Eatingwell.com has a lot of recipes for 2 that I use!

firecraker05

Bump

musicgirl99

All good suggestions! Does anyone know of any recipe books that specialize in cooking for one? I tend to get my recipes from allrecipes.com.

"The Pleasures of Cooking for One". I don't own this book but it got great reviews on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Pleasures-Cooking-Judith-Jones/dp/0307270726 Hope this is helpful

musicgirl99

Or, "Serves One: Simple Meals to Savor When You're on Your Own" The link is below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1891105140/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0307270726&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=064G45D2NMXCWVDBXPJZ

Ralphrabbit

Stir-fry just what you need!

Nikki881

Cook for 2, or 3 or 4, and portion out those extra servings (to go in the fridge or freezer) before you sit down to eat.

Exactly this. I make a recipe that serves 4 or 5 meals, then when it's done cooking, I separate it right away. I usually do this on Sunday night, and that way I have supper (or lunch) for the whole week already made. It saves a lot of time!

Spice_4_Life

Cook for 2, or 3 or 4, and portion out those extra servings (to go in the fridge or freezer) before you sit down to eat.

^^ That's what I would have said So...nicely said! Before you eat is definitely the way to go. Good luck hun!!!

itsjustdawn

I love it. I cook just enough for me. I'd hate to cook for others lol

shannashannabobana

Cook for 2, or 3 or 4, and portion out those extra servings (to go in the fridge or freezer) before you sit down to eat.

This is what I do (not for freezer, but I portion out stuff to take to work).

cmp_denver

If you Google, "Cooking for One" you get tons of hits for websites that give you ideas. I live alone as well, I do prepare two portions per meal that I cool, but I immediately put one of them in the refrigerator before I eat. It took some time to get in that habit but now I find that I don't over indulge if I do that little extra step.

JudyL5305

Cook for 2, or 3 or 4, and portion out those extra servings (to go in the fridge or freezer) before you sit down to eat.

Exactly this. I make a recipe that serves 4 or 5 meals, then when it's done cooking, I separate it right away. I usually do this on Sunday night, and that way I have supper (or lunch) for the whole week already made. It saves a lot of time!

This is exactly what I do. I do all the cooking and prepping on Sunday for the week and when i get home from the gym every night I just pull that nights portion out heat it in the microwave and put the rest away.

Christine1110

I chicken breast (boneless skinless) cut in half long wa. Then I pound it flat. I take aspasagus and rollit up, put it on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 30 mins. It's so nice and juicy & tender. IIt makes two for me. One for the next day!

Good luck

msudaisy28

Cook for 2, or 3 or 4, and portion out those extra servings (to go in the fridge or freezer) before you sit down to eat.

This is exactly what I did when I lived by myself. I still do this a lot since it saves tons of time on busy weeknights, and because I have some favorites that hubby doesn't care for so I just freeze the leftovers.

cckellympls

I eat a lot of chicken and the chicken i buy is individually vac sealed. So, I just take one out of the freezer and open it up and put in oven and ready in 30 min. Easy........the hard part is finding the ind wrapped chicken. I hate touching chicken and cleaning it. The ones i get are skinless, boneless breasts.....pract no fat. If you have a Schwanns delivery man in your area that is my fav ind wrapped chicken breasts.

kindredlaugh

One suggestion I got a long time go is this:

If you have a recipe that you like that servers too many, cook and portion freeze the excess sauce of the recipe. Then just complete the meat and vegetable part of the recipe for the portion you want.

The extra advantage is that you have the sauce ready to go some evening when you don't feel like cooking a whole production, you just prepare another portion of meat and veg and then add a portion of the thawed sauce.