Single and trying to cook for one (too hard)

cphillips83

Its easy to cook when you have multiple people eating it. But when you are single and your roommate is never there it makes it hard to cook for one and have leftovers for the rest of your life. Food only stays good for so long before you have to throw it out and I dont want to feel like I wasted all that food. You cant just eat the exact same thing every single night. Help! I need recipes for one person!

laus_8882

Do you have a freezer? Unless I'm cooking a stirfry or making a salad I freeze pretty much everything I make. Sure, I eat leftovers, but I can rotate my leftovers so that I get plenty of variety, especially if I mix up with my beloved stirfries and salads.

hauer01

Do you have access to a small freezer? I live alone and I get how hard it can be. I make things and then freeze a few portions and eat them in a week or two. These frozen meals come in handy when I am in a hurry and need a quick, heatly bite to eat.

Also, when I grocery shop, I come up with multiple things that I can do with the same foods in a week (like veggies cuz they only last so long). So, if I pick up carrots, green beans and peas, I might think, I could do a stir fry one night, a soup the next. They taste completely different so it doesn't feel like I am eating the same foods over and over again.

I know that it is hard, I have been cooking for one for years now and I struggled quite a bit at first. Now, it really doesn't faze me much, but the freezer is a big help.

hpack11

I am with the others, cook and freeze. There are so many things that freeze well. It saves time and money too.

Robin1109

I cook for one all the time. I usually just reduce a recipe by half and bring the other half to work with me the next day. Otherwise, I make quick dinners for 1. For example (I don't eat meat): I'll take 1 Veggie Patch "chicken" cutlet, put 1/2 c of tomato sauce of choice on it with a little part skim mozz cheese. The "chicken" cutlets have a light breading so it's like eating a real chicken parm for 1 (and it only take 8-10 min in the oven. Less if you use the microwave.) I'll sautee my choice of side veggies for the night or cook up some of the polenta you can find in the produce section. Pretty quick and really good for you. I urge even meat eaters to try Veggie Patch's chicken cutlets. With sauce (or without) you can't even tell they're fake.

kiminikimkim

We bought Mason 500ml jars with plastic lids and we freeze everything in there: pasta, stew, soup, pulled pork, stirfry etc.

When we're in the mood for something we just thaw it in a pot of boiling water before zapping in the microwave, or stovetop.

bagge72

When I buy meat, I individually wrap them in to portions, and then freez them, when I need to cook, I just thaw what I need, and the they the sides are something that don't really go bad, or something that I can buy enough for the week. It is pretty easy, you just have to remember freezing is the key!

RealWomenLovePitbulls

separate ur meats into ziploc bags (one portion per bag) before freezing them, and if u use canned veggies, buy the small cans or use frozen and just take out as much as u need, there are all kinds of side dishes now that come in single serve containers, but they can get expensive.

PSmillie

I make something generic, like chicken, that I can reheat in a lot of different ways: chicken salad, chicken tacos, chicken quesadillas, chicken fried rice, chicken chili, etc. That way, it's leftovers, but not quite the same.

Elen_Sia

When I buy meat, I individually wrap them in to portions, and then freez them, when I need to cook, I just thaw what I need, and the they the sides are something that don't really go bad, or something that I can buy enough for the week. It is pretty easy, you just have to remember freezing is the key!

I do the same thing with meat.

I buy perishables from Sam's Club because it's cheaper and I don't want to go to the store every week. I split the poultry into 8-oz portions and freeze them in individual baggies. You can also buy individual bags of steamable veggies from the frozen section of a store if you don't want to worry about fresh produce going bad.

LLRider

Go to the bookstore and look through the "Flat Belly Diet" by Liz Vaccariello. There are a lot of one person meal suggestions and all are around 400 calories on pages 118-131.

bsudano

If you're looking for recipes, check out this website:

http://cookingforone.ashleylojko.com/

TheNewDodge

Invest in calculator. Calculate ingredients from # of servings listed under recipe to just one. Adjust ingredients accordingly.

FatStoatLondon

I live alone. The best solution I've come up with is to limit the types of food I eat, and it's supposed to be a good way of dieting too (we eat more when presented by a wide range of foods). If you just stick to a few tried and tested recipes, and freeze them like people have suggested, you should do fine. Also, don't feel you have to eat a full hot meal in the evenings.

I also use ready meals, but I'm lucky enough to live in a country where you can easily get very tasty high protein low fat fresh ready meals.

Kimakazie

I have the same problem, but I've found that freezing helps. Just last night I made a crockpot full of my favorite mexican chicken recipe and it serves 6. I went ahead and divided it between my dinner plate and 5 plastic containers. Popped two leftover containers in the fridge and put the others in the freezer.

lisalou23

Thanks for posting that website! I've already found a few recipes I want to try!

Lisa

IronSmasher

Er, cook less?

susannahcooks

I just eat the same thing every night *laugh* - if I didn't have such a crapastic apartment freezer, I'd be tempted to freeze more often, but I usually cook on Sundays. See? Check out my fridge:

MFPBrandy

I have a TON of 2-cup pyrex bowls. I will make a big soup pot full of veggie-rich soup or pasta-type dish (be it whole-grain pasta or quinoa) and freeze the rest in those pyrex bowls. One pot usually gets me 10-14 of them. If I make a couple different things, then I've got a freezer full of healthy, delicious meals that are perfect for carrying to/from work so I've got a good (healthy & cheap) alternative to going out for lunch.

*edit* This weekend I made salsa and burritos (ground turkey, black beans, salsa, pepper jack). Now I've got 20 burritos in the freezer for whenever I want them, and I just brought the extra salsa in to work (no matter how I try, I just can't make a small batch of salsa!).

jdploki70

Rice dishes are awesome for this stuff. You can make a simple rice dish with some broccoli, chicken (half a chicken breast is plenty), a cup of rice, 2 cups of water, and some garlic and onion powder. If you like it a bit more flavorful, toss in a cube of chicken bouillon or use chicken broth and top off the last ounce with water. Alternate ingredients and you can build a whole menu around rice dishes. Couscous is just as versatile and you can cook really small portions with little hassle. Just stay away from the prepackaged stuff.

MFPBrandy

Oh, and try allrecipes.com -- they have a WONDERFUL feature that lets you customize the size, so you can make it much bigger or much smaller, and it'll change all the ingredient amounts for you. Genius!!!

rcclcruiser

I am married, but also cook for one. My husband only eats hamburgers and pizza and he likes to cook it too. He will not eat veggies. My daughter, however, is a vegetarian and will not eat meat. Ugh!

So I usually just cook for my daughter and I, since he does not want to be cooked for. We eat a variety of soups, salads, and veggie pizzas.

Maya129

Beyond freezing, also feel free to get creative with your meals. The great thing about cooking and eating for one is that you don't have to "make a home-cooked meal like mom used to make", you just need to get nourishment that tastes good. I make sort of fun, interesting things for dinner like a whole wheat english muffin toasted with hummus, peppers, and low-fat feta. Or if you make a small-but-hearty dish like a chicken and black bean quesadilla on 8" tortillas, it's filling enough that you don't have to make much (if anything) else. It took me a long time to figure out how to cook for just me... now everything I cook is usually 2 servings (one dinner, one lunch the next day), and if I find a recipe I really want that's more than that, I invite my boyfriend or a friend over for dinner so I can use it.

ATOLLIT

There are several things that you can make into different dishes with the leftovers. I live with 3 others but we rarely cook together as our tastes are so different, as are our ideas of a healthy amount of food :P
Personally, I just cook something for 4 and then eat near enough the same thing for 4 days in a row, but I can see how that gets boring haha.

Someone mentioned chicken already, something else you can easily make varied is beef mince - if you cook some with onions, tomatoes etc, you can have spaghetti bolognese, add some chilli powder when you reheat it and have chilli with rice, then cook some up between layers of pasta for lasagne, and finish it off on top of a jacket potato with some grated cheese.

FatStoatLondon

I just eat the same thing every night *laugh* - if I didn't have such a crapastic apartment freezer, I'd be tempted to freeze more often, but I usually cook on Sundays. See? Check out my fridge:

This looks a lot like my fridge: full of Tupperware!

evilmonkee

DH and I cook for two, but we both travel a lot, so frequently it ends up being cooking for two. Buying a freezer (the fridge came with a tiny tiny one), gladware, and a foodsaver was the best investment ever.
I cook a recipe that serves 4, divide it into individual servings, and freeze. This is also super helpful when I don't feel like cooking, because I always have something healthy to eat in the freezer.
We buy meat in larger quantities, but we divide it into smaller servings (2-4 servings, depending on what type of meat it is), and freeze it. Most soups also freeze pretty well
If you cook a basic dish, you can get a lot of meals out of it. Roasted chicken can be eaten with vegetables/ sides one day, on a sandwich, on salad, or in soup for couple more days, and you can vary the sides to make it interesting. Same with beans - once you cook them you can put them on a salad for protein, make chili, hummus (if using chickpeas), refried beans, etc. . If you eat rice, it's very easy to get couple meals out of one pot, because you can make stir-fries and they're better if you use rice that's been in the fridge for a day or two. If you load them up with vegetables, they make a balanced meal.

The only tricky thing is produce. Lots of fruits freeze well, and make great smoothies. Just make sure you freeze them in sealed containers so they don't get freezer burn. You can freeze peaches, bananas, pineapple, and many other things that are about to be past their prime.
For things that don't freeze well, I buy with a plan so I know exactly what I'll use it on before it goes south.

If you don't have access to a freezer, some dishes are naturally easy to scale. Soups and sauces are tricky, but salads and meat dishes are easy to scale. Instead of meatloaf (or veggie loaf), you can make them in a small muffin tin and get 2 servings (one for dinner, one for lunch). Turkey burgers are also easy to cook one at a time, as are fish fillets. Egg dishes like fritatas and omelettes are really easy to make for one, and they make a good low-calorie dinner dish if you add vegetables.
Tofu is also a great option because it's easy to cook just what you need.

Elen_Sia

I just eat the same thing every night *laugh* - if I didn't have such a crapastic apartment freezer, I'd be tempted to freeze more often, but I usually cook on Sundays. See? Check out my fridge:

This looks a lot like my fridge: full of Tupperware!

And mine! I have Tupperware of different shapes and sizes in the fridge plus baggies in the freezer. I also usually cook on Sundays.