Single Person Meals!

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Great ideas here. Another one www.allrecipes.com. Type in cooking for one and there are tons of recipes. Good luck..

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.

I like this ... My son does not eat leftovers like he used to so tossing food has become an issue for me - I tend to just plan a couple days ahead now and try to keep the wasted food to a minimum.

Such great ideas - thank you all! I do what many people here suggest - cook in bulk and then freeze so you don't get bored by eating the same thing for a week! One of my go to standards though is to get a pack of chicken thighs from Cosco. They come in six packs of four thighs which are freezer ready. I take one pack of the thighs, remove the skin and cut off any fat remaining. Smother them in smooth Dijon mustard (which you can also get from Costco to have a large supply at hand) and then season liberally. Besides pepper I put garlic and herb salt free seasoning, and spicy pepper flakes. Shove it in the oven (I put it in the toaster oven) at 375 for 45 minutes and serve two of those thighs with whatever veggies my heart desires. It is a delicious meal and you have two thighs left for the next day - which are equally delicious eater cold.

Grace and strength to all on the downward journey!

Your Freezer and Tupperware should become your new best friends. Make a 4 portion (or however many) recipe - save one for later in the week and freeze two!

Even cooking for a family I make things this way - we make a HUGE lasagna and freeze 1/2 (or make two pans and freeze one). Spaghetti sauce, casseroles, meat loaf, soups, chili, etc. Sometimes it's easier to only make the mess once!

As a single guy you can even do that with sides. Make a pasta salad or and use it for lunch during the week (sometimes I add protein to it for a main dish - tuna, chicken, etc.)

Make a small steak and baked potato with veggies and salad.

Make 4 burgers and grill them and then freeze them after they are cooked - they reheat fine in the microwave and you don't have to light the grill every night!