Single and trying to cook for one (too hard)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

http://cookingforone.ashleylojko.com/

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.

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

Lisa

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.