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Cooking for One?

by Sarah
(Raleigh, NC)

Cooking for one can be a real challenge. I live by myself, and I love to cook but I always end up with a ton of left-overs. Don't get me wrong...I love left-overs, but chicken pot pie every night of the week gets a little crazy.

Everything goes bad before I can eat it all. It is wasteful, and boring.

Do you have any ideas for 1 or 2 person meals that I could make and only have to eat left-overs for one day?

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Cooking for One?

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Aug 21, 2009
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by: Tracy

I too live alone and I am currently going through cancer treatments. What I did was gathered up from friends a bunch of t.v. dinner trays. On days that I can, I marathon cook a bunch of meals at once. I potion them out in the containers,wrap with plastic wrap then foil, lable and freeze. When ever I want dinner, it's as easy as popping in the microwave.
May 01, 2009
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by: Chef Todd Mohr

Sara-
Yours is one of the most common challenges told to me. I feel your pain. Even if you love to cook, it's tough to get psyched every night to cook for one, and then do your own dishes.

When my wife travels, I'm uninspired to cook for just myself. And I can cook anything I want.

My suggestion is to choose one or two days a week that are your cooking prep day. Make a hobby of it. I'm sure you have appointment TV shows, or exercise regimen that occurs the same time weekly. Why not have a cooking and prep day? Think of 5 things that you might crave for dinner this week. Write a list of the TOTAL ingredients and do your prep for the week. Then, prepare what you'd like and freeze portions. Or, save some of the prep for on-the-spot cooking.

For example, let's say you choose Chicken Stir Fry for Monday, Shrimp Scampi on Tuesday, Chicken Enchiladas for Wednesday, Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells on Thursday, and Scallops au Gratin on Friday. Okay, chop all the onions for the Stir Fry, Scampi, and Enchiladas. Clean and cut chicken into strips, peel and devein shrimp, remove the foot from scallops. Make the cheese sauce for the scallops, then add some spicy cheese to 1/3 of it in use for the Enchiladas. Add ricotta cheese to 1/3 for use in the stuffed pasta shells. Cook half of the prepared chicken, shred with a fork. Fold into tortillas with cheese sauce, cover with salsa and portion into tin foil. Put some in the freezer for next week, leave one in the fridge for this week. Next, make the pasta shells, covering with tomato sauce, freeze some, save some. Cut red and green peppers for Monday's stir fry, use some of them in the Enchiladas.

In other words. Don't ever cook for one. Cook for six. Freeze some portions for next time. Think of ingredients that can be put in multiple dishes throughout the week. That way, you save time on prep.

Let's face it, coming home from work, trying to figure out what to have, then BEGINNING the prep is difficult. It's the cooking and eating part that's fun. This way, when you come home, either everything is ready to go, or at least the ingredients are ready and you can move right to the fire!

Have a hobby cooking and planning day for the week, you'll enjoy the results more.

Chef Todd.

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