Cooking for one can be a challenge. Foods are often packaged for families so waste can be an issue. And then there is the issue of motivation. If you aren’t cooking for others it’s all too easy to think it’s not worth the effort just for yourself. But I’m going to dispel these notions in this post.
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Cooking for One (or Two)
I grew up in a family of five. When I was either a junior or senior in high school, my mom let me plan and shop for dinners a few nights a week when my brothers were at football practice. My dad was a coach and up until that time, our whole family attended these practices. I was more than happy to skip those in exchange for cooking. And it was really good practice for me!
When I married a couple of years later, I suddenly realized that cooking for two was a lot different than cooking for a family with two teenage boys who were athletes. It seemed everything was packaged for a family.
I also hadn’t realized how spoiled I was. In addition to being able to buy whatever I wanted at the grocery store, we had had two full kitchens in the house I lived in as a teenager. The main kitchen had the BEST stove. It had four gas burners and a built-in grill. We cooked steaks, chicken, and pork chops on that grill all the time. The second kitchen was in our family room. It had a Jenn-Air with a rotisserie which my dad used to cook prime rib. The best part of that kitchen, though, was the built-in soda fountain. So much fun!
Anyway, I’ll never forget the first time I decided to cook steaks in our tiny apartment shortly after we married. It occurred to me I had only seen steaks cooked on a grill (we didn’t have one), in a cast iron skillet with raised ridges (Axford Broiler), or our indoor grill. All I had in our apartment was a very basic electric range. It was David who told me that I could broil the steaks. Seems obvious but it wasn’t to me!
Over the years I’ve cooked for two adults, then two babies/toddlers, older children, teenagers, an extra college age boy who moved in “for the summer” and stayed three years, and currently for three adults. Shopping and cooking for various numbers and ages can really be different experiences.
Many who are only cooking for themselves end up eating a lot of take-out or things like sandwiches rather than cooking full meals.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are a few ideas that can make it easier to cook for one or two.
- Use your freezer. You can still buy those family packs of meat which are often cheaper per pound. As soon as you get home from the grocery store, repackage the meat into one or two servings.
- Keep a gallon size zipper freezer bag for each type of meat you generally buy. Label them: chicken, ground beef, pork chops, etc.
- Put your desired serving size into quart size zipper bags and then place them into the larger bags. This makes it easy to see when you are getting low on a particular type of meat. I don’t reuse bags that held raw meat but the larger labeled bag can be kept as long as it’s still in good shape.
- Do you know another single person who might be interested in splitting larger packages of perishables? Or swap half of a casserole or other dish. You each cook once but get two different meals.
- Meal plan. A jar of spaghetti sauce is going to be way too much for one or two people but if you plan to have spaghetti one night, a casserole a couple of nights later, and vegetable soup for lunches, you can use up that jar in the course of a few days.
- Soups are great ways to use up extra vegetables left over at the end of the week.
- Likewise, finish up those fresh fruits in smoothies.
- Use dinner leftovers for your lunches. Cheaper and healthier than take-out lunches.
- Chicken breasts are extremely versatile. Cook 2-4 at once and then use the cooked chicken in different ways over the next few days.
- Put leftovers in a taco. Nearly everything tastes great in a taco. Chicken, roast beef, shredded pork, ground beef, fish…
Recipe Ideas:
30 Actually Exciting Dinner Recipes for One
16 Healthy 30-Minute Dinners for One
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I’m always cooking for one. Hubby and I eat different meals because he’s a meat-eater and I’m a vegan. You talked about these a bit in your post, but I thought I’d share that my go to plans of action for it – even when I’m not using an actual menu for that week – are:
1. Plan different meals that use similar ingredients so you can buy a pack of something and make different meals out of it. Or just make the bigger portion size and freeze yourself meals you can grab quickly some other time.
2. Make use of leftovers, either by having them for lunch or dinner next day, or turning them in to part of what will be for dinner either the following day or the one after.
3. Keep an eye on anything in the fridge that wasn’t used up in the meal or the leftovers, and adjust any menu plans if needed to use it up. One way to do this if you want to stick to your meal plan as much as possible, but find you have extra of something you can’t or don’t want to freeze that needs to be used up, is to turn those things in to breakfasts or lunches.
4. Be creative with trying different foods together, or seasoning them in different ways. You might just hit on your new favourite meal.
Great suggestions…thanks!