lettered | Cooking for one

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Cooking for one

Housemates and I have separate meals. It works out taste-wise, money-wise. But I find grocery shopping and cooking for one difficult.

I like going to the grocery store every day, taking into account the cheapness of large quantities, and the amount of time I have, that proves difficult as well. I go about once a week, and try to buy for the week.

That is part of the frustration. If I want to have salad, I can buy those bags of lettuce, but that's about five salads for me. Which means I have to have salad every day of the week, or else it goes back. Seems the best way to handle that would be making the salad a little different every time, but this requires supplemental ingredients. And the supplemental ingredients often come in large quantities too: I could have a salad with red peppers one night, and a salad with pears and blue cheese the next. But I would not use all the red pepper and all the pear, and I would need to find other things to put them in.

Meat should be easier. You can buy a pack of chicken and put it in the freezer. Then each night you can take out a breast and cook each one differently. But I find I am not creative enough to come up with different things to do with the chicken. Mostly I come up with baking or frying it with different herbs and spices. Sometimes I think about using different sauces. And of course sometimes I think, "I could make a cassarole! Or a chicken pot pie!" or something. But again, so many other perishable ingredients go into those. I could use all the ingredients up and eat pot pie seven days straight. Or I could waste the other ingredients, the red peppers, the pears. Or I could find other uses for them, but again, I lack creativity in this department.

I also have problems with freezing meat. It never tastes as good once it's been frozen. Things stick to each other so you have to defrost them just to get one out. Even if you put them in separate baggies the baggies end up sticking together. They stick to the boxes they're in. Thawing takes so long.

You guys, my life is obviously a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.

I'm just wondering how you single people, or those of you often cooking for one, handle these things. Got freezer storage advice? Foods you buy because they last longer? Base ingredients you buy and then change up every night? Different fast simple ways to cook chicken, make a salad? Combinations you do--like what to do with a red pepper when you've used a fourth of it for salad but don't want to have red pepper in the salad every night? Things you don't mind eating every single day?

And how about recipes in general? Got any you want to share?

I love food. Except beans and potatoes; those are gross.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Can you hit up a grocery with unbagged salad mix? That gives you just as much as you need for a short period of time. Some of the meat counters I've seen lately have small size packs of meat, clearly meant for individual people (I noticed a huge selection of tiny packages when I was at the Shoreline Top Foods the other day. They looked so lonely and wee!)

If you do buy larger amounts of meat that needs freezing, layer wax paper between each cut before wrapping it all up and sticking it in the freezer. I usually only freeze ground or stuff that's been chopped up for stews.

I used to do a lot of chicken with honey, mustard powder, and various spices, all shoved into my cast iron skillet and then broiled until done. I don't do that so much these days, but it's a good way to deal with the Trader Joe's frozen chicken in a bag. Red pepper can always be cooked up with vegetables such as peas or eaten as a snack.

(Of course, when I was single, I lived on red wine, chocolate, and Chesterfield straights. Oh, and scrambled eggs. I like to cook, and I like to eat, but I tend to forget to do these things for myself.)

Oh! Someone recently turned me on to making huge batches of pancakes, freezing them (again with the wax paper between each pancake) and then heating them in the toaster! A++++ Would Toast Frozen Pancakes Again!

Is wax paper that different than plastic or foil when frozen? My mom always used wax paper for freezer stuff but I figured there was no method to her madness. I guess I will try!

Hadn't thought about finding mixed greens fresh; I thought I'd just have to buy a whole head of lettuce. I'll look. Sounds like Trader Joe's has frozen chicken breasts--wonder if they're cheap. I'll have to go there and check.

Had heard of the pancakes thing. Sounds cool as I always make too many pancakes anyway.

Thanks soooo much for your advice! This is groovy!

Potatoes are awesome, Joy. :(

Is it possible for you to buy meat and things in smaller quantities? I like to go to the butcher section instead of picking up the pre-packed stuff, that way I can buy a fish, a small quantity of chicken, some pork, etc. If you need to separate stuff in the freezer, wax paper is a godsend.

I do the same with vegetables and fruits: you can buy a really small packet of lettuce here, literally just enough for a one-person salad. (They used to sell them even in the 7-11's, which made me really happy, but they don't anymore. *sob*) I also like to buy lots of things in jars as opposed to cans, since it means you can just fish bits out as needed. I have white asparagus in a jar, which is excellent, and I've also found some really good fish in olive oil which is great in a quick sandwich. Also, frozen peas are amazing and can be used for many things!

Carbs-wise, I love fresh bread but buying it stresses me out, as it doesn't last and I can't eat bread often at all. I've found some breads that last longer, and I tend to freeze the small quantities that I do buy so that they'll last a couple of weeks. Pasta and rice are much less stressful. Oh, and potatoes. :D

However, I do find that shopping like this means advance menu planning is a Good Idea. If you like to plan, awesome! I suck at it, so the things I like to have on hand for flavouring (aside from salt and pepper) are: soy sauce (both Japanese and the thick sweet stuff), various vinegars, canned tomatoes, fish sauce, curry paste, shrimp paste, ginger, garlic, lemon and herbs. If you have space for fresh herbs in pots that's great, since it takes care of all the quantity problems. I have a brown thumb (it's genetic - my mother killed a cactus), so I use the dried stuff, except for rosemary, which lasts forever in the fridge and is brilliant with lots of things.

Favourite quick recipes! Grilled chicken marinated in olive oil, lemon and rosemary. The same marinade is tops with white fish, throw a parmesan crust on that and fry it, and then eat it with sour cream and a pita, or rice. Lazy chicken curry: green curry paste, small can of coconut milk, basil, ginger, eggplant. (Also good with fish, or shrimp.) Thai sweet pork: marinate in sweet soy sauce, minced ginger and garlic; sauté. Toss some cooked rice through a pan with a bit of shrimp paste and chopped onion. Eat with sliced green mangoes. Lazy Sicilian pizza: spread some good tomato sauce and mozzarella on a pita, lash it with beaten egg, top with peas and mushrooms, heat in a toaster oven until all is melty and delicious. Sprinkle with a little salt before eating. (I know this sounds weird, but it is seriously my favourite kind of pizza.)

Yes, too long, I know. *slinks away*

Orexis, you've caught my attention with the Sicilian pizza recipe. I've never heard of anything like it. Does the egg blend with the cheese or form its own layer when you cook it? I can't imagine what this tastes like but I will definitely try it. You sound like a real gourmet.

TKP: I wish I could be of more help, but I wasn't the greatest eater before I lived with my husband and could make larger meals. I had the same problem as you with things going bad, and I ended up eating a lot of frozen meals and pasta, or making something like lentil or vegetable soup, or a big pan of baked macaroni and cheese, and eating it all week. Or maybe some crackers or flatbreads eaten with healthy dips made in the blender, like hummus or lentil-walnut pate. Oh, in summer lots of sandwiches (mozzarella-tomato-basil for example) and easy side salads like tabouli.When my husband's been out of town I've lapsed into the same habits, so I will watch this thread to see if I can pick up some new tips.

I'm interested in the pizza too! I don't get the egg.

I've thought about making hummus! I should try it. I know housemate has. The pate looks cool, too. One thing about dips is I like them too much. I could eat them forever, especially because it means I get crackers. I have a real problem with carbs--I can eat a whole box of crackers in one sitting, a whole box of cereal in one day, and have sandwiches breakfast lunch and dinner. I have a really difficult time controlling myself around them. So I try to have meat and veggies for most meals.

Tabouli is carbs but it is awesome and I should have more of it. I do love a good mozzarella-basil-tomato (esp sundried tomato) sammie. Though I'm a snob about mozzarella, and fresh mozzarella is expensive!

Thank so much for your thoughts! I think it's so cool I can ask something like this and people try to help me. People rock!

I know how weird it sounds, lol! I discovered it when my mother's Sicilian friend cooked dinner for us, and I had my wtf face on, and he assured me it was an authentic recipe from his village. And then I tasted it, and it's been my favourite ever since. Use a thin-ish pita, as it's better with a slightly crispy crust. Of course, it's best with actual thin crust pizza dough, but I am too lazy for that. <_<

The egg sort of blends with the cheese on the bottom part, but the top part of the egg crisps up a little bit: think of the outside of an omelette. If you like cheese omelettes and peas, you'll probably like this pizza. :D

ETA: Also, I only wish I were a gourmet: I just eat a lot and watch Food Network all the time. XD

Edited 2009-03-28 07:30 (UTC)

Thanks again for this idea--sounds super neat.

You can also buy premade hummus if you don't feel like making your own (although making your own IS tasty). I like the red pepper hummus and garlic hummus. Yummy.

Not too long, OMG! Those recipes are awesome because they don't have amounts, which means I can just throw stuff around. I like to throw stuff around, but I never know what to put in. Then I get out recipes and it all starts seeming so complicated, and all of them require quite a few ingredients. When really I just wanna throw 3-5 things together. So, awesome.

Thanks for the stocking up advice. Should be common sense (and I DID see it on Rachel Ray), but I usually shop for specific recipes, and then have all this left over random seasoning crap I don't know how to use, and no generic stuff to use on more widespread stuff (though I'm not very good at using the generic stuff either. I should be able to use up my Worcestire sauce, dammit).

I stress over bread too. I stopped buying it. I stopped buying pasta for a while, but then I just craved something carby all the time.

Oh, good idea about stuff in jars. I like asparagus. And I know artichokes come in jars. Frozen peas are great, but the only thing I know to do with them is--uh, cook them and eat them!

I don't go to the butcher because that is very expensive. Should've mentioned I have a pretty small budget. Part of my whole issue with fresh veggies is they cost so much--I don't like the waste as well, but yeah. So a lot of the individually wrapped stuff feels so expensive for just one meal.

Thank you so much for your advice! Very cool and I'm definitely going to try these things. And totally hit you up for more cooking advice one day ;o)

...I'm really curious about the pizza, too. The egg confuses me.

My mother never used recipes, and they tend to stress me out because they're so fussy and you need to have a list when shopping for them (and then you have a breakdown in aisle three when you realise they're out of cornstarch! ... this is why I don't bake), so I prefer to look at a recipe that seems interesting and then wing it and taste as I go along. What I've done instead is write down a short list of taste combinations that I like: citrus and chicken; pork, sweet sauce and pepper (honey and pepper glazed short ribs are amazing); seafood, coconut milk and ginger; grilled meats and yogurt; etc. Once you figure out what you like, you can look at a bunch of ingredients and make something up, and it's easier to change things around when you get bored. It also makes it easier to shop. :)

Re: not being able to use onions and things, I have an idea - can you use shallots instead? They're tiny, and I cant imagine one stretching further than a couple of meals. Or scallions. They taste onion-y too! I have no problem using up an entire small onion by myself, but that's because I have a horrible weakness for caramelised onions and think they go with lots of sandwiches. <_<

Frozen peas can go on pizza, in pasta (a great veg pasta that's not puttanesca: broccoli, peas, sundried tomatoes - fresh works too, but the oil from the sundried gives it tons of flavour, parmesan; if you have leftover spinach or asparagus it works great in this too. I also like broccoli and peas with lazy pesto, i.e. I just rough chop the basil, pine nuts and garlic and throw it in the pan with pasta and olive oil, sprinkle the cheese on after it comes out of the pan), stews, soups. Of course, just eating them with herb butter is tops too. I like peas!

The pizza is awesome! See what I said to anthimaeria about the egg. It is like having the best bits of omelette and pizza in one strangely delicious creation. *gestures vaguely*

PS Wax paper really is brilliant, it doesn't stick! Plus I find it less fussy than plastic wrap or foil.

Dude, I have no idea who you are, but we should really get together and cook sometime. I like your style. The taste combos, the use of caramelized onions, pasta with whatever, egg on pizza... I'm a fan!

She also had mad mastery of color coding, organizing, and spreadsheets. She speaks French and German, covers screens, and I know not what. Not to mention the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.

But just to spite us, she lives in the Philippines.

Nooooooooo!

Excellent Austen shout-out there, by the way.

I'll come to you, for the price of a plane ticket and the promise of at least one really good meal! XD

Inspired by you, I just cooked (and ate) a rather nice meal. (Spinach salad, cous cous with fixin's, and chicken stirfry)

Part of my problem is if the food isn't to-die-for I figure, "why bother?" This was just beyond mediocre, and in the end I probably prefer my Pasta Roni. But I think this is better for me and also doesn't depress me as much as Pasta Roni every night. I feel very chuffed!

I would totally make you chili if you came here :o)

Yeah, recipes suck. But I love baking. If I'm baking I get so excited about it that I don't mind going to the shop to pick up JUST THAT, although it does suck when they're out of cornstarch.

Yeah, I do think I just don't have a handle on what flavors go together. I mean, I know I like rosemary and chicken, but then . . . I end up having rosemary and chicken every single night, you know, which is one of my problems.

Shallots! Good idea. I do love carmelised onions, but I don't eat that many sandwiches because of the bread thing. Well, and I try not to have carbs, which means even though sandwiches are like my favorite food, I just don't have many of them. But I should have carmelized onions with more things!

Thanks for the peas advice. I particularly love your idea of lazy pesto! Cool.

I'll have to try the wax paper.

Thanks so much for all this cool advice, T! I feel that under your tutelage I shall be a lazy grand master!

Grilled chicken marinated in olive oil, lemon and rosemary. The same marinade is tops with white fish, throw a parmesan crust on that

When you say marinade, do you marinade before hand? Or do you cook it with the oil and rosemary? Or do you add oil and rosemary afterward? And when you say parmesan crust, can you just put parmesan on there, or do you need to add breadcrumbs, too? I can make a nice crusted chicken, but it always seems like a helluva lot of trouble, with the egg and the flower and the grating of crackers or bread.

Lazy chicken curry: green curry paste, small can of coconut milk, basil, ginger, eggplant.

I've never made a curry before, so the lazy way is confusing to me. Do you throw all that stuff in the pan? Do you sautee the ginger?

Thanks so so much for all your help!

ha ha I meant "the egg and the FLOUR"

Yep, I like to marinade beforehand. Letting it sit for 10-15 minutes while you prep your veggies or carbs is fine, I just like to give it some time to soak up the flavour, and it keeps it moist when it's grilled. :) (Oh, and for extra flavour, I put the rosemary stalks and even the lemon slices right under the chicken breasts on the grill.)

For crusts, well, uh, I don't grate anything because I am lazy. <_< If I'm feeling industrious enough to bust out the eggs, I use those Japanese breadcrumbs that come in a bag, and I don't bother with flour. The easiest way: I cook one side. Then, when I flip the chicken or fish, I toss the parmesan on the grilled side so that it melts while the other side cooks. You can leave it at that, or if you want some crunch, you can throw some crispy breadcrumbs right on the cheese.

Flowers would be interesting. XD

You could sautée the ginger if you wanted to! I just bash some up and throw it in the pan with the curry paste for a minute or so, just until it's all fragrant, then I add the coconut milk and most of the basil. Let that simmer for a couple of minutes, and then put the chicken and eggplant in and cover it until it's cooked. I like to add the last bit of fresh basil just after taking it off the heat. :)

You're a genius. I knew that, but I like to remind myself. I had the lemon and rosemary and parmesan chicken tonight and it was SO DAMN good and SO DAMN easy! This is cool!

Yay! I'm so glad you liked it! :) Although you really can't go wrong with lemon and rosemary and cheese. *beams*

I have this exact same problem. I'll be watching this post!

Hee. I think it's so cool I can ask something like this and people will try to help. My flist rocks ;o)

What about buying a "cooking for two" cookbook and having one serving for dinner, and taking the next for lunch? Is this an option? I've resized most recipes for 2 (since we were 2 for so long) and I could help you out there. I am the recipe queen! I can do anything! Give me a few (or maybe til this evening if the babies wake up) and I'll comment with a bunch of smaller portion recipes.

Oh! One thing I can think of that does single-serving recipes a lot are Weight Watchers cookbooks. Doesn't matter that you're tall and thin (why do I adore you?) just healthy recipes. Give me a few and I'll get it to you. I freeze a lot. Since becoming a stay at home mom, my resources are stretched a bit thin with one income, so I've taken to freezing quite a bit. I'll get you some ideas on that, too! More to come...*food tease*

My main problem with using recipes is they are either not quick, or require lots of ingredients, or require ingredients that I can't use all of. I cannot use a whole onion cooking for two, so basically if I buy an onion I have onion in EVERYTHING for what feels like weeks, or it goes bad. When I bought an onion when I was living with my parents, I could use it in say three meals within two weeks. It never felt like, "OMG I have to keep using onions." It was just like, "I have this random supply of onion I know I'll use at some point or other, and when I run out of it I'll just get another one without explicit plans to use it, because I know I'll get to it at some point." Now it feels like every single thing needs to be planned to be used in five different ways. Ugh. Maybe the real problem is I'm operating on a much tighter budget? Because I never worried about throwing away food when I lived with my parents. I'm rambling.

Anywho, yeah, if you do have recipes for two that are easy and quick, I'd LOVE them. I don't mind eating the same thing two or three times in a row, it's when I'm eating it all week I start to get tired.

And, um...did you just call me thin? Because you're the first person in the whole of ever that . . . is blind. I don't think I'm fat or anything, but am not thin. But, thanks.

I'll totally look into Weight Watchers. I try to eat healthy anyway. Mostly I fail (today I had yogurt, a bowl of Rice Krispies, Chex Mix, a bowl of pasta, and half a quart of icecream. I didn't even SMELL veggies today), but I do try, esp if I'm cooking.

You're totally a food tease. Thanks so much for helping me out! You rock!

I pretty much live on frozen vegetables. Granted, there are certainly times when fresh is a necessity, I've found that for most dishes cooking time can be tweaked slightly to accommodate the already-blanched quality of frozen veggies. They're really wonderful if they're defrosted in a bowl of water, drained well, and used in stir-fry.

I also go through a LOT of leftovers. I can make generally about five meals out of one recipe if I have enough leftovers.

As for meat freezing and everything sticking. Make sure the baggies are completely bone dry before sticking them in the freezer, first thing. Then, make sure that there's no air in the baggies around the meat, then either roll the baggie around the meat (if it's something like a chick breast) or just stack extremely flat (if it's something like a pork chop or steak). Sticking comes most often when you've got damp bags that mold around one another. Sometimes, it's going to stick anyhow, but I haven't had a problem with that since I moved out of my mom's house, so it's been about six years.

Definitely scope salad sections in food stores for smaller amounts of ingredients. You'll pay a higher price, certainly, but it might just even out for you if not being able to use up fresh produce is a real problem. In many salad-bar type areas in markets you can get small amounts of peppers, mixed salad greens, individual handfuls of spinach, and so on.

And can I just rant for, like, two seconds? WHY is parsley sold in bunches THAT FREAKING HUGE? I'll use, like, half a cup of it at the most-and that's if I make tabbouleh-and I still have about 900 pounds of freaking parsley. There's only so much parsley pesto a girl can eat, dammit!

Which frozen veggies work for you? I was raised on frozen green beans and pretty much think they're the grossest thing ever. But I do like frozen peas just fine.

Leftovers are the thing I want to avoid. I know a lot of great huge recipes where you just use the whole pepper or onion or what have you, but dude, I don't want to eat the same thing five days in a row, you know? I do it sometimes but it's so boring.

Oh! Good on sticking. I haven't tried all that hard to figure out why everything sticks. I just get pissed off and then don't freeze things. I will try to work on it! Thank you.

And great advice on the salad bar type things. I never look at those because of the expense, but you're right about it being worth it if I can't use all of the packaged stuff anyway. It'll probably come to around the same price. You genius, you!

Omg, so true about parsley. It always pisses me off. Although pesto, mmmm. You know what's sad, is I used to get pissed off about celery...and then I finally discovered you can buy individual stalks. Dude, I'm so lame.

HAHAHHA icon.

Thanks so much! I think it's so cool people help me in my ineptitude.

Yeah, frozen green beans aren't all that great but I would die without a steady supply of frozen peas and broccoli. I like general veggie blends as well, and black-eyed/field peas are pretty amazing. Edamame, lima beans, carrots, assorted peppers, spinach... God, pretty much everything. I've even had luck with frozen onion, but it really doesn't make a huge amount of sense since, really, how hard is it to chop an onion?

And as for using leftovers again, I find it helps to reconstitute them. Even just by adding a different sauce or a bit of a spice blend or even heating it up in a way different than how you initially cooked it can completely transform what you're eating.

One of my favorite things is using some old fried rice or stir fry, coating it in egg, cooking it in little patties, and dipping it in some kind of sauce (often mustard since I'm a self-avowed mustard fiend).

Generally, food that is delicious plus other food that is delicious will produce more food that is delicious, but possibly in a slightly different way. I very rarely use leftovers in any way resembling how they were originally cooked. Except for my pork tacos. Those are just too damn perfect to be anything else.

I actually didn't KNOW about the individual celery stalks thing! YAY! :D But yeah, parsley still pisses me off. Who thought that was a good idea??

P.S. I totally picked that icon out for that response just for you. ;)

Edamame, that's a great idea! Frozen broccoli, huh? I'll have to give it a go.

Oh, reconstituting left-overs. Someone else mentioned that. I've done that before, but usually I can't figure out how to change it or what to add. I'll have experiment.

Mmmmm!!!! The fried rice things sound so good!

...I almost always use this icon. Thanks again for all your help and advice!

I have the same problems as I see not only you but your respondents have. The things that have worked best for me are: 1) resign myself to making things I don't mind eating as leftovers for a couple of days (spaghetti w/bolognese sauce is my standard here. I can vary it by changing the pasta or throwing cinnamon and/or wine into the sauce after a day or two.

2) Freeze the parts of veggies I don't eat to cook with later -- I love vegetable soup. The red pepper after freezing would still be good on a small pizza, added to a taco, etc.

3) Eat mostly ready-to-eat during the week -- ie keep around sausage, cheese, crackers, celery and carrot sticks, olives, whatever and just pick among them for dinner, adding a hot soup on the side in winter. (You can make a pot of whatever appeals for the week.) On the weekends, have a bit of fancier eating, and do the prep to make your weeks easy.

4) good plastic baggies shouldn't stick together. I freeze beef, chicken, and whatever in small bags and put them all together in a larger ones. Glad and Ziplock both work for me -- parchment is a fail. It's worth buying, rather than re-using vegetable bags from the store, for these. Then of course wash the bought bags and re-use.

throwing cinnamon and/or wine into the sauce after a day or two.

....I have bug eyes right now. This is genius! The cinnamon sounds...intriguing.

I never actually even thought about freezing veggies. I just assumed it'd be bad. But yeah, using it on pizza or *in* something would work.

3

This is what I try to do. But a lot of times on my days off, I think, "ah! Now I shall cook and prep for the week!" but I can never really think of what to cook or what is sustainable that I can prepare to use later in the week.

4

Maybe my plastic bags are cheap. So--parchment paper doesn't work for you? Some people above say use wax paper. My mom always did that, but I assumed it wouldn't be that different than bags or foil. But I have problems with those and I just get so impatient (particularly because I'm STARVING by the time I get home) that I just gave up.

Thanks so so so much for your help and advice. I think it's really cool I can just ask something like this and people want to help me. You rock!

I've lived on my own for years, and I love to cook. I tend to shop fairly often for fresh vegetables, buying them in smaller amounts so I don't have them hanging about for ages. I have a great produce store up the street, where I buy my vegetables. Meat is something I also buy in small quantities; I wrap pieces to be frozen in single servings, and put them into a heavy duty freezer bag.
Something I like to do is make a stew with whatever I have on hand (I like to use a heavy pot and cook it slowly in the oven). Then I freeze the leftovers in single servings.
I love pasta, and I often make a quick supper by cooking some pasta, and sauteeing some onions, garlic and fresh tomatoes with some fresh herbs as a sauce. I also like to just steam some broccoli, toss it in the pasta with some butter and or olive oil and some grated parmesan cheese. Yummy.
I had an omelette for dinner tonight filled with chopped spinach, grated cheddar cheese and some red pepper jelly. Quick and delicious!

I just don't feel I have the time to go to the grocery store often. I used to do it when I lived with my parents--I went just about every other day--and it worked very well, but I don't feel like I can do that here. But it's fun, isn't it? You go and plan what you'll have for dinner and possibly the next day, and you get all this fresh cool stuff!

I should make my own pasta more. Usually I just have it from a box--I actually love my pasta from a box, but it gets old fast.

Omelettes are awesome and a great way to use up veggies. I should have more of them.

Thanks so much for sharing your food experiences! The comments to this post are so neat! I'm such a dork.

I use dried pasta more than fresh. It keeps for practically ever in the cupboard.
Something Jamie Oliver suggests (I love his recipes, he's fabulous) is very simple: pour a good amount of olive oil in a pan and toss in some fresh sage leaves and some garlic; sautee until the leaves are almost crispy and very fragrant, then pour in the drained pasta and toss together. It is just delicious, and takes only as long as it takes the pasta to cook.
Another thing I like to do is a meal in a bag: I brown a chicken breast or a pork chop, whatever I want, then I put it into a tinfoil bag (fold a length of tinfoil in half, and fold over the edges to make an envelope), toss in some sliced potatoes, carrots, whatever veggies I fancy, add some olive oil, salt and pepper and fold the top edge. Put it on a pie pan or something and bake it all in a 350F oven for about 45 minutes or so. It's delicious, and best part? No pans to wash!

Also: Alton Brown.

Make him your new Power that Be if he isn't already. You will never regret it. Ever. Borrow his books from the library if you can't afford your own copies, look up his shows on YouTube. He is so much more than a cook. In an effort to learn WHY food works, he's hooked himself up with food historian, chemists, biologists, food scientists, nutritionists, you name it--anyone who could answer his constant question of, "why?" Through him, it's easy to figure out why certain cooking methods work, how to mix and match flavors, and interesting ways of reusing leftovers.

I love that man. Oh, good heavens how I love that man. I get stars in my eyes just thinking about him.

Oh, Alton... *.*

I do love Alton. I've learned a lot from him. But while he has excellent advice on what to buy and storing things etc, I find his actual cooking advice not very useful. The things he cooks are often so elaborate and takes so long.

But I haven't noticed the bits about reusing leftovers, and I guess I wasn't paying attention that much to him saying what flavors go together. Maybe I need to start watching again.

Part of the problem is I'm so lazy. I don't actually want to have to think. I like to cook, but I don't like to plan! Mostly I just like to eat.

Plan schmlan! I rarely plan anything I cook! The best way, as always, to discover what flavors you like isn't necessarily to read or study or dig out recipe cards. It's to experiment.

Think of meals you really love, whether they're restaurant meals or things you've made for yourself that are always favorites and see if you can find recipes online that tell you all the bits and pieces that are in them. Then, just try out the bits and pieces. Nine times out of ten delicious food plus delicious food equals delicious food.

Obviously you've already pretty much gotten that far since you do know how to cook things. But really, that's all it is. You don't really have to have any planning. Just throw some shit together and if you like it, you have a recipe. The only time I ever follow already-made recipes is for baking and that's just because the proportions of wet and dry are fairly precise and I'm just not comfortable enough with baking in general to really experiment.

And yeah, Alton is really finicky. Believe you me, I skip about half of the steps he invokes for boiling spaghetti (and I always use too small of a pot. I haven't noticed a difference, dammit.) But it's the science of the food that's useful. Once it's clear why something works the way it does, you can play with it and see how far you can bend the rules before it doesn't work anymore. That's the fun of it!

Cooking is so often seen as something that needs step-by-step walkthroughs and recipes and guides, but if you like eating then cooking is just a simple step beyond that. Just take what you like and put it with other things you like. I have, on many more than just one occasion, mixed white rice (or a wild rice blend would be delicious!) with spaghetti sauce and sharp cheddar cheese until the whole shebang is electric orange and then I've eaten it. And it's delicious. Think of something you like to make for yourself and add something else to it that you like, but you wouldn't think to put in that recipe. Don't think with your head. Think with your nose and your tongue. Those are the parts that are going to be most intimately involved. Always be lazy with cooking!

I am giving you a challenge, Joy. I want you to take out enough food items to cover a section of countertop. Get a good variety of stuff that you know you like to eat and make sure it's all mixed up together (no "sauces" area or "baking stuff" area--Mix it all up on the countertop). Close your eyes and grab five things. Make dinner with those five things. You can add whatever else you want, just make sure that you use all five of those things. Don't look up a recipe using the ingredients, just start cooking. Be your own Iron Chef challenge.

Do this once a week for a couple of months and you'll be able to make anything into or out of anything, I promise! No recipes needed, no thinking involved. You already KNOW how to cook--how to apply heat to food in various ways to make it edible. Just get away from the wrote recipe and get into the art of it!

I find the more processed the lettuce, the faster it goes bad. I could never finish one of those chopped-up bags before it went bad. Now I buy romaine lettuce (do you call them heads when they're not round?). They usually come as 2-3 head-things. If I don't get them wet, they keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Then I break off just the amount I need for a day or two at a time and wash and prepare it. The same holds true for a lot of produce: carrots, peppers, celery, even onions. Cut off just what you need and wash that. Keep the rest as dry as you can and it'll last a lot longer.

For meat, I buy a good-sized chunk (beef, pork, even chicken) and throw it in my slow-cooker overnight on top of an onion or two that I've cut into large pieces. I'll toss in some salt and pepper, but I generally try to keep the spices neutral. The next day I bag and freeze the meat in small portions. Later I can pull one out and use it as the base for lots of different things. Personally, I don't care to eat onions, only cook with them, so I throw the onions out, but you could freeze those too.

I think you are either overestimating how much lettuce is in a head of lettuce or you eat very small salads. I can go through a head in about 4 days, particularly if you use lettuce on sandwiches. You may want to check out http://www.reusablebags.com/store/evertfresh-green-bags-pack-medium-p-27.html?osCsid=5777dca7661cab33e59dd08ccf79a085 You can reuse them 8 times as well and they TOTALLY keep produce fresher longer.

In my supermarket (which, granted, is urban), you can buy meat in smaller quantities - enough for 2 people as opposed to 4. So you can cook for two, eat one piece the first day and either eat the second the next day or turn it into something else (roast chicken into chicken salad or sliced for lunch, etc.). If the packages aren't small enough, a supermarket with a butcher on site will usually repackage the meat if you ask. Takes a minute to get the butcher to come out but I've had them do that and they don't put up a fight at all. Just tell them how much you want and they'll redo it for you.

Which raises another point. Go to an actual butcher for your meat. They'll give you one pork chop, one chicken breast, whatever. The meat will be fresher and you can satisfy your love of shopping every day. Butcher meat tends to taste a lot better and there's a lot of variety to keep it interesting for you.

I find with leftover veggies like peppers, etc. roasting them (which is SO tasty) is a great way to go. It's easy and keeps for several days. I actually will make a bunch of servings and eat them for dinner or even with hummus and pita for lunches - yummy. I make them like this -

Preheat oven to 425. In large lasagna type pan, placed chopped up veggies (peppers, squashes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes (if you eat those), eggplant, carrots, mushrooms - whatever you like) in the pan. Add some chopped up onion or for a REAL treat, chopped up shallots. OMG so good. Toss with olive oil and about 2 teaspoons of jar garlic (minced garlic in a jar - super easy and keeps forever). Bake for about 20 minutes or until tender, stirring at least once while they cook. These are like CRACK and since they are cooked will last for about 4 days. It's a great way to get your veggies in.

Overall I usually plan to eat something twice when I make it or something similar to it (like my chicken idea). Another great meal for one is omelets. Eggs last forever and you get your protein in as well.

*stalking you from ddg_and_sundry*

I've basically resigned myself to having leftovers all the time, but it's fine by me. I freeze leftovers in individual serving containers and eat them for weekday lunches or easy dinners after long days. I'm a planner, though. I tend to plan 5-6 meals for the week, with the flexibility that if I don't make one or two of them, that's fine, and I can always sub in more leftovers. I'm the same in that I'm not very good in figuring out what flavours go well together, so usually I plan 1 or 2 meals each week that come from a specific recipe so I can try something new, and the rest are standards from my repertoire. That way I also only have to buy one or two new ingredients or spices each week, so my collection grows slowly but isn't overwhelming. And I always start my meal planning by listing what I've already got on hand, and noting anything that needs to be used up soon.

I try to use the same ingredients in different ways eg. peppers, mushrooms, onion and tomato sauce can go on a pizza, can make a sauce for pasta, be part of a casserole with chicken or beef, etc. That being said, you can also freeze raw diced onions and peppers if you're going to cook them later (the texture changes a bit after freezing, so they'll be fine for cooking but not, you know, eating raw in salad or whatever). One of my favourite things with leftover pasta is to add more sauce or vegies if necessary, then put it in a baking dish and top with cheese, stick it in the oven and now you have pasta bake. I'm pretty sure that there is nothing that doesn't taste good when mixed with pasta and topped with cheese. Mexicanish foods are also pretty good for offering different options and combinations -- you can make fajitas with chicken strips, onions and peppers in a tortilla one night, and then chop the leftovers up small and make quesadillas with cheese another night, etc. And rice is a good thing to have on hand, like pasta.

I only like bread for toast so I keep it in the freezer. Some people don't mind using defrosted bread for sandwiches but it never works for me unless it's a toasted sandwich. I admit I've given up on salad for the moment because I was tired of throwing away lettuce. I do slice up lots of carrots into sticks at once and put several baggies in the fridge so that I have no excuse not to eat a vegetable when I'm hungry. Essentially, I am a lazy person, so I prefer to do a lot of prep work and cooking on a weekend or a day when I have spare time, rather than doing too much during the week when I'm tired and stressed. You have to figure out what works for you -- getting into a routine is half the battle.

Soups! They are great for using up leftover ingredients. And look into what things freeze well or dehydrate or can be canned.... Anything that you can 'save' for later. That way you can buy a ton of, say peaches, eat them fresh for a while, and can the rest for later.
On the subject of Alton Brown, he did an episode where he made a dehydrator out of a box fan, some air filters and a few bungee cords. It was pretty simple to make.

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Cooking for one

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a few things that work.

Re: a few things that work.

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