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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.
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.
no subject
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!
no subject
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!