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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
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.
no subject
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!