Hi Barb,
While you may not have all the freezer space that I have(and there are only two 50 year olds) it still helps me when I cook a very large meal that I wouldn't normally eat. Cook large quantities of what you truly love. I always have lasagne, stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls, meatballs, etc., and then always keep a few fresh salad ingredients on hand.

You can do this!

Joan

Barb, I don't agree that you lose something when you cut the size of a recipe. Most recipes, especially casseroles can be halved or even quartered and not lose anything. In fact most casseroles you can adjust to suit your own taste, using the original recipe as an outline. I don't care much for leftovers or frozen precooked foods so I'm always reducing recipes.

Ann

What recipes are you trying to cut that are giving you a loss of flavor?
I also cook for 1 most of the time. I can't think of much that is hard to make for 1 except things like bone in ham, or roast chicken or turkey or a good pot roast.
I also find it hard to make a favorite salad that calls for onion, green and red pepper, zucchini, cucumber mushrooms and tomato. It's hard not to use a whole onion, a whole red pepper etc....then I have enough for 12!
What recipes are you having trouble with? Post them here and someone will know how to cut it down.
Linda C

I don't get a loss of flavor when cutting down recipes, but some are just nearly impossible to cut down. If a recipe calls for a box of frozen spinach, then what do you do with the rest of it, if you use 1/4? Or, as LindaC mentioned, a whole roast chicken?

I cook for just me much of the time, and some days I just don't bother, I eat a lot of eggs and cold cereal and there's always peanut butter. If I do roast a chicken, I plan a menu that will use it a couple more times, like chicken pot pie or hot chicken sandwiches.

I do keep some things in the freezer, mostly things that are kind of a PIA to make, like cabbage rolls, meatballs, pasties.

Since I have a big garden and can my own vegetables, I make sure that some are just canned in pints, I can open a jar of beets or beans or rutabaga and have that with the above roasted chicken or a pork chop or a piece of beef.

I also can vegetable soup, french onion soup, beef stew, all in pints, so I just grab a jar off the shelf and heat it up in the microwave, right in the canning jar sometimes. I'm working on chili for home canning. I like chili over a baked potato.

yes, it takes some adjustment but I haven't found that there's a loss of flavor, just an issue with leftover ingredients, and some recipes just aren't easily reduced, they have weird amounts of stuff.

Annie

I think there are some recipes that don't cut down well, and that mostly because of the spices or you end up with an ingredient like "one egg" that just doesn't make sense to cut anymore. What I usually do is cut the main ingredients -- the amount of meant, vegetable, grain, etc. -- and cut the sauce ingredient only to what makes snes. The seasoning, I do to taste. I usually like things a little more seasoned than most people anyway. Yes, you end up with a little extra sauce, but that can usually be used on something else the next day.

Also, spice blends come in very handy when cooking for one.
Blends keep us from buying jars of spices that are almost impossible to use before they go flat.

In Annie's example, I'd use part of the box of spinach for the recipe, then plan on having a spinach omelette or spinach as a side dish the next night. I roast whole chickens fairly often, but I'll freeze part of it or plan to make chicken salad or enchiladas for later in the week.

Linda pointed my main bugaboo -- produce! If you make something that uses a lot of freah produce, you either end up eating it for three meals a day or make a lot of soup!

Thanks everybody for the good ideas. Nosnowtm - It's things like stuffed green peppers; however I have found a Stauffers stuffed green pepper that has one in it that is really good; Ann t - another thing is chicken pot pie. As I said, to me that requires a large quantity. Guess I could use frozen vegetables and just use biscuits on the top. They come in small quantities; lindac - things like pot roast. I usually put everything but the kitchen sink in mine and end up with large quantities of soup, mostly; annie1992 true about boxes of frozen vegetables. I usually get the packages I like Pict Sweet with corn,peas,carrots and asparagus. I just take out what I want and usually add some cauliflower. I like to use my slo cooker (especially on Sundays) when I can let a small roast cook all night.; bean there_dun that- especially the spices. That's how I got messed up with the Italian Spice mix and got too much thyme. Still haven't corrected that mess, but one of my friends told me to add a can of V8 juice and there was something in the tomato stuff that would help. So appreciate your comments. I am adjusting slowly but surely. I cooked everything fattening for Dale, though I did not eat any of it. I adjusted something less fattening because I didn't need to put on the weight. Right now I am just trying to stay warm. Furnace went out Wow is me. - Barb