There's a lot of us here that cook for one, Mary. Actually, I do a lot of that because DH & I are in different states Mon-Fri. I'm off for our Easter celebration now but will revisit here later on. Don't even think about leaving us!

/tricia

Tricia - I wasn't going to leave - way to much good info and people here, just thinking maybe there was a sort of...concentrated source to check out. I stop by the store frequently to try to buy as I go but still seem to have too much food at one time that I should be eating or not so much. And the grocery bill has been rather alarming.

Mary,
I cook for one most of the time now and my advice is to "KISS" or "keep it simple, sistah!" Here are some ways I do this:

~ buy the smaller packages of meats, 4 pork chops, 4-6 chicken legs, 3 portions of cubed steak, etc. then wrap each in Saran and freeze on a sheet pan, transfer to a zip bag or vacuum seal in a Food Saver bag, label and date

~ keep meals simple - a portion of meat, a green vegetable and/or a small salad; you do not have to have a starch, green vegetable, and a salad if you don't want all that

~ buy individually quick frozen portions of fish and take out only as much as you want to eat for that meal

~ roast a small whole chicken for dinner, have planned-overs for lunch the next day making a chicken sandwich or chicken salad, make some chicken and dumplings for dinner the next day, and save the carcass in the freezer for chicken soup in the near future

~ if you like breakfast foods, having breakfast for dinner one night now and then is very easy and a nice change

~ I'm trying to have my main meal more at lunch time and then I eat less at the dinner hour

~ don't bother making single servings of soup, casseroles, or things like chili or spaghetti meat sauce - always make a full recipe then freeze in single portions; I keep Simple Tomato Sauce (Giada De Laurentiis' recipe) in the freezer all the time as well as meat sauce for pasta, and one or more soups, yesterday it was Taco soup

~ cook a full cup or two of brown rice or barley and freeze in smaller portions, freezes very well, especially with no sauce or gravy on it

~ buy or make your favorite bread, freeze in portions of 4 slices and then just pull out a bag of slices as you need them

~ try organic milk that has been ultra-pasteurized as it lasts much longer than regular milk.

Please ask us any of your questions as the folks here are glad to be of help.

Teresa

I'm sure cooking for one is a challenge, I cook for two and find it difficult. Through the years I've tried to help my DM with the same problem.

Your freezer can be you best friend. Make recipes that you can freeze in single servings. Put together your own TV dinners. Be sure to write labels as to the contents and make sure you use enticing and descriptive names....Sliced roast beef in red wine sauce sounds much better than...beef dinner. You can get many ideas just from looking at what is available frozen at the grocery store, then go home and make it better and less costly.

Buy frozen vegetables in bags so you can remove just the amount you need. Freeze sliced bread in sandwich baggies, two slices per bag. Plain cooked pasta will freeze and it's pretty easy to think of a little sauce to put on it.
I make small meatloaves which I freeze individually for my DM. Many soups will freeze in small containers.

Overall it seems to me that it's not so much that cooking for one is a big problem but something that one just doesn't want to do. It's nice to have someone to cook for and makes the effort seem worthwhile. But then again, cooking just for you can be enjoyable when you realize that you get to make only the stuff you like!

Nancy

Taste of Home has a Cooking for Two website, which also includes recipes and menu planning for one.

Here is a link that might be useful: TofH Cooking for 2

Here's one I have bookmarked Mary.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cooking for one or two

I lived alone for about 15 years before I met my husband. As others have said, your freezer is your best friend, both because it saves you from throwing a lot of food out, but also because all the food you froze when you did cook will be there for when you can't be bothered or aren't in the mood.

On a day you're in the mood to cook, whip up a batch of spaghetti sauce, thick with meat & mushrooms and freeze it in zip lock bags of one or two servings. Go ahead and buy the value pack of steaks, saving money, and take the time to wrap them carefully against freezer burn before you freeze them for later.

Another friend, along with the freezer, is soup. Soup is your very good friend. Keep a good supply of canned or frozen chicken and beef stock on hand, and an amazing number of your leftovers can be turned into the next night's meal without eating leftovers every time you turn around. Use your imagination.

That bit of leftover steak? Saute some onions and garlic, add some beef stock, the steak (diced) and the container of leftover veggies from the day before, and maybe some chopped cabbage or frozen peas...whatever...simmer, top it off with grated cheese and have a nice roll or crusty baguette with it.

That crusty baguette? Well, put the leftover in the fridge. The next night, when you roast a small chicken or broil some chicken thighs, set aside the leftover meat for tomorrow's dinner...toast the baguette halves, lay good cheddar or Swiss cheese on one side and the thinly sliced leftover chicken on the other...toast under the broiler until the cheese bubbles, and throw on some tomatoes & onions...maybe some bbq sauce or salsa. That and a salad. Mmmm.

Another thing to do is make sure that you keep some healthier versions of convenience foods around the house so that you have that as an option on days when you just don't even want to deal with cooking, leftovers or no. If you have some microwavable meals, canned soups, instant meals etc around, you won't be as likely to just say "heck with it" and go out to grab fast food.

One thing to remember. You will, if you cook for yourself, have times when you throw good food away because you either got tired of it or just forgot it. None of us like to do that, but remember that you could be spending much more money than you throw out by constantly eating out.

Wonderful suggestions and tips!

When my 'nest' first emptied, I was lost and, like you, spending/wasting way too much time and money on buying stuff that never got eaten. (Been there/done that. Trust me when I tell you that wandering through the grocery every day with only that night's dinner in mind is the surest way to inflate the food bill and fill up garbage bags.)

Old habits really do die hard, but you have to cultivate some new ones. The most helpful I've found is menu planning. Start by writing out a menu for every meal you plan to cook in the next 2 or 3 days. Then make a grocery list based on your meals. Now here's the most important part: zero in on every perishable item on your list. It's not about peanut butter and pickles. It's about poultry and produce and all the other things that may spoil before you have a chance to use them up.

Craving a spinach salad? That's fine. But to use the rest of the bunch (or the bag), you'll also need to saute some fresh spinach as a vegetable side -- or maybe make spinach dip. Buying a quart of milk? If you drink milk, or regularly add it to cereal, it may not be a problem. But if you just plan to use a cup in a recipe and know the rest might go sour, expand your menu to include some pancakes or waffles for breakfast, or maybe mac & cheese for dinner to use it up.

For me, probably the biggest challenge was fresh produce -- specifically, salad fixin's. I don't eat a salad every day, but I want it to include lots of good stuff when I do make one. After throwing out unbelievable amounts of brown lettuce, limp celery, shriveled peppers and slimy mushrooms, I finally wised up to the fact that the salad bar is my friend! Now I go once or twice a week to a near-by grocery that has an excellent one. In the long run, the higher price is far more economical than buying individual ingredients when half of them go to waste!

sm

Some other tips: milk freezes well--my mother did it for years, so you can pour part of a quart into a glass jar and freeze the rest.

Meatloaf can be eaten for a couple of days, divided into pieces and then frozen.

Even a pork roast can be eaten for a couple of days, then divided and brought out to become fajita type wraps--saute any combo of onions, peppers, garlic, greens, topped with grated cheese, sour cream, salsa, avocado on flour tortillas.

For me, probably the biggest challenge was fresh produce -- specifically, salad fixin's. I don't eat a salad every day, but I want it to include lots of good stuff when I do make one. After throwing out unbelievable amounts of brown lettuce, limp celery, shriveled peppers and slimy mushrooms,

Exactly - Right now I have most of an old limp califlower, the slimy mushrooms, lettuce on the way to being brown......

You guys seem like pretty good cooks by which I mean a bit more adept at putting different foods together to make something. I have never eaten out much but at 51 still cook and eat sort of like a college student :) Well, maybe like college students used to eat - nowdays they probably all watch food network and cook like gourmands!

The comment about breaking habits - spot on. Learning how to do this will take awhile. Thanks for the tips, knowing what freezes well certainly is a big issue.

When I first came to this forum, my first post was something similar to yours. I got responses almost identical to yours here.

I make soup with the INTENTION of freezing it, but it never makes it into the freezer. Split pea gets gobbled up before it has a chance. I have one serving of chicken soup and then lose interest until it's time to throw it away. ONE DAY, I'll freeze some soup! Salad greens I buy once a month... I eat them less often than that. Milk never spoils, I do use that. I do throw away more fruit and veggies than I like to and try to buy frozen if I know I'll waste fresh.

The tip about a few slices of bread at at time in a bag in the freezer is great. My bread always "goes green" (and I don't mean like buying a Toyota Prius, a front load washer, or CFL bulbs either) before I can eat it!

Veggies can be a problem, for sure. I am a fiend for fresh vegetables, so I had to learn to be creative so as not to waste so much. I mean, a head of broccoli is great, but I don't want to eat broccoli for three days in a row!

So...a bit of planning before you hit the produce store is in order.

Some vegetables, like cabbage, root veggies and winter squashes can last quite some time. Lettuces and bean sprouts do not! So plan your tender vegetables for the days just after shopping, and the longer lasting for the days before your next trip.

The "shelf life" of some veggies can be lengthened with a bit of effort.

Fresh mushrooms do better if you put a paper towel in their bag and allow a bit of air to enter. Leafy greens do better if you hydrate them before refrigeration by cutting off a bit of the stem(s) and soaking the fresh cut ends in a sink full of cool water for a couple of hours. Then, shake the excess water off, wrap the vegies in a paper or cloth towel, and put back in their plastic bag in the fridge. I know that nowadays, the grocery stores mist the vegetables every few minutes, but often this doesn't really do them much good, as the cut ends have sealed off.

Another thing with leafy greens and other veggies as well, remove any sign of slime, rot or browning right away.

Many vegetables that you must buy in larger quantities than one person really cares to eat, like heads of broccoli or cauliflower, or peppers, are quite easily blanched and frozen for use later in soups or stews. Avocados can be mashed with a bit of lemon juice and frozen for guacamole another day.

Another thing to remember is that most grocery stores will, upon request sell you a half head of cabbage, or a half melon, or take the bag of green beans, Brussels sprouts or grapes apart and give you a smaller bag, you don't have to buy the whole thing and eat Brussels sprouts for a week and a half.

Here's another forum for cooking for one or two:

Reader's Digest Cooking for One or Two Forum

Great and timely help for me here. DH's appetite has diminished, as well as mine, and we are throwing a lot of food away. I freeze a lot but they quickly lose their appeal as freshly fixed (and purchased) sound better. I cook rice or mashed potatoes in regular size quantities and reheat those to side with meat and frozen veggies. I buy the baby greens by the ounce at my grocery and a head of romaine which lasts a long time, often eating just the romaine as a snack or as a full meal with some form of protein, broiled sirloin strips, poached salmon(my favorite), hard boiled eggs, etc. My OXO salad spinner comes in very handy to remove the excess water and a cut salad will keep a day or two and saves time for sandwiches or quick sides. Thanks a bunch for the forum links, I'm sure they will help a lot. I've added them to my favorites. DH and I were considering adding frozen meals to our shopping list but that would take a lot of adjusting for us.

There are several "Cooking for one" (or two) cookbooks. I bought one 30 years ago when I was first on my own. I taught myself to cook fromm that book, also Rombauer's "Joy of Cooking". If you have a freezer, you can freeze cooked entrees (meats) in one-person portions and just add salad and vegetables. Good luck and have fun!