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.

I read Kitchen Confidential. It was good, but I found the two Ruth Reichl books I read much more interesting. I don't know whether to like or dislike Bourdain as a person, because I don't know him, other than having read one of his books, but he does come across as arrogant. He's funny, though. I tried to like his show, The Taste, when it was first on last year, but it seemed way too much about the judges and not enough about the contestants or their cooking. That being said, I didn't make it past the opening rounds. I guess I've wondered way off topic now. Sorry. Sally

Let's see, what can be made ahead and frozen? Chicken pot pie, or even better since you're at the ocean, Lobster Pot Pie, I saw Ina Garten make one and couldn't figure out why I'd never thought of it. She used puff pastry dough, making it fast, instead of homemade dough. Cabbage rolls do well made ahead and frozen, then baked with the sauce when needed, or just cooked all day in a crockpot. Macaroni and cheese is easy and fast to put together and nearly everyone likes it. A "taco bar" has been discussed here many times, and it's something that people can put together as they like, you can use ground meat, marinated chicken, pulled pork or beef, or all or any combination, and some tortilla chips along with the toppings could yield nachos and taco salad for those who like that. LindaC's idea of meatloaf is a good one, and a couple of roasted chickens can yield hot chicken sandwiches, that above mentioned pot pie, chicken tetrazzini, chicken salad sandwiches, chicken enchiladas. You can't go wrong with a couple of roasted chickens. Your leftover roast can yield a shepherd's pie too, my girls loved it, along with Spanish Rice made with ground beef to make it a full meal. As well as dinners, how about breakfast? Lots of breakfast casseroles are quick and easy, and I make Woodie's Creme Brulee French Toast the night before and just bake it in the morning. The smell alone got my kids out of bed! Biscuits and gravy are pretty fast, if you bake biscuits the night before for supper and then heat them in the morning. BreaKfast burritos are easy to make ahead and freeze, as are "McMuffins", which then only need thawing and heating. Oatmeal cooks overnight with fruit in the crockpot really well too. I'm sure you have cookies, brownies, desserts covered. LOL Cookies and brownies freeze well, but the dough can also be made ahead and refrigerated for a day or two, and baked off as needed. Oh, and I have a cinnamon roll recipe that calls for making the dough the night before, letting it rise in the refrigerator and baking them the next day for hot, fresh cinnamon rolls, if you're interested in that. Annie

There has always a few different groups at the KT. There's the folks that say, "This place is boring, I get sick of the food posts, the pics of grandkids, the posts about dogs and/or cats. I like the more thought provoking posts! We all can talk like adults and disagree respectfully. Let's stir things up a bit around here". Then there's the folks that say "If we don't all agree this should go on Hot Topics. Let's only talk about things we all agree upon. I like the food and pets posts." Then there's the in between folks who think there is room for both. And of course we all love the posts where we give our opinions about what someone should do about something, lol. I personally have liked most of your posts, Michelle. I like posts that make people think and tell interesting stories about themselves or their experiences or opinions. However...I have seen you say something along the lines of, "I know some people don't like my posts and that's too bad, I am not going anywhere and will continue to post whatever I want". Good for you and I'm fine with that, BUT, I think if you want people who may not be comfortable with the topics you post to be tolerant of your posts, then you need to extend the same courtesy. You know very well that this forum is basically a free for all, and if people want to have 12 posts on the front page about food, then that's their right. Some people like those posts, and don't want to respond to ones like you post. Although you may say that you are "just asking", the tone of this post is obviously looking down upon so many posts that you don't think are as good/interesting/exciting as yours. This particular post probably just rubbed some people the wrong way because it seems hypocritical when you are talking down about posts you find monotonous but think you should be able to post as many as you want about what YOU think is interesting. There is plenty of room for all sorts of posts. I like the food posts and the posts similar to yours. If I'm not in the mood for one or another, I skip by that day. I think everyone should be able to post whatever they want. There are lots of kinds of people here who like lots of kinds of topics. It is only boring when everything is the same, so bring on the variety!