The Sloppy Joes sound delicious!

I'm kinda tired of cooking, since relatives are visiting. So tonight is gonna be simple... copycat spicy chicken Chipotle bowls. Especially with guacamole!

Sherry, would you mind sharing the recipe for the chicken and spinach cannoli, please.

I cooked for one a couple of years ago when a relative was in a rehab hospital where the food didn't suit her. It was a challenge! I was making bijou meals with a lot of different components, like better airlines had in the jet age, so there would always be sometime that one could fancy. Double sized ramekins (4"dx1.5"h interior) proved to be my friends! It could be a little pot pie, a portion of stew, a strata, etc., and was just enough for one medium or two small portions. Half a tomato, a small handful of leaves, a small garden peach or apple.

Today I'm cooking for four, and making some kind of chicken and dumplings or pot pie based on what I have. With green salad. Chocolate ice cream if I feel ambitious but the weather is changing and I don't know if I'll get to that.

Since my husband retired, I don't cook for one anymore. But he's doing most of the cooking now. He was away on business almost half of the year. When he travelled, I used to make a big vat of vegetable almost ratatouille with tomatoes,eggplant, red bell pepper, garlic, zucchini, onions, olives, capers and cook a box of spaghetti. I could eat off of that all week. My other go to was a box of Mac & Cheese prepared as directed with a can of tuna and some frozen peas - baked in the oven with some breadcrumbs on top. Very often, I just had a loaded baked potato. But I was working, too. I came home to an empty dark house and just needed something to keep me alive.

Chicken Cannelloni in Bechamel Serves 4

1 8oz box Barilla cannelloni (manicotti), cooked according to package directions.

1 1/2 cups cooked, chopped chicken breast or thighs plus 1 cooked chicken liver

1 8oz pkg mushrooms, sliced and browned in 2 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 clove garlic, minced

4 Tbsp butter

1 10oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (I have used fresh)

1/2 cup white wine (no wine, use chicken broth)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Parsley for garnish

Saute onion and garlic in butter. Stir in chicken, liver, spinach, and wine. Cook, stirring, over low heat until wine is reduce and filling is no longer soupy. Add salt and pepper. Set aside.

Make Bechamel sauce. Stir 1/4 cup into chicken mixture.

Fill cannelloni with chicken mixture. Place half the white sauce in baking dish, top with cannelloni, top with mushrooms, and cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with parsley.

Bake at 15 minutes at 375* or until hot through.

Bechamel sauce

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

2 1/2 cups milk

1 egg yolk, beaten

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Melt butter in large skillet, whisk in flour until smooth. Add milk, a bit at a time, whisking constantly. When sauce starts to thicken, whisk in egg yolk(add small amount of hot sauce to yolk first). Stir in sall and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes, remove from heat. Stir in parmesan cheese.

Hints:

If you don't have or don't like chicken liver, just leave out. Let chicken mixture cool before trying to stuff. Don't over cook cannolloni. It will finish in the pan. You can use chicken cooked the day before. This can be made early in the day. It freezes great. I usually freeze 2 to a small French White pan for me. I freeze before the last bake. I take out of freezer and put in COLD oven and bake until bubbly.

If you want it cheesier, you can add ricotta cheese to the chicken mixture.

While I am glad I no longer have to cook day in and day out for a family any longer, cooking for one is just as difficult, if much less work. I have a refrigerator with a tiny freezer, so freezing "extras" is not really an option and I am not wild about most leftovers - a primary meal and maybe one leftover meal or a couple of sandwiches and I've had enough!!

Every so often I will make something I may be hungering for and hopefuly keep it to just two meals worth. Pastas and stir fries work better than most meals as I can more easily trim the quantities down. But I rely most heavily on take out from the deli counter of the better supermarket in town - homemade soups, ethnic dishes, roasted veggies, often grilled salmon and chicken, good barbeque, salad bar. They are very big on individual portions and even put together complete take-out dinners for one. What I miss most is roasted meat......a good prime rib or leg of lamb would not go amiss!!

I agree with gardengal, it's just as hard to cook for one, maybe harder. When the girls moved out I ate a lot of eggs and cold cereal. Like Seagrass I worked full time and came home at night to a house empty of other humans. I was always pretty happy with my dog, though. (grin) I don't mind leftovers a couple of times, but I don't want to eat the same thing for a week. I'd usually cook and then send leftovers to the kids or to Dad, and whatever dog I had was usually happy to share too.

I actually did more freezer meals when the girls were in school because I never seemed to have time between work and school activities to actually cook a meal, and there were no fast food or deli options available in my tiny little town.

So, what's cooking. I made a huge pot of chili. I made a fatal error in adding "hot" items and can't eat it, so fortunately Elery loves hot and spicy and loves chili. He ate it for supper, he'll make an omelette with it for breakfast, he'll have it for a couple of lunch/snacks. If there's any left I'll freeze it, but I'm betting he'll finish it off, he can eat the same leftovers for days on end.

Annie

I'm happy to cook for one... I get to experiment. When I was working, some days it was hard, but I could cook up stuff on Sundays for most of the weeks lunches (healthier than the cafeteria food), and vary it with veggies, or re using leftovers in salads). Weekday dinners could be baked fish and asparagus - sprinkle something on, bake a few minutes. Or roasted chicken legs or thighs, with a side of some other veggie - longer to cook but the point being minimal prep time. In the crockpot, brisket has the staying power to still be good after 11 hours on low.

Unfortunately, there's probably part of me that more lives to eat, than eats to live. And when I have the time to cook, I truly enjoy cooking odd things many other people would not appreciate. And i just dont like the processed food world.

If I was cooking for one, I'd get one of those books that have recipes with 3 or 5 ingredients. You don't want to buy a lot of stuff to make small meals. Jamie Oliver has brought out one recently.

https://www.amazon.com/5-Ingredients-Quick-Easy-Food/dp/0718187725/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509956978&sr=8-1&keywords=jamie+oliver+5+ingredients&dpID=519fClYQtyL&preST=SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40&dpSrc=srch

Thank you so much, Sherry. That recipe is making my mouth water. Hope to make it soon.