Cooking for one

[cjsmith]

I just realized that one of the reasons I struggle so much with cooking for one is that I'm making completely different stuff than I know how to do.

I make a meatloaf I happen to love and I can do a lasagne I find absolutely scrumptious, but c'mon, raise your hand if you make one-person versions of those! If I have a quarter pound of ground beef it's a BURGER. Conversely, who makes omelets for thirty? I sure haven't.

The feed-a-dormitory or feed-a-family recipes can be broken down into neat little piles of Tupperware, but multiply helpings by desirable variety and I'm out of freezer space. Thus my main storage facility is the freezer aisle at Safeway. Shrinking the recipes, on the other hand, multiplies the labor and prep time and also increases waste (ingredients are much more perishable before they get frozen as meals). No wonder a restaurant is such an easy choice for me.

What's your favorite thing to make for one person? Preferably quick. (Bonus points for no leftover ingredients.)

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I have never ever made fajitas! That sounds like a fun thing to try. I also like your salad with spicy chicken concept for hot summer days. So far my salads seem to be "open up a bag of spinach and throw in some nuts". That could expand a bit. (O'course half the bag is waste unless I have the discipline to eat it twice in a row. Maybe I need to outgrow this variety fetish.)

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

Fajitas are easy! And if you are lazy like me your grocery store might even have frozen fajita vegetables. That way you can use as little as you want or as much as you want.

Another easy yummy fabulous salad type creature is my friend Erin's mutated taco salad. She browns up some ground beef (again use as much or as little as you like) with taco spices. Around my house we bought the plastic container and keep it with the spices. Then you can add red beans (kidney beans...black beans...) to the meat to warm them up. Get your lettuce of choice in a bowl, dump on the meat/bean mixture. Add some shredded cheese. Erin used raw onions on top, but I cook them with the meat and beans. Crumble up some Doritos, baked Doritos work just as well. And regular tortilla chips are ok, but that nacho cheese fakeness just ass something. And because it's the Midwest top it with a bit of french dressing. YUM!

I will admit I tend to make stuff and have leftovers, but if I don't have some leftovers I will eat fast food. And I am trying not to do that. The fajitas reheat really well.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

but if I don't have some leftovers I will eat fast food.

I can see how that would go. Leftovers can be handy for that. (Leftovers already cooked are safer in my house than leftover ingredients, too.)

Hmm, brown a big mess of ground beef w/spices ahead of time, then pull out a serving's worth... Yeah, I need to learn these tricks.

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

I come from a family of six kids. My mom still cooks like there are lots of us. It's where I learned to cook. I am really bad about just throwing stuff in til it tastes good.

Once I made this awesome rice/yogurt/chicken thing. I know the basic ingredients, but squirrels know what else. I think there was honey and mustard and probably a smidge of soy sauce. And I like to grind up spices with the spice grinders, so some of this and some of that. Broccoli would be yummy with it. I just used enough yogurt to make it creamy at the end.