Cooking for one

I don't batch cook but cook nearly every day. And I like meals which don't take long to cook.

Jacket potatoes...with prawns/mayonnaise, cheese, baked beans, leftover chilli or Bolognese, tuna and sweetcorn etc. With homemade coleslaw or veg.

Omelettes...put anything in, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, cheese etc. With homemade coleslaw or veg.

Stir fries...leftover chicken, a multitude of veg. Season, maybe add soya sauce.

Pasta, any shape, I like linguine/spaghetti...mixed with cooked tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, peas, sweetcorn, carrot, courgette- whatever you have. Season. Mix together with either soft cream cheese on it's own or grated cheese with tom puree or ketchup if wanted. Or with a pesto sauce.

Cauliflower cheese with veg.

Risotto's...make with any veg and stock cube adding prawns or chicken.

Hash...corned beef or tuna mashed up potatoes [new or old], cabbage, broccoli, onions, carrots and fried until a crust has formed.

Eggs/tomatoes/mushrooms/sardines/mackerel on toast.

Homemade soups...put in anything leftover.

Roast a chicken...will last for 3-4 days used in various ways.

Homemade curries.

I have a big family. I cook for everyone. I think for one it's even easier to cook

RatherBeActive
Delia and YouTube are your friend.

Try this - Strawberry Spinach Smoothie greenann.com/recipe/strawberry-spinach-smoothie/

I like to make smoothie every morning!)
Sometimes Green with kale or spinach)

Reported, along with the other two.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

reported

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

I'm looking forward to cooking for one and shall have many meals of jacket potatoes with all sorts of filling - no need to bake, just microwave 5mins each side.

I cannot see what difference it makes whether there is one or two of you. DD is single, lives alone, has a busy job and lots of outside interests and works to much the same pattern. She hasn't got time for anything else., neither have I.

I savour the eating, I only cook to eat. Multiple shops are fine for city dwellers but I live in a village. We have shop, but its range of fresh food is limited and the last time I went on for a tin of tomatoes it would have cost, had I bought it, £1.49.

Batch cooking doesn't limit choice. You do not need to decide what to eat until lunch time, look down the long list of ready meals in the freezer and say. Why do we not have moussaka for lunch' While the potatoes and veg are cooking you shove it in the microwave and defrost and cook it and the whole meal is ready in 20 minutes.

You may have wanted to slow down when you retired, I didn't. The day I slow down will be the day I die.

M0nica
I was talking about people who are on their own, not ones who have a partner or family who visit.
Batch cooking often means you have to add fresh stuff to complete the meal anyway and for people who go out daily for a paper or to walk their dog etc, there is often a shop on the way home where you can do a 'small shop', as Mick calls it.
I understand that batch cooking saves time over the whole week but if you live on your own...you'd have to have a very full life not to spare time to cook at least one main meal a day from scratch...I mean just how long does it take fgs?
A fresh pork chop or half chicken in the oven on a bed of veg or Mac n cheese or even cottage pie.
I thought we had more time when we retired. Time to savour the making then eating, not having to eat the meal you made 2 months ago and took out of the freezer in the morning but decided after lunch that you didn't feel like it the defrosted meal after all.
Oh well...
Each to her own methods.

Ditto what MOnica said.

The freezer means I can use all my ingredients when fresh and there is never any wastage. Thus cutting down the cost of the food and the cost of electric/gas to cook it.

Gabrielle, if people choose to batch cook the dishes you mention, so be it, but I just choose my recipe, which can be anything from the around 200 I have in my card index. I currently have 12 different dishes in my freezer, none of which is any of the above.

As for shopping three times a week, what a waste of time, especially when the nearest supermarket is over 5 miles away.

As far as I am concerned, I plan my menus, shop once a week and always have a wide range of home made ready meals in the freezer. That way I eat well and can concentrate all my time and senses on savouring my food rather than wasting endless hours shopping and cooking.

You can change your mind on the day when batch cooking as wll because of the wide range of choices in the freezer - and you can always just get a sausage or fish finger out if that is what you fancy.

GG54, not everyone wants to shop three times a week.
Also the OP says that she suffers chronic ill health and may not be able to get out and about easily.

If you live alone why batch cook? You'll have plenty of time to choose what you wsnt to eat each day instead of the ubiquitous fish pie, spag bol, lasagne, curry etc that get trotted out every time someone mentions batch cooking.
Surely shopping for 1 can be done at least three times a week and tgat way you get the latest stuff on the shelves and new offers.
You can also change your mind according to what the day brings, which you can't do if the night before you've taken frozen fish pie out to defrost.
It's no life if, as a single person, your freezer dictates what you have to use up.

My son was expecting a cooking for one book as his A level reward. I told him to look up that sort of thing on the internet. We are teaching him to put shallots, garlic, peppers, potatoes, chicken and seasoning into one baking tray, spritzed with oil and he will get a nutritious meal in 40 mins. We also used our sizzler plates to cook steak, onions, tomatoes and peppers last night. He is thinking of getting one for Uni because he said he could swap the steak for something cheaper and minimise on washing up as you eat straight off the Sizzler plate. He wants stuff with the least washing up!

A small slow cooker is a god send.
Product Features
Compact 1.5L slow cooker
Three heat settings – low, high and auto
Element encircles the crock for even cooking
Dishwasher safe ceramic cooking pot
Glass lid allows you to see what's cooking

I have been in my own for almost 11 years now and can’t say I enjoy cooking for one, it have now become used to it. I keep basics in my freezer such as fish cakes, chicken , meatballs etc, so just adding veg.makes an easy meal. I do cheat with ready meals sometimes . Would love to have more purpose in my cooking as I did when I had a family at home.It is meant to be a sociable activity as well as a necessity.

I have a big pot of vegetable soup cooling, ready to divide up into 10 portions. It is tasty and very low-calorie. I throw everything into it. This batch has carrots, parsnip, onion, potato, mushroom, pepper, peas, sweetcorn, red kidney beans, butter beans, chickpeas and tomatoes, plus various herbs and a few stock cubes.
Delicious!
I'm not that fond of cooking, especially just for me. Batch cooking is useful for when I don't feel like bothering.

Last week I bought a large M and S lasagne for guests who cancelled. I cut it into small portions and froze it. It worked out cheaper than buying several small ones.

At my ripe old age, I've only just discovered frozen onions - perfect for one person - and frozen aubergine £1 in Tesco and no faffing when trying to slice thinly.

Amazon has lots of cook books for one. Worth a look.

I do that too Camelotclub, very tasty and filling plus healthy

I’ll try to cut my posts down ladies I haven’t quite got the hang of short and sweet lol !