Cookery for one person

I’ve used the dairy diary for years good recipes simple and can be adjusted to size and portions. May I suggest you batch cook my sister does this as she’s on her own bolognese mince and dumplings etc.

Delia Smith, One is Fun! Available online from various places.

If you make a large quiche (you can use ready made pastry) you can cut it into portions and freeze it. I find it very handy to defrost a portion and eat it with salad if I’m in a hurry, or just plain can’t be bothered. And as others have said, batch cook. Bolognese sauce can be used for a number of different dishes, and so can shepherds pie base.

I buy a large pack of mince and cook with onions and carrots it make 2 individual shepherds pies 2 chilli and 2 spag bol. Sorey that doesnt answer your question.

When I buy minced steak - and only the best butchers variety will do for myself and MrA NOT supermarket pre packed 🤮 - I fry it all down to get rid of every morsel of fat, allow it to cool, portion and freeze ready for a variety of recipes like Spag Bol, Cottage Pie, Chilli, Mince & Onions.
With MrA travelling a great deal lately I’ve been cooking for one and I simply batch cook but reduce the amount then if he does come home unexpectedly I take out TWO portions rather than just one .
Batch cook, all the above plus curries, casseroles, hotpots etc

Both the Good Food and BBC websites have a selection of recipes for one and there are various other sites it may be worth exploring. As others have said batch cooking can be useful if you have the freezer space.

I wouldn’t cook for one - always cook for 2 or 4 and freeze the other portions. That said, if I was on my own I would probably live on jacket potatoes.

I usually have the same meal two evenings running and I freeze the remainder. I can no longer read a recipe book! Lucky to see the book, never mind what is in it. The freezer is my friend.

Definitely if you have a freezer, cook for 2 or 4 and then freeze the extra. It’s great to have days when you don’t need to cook or just add some vegetables . I sometimes set aside a day to make several bulk meals.

Apart from batch cooking, if I am just cooking for me, I will often cook a salmon or sea bass fillet with salad potatoes and green veg or salad. That is very quick and easy.

I usually batch cook too. Just had a nice curry that was frozen two weeks ago, just had to cook the rice and some naan. I usually cook enough for three meals, eat one and freeze two.

I don't think I would bother to cook much if I was cooking for one every day. I do like cooking but it takes up a lot of time between prepping, cooking and clearing up. So I'd rather only do it a couple of days a week and eat the frozen batches on the other days with less clearing up.

There are lots of books on cooking for one, including the Delia classic already mentioned, but also look for student cookbooks. They are usually simple, nourishing and fairly inexpensive recipes. I get all my books from charity shops or eBay!

I’ve found batch cooking much easier than trying to cook a completely different meal every day. I’ll make 3 portions of something like bolognese or curry, eat one and freeze the other two. It saves quite a bit of time and stops me reaching for ready meals when I can’t be bothered cooking.

Susie42, everyone is right about the batch cooking, and Delia's One is Fun is still the one to have on the shelf. The bit nobody mentions is what happens three weeks later: a freezer full of identical tubs and no idea which is the curry and which is the bolognese, or how long the chilli has been in there. What has worked for people cooking for one is to say it as it goes in: 'two curries, one bolognese, 6th September'. A list stuck to the freezer door does it, the notes on the phone do it, an app such as XNeuronal takes it said out loud and tells you, when you ask on a Tuesday evening, what's in there and which tub is the oldest. Charleygirl5's point matters as much as the book: when reading the recipe is the hard part, one you've dictated once can be read back to you at the hob, a step at a time, with your hands in the mince. Then the ready meals stay on the supermarket shelf, and Humbertbear's jacket potato remains a choice rather than a fate.

I always batch cook. I avoid ultra processed ready meals at all costs, they're full of additives and far too expensive anyway.

Some of the cook books (or probably online now) produced for students are full of very simple recipes for 1 or maybe 2. I also batch cook and make up things like crumble for pudding toppings.

I batch cook anything that can be frozen, spaghetti bolo, chilli, quiches, curries, to name a few, then there is always something ready in the freezer to add to rice or boiled potatoes and salad, saves time, fuel and I know what I’m eating.

I cook lots of different vegetable soups, usually containing lentils, chopped potatoes or orzo (pasta) so that they are all quite filling. I pour the soups in to plastic screw top tumblers and freeze them.
Once a portion is defrosted I sometimes add some chopped bacon or chicken for variety.
I also grate some cheddar cheese and freeze that in a plastic tumbler so that it can quickly add it to soup. They provide a lunch, or a light evening meal. Economical and healthy.

Cook for more than one! Freeze into portions and you have a frozen ready meal for the future. If you are turning the cooker on anyway it makes sense

Yes, batch cooking is a great way to eat well without faffing with little bits of this & that every day. It doesn't have to be just stews, curries and pasta sauces. I make a batch of patty mix (mine are vegetarian but you could use mince or fish). Divide it up into portions and shape them if you want to - or just leave them in pieces, then defrost and shape them on the day. And you don;t have to cook a huge quantity when "batch" cooking - just cook for 2, 3 or 4 people, eat one portion and freeze the others. Pizza bases are useful - again, either buy them in or make your own, then put toppings on as they defrost. Jacket potatoes are fine, except don't freeze them as they are (the flesh goes weird) - instead, mash the flesh with milk or cream & seasoning (grated cheese is a good addition too), pile the mixture back into the skins, open-freeze for an hour or so, then wrap in foil & fully freeze. Defrost overnight and you've got a quick lunch the next day. I just Googled "batch cooking for the freezer" and got a wealth of recipes. Good luck and enjoy yourself!

Any of the One Pound Meals Books by Miguel Barclay.

Deudits you can buy freezer tape on which contents can be written, cooking instructions, use by date etc. It’s quite cheap and doesn’t easily detach from the carton so doesn’t get lost in the freezer.
OP have you tried recipe boxes if you like cooking? There are no leftover ingredients (good for one) and the recipe is available to use again if you’ve enjoyed it. There are speedy choices as well as longer cooking times.

I find that a casserole made with chunks of beef makes a nice tasty change from a minced beef sauce, and you can do the same sorts of things with it that you can with the sauce, currying it or adding other ingredients to turn it into a chilli or gnocci with ragout for example. If the chunks are smaller you can have it with pasta too, as they do with ragout in Italy.
I've got quite an old paperback called "Cooking for Crowds" by Merry White which contains recipes with multiplications of ingredients for larger numbers of people (6-50 people!). There's an excellent, rich, beef ragout with orange zest in here which is delicious on its own but can be turned into many other dishes.
One thing I batch cook regularly is chicken thighs with baked shallots, I do them in the air-fryer and then chill or freeze them. They can be safely reheated in the air-frier as you need them, at 170 degrees centigrade - ideally pre-defrosted. Again you can add flavourings that you fancy, or use homemade sauces for fajitas or stuffed pancakes. I sometimes use prepared pastes such as one of the lovely Belazu Harissa Pastes, Gochujang Korean Chili, Thai Green curry or one of the many varieties of pesto available now, they all keep very well in the fridge.
My mother is no longer with us but was widowed for thirty years and always cooked proper meals for herself, usually twice daily. When she died I cleared out her house and took great pleasure in using up all the frozen meals that she had cooked and put into her freezer for herself, I knew that this was was she would expect me to do.

I've now filled 3 freezers with food in single portions. It doesn't help that I have the most amazing neighbours who keep giving me food, then, when I really fancy something different, I'll cook it and have 3 portions to freeze! I'm desperately trying to live out of the freezers but have just had a delivery from a cat food company and the pouches have to be kept in the freezer! I'm craving a thai green curry but have got no room.