Cooking for One (or Two)

I’m a lousy cook for myself. I can barely cook for one person. A larger crowd I can easily handle, but just myself is difficult. Here are some of my tips for cooking for one (or two).

• Freezer space- This will make sense as I go on if it doesn’t already

• Ice Cube trays- I know what you’re thinking. What the heck?!? I recently purchased a set and they have been a lifesaver. Why? As I explained to Shana yesterday when she came over for dinner, have you ever had an open jar of spaghetti sauce that you couldn’t get rid of fast enough? I froze an entire jar of spaghetti sauce in the ice cube trays. Now I just have to take out 2-3, thaw in a mug briefly and pour over pasta. Really easy for a meal that you take to work. Some other things that I have done/wanted to do:

*   Yogurt (for smoothies, I have both vanilla and strawberry)

*   Baby food (technically this was my inspiration via a yahoo article)

*   Gravy/Cream of (insert type here) Soup

*   Ground beef (so that I can grab one or two cubes to thaw for instant tacos, add to spaghetti, etc. Its easier that a larger tub and you avoid repeated freeze thaw cycles)

Frozen Strawberry Yogurt in the tray

After the cubes are frozen I put them in a freezer ziplock (Tomato Sauce)

• Snack baggies- These are the ones that are a size smaller than a sandwich ziplock. This is again to prevent freeze-thaw cycles in your food. When I buy chicken (usually fresh tenderloins) or ground beef I divide the meat into individual portions and label the outside with the type of meat and date. One plus to these is that the small bags can be crammed anywhere in your freezer.

*   Divide large cheese filled pasta into individual portions. I take a few of these to work along with some pasta sauce cubes and have instant freezer meals that are a lot cheaper than the commercial ones.

*   Other meat dividing ideas include making ranch/parmesan chicken and freezing the precooked meat that’s ready for the oven. Swedish meatballs with gravy cubes, or cooked ground beef (if you prefer not to do cube idea).

* Grated cheese divided. Perfect if you buy the Costco sized Tillamook cheese and having the right amount of cheese ready to throw on a casserole.

Individual serving sized Ground Beef (top) and Chicken (bottom)

•  Extra Tupperware- Anyone who has lived with me knows I can’t stand leftovers. They don’t taste the same. Why on earth would I tell you to buy extra Tupperware? Prepare enough food for four people. Wait didn’t just say I hate leftovers? Yes. I didn’t say COOK all the food. Just prepare it. I will make enough food and freeze half of it in Tupperware. This is more along the lines of homemade TV dinners. Examples:
  * Casseroles cooked w/out the cheese for part of the time. I cook it so that it can easily get in and out of the Tupperware.
  * Enchiladas-these are a classic example. I’ll precook these all the way and freeze beans and rice too
  * Swedish meatballs-I’ll precook these and throw in frozen veggies on the side
  * Parmesan chicken-Frozen with sauce and cheese and ready to be thrown in the oven.
  * Calzone-uncooked
  * Roast- I bought a roast recently, got it all prepared, then cut it in half and froze one half and cooked the other. Later when I wanted a roast again, I just had to thaw dump in a pan and cook.
  * Pacos-uncooked (I think I still need to upload this recipe online)
  * Burritos-make them yourself and freeze them in wax paper. Its cheaper than buying premade froze ones.
  * Chicken haystacks- freeze the rice and chicken mixture. Add toppings when you thaw it.
  * Soups- I’ll put half in glass jars then freeze these.
  * Extra muffins-both unbaked frozen while in paper wrappers in the muffin tin and baked.
  * Lasagna Rolls- two rolls to a bag, prebaked
  * Egg Rolls- both cheese and veggie pre-fried
  * Chicken Crescent Rolls
  *  French Toast/Waffles/Pancakes-Divide into how much you personally eat. I’ll make a whole loaf of French toast then freeze what I don’t eat.

•  Dough- I know there are questions as to what I do with my dough. If I make too much or don’t want to use all of it, I will wrap it up in plastic wrap and freeze it. Just label what type of dough it is. You can accidentally turn pizza dough in to rolls (bread sticks) but dinner rolls don’t always make good pizza dough depending on the recipe. Sometimes I will pre-form the rolls or I will freeze the cinnamon roll logs before I cut them. It is best to freeze these before the second rise so they will actually rise when they thaw. Oh, you can thaw on either the counter or fridge.

• Fresh fruit- For my smoothies I will sometimes buy fresh fruit on sale and freeze it myself. The trick to this is to wash it and freeze it on a cookie sheet then transfer it to baggies after it is fully frozen. You can pre-make single serving smoothie concoctions by adding all the fruit and yogurt cubes to the same bag or keep them separated in larger bags.

These are just a few of the things I have done recently to help myself cook more complete meals when I eat versus just canned soup, that pasta thingy I make or burritos.